Here is a recording of the second session of feedback for our Short Film. This time the audience was more varied, with students from subjects such as English, Psychology and Sociology.
In this session, the feedback was overly positive; probably more positive than the first session.
An in-depth explanation of what we learned from all of our feedback can be found here in my Evaluation Prezi.
Friday 25 March 2011
Thursday 24 March 2011
Audience Feedback on Ancillary Tasks
Here are a few recordings of interviews that were held to get some qualitative feedback on our Poster and Magazine Review Page. As with one of the Short Film feedback sessions, we interviewed media students and a media teacher, so that we would get a more detailed analysis of our work.
Tom has only been able to upload three of the six recordings due to technical error.
Unlike our Short Film, which wasn't received brilliantly, both of our ancillary products were very well received. In summary, people thought highly of the verisimilitude of the review and the authenticity of the poster, and agreed that both would fulfill their purposes well.
An in-depth explanation of what we learned from all of our feedback can be found here in my Evaluation Prezi.
Tom has only been able to upload three of the six recordings due to technical error.
Unlike our Short Film, which wasn't received brilliantly, both of our ancillary products were very well received. In summary, people thought highly of the verisimilitude of the review and the authenticity of the poster, and agreed that both would fulfill their purposes well.
An in-depth explanation of what we learned from all of our feedback can be found here in my Evaluation Prezi.
Audience Feedback on Main Task: Session 1
Here is a video recording of the first of two planned qualitative feedback sessions for our short film. The audience was comrpised of media students and a media teacher, so Tom and I tried to ask questions that would take advantage of their heightened ability to pull texts apart and analyse them in-depth.
The audience response wasn't, perhaps, as positive as we would have liked, but it still brought up some significant points. In summary, although the film is visually accomplished, and the sound is well edited, some of the audience found the surreal narrative too confusing, and this detracted from their enjoyment of the film.
An in-depth explanation of what we learned from all of our feedback can be found here in my Evaluation Prezi.
The audience response wasn't, perhaps, as positive as we would have liked, but it still brought up some significant points. In summary, although the film is visually accomplished, and the sound is well edited, some of the audience found the surreal narrative too confusing, and this detracted from their enjoyment of the film.
An in-depth explanation of what we learned from all of our feedback can be found here in my Evaluation Prezi.
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Evaluation
I have produced the Evaluation of my A2 practical production in the form of a Prezi presentation. The Prezi can be viewed embedded below in this post, but I would recommend that you view it on the official site by clicking below:
Click Here To View Prezi
Click Here To View Prezi
Final Products
They've been a long time in the making, but here they finally are; our finished Short Film, together with our completed Magazine Review Page and Poster!
Magazine Review Page
Poster
Short Film
Magazine Review Page
Friday 18 March 2011
Editing: PROBLEM SOLVED!
Yes, that's right, the problem I ranted and raved about all last night has been solved.
After getting a good night's sleep, and thinking over the technician's suggestions, I was able to pop up to the media room this lunchtime with the method of solution at the front of my mind.
Opening the original Final Cut project, I imported one of yesterday's more successful exports, and used this to replace the expanding footage that was causing the problem. Using the exported version of the shot meant that the footage would be able to be cropped, because the footage itself was no longer expanding. After tweaking the measurement of the crop and making some last minute adjustments to the sound levels in places, the film was finally ready for export.
Although the export worked, the visual quality of it is not fantastic, so I may speak with the technician again on Monday to see if there is any way we can improve it.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Editing: THE PROBLEM OF THE EXPANDING FOOTAGE
After months of hard work, Tom and I have finally reached the point where are subsiduary products are complete, and we are ready to export our short film!
Or, at least, that's what we thought this morning.
After waiting the best part of an hour whilst Final Cut exported our film as a .mov file, it was with some annoyance that I discovered that, due to our use of digital zoom in a key part of the film, the aspect ratio of the exported file had encountered some complications.
We had produced the effect of a digital zoom by setting keyframes to gradually scale up the footage at that particular point in the film, but a by product of this was that the footage broke out of the size-boundaries of all the other footage, effectively moving into the area otherwise occupied by the black 'letterboxing' lines.
At the time, we didn't think this technique would bring us many problems; we assumed that, on export, the resolution of the film would revert back to that which we filmed in: 1280x720, or '720p HD', with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Unfortunately, in actuality, Final Cut wanted to export the film with a 4:3 aspect ratio. With this aspect ratio, the 'letterboxing' lines at the top and bottom were present throughout the film, apart from at the moment when digital zoom was used, where the footage could actually be seen to scale up; the edge of the footage expanding out into these spaces, eventually filling the entire frame, and then disappearing again to reveal the original 'letterboxed' footage.
Things were beginning to grate. Alas, I persevered.
It made sense to look deeper into the export settings, to see if the film could be forced to crop down into a 1280x720 frame. There was an option to select 1280x720 as the resolution for the exported file, so this is what I did. I was pleasantly surprised when the progress bar popped up in a small window which read '2 minutes' for the time remaining, but that pleasantness soon turned to agrivation as the estimated completion time rocketed up to 'about an hour.'
Oh, the joys of edititng.
After finding some useful tasks to fill this time, such as helping Tom to take feedback on the subsiduary products and working on my evaluation Prezi, I returned to the computer to discover that the exported file was indeed of the resolution 1280x720. The footage itself, however, was not. The 'letterboxing' lines remained, and the entire video had been compressed vertically - or stretched horizontally, whichever you prefer - in order to fit a 1280x720 frame.
Okay, now things are getting annoying.
Stuck for answers, Tom and I consulted the technician, explaining our problem, and our futile attempts to solve it. We were provided with some brilliant suggestions, but all brought the possiblity of further disadvantages, such as a loss of quality through repeated exports. Adamant that there would be another, simpler solution, I returned to Final Cut to examine the export settings once again.
EUREKA!
In the window where a resolution of 1280x720 could be selected, I had found a tick-box labelled 'Control aspect ratio', which came with a drop-down list with the option to 'Crop' the film. Hopeful that this was our final solution, I set all of the options to 'best' to ensure the highest quality result, and then clicked export.
Another hour or so to fill with other productive things.
Disappointingly, the film had been cropped closer to what we wanted, but not all the way. Although they were much smaller, the 'letterboxing' lines at the top and bottom were still present, and the problem footage could still be seen expanding into these black areas.
By this time, it was close to 3:00pm, and I still needed lunch, so it was time to give things a break.
Unfortunately, it seems that there isn't a lot more we can do to solve the problem; we can only really make the scaling of the problem footage less noticeable by cropping the film to reduce the thickness of the 'letterboxing' lines that the footage expands into. Because we want to export tomorrow, and with export times being what they are, we can't afford to spend time tweaking settings, because we have other lessons to attend, so this is the solution we will have to settle for.
If we do succeed in solving 'THE PROBLEM OF THE EXPANDING FOOTAGE', I will, of course, post the details here, but until then, I have other work to do...
Or, at least, that's what we thought this morning.
After waiting the best part of an hour whilst Final Cut exported our film as a .mov file, it was with some annoyance that I discovered that, due to our use of digital zoom in a key part of the film, the aspect ratio of the exported file had encountered some complications.
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| The footage at original size - how we want it all to look. |
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| The footage having scaled up, expanding out into the letterboxing lines. |
At the time, we didn't think this technique would bring us many problems; we assumed that, on export, the resolution of the film would revert back to that which we filmed in: 1280x720, or '720p HD', with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Unfortunately, in actuality, Final Cut wanted to export the film with a 4:3 aspect ratio. With this aspect ratio, the 'letterboxing' lines at the top and bottom were present throughout the film, apart from at the moment when digital zoom was used, where the footage could actually be seen to scale up; the edge of the footage expanding out into these spaces, eventually filling the entire frame, and then disappearing again to reveal the original 'letterboxed' footage.
Things were beginning to grate. Alas, I persevered.
It made sense to look deeper into the export settings, to see if the film could be forced to crop down into a 1280x720 frame. There was an option to select 1280x720 as the resolution for the exported file, so this is what I did. I was pleasantly surprised when the progress bar popped up in a small window which read '2 minutes' for the time remaining, but that pleasantness soon turned to agrivation as the estimated completion time rocketed up to 'about an hour.'
Oh, the joys of edititng.
After finding some useful tasks to fill this time, such as helping Tom to take feedback on the subsiduary products and working on my evaluation Prezi, I returned to the computer to discover that the exported file was indeed of the resolution 1280x720. The footage itself, however, was not. The 'letterboxing' lines remained, and the entire video had been compressed vertically - or stretched horizontally, whichever you prefer - in order to fit a 1280x720 frame.
Okay, now things are getting annoying.
Stuck for answers, Tom and I consulted the technician, explaining our problem, and our futile attempts to solve it. We were provided with some brilliant suggestions, but all brought the possiblity of further disadvantages, such as a loss of quality through repeated exports. Adamant that there would be another, simpler solution, I returned to Final Cut to examine the export settings once again.
EUREKA!
In the window where a resolution of 1280x720 could be selected, I had found a tick-box labelled 'Control aspect ratio', which came with a drop-down list with the option to 'Crop' the film. Hopeful that this was our final solution, I set all of the options to 'best' to ensure the highest quality result, and then clicked export.
Another hour or so to fill with other productive things.
Disappointingly, the film had been cropped closer to what we wanted, but not all the way. Although they were much smaller, the 'letterboxing' lines at the top and bottom were still present, and the problem footage could still be seen expanding into these black areas.
By this time, it was close to 3:00pm, and I still needed lunch, so it was time to give things a break.
Unfortunately, it seems that there isn't a lot more we can do to solve the problem; we can only really make the scaling of the problem footage less noticeable by cropping the film to reduce the thickness of the 'letterboxing' lines that the footage expands into. Because we want to export tomorrow, and with export times being what they are, we can't afford to spend time tweaking settings, because we have other lessons to attend, so this is the solution we will have to settle for.
If we do succeed in solving 'THE PROBLEM OF THE EXPANDING FOOTAGE', I will, of course, post the details here, but until then, I have other work to do...
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Internal Monologue Script
Recently, most of the time I allocate for Media Studies has been spent on filming and editing the actual footage for our short film, so I haven't been able to post regularly.
As we reach the end of the filmmaking process, however, things have slowed down ever so slightly, so I've found the time to make this post about the internal monologue that will feature in our film.
Below is the full internal monologue, and below that is an explanation of how and why it was written. Just like our shot lists, it was not written in the way an actual film script would have been, because this would have required much undue effort; Tom and I aren't selling the scripts, we merely need to record our ideas for our own later use, in a way which we can both understand and interpret quickly and easily. The bold writing is the spoken monologue itself, and the accompanying italics are notes to show where the line should be placed in the film.
From the very beginning of the process, Tom and I wanted the audience to be able to hear the protagonist's thoughts non-diegeticly, via an internal monologue. We wanted the character to seem both enigmatic and realistic, speaking in phrases that revealed the depth of his thought, but without providing specific detailing, or a definite context. The lack of detail would also add to the realism of the words as the character's own thoughts; when we think to ourselves, we rarely think in a way that would make a great amount of detailed sense if another person were to hear it spoken aloud.
As we reach the end of the filmmaking process, however, things have slowed down ever so slightly, so I've found the time to make this post about the internal monologue that will feature in our film.
Below is the full internal monologue, and below that is an explanation of how and why it was written. Just like our shot lists, it was not written in the way an actual film script would have been, because this would have required much undue effort; Tom and I aren't selling the scripts, we merely need to record our ideas for our own later use, in a way which we can both understand and interpret quickly and easily. The bold writing is the spoken monologue itself, and the accompanying italics are notes to show where the line should be placed in the film.
From the very beginning of the process, Tom and I wanted the audience to be able to hear the protagonist's thoughts non-diegeticly, via an internal monologue. We wanted the character to seem both enigmatic and realistic, speaking in phrases that revealed the depth of his thought, but without providing specific detailing, or a definite context. The lack of detail would also add to the realism of the words as the character's own thoughts; when we think to ourselves, we rarely think in a way that would make a great amount of detailed sense if another person were to hear it spoken aloud.
We also wanted the film to have a certain message hidden within the mystery, so when writing the monologue, I tried to make every line a covert, inexplicit reference to some philosophical concept, or some dilemma of thought. For example, the line 'And you can't control circumstance, so you work with what you have,' alludes to the conflicting concepts of determinism and free-will, and the following line: 'Acting, not because you must, but because you can: doing, not because that's who you want to be, but because that's who you are,' touches on Aristotle's teleological interpretation of morality in Nicomachean Ethics (350 BCE), which is more explicitly mentioned in the teacher's dialogue during Scene 3.
Having only five-minutes of space for the entire film, I was also conscious of the need to be concise, and express as much as I could in as few words as possible. In other words, the monologue needed to be epigrammatic throughout. This was no more important than in the final lines of the monologue, where I wanted to leave viewers with something that would stick in their mind; that they would continue to think about after the film has finished. The final lines, shown below, address the viewer directly for maximum impact:
'Don't lie to yourself about these things; justice is only a dream.
Have the conviction to accept this, and you'll take the world one step closer to that sleep.'
With 'selflessness' the defining characteristic of our protagonist, the themes of 'justice': of what is fair and what is right, should be implicit throughout our film, and to explicitly mention 'justice' at the end should punctuate the film nicely.
As Tom and I have waded deeper and deeper into the production of our film, it has become increasingly surreal, and I wanted to acknowledge that at the end of the film with the mention of 'dreams,' just as I mentioned the theme of 'justice.' What this acknowledgement should do is assure the audience that, whilst the film isn't necessarily realistic by any means, that is no reason to not take heed of its moral sentiments.
Of course, I say all this now, but once we have recorded the monologue being spoken and added it to our footage, it may be too long, too melodramatic, or it simply may not fit the film. We may end up using every single line, or only a few, or somewhere in-between; there is really no way of knowing until Tom and I actually watch it for ourselves to see what works and what doesn't.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Writing Reviews
A while ago, I created a potential layout for our subsidiary task of a magazine review page, but since then, using the results of our audience research and having analysed some professional film reviews, Tom has developed a much better looking layout.
The full details of the review-page construction are here in Tom's post.
Just as I took the lead in the creation of our poster, with Tom contributing to the design, Tom is constructing our review page, and I am contributing two small reviews of short films to go alongside Tom's larger review of our own film.
Below are my two reviews in their original states. Whilst writing them, I kept the results of our audience questionnaire in mind, which showed that, in the text of the review, readers wanted...
* Comparisons to other films.
* An unbiased perspective.
Although I didn't crop in direct comparisons to other films, I tried to acheive the same effect by making it clear what kind of genre the films fit into to, what kind of style they are, and who is likely to enjoy them.
For the unbiased perspective, I simply made sure I wrote about the films fairly, justifying every qualitative judgment I made.
Connected
For directors of shorts, filmmaking is always a careful of balancing of ambition against capability, and in Connected, Danish directors Jens Raunkjær Christensenand and Jonas Drotner Mouritsen strike the balance perfectly.
Described by Christensenand and Mouritsen as ‘a sci-fi western,’ Connected transports audiences to a desolate, post-apocalyptic wasteland, where it gives a glimpse into the torturous lives of the surviving few. Clearly a sci-fi by setting alone, Connected affirms its ‘western’ status with the conventionally confrontational characters that trudge through it, shot in the trademark style and accompanied by a soundtrack that even Ennio Morricone would be proud of.
What prevents Connected from being just another weird experiment in contemporary filmmaking, however, is also what makes it unique. There isn’t one part of Christensenand and Mouritsen’s film that doesn’t beg for you attention and contemplation; not one part that fails to make you think. In their brutal world, created from a neat combination of live-footage and CGI, the young directors reveal the startling literality of the film’s enigmatic title, as well as posing questions about the ethics of survival. It is testimony to the directors’ vision that Connected combines tense action and philosophic diversion in a way that many features struggle to imitate.
***** Five stars.
Floor Show
Going by name alone, any viewer would be forgiven for letting Floor Show pass them by, but names can be deceiving, and this is certainly the case with Sam Webber’s directorial debut.
Contrary to the simplicity of its title, Floor Show is a fascinating short that is as exuberant in style as it is disturbing in its themes. With murder, lust, and human salacity all featuring within the space of five minutes, the film will leave you feeling a little dirty, but also somewhat enlightened. The plot isn’t exactly original, but the brilliantly acted characters, atmospheric lighting and creative costume designs bring a welcome dose of drama to the quintessentially theatrical setting: an old-fashioned stage framed with blood-red curtains.
Webber is nothing if not a perfectionist; every shot and angle has been chosen with care, and each plays its own important part in the visual feast-for-the-eyes. Some audiences might find the extravagance off-putting, but Floor Show is sure to gain a substantial cult following from the art-house crowd, who aren’t afraid to value style as much as substance.
**** Four stars.
Unfortunately, I had massively overestimated the space available for the smaller two reviews, taking into consideration not only just the size of the page, but the space taken up by the details for the films and images from the films. After discussing the layout possibilities again and again with Tom, we decided that my two reviews really needed to be cut to around 60 words each; they would be more of a summary-review rather than a review itself.
Below are the final 'summary-reviews'. It was certainly difficult to cut them down to only a few sentences each, but I think I have succeeded in keeping them as informative and interesting to read as they could be at this length.
Connected
For directors of shorts, filmmaking is always a careful of balancing of ambition against capability, and in Connected, Danish directors Christensenand and Mouritsen strike the balance perfectly. Described as ‘a sci-fi western’, and set in a brutal post-apocalyptic wasteland, Connected is an artistic, intense and engrossing piece of film that is as sharp in concept as in execution.
***** Five stars.
Floor Show
Contrary to the simplicity of its title, Floor Show is a fascinating short that is as exuberant in style as it is disturbing in its themes. Webber is nothing if not a perfectionist, and every shot plays its part in the visual feast-for-the-eyes. Some audiences might find the extravagance off-putting, but Floor Show is sure to gain a substantial cult following from the art-house crowd, who aren’t afraid to place style ahead of substance.
**** Four stars.
In today's Media lesson, as I continued with some editing of our footage, Tom added these reviews to the page, and we tested a number of fonts to get the best likeness to the actual font used for the main reviews in the real Empire magazine. I also had a chance to look through Tom's review, so that I could point out any errors or typos he hadn't noticed.
Saturday 26 February 2011
The Theory of Media
Throughout the practical production process, Tom and I have tried our best not just to research areas of media that are practically relevant, such as cinematography, semiotics and the methods of targeting an audience, but we have also tried to cover a range of theoretical ideas by distributing research tasks in areas of interest between ourselves.
Since starting the blog, both Tom and I have covered Genre Theory and Auteur Theory, and I have looked into issues of Representation.
Most recently, though, Tom has written this detailed post on Narrative Theory.
All of my posts relating to theory can be found here.
Since starting the blog, both Tom and I have covered Genre Theory and Auteur Theory, and I have looked into issues of Representation.
Most recently, though, Tom has written this detailed post on Narrative Theory.
All of my posts relating to theory can be found here.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Production Photos
The actual process of directing and shooting a scene is very demanding, and it can often be quite stressful, so the documentation of the process for our blogs is easily overlooked.
Luckily though, over the most recent days of filming, Tom has been ready with his iPhone, taking snapshots of anything and everything that we feel is important, and he has since compiled them, along with written explanations, in this post.
I think the photos do a great job of illustrating the work that goes into filming a scene, and the way in which Tom and I go about it.
Luckily though, over the most recent days of filming, Tom has been ready with his iPhone, taking snapshots of anything and everything that we feel is important, and he has since compiled them, along with written explanations, in this post.
I think the photos do a great job of illustrating the work that goes into filming a scene, and the way in which Tom and I go about it.
Saturday 19 February 2011
Production Progress Presentation
A while ago, in a media lesson, Tom and I were asked to talk about our production in front of the class. Our teacher asked us questions to find out what progress we had made, what stage of production we were at, and what we were still planning to do.
Above is a video of the presentation. Unfortunately, because someone decided to record on a high-definition camera with a relatively low storage capacity, the available memory ran out at around 3 minutes, meaning that only about half of our total presentation was captured. Still, the video gives an idea of the stage of production we were at.
Above is a video of the presentation. Unfortunately, because someone decided to record on a high-definition camera with a relatively low storage capacity, the available memory ran out at around 3 minutes, meaning that only about half of our total presentation was captured. Still, the video gives an idea of the stage of production we were at.
Friday 18 February 2011
On-Set Organisation
Planning and research are all well and good before a filming takes place, but you can't put what you've learnt into practise unless you're organised during the actual filming.
When watching film or television, it's easy to forget the amount of work that goes in to producing a single scene, or a single shot, even! Obviously, seeing as Tom and I don't have the money (or, frankly, the authority) to be able to command a team of experts in fields of makeup, costume, set-design, lighting, cinematography, continuity, etc, we have to organise these things ourselves, to whatever extent in manageable.
Here is a link to a post Tom has helpfully compiled about the different roles allocated by filmmakers. (Not all of these people are always needed on-set, but they all help in the overall organisation of a day's filming)
Here is Tom's post showing our 'call-sheet', which he drew up for use as a way of keeping track of dates and the exact tasks we were going to be carrying out.
My role in the organisation for filming has been to maintain the tripod and the camera, the latter involving:
When watching film or television, it's easy to forget the amount of work that goes in to producing a single scene, or a single shot, even! Obviously, seeing as Tom and I don't have the money (or, frankly, the authority) to be able to command a team of experts in fields of makeup, costume, set-design, lighting, cinematography, continuity, etc, we have to organise these things ourselves, to whatever extent in manageable.
Here is a link to a post Tom has helpfully compiled about the different roles allocated by filmmakers. (Not all of these people are always needed on-set, but they all help in the overall organisation of a day's filming)
Here is Tom's post showing our 'call-sheet', which he drew up for use as a way of keeping track of dates and the exact tasks we were going to be carrying out.
My role in the organisation for filming has been to maintain the tripod and the camera, the latter involving:
- Ensuring batteries are charged, and that spares are ready.
- Freeing-up space on the memory card, so that we do not run out of storage whilst filming.
Thursday 3 February 2011
Poster Production
As can be seen in my plans, the original ideas Tom and I had for the poster revolved around a 'school yearbook' kind of look; either with faces of students simply staring out of the poster, or with faces staring out of the photos within an actual yearbook laid upon a desk. The central concept was in showing the absence of a person by having one photo that doesn't contain a subject; one photo that shows the background alone, with no face. The purpose of this was to convey the predicament of our protagonist; he is always around, putting others before himself, but never receives any recognition or praise; he goes pretty much entirely unnoticed.
Whilst Tom liked the plan including the actual yearbook, I kept pushing the first plan, because, not only was the grid of photos clearly going to be simpler, I believed it would be more effective; the faces staring directly out were going to catch people's eyes and draw their attention straight to our film. So, with this in mind, Tom and I used part of Tuesday's lesson to take volunteers into the library and photograph their head and shoulders against the quintessential school photo backdrop: a bookshelf. Pleased with the amount of photos we had taken, I went home, slipped the SD card into my laptop, and started editing away with photoshop.
All of the volunteers couldn't have been more helpful, and I want to make clear that the abandoning of this idea is no fault of theirs. The problem is, it just doesn't look like a poster. Good posters jump out, grab your attention, and refuse to leave your mind until you walk into that cinema and purchase that ticket. What you see above is banal and bland; more effective as a sedative than a stimulant. Our quantitative audience research revealed that what audiences most looked for in a poster was an eye-catching image and images of the characters or actors. So, not only was this poster not performing its general role, it was not performing the specific roles required for it to appeal to our target audience.
Being entirely unhappy with this design (as you can probably tell), I went away thinking deeply about new possiblities and variations, keeping in mind the criteria set by our by our audience research results. I began to reconsider what it was that stood out to me most about our film. The predicament of the protagonist is definitely at the core of our film, but this is difficult to convey in a single poster, and besides, our target audience would be more interested in watching the film if they were yet to discover the nature of the protagonist's situation. Finally, it occurred to me: what gives the film its identity on first impression is the title - PENUMBRA (click here for an explanation).
So, last night, with the title of the film at the forefront of my mind, I began to construct an entirely new poster. I explained the idea over the phone to Tom, and from this he drew his own mock-ups of how the poster could look. The first two images below show the initial experiments carried out in photoshop yesterday evening, and the rest are all from different stage in the poster's production today. Below each image is an explanatory caption.
Because I have literally just completed this poster this afternoon, Tom has yet to see it, and I have yet to ask anyone besides my parents for feedback on it. Therefore, this is by no means our final poster. Before we reach that stage, I will look at the poster with Tom to see what variations we can create - perhaps of a different style, or perhaps in the same style for different modes of exhibition - and we will show the poster to a lot more people in order to get some detailed qualitative feedback.
Whilst Tom liked the plan including the actual yearbook, I kept pushing the first plan, because, not only was the grid of photos clearly going to be simpler, I believed it would be more effective; the faces staring directly out were going to catch people's eyes and draw their attention straight to our film. So, with this in mind, Tom and I used part of Tuesday's lesson to take volunteers into the library and photograph their head and shoulders against the quintessential school photo backdrop: a bookshelf. Pleased with the amount of photos we had taken, I went home, slipped the SD card into my laptop, and started editing away with photoshop.
I placed all of the photographs onto the canvas in order to get an idea of what the final poster was going to look like. That's when it dawned on me: THIS LOOKS REALLY AWFUL.
All of the volunteers couldn't have been more helpful, and I want to make clear that the abandoning of this idea is no fault of theirs. The problem is, it just doesn't look like a poster. Good posters jump out, grab your attention, and refuse to leave your mind until you walk into that cinema and purchase that ticket. What you see above is banal and bland; more effective as a sedative than a stimulant. Our quantitative audience research revealed that what audiences most looked for in a poster was an eye-catching image and images of the characters or actors. So, not only was this poster not performing its general role, it was not performing the specific roles required for it to appeal to our target audience.
Being entirely unhappy with this design (as you can probably tell), I went away thinking deeply about new possiblities and variations, keeping in mind the criteria set by our by our audience research results. I began to reconsider what it was that stood out to me most about our film. The predicament of the protagonist is definitely at the core of our film, but this is difficult to convey in a single poster, and besides, our target audience would be more interested in watching the film if they were yet to discover the nature of the protagonist's situation. Finally, it occurred to me: what gives the film its identity on first impression is the title - PENUMBRA (click here for an explanation).
So, last night, with the title of the film at the forefront of my mind, I began to construct an entirely new poster. I explained the idea over the phone to Tom, and from this he drew his own mock-ups of how the poster could look. The first two images below show the initial experiments carried out in photoshop yesterday evening, and the rest are all from different stage in the poster's production today. Below each image is an explanatory caption.
 |
| Inspired by this poster for Inception, I put the title at an angle spanning most of the poster, and gave it the signature glow of our title (important because A- it looks cool, and B- it relates to the definition of penumbra as a part of a shadow). Then, using internet tutorials, I learned how to mask layers in such a way that images can appear within text. Our lead-actors eyes can be seen peering out from the forth stroke of the M. |
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| Here, I was trying to see if it was possible to have an image show through more than one piece of text. Luckily, this process wasn't as difficult as I had expected. |
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| This morning, in Media, the first thing I did was to create lots of text layers which i then transfromed and arranged to make an interesting collage. |
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| I then grouped the text layers appropriately, then rasterized them and merged them so that different images (either from our film or relating to it) can be seen in different peices of text. |
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| Deciding the images within the text were too busy with detailed colour, I made them all black and white, and this definitely had a positive effect in drawing more attention to the title. After discussing things with Tom, we decided it would be a good idea to have an outline of our protagonist in the bottom right-hand corner. I set about cutting a blurred image of our lead-actor out of a frame from our film, and once this was in the poster, both Tom and I agreed it looked better in full colour than as an outline alone. |
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| Next, in an attempt to make the poster stand out more, I experimented with different hues of different intensity for the images in the text. Eventually, I decided that red was most attention grabbing, and most fitting for the theme of pain which is important in our film. |
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| Finally, here (at full resolution, provided you click on the image) is our new poster! In this final stage, I increased the vibrancy and brightness of the colours in the image of our protagonist from the back, so that he is more visible against the solid black background. I also added some text (in the same font as the title for conguity) to specify that the poster is advertising a short film, and some other text to credit Tom and I as directors. (For the crediting font, I searched online to find fonts similar to those used for crediting in actual film posters, and then downloaded and installed one called 'Rothman' from this website) |
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Quantitative Audience Research: Analysis
Although the questionnaire has only been live for 4 days, the results are already revealing enough for me to begin considering them and applying them to our products.
Poster
In order to know what size and shape of poster we should create, we first need to know where the poster will be displayed, so we asked people where they thought film posters were most effective. As the graph below shows, there were three options that stood out:
This indicates that, if Tom and I want to advertise our film in what is deemed to be the most effective area, we should produce a poster for display in and around cinemas and multiplexes. What the reasonable spread of data across all choices suggests, though, is that film posters are always somewhat effective, no matter where they are displayed. It may well be worth producing three different versions of the same poster for the three most-selected options.
The next question was concerning the features of a film poster. The summary graph shows that there were two main features people wanted to see: an eye-catching image, and images of the characters or actors. Although our current plan for the poster is certainly 'eye-catching', with lots of faces staring out at viewers, the entire point of it is that the protagonist is not seen, so that a sense of mystery is created. According to the results, however, a sense of mystery is not so important. Tom and I will certainly have to consider either changing our poster design, or producing a number of posters which will appeal to different tastes.
Review
The first question of this section asked people what they look for in a good film review, and the answers were pretty much as expected, with images from the actual film, the film release date and a clearly defined rating of the film all ranking in the top answers. Interestingly, two other popular selections were comparisons to other films and an unbiased perspective. The former three factors I mentioned were already going to be included in our review, but the latter two are both aspects we will have to consider including. The unbiased perspective will be the most challenging, because it necessitates an impartial writing style, which may be difficult to acheive considering we are the ones making the film.
The other two questions in this section were asked so that we could determine the placement of our review page; in what magazine, and in what section. The pie-charts below are very useful in summarising the results.
What they tell us is that large, in-depth reviews are favoured slightly over small, concise reviews, and that, overall, people would like to see short-film reviews as a new feature in an existing magazine such as Empire or Total Film. We are currently aiming to have two reviews of short films on our review page, with one being a review for our own film, and i think our plans will stay this way. There is not enough of a difference in the first pie-chart to push us into writing one large review of our own film, because this would not be read by those looking for shorter reviews. At the same time, however, a review filling half a magazine page is not as short as reviews go, so we are striking a compromise to try and satisfy both types of reader. Moreover, these reviews are going to have to look as if they belong in a real, new section in an existing film magazine, and, realistically, such magazines would only be likely to dedicate half a page at most to the review of a short film.
General
The general questions we asked relating to film were included simply so that Tom and I could confirm we were on the right tracks.
Out of thriller, mystery and drama - the three genres that our Short Film aims to combine - thriller is clearly the most popular; perhaps more popular than mystery and drama than we expected. Although we're not going to turn around and re-write our film to cater more for thriller-lovers, we can alter our poster (or one of our posters, if we produce more than one) to make the film appeal to these people on first impressions.
The question about how people discuss film was included solely to confirm the legitimacy of the two-step flow audience model, and this is exactly what it has done. What it also shows, quite interestingly, is that, despite the popularity of social networking, people are still more likely to talk to one-another about film in face-to-face conversation rather than via the internet. All the more reason, then, for Tom and I to produce a poster and review that are interesting and engaging enough to provoke discussion.
Poster
In order to know what size and shape of poster we should create, we first need to know where the poster will be displayed, so we asked people where they thought film posters were most effective. As the graph below shows, there were three options that stood out:
- Outside/within a cineama.
- In a magazine.
- On the internet.
This indicates that, if Tom and I want to advertise our film in what is deemed to be the most effective area, we should produce a poster for display in and around cinemas and multiplexes. What the reasonable spread of data across all choices suggests, though, is that film posters are always somewhat effective, no matter where they are displayed. It may well be worth producing three different versions of the same poster for the three most-selected options.
The next question was concerning the features of a film poster. The summary graph shows that there were two main features people wanted to see: an eye-catching image, and images of the characters or actors. Although our current plan for the poster is certainly 'eye-catching', with lots of faces staring out at viewers, the entire point of it is that the protagonist is not seen, so that a sense of mystery is created. According to the results, however, a sense of mystery is not so important. Tom and I will certainly have to consider either changing our poster design, or producing a number of posters which will appeal to different tastes.
Review
The first question of this section asked people what they look for in a good film review, and the answers were pretty much as expected, with images from the actual film, the film release date and a clearly defined rating of the film all ranking in the top answers. Interestingly, two other popular selections were comparisons to other films and an unbiased perspective. The former three factors I mentioned were already going to be included in our review, but the latter two are both aspects we will have to consider including. The unbiased perspective will be the most challenging, because it necessitates an impartial writing style, which may be difficult to acheive considering we are the ones making the film.
The other two questions in this section were asked so that we could determine the placement of our review page; in what magazine, and in what section. The pie-charts below are very useful in summarising the results.
What they tell us is that large, in-depth reviews are favoured slightly over small, concise reviews, and that, overall, people would like to see short-film reviews as a new feature in an existing magazine such as Empire or Total Film. We are currently aiming to have two reviews of short films on our review page, with one being a review for our own film, and i think our plans will stay this way. There is not enough of a difference in the first pie-chart to push us into writing one large review of our own film, because this would not be read by those looking for shorter reviews. At the same time, however, a review filling half a magazine page is not as short as reviews go, so we are striking a compromise to try and satisfy both types of reader. Moreover, these reviews are going to have to look as if they belong in a real, new section in an existing film magazine, and, realistically, such magazines would only be likely to dedicate half a page at most to the review of a short film.
General
The general questions we asked relating to film were included simply so that Tom and I could confirm we were on the right tracks.
Out of thriller, mystery and drama - the three genres that our Short Film aims to combine - thriller is clearly the most popular; perhaps more popular than mystery and drama than we expected. Although we're not going to turn around and re-write our film to cater more for thriller-lovers, we can alter our poster (or one of our posters, if we produce more than one) to make the film appeal to these people on first impressions.
The question about how people discuss film was included solely to confirm the legitimacy of the two-step flow audience model, and this is exactly what it has done. What it also shows, quite interestingly, is that, despite the popularity of social networking, people are still more likely to talk to one-another about film in face-to-face conversation rather than via the internet. All the more reason, then, for Tom and I to produce a poster and review that are interesting and engaging enough to provoke discussion.
Monday 31 January 2011
Evidence of Assessment Criteria
To make this blog easier to navigate for assessment purposes, here is a copy of the OCR Media Studies assessment criteria with links to posts that evidence the level of acheivement.
Currently, the key to criteria is as follows:
Any words or phrases in blue are links to posts or groups of posts that contain the relevant evidence.
Currently, the key to criteria is as follows:
Red = still to be evidenced.
Orange = in the process of being evidenced.
Green = evidenced.
Any words or phrases in blue are links to posts or groups of posts that contain the relevant evidence.
Research & Planning : Level 4 : 16-20 marks
- There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
- There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
- There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
- Time management is excellent.
- There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
- There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
- There are excellent communication skills.
Evaluation : Level 4 : 16-20 marks
- There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
- There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
- There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
- There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
- There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
- There is excellent ability to communicate.
- There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
Main Media Text : Film : Level 4 : 32-40 marks
- holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
- framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
- using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
- shooting material appropriate to the task set;
- selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
- editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
- using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;
- using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.
Subsidiary Media Task : Poster : Level 4 : 9-10 marks
- using IT appropriately for the task set;
- showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;
- showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;
- accurate use of language and register;
- appropriately integrating illustration and text;
- framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
- using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
- shooting material appropriate to the task set;
- selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
- manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including within text, within particular IT programmes, cropping and resizing.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.
Subsidiary Media Task : Magazine Review : Level 4 : 9-10 marks
- using IT appropriately for the task set;
- showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;
- showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;
- accurate use of language and register;
- appropriately integrating illustration and text;
- framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
- using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
- shooting material appropriate to the task set;
- selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
- manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including within text, within particular IT programmes, cropping and resizing.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.
Thursday 27 January 2011
Quantitative Audience Research
In an earlier post, I mentioned that Tom and I would be creating and sending an online questionnaire for quantitative audience research. Now, that questionnaire has been constructed, and it contains all the questions we thought would provide us with answers and statistics which will prove useful in the final stages of production of our media texts.
To create the questionnaire, Tom and I used Google Forms, which was recommended by a friend. Google Docs is a free application that allows users to create, organise and store office documents online. The 'form' is just one type of document that Google Docs allows users to create and publish. For a free-to-use application, Google Forms looks extremely professional and is very easy to use. What's more, it automatically collects responses in a spreadsheet, and also organises them into individual graphs and charts for quick and easy interpretation, as shown in the example below.
The quantitative results won't change our texts enormously, because they are our creative ideas, and, naturally, we wish to see them through. What the results will do, however, is allow us to gear our texts towards the most receptive groups of people, ensuring that they reach as larger audience as possible.
Above is a screenshot of the post I added to the A2 Media Studies group on Facebook, asking people politely to take some time to fill out the questionnaire, and below is a screenshot showing the look and format of the questionnaire.
Click here to go to the questionnaire.
When Tom and I think we have enough results, I will close the questionnaire to responses and analyse the results.
To create the questionnaire, Tom and I used Google Forms, which was recommended by a friend. Google Docs is a free application that allows users to create, organise and store office documents online. The 'form' is just one type of document that Google Docs allows users to create and publish. For a free-to-use application, Google Forms looks extremely professional and is very easy to use. What's more, it automatically collects responses in a spreadsheet, and also organises them into individual graphs and charts for quick and easy interpretation, as shown in the example below.
The quantitative results won't change our texts enormously, because they are our creative ideas, and, naturally, we wish to see them through. What the results will do, however, is allow us to gear our texts towards the most receptive groups of people, ensuring that they reach as larger audience as possible.
Above is a screenshot of the post I added to the A2 Media Studies group on Facebook, asking people politely to take some time to fill out the questionnaire, and below is a screenshot showing the look and format of the questionnaire.
Click here to go to the questionnaire.
When Tom and I think we have enough results, I will close the questionnaire to responses and analyse the results.
Saturday 22 January 2011
Filming has commenced!
Yes, that's right, the filming of our short film has officially begun!
Yesterday, we filmed a single shot from Scene 2 (information on the content of this scene can be found in the treatment and the animatic). Normally, we would have never considered shooting one shot of a one-minute scene on a separate day to the rest, but we thought that this single shot - of our protagonist walking out onto the school field as other students walk in - would prove difficult to film, so we wanted to start trying to capture this shot as soon as possible.
Luckily, it all seemed to go well, and we have a useable piece of footage, exactly how we wanted it. Thanks to a friend's tripod, the camera does not shake, thanks to common decency (or perhaps general ignorance), no kids waved at or stared into the camera at an important point, and thanks to our actor's willing and patient nature, we have a piece of footage that will have relevance and make sense.
The main disadvantage of filming the same scene across different days is that of consistency and continuity. Because the footage we have shot was taken on an overcast and windy day, the rest of the footage will have to be shot on a similar day. Either that, or we will have to re-shoot the 'walking out onto the field' shot when we shoot the rest of the scene, and just hope everything goes well again.
Either way, I am glad the filming process is underway. So glad, in fact, that I quickly knocked together this teaser trailer, which I hope will give people an insight into the sort of the film Tom an I are aiming to produce.
Yesterday, we filmed a single shot from Scene 2 (information on the content of this scene can be found in the treatment and the animatic). Normally, we would have never considered shooting one shot of a one-minute scene on a separate day to the rest, but we thought that this single shot - of our protagonist walking out onto the school field as other students walk in - would prove difficult to film, so we wanted to start trying to capture this shot as soon as possible.
Luckily, it all seemed to go well, and we have a useable piece of footage, exactly how we wanted it. Thanks to a friend's tripod, the camera does not shake, thanks to common decency (or perhaps general ignorance), no kids waved at or stared into the camera at an important point, and thanks to our actor's willing and patient nature, we have a piece of footage that will have relevance and make sense.
The main disadvantage of filming the same scene across different days is that of consistency and continuity. Because the footage we have shot was taken on an overcast and windy day, the rest of the footage will have to be shot on a similar day. Either that, or we will have to re-shoot the 'walking out onto the field' shot when we shoot the rest of the scene, and just hope everything goes well again.
Either way, I am glad the filming process is underway. So glad, in fact, that I quickly knocked together this teaser trailer, which I hope will give people an insight into the sort of the film Tom an I are aiming to produce.
Friday 21 January 2011
Production Log 4
In this, our fourth Production Log, we explain what final preparations we are making before filming, and what audience research we are carrying out to help in the production of our ancillary products: a film magazine review page featuring our film, and a poster for our film.
Thursday 20 January 2011
Short Film Title: PENUMBRA
Yesterday, Tom and I recorded our latest Production Log, giving a general progress update and explaining our current situation. Unfortunately, yesterday evening, I realised that I had forgot to mention something relatively crucial: we have a title for our film!
Tom and I have been thinking about various title ideas for a while. 'Selfless' was a strong candidate, as this is the central concept that our film revolves around. However, both Tom and I thought that this was too obvious; too 'in your face,' for a film that we intend to have a great degree of subtlety.
One media lesson, we were trying to think of a title by explaining the plot of our film to people in different ways. We were focusing on the fact that the protagonist is doing good deeds; affecting other's lives for the better, without being noticed. A friend mentioned 'shadow' as a possibility, and whilst I liked the idea, I did not like the word 'shadow' itself. So later, I searched the internet for any interesting words related to 'shade' or 'shadow' that stood out. This is when I came across Penumbra, a title that Tom and I both liked.
Penumbra is a suitable title, not only because it is an interesting word to say and pronounce, but because it carries a meaning which is relevant to our film and adds to the meaning of the film.
The word is used in many different contexts, each use with its own definition. The definitions that are relevant to us, from Dictionary.com, are as follows:
The word is used in many different contexts, each use with its own definition. The definitions that are relevant to us, from Dictionary.com, are as follows:
General definition: a shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area.
Legal definition: an area within which distinction or resolution is difficult or uncertain.
Tom and I are looking to exploit the 'two-step flow' model in the marketing of our film (where discussions about the film become a way of advertising - Click here for Tom's explanation), and we are confident that Penumbra will draw people's interest, whether they hear it spoken in a face-to-face conversation, or see it written on the internet or in print.
Above is a very short example of how the title could look at the beginning of the film.
Tom and I are looking to exploit the 'two-step flow' model in the marketing of our film (where discussions about the film become a way of advertising - Click here for Tom's explanation), and we are confident that Penumbra will draw people's interest, whether they hear it spoken in a face-to-face conversation, or see it written on the internet or in print.
Above is a very short example of how the title could look at the beginning of the film.
Thursday 13 January 2011
Plans For Poster & Magazine Review Page
Whilst Tom has been working on posts relating to Target Audience and Editing Techniques, and I have been finishing the Animatic and looking at issues of Representation, we have also been discussing ideas for our ancillary products; a poster for our short film, and a magazine review page featuring our film. Here are some of the basic layout designs I have drawn, along with explanatory notes.
Our film is about a person acting selflessly; a person who has an effect on others, but is not noticed or recognised by them, so I thought it would be good to convey this kind of message in the poster. My idea, as shown above, was to have a simple, geometric collage of many ordinary portrait shots, with the subject in each staring directly into the camera. They would all be around the same age as the protagonist, just as the characters in the film are, and the portraits would all be taken with a bright, airy background so that the person's outline stands out. Just beneath and to the right of the film's title (which we have yet to decide on), however, one of the photos will contain the same kind of blurred background as all of the other photos, but will not contain a subject. The appeal of this poster would firstly be in the stare of the subjects captured in the portraits; hopefully, this will unnerve people enough to look more closely at the poster and discover what it is advertising. The missing subject in one of the portraits will also hopefully add a sense of intrigue, so that the consumer remains curious about the film and its premise for a long time after seeing the poster.
Below is another layout design suggested by Tom on the basis of the first. The core idea of the missing subject is retained, but the setting of the school/college is conveyed with the portraits being printed on a yearbook, and the yearbook being laid upon a desk. I like this idea, but I am aware that this poster will be considerably more difficult to create.
In preparation for the magazine review page, I have been browsing through various film and cinema magazines, both in physical form and online. Although there are quite a number of magazines that allow consumers to view short films either online or via a DVD, there are surprisingly few that regularly offer actual reviews of short films. Therefore, our magazine review page will have to look like a special feature within that specific issue of the magazine, or like a first-time introduction to a new section of the magazine.
Film magazines such as Empire and Total Film generally contain one or two large reviews that span two or three pages each, for popular or critically anticipated films, and these are followed by smaller reviews: a few that take up a single page each (for films that are less critically anticipated, but still popular), more that take up half a page (for semi-popular films), and even more that take up around an eighth of a page (for any other films). To keep the reader interested, these different sized reviews are combined on the page, but with the general trend being from pages covered in long reviews with large images, down to pages filled with small reviews with a single, small images.
Tom and I have decided that our review should be either the small 'eighth of a page' or medium 'half a page' size, within a page featuring other short-film reviews. Above is a basic sketch of what the page could look like.
Our film is about a person acting selflessly; a person who has an effect on others, but is not noticed or recognised by them, so I thought it would be good to convey this kind of message in the poster. My idea, as shown above, was to have a simple, geometric collage of many ordinary portrait shots, with the subject in each staring directly into the camera. They would all be around the same age as the protagonist, just as the characters in the film are, and the portraits would all be taken with a bright, airy background so that the person's outline stands out. Just beneath and to the right of the film's title (which we have yet to decide on), however, one of the photos will contain the same kind of blurred background as all of the other photos, but will not contain a subject. The appeal of this poster would firstly be in the stare of the subjects captured in the portraits; hopefully, this will unnerve people enough to look more closely at the poster and discover what it is advertising. The missing subject in one of the portraits will also hopefully add a sense of intrigue, so that the consumer remains curious about the film and its premise for a long time after seeing the poster.
Below is another layout design suggested by Tom on the basis of the first. The core idea of the missing subject is retained, but the setting of the school/college is conveyed with the portraits being printed on a yearbook, and the yearbook being laid upon a desk. I like this idea, but I am aware that this poster will be considerably more difficult to create.
In preparation for the magazine review page, I have been browsing through various film and cinema magazines, both in physical form and online. Although there are quite a number of magazines that allow consumers to view short films either online or via a DVD, there are surprisingly few that regularly offer actual reviews of short films. Therefore, our magazine review page will have to look like a special feature within that specific issue of the magazine, or like a first-time introduction to a new section of the magazine.
Film magazines such as Empire and Total Film generally contain one or two large reviews that span two or three pages each, for popular or critically anticipated films, and these are followed by smaller reviews: a few that take up a single page each (for films that are less critically anticipated, but still popular), more that take up half a page (for semi-popular films), and even more that take up around an eighth of a page (for any other films). To keep the reader interested, these different sized reviews are combined on the page, but with the general trend being from pages covered in long reviews with large images, down to pages filled with small reviews with a single, small images.
Tom and I have decided that our review should be either the small 'eighth of a page' or medium 'half a page' size, within a page featuring other short-film reviews. Above is a basic sketch of what the page could look like.
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