Friday, 2 May 2014

reflection


What aspects of your product do you think could be improved?

Quality

I think that the quality of our film was average, if we had used a better camera to film with it would have looked a lot better. If I had used a proper filming camera it would have given in a more polished and professional look.

Duration

Our film trailer is very short, due to not doing this before we didn’t know how much raw footage we would actually need to then edit and put into the trailer. If I was to do this again I would film a lot more and would have brainstormed a lot more ideas this is because me and my partner began to run out of idea of what to film even though we had a storyboard. Know having the experience of putting together a trailer I think given another chance we would do a lot better.

Storyline

Although being a teaser trailer we didn't  give a lot away, I found it hard to get our storyline across due to what our story was about. This is because our story is about someone who doesn’t talk to many people or do much so we found this hard to get across in an attractive and entertaining way that would lure in the audience to go and watch it.

 

What aspects of your product are you particularly pleased with?

Editing

I was so pleased with the editing of the trailer, this is because I had never used premiere pro before and had no experience of doing anything like this before so I was so surprised of how it came out in all honesty. At first I found using it had and struggled to pick up on what I needed to do but once I got a hang of what to do I found it easy. Going into the project I thought it would look a lot worse that what our final product came out as so I am happy.




Connor

evaluation question


Evaluation 1

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

media products?

In my media products is met and followed convention on the location that I used, we used busy built up areas but they were run down slightly which followed stereotypical social realism location. It was a dimmed lit area that gave you the feeling that you wouldn’t want to walk around there at night on your own.  From the research that we had we established that a large majority use this type of location, I felt that it felt right using the location we used at it fit well with our storyline of our character not fitting in.




 
 
In the trailer the music we used went against the usual stereotypical music used, in a lot of social realism films hip hop/ rap music is used indicating what the story is about and what kind of area it is the film in set in. The music we used was made by an orchestra; it started off at a slow tempo but gained pace throughout. I felt this music suited the trailer very well; this is because the character is very emotional and sensitive and goes through a tough time but ends well.
 
 
 
 



In my research I found that it is common that if the social realism  film is on a group it usual contains some form of violence, drugs or a form of criminal activity. Due to the lack of actors I had available which influenced me decision to choose that I focused on one character.

 



 

My storyline followed conventions but was more realistic than some other social realism films, my storyline revolves around a teenage boy that has autism. Due to suffering from autism he has never really fit in anywhere he has been and has struggled to get along with people in both a friendship and relationship way. I felt this was an important issue that doesn’t get addressed or publicised for people to understand what someone with autism goes through on a daily basis and how they struggle to fit in to the real world.

The main character in the film meets common codes and conventions in social realisms films, the character is dressed all in black other than his trainers. In a majority of social realism films people wear all black to blend in to the people they socialise with, so they cannot be picked out from a group. With my character I opted to use an all-black outfit as the character wants to blend in, he wants to be hidden and not draw attention to himself as he doesn’t know how to deal with it emotionally.

 

 



Evaluation question 2


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

1)  in the film industry advertising is a key factor in the success of a film, this is because without advertising no one would know when a movie is released or even what some sort of understanding of what it is about.  One of the best ways to advertise is through using posters as it is a cheap but affective method to use. This is because you can print on a mass scale for a low cost so people can see them everywhere. This method is useful for low budget productions that cannot afford to air television adverts.

2)  In the poster we used a real location, we edited in a way that gave off a sad effect to the image, the black and white used made him just blend in to the background as he watches the world go by. The main focus of the poster ‘the character’ isn’t facing the camera; this is because he doesn’t want attention or people to stare at him. He keeps himself to himself and doesn’t share how he feels or talks to many people.  From the research we did we

3) In the film industry magazines are a good way to advertise a film, this is because production companies can form an agreement to advertise the film and offer a competition in return. This gives both an incentive to buy the magazine and view the film. You can also use it to address your target audience also.

4) In my magazine, I met a lot of the codes and conventions of film magazines. I used a consistent colour scheme of black, red and white red as a background to most as it draws your attention to selected piece then either used white or black to write over it so it was clear. The masthead is at the top, price tag in the bottom.

5) In A2 media the coursework required me and my partner to make a film trailer to go with an ancillary task of making a film poster and a magazine cover for the film.  Social realism is the genre of the film, so after researching the codes and conventions of a social realism film, magazines and posters we found out that it should all link together. So when filming and taking photographs for the poster and magazine the main actor wore the same clothing so you could see who it was and that he was the main character. 

In the film trailer you see him walking through a subway and on a hill, were used the same settings of where we filmed and included it into the poster and magazine.  When filming in the subway we took a photograph for the magazine, it fitted in well alongside the trailer as the image has him not looking at the camera as he doesn’t like/get much attention and he is in a subway which is commonly seen in social realism films.  When filming on the hill we took a shot of the main actor standing on top of the hill looking out on his own, this looked good because it suited the name ‘Outcast’ as he was on his own and looked so small in comparison to the backdrop behind.

 
Evaluation question 3




“The editing was good and I thought the music went well with footage but I wanted to see more as it was short .”



Mikaela reacted in a positive way, when she saw the trailer she enjoyed it which was the main thing, from her comments above I have learnt that I should have mixed up and filmed more. Looking back on how I filmed for the raw footage to then edited it and put it together for the trailer I understand why she said this and would agree with her of the trailer. Overall she liked it but she wanted it to be longer to get a real taste for what the whole film is about as she said it was to short.





“The quality could have been better throughout.”



Miss aftab liked the trailer but she said the quality could have been better which I do understand, when I attempted to use an actually film camera things kept going wrong with the film and it wouldn’t save onto the memory card so I ended up recording it on my phone because it had HD recording. Given another chance to do it again I would definitely invest in a good quality filming camera as it gives off a more professional look.











“It was the same thing over and over there was no real story.”





Mustafa wouldn’t as positive about the trailer compared to others but I was happy with that as without   criticism you can’t improve. He said he liked the idea but found it very repetitive and the same thing over and over which I agree with. Due to it being a teaser trailer I tried to not give too much away but while trying to do this I made it very bland in a sense. You got a small snippet of the story but even that isn’t clear. Id change the trailers content if given another go, I’d put in a scene near where the film gets to the climax or even a bit of dialogue to get the audience engaged.









 “I found it a bit repetitive throughout but I liked that it was on one character mainly.”






Paige said she was 50/50 on the trailer this being due to her finding it repetitive which put her off a little bit but she did enjoy it only being focussed on one character as she didn’t find it hard to keep track and she didn’t become confused. I would again edit the content and put in some better clips to engage the audience and keep their attention and make them want to see more.











“There wasn’t that much facial expression and couldn’t see much in the scenes.”


 

Rohit enjoyed the trailer but found it lacked facial expression, this was due to us using an inexperienced actor. I learnt from this I should have used someone with more experience as they may draw an additional fan base and will be more experienced at acting so will know how to act out scenes better and will come across more convincing.









“The setting you used was good and met the genre but It would have been better with talking.”





Sian enjoyed the trailer, she liked that it followed the stereotypical location of the run down area and the idea that the character didn’t fit in due to the people that lived in his area, but she thought it could have used some dialogue. I can understand this but I thought if I included dialogue it may become confusing. I think given another go I would have included some talking just to engage the audience a little more.













Evaluation question 4


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

stages?

 http://www.slideshare.net/connorpearce1234/eval-question-4-34200965



Connor



































 

EVALUATION

http://www.slideshare.net/SamanthaA2/how-effective-is-the-combination-34202042



http://www.slideshare.net/SamanthaA2/media-product-use-develop-or-challenge-forms



http://www.slideshare.net/SamanthaA2/media-technologies-34202039


What have you learned from your audience feedback?




Overall I thought that we had mostly positive feedback. The layout and position of the posters and magazine covers are seen appealing and feedback shows its close to being professional film products. To improve our work, the comments from our feedback has told us to get clearer images. If I were to do this again id use a professional camera to get a better finish to our work.


Samantha

TRAILER

 
 
this is the link to the trailer.

shooting and editing times


5 feb; both of us go and do some filming
7th; both go and film in the subway and alley
9th last time filming
12th till 1st of March   of next month editing

raw pictures






We then went onto edit both of these pictures. In the first one on the left we recolored the top of the picture so it wasn’t as bright then used it for the front cover of the magazine.


The picture on the right, we recolored the whole thing then edited out the people in the distance on the right

words


Magazine Layout


Magazine explanation


 
Masthead; we have chosen to the masthead fairly big and at the top of the magazine, this is because when we were analysing magazines we noticed that it is a regular feature in the magazines. We are thinking about choosing a colour related to the film so dark colours like black, blue grey. Or the masthead to be red as it stands out and is noticeable and hard to miss.


Article circles

We have chosen to do article circles with the headline in there because in magazines it is either written there or in a circle, we liked this idea so we have chosen to incorporate it into our work. It will be related to the main article so it will probably be something to do with social realism films.
In our analysis we noticed this is a feature used in film magazines so we have used the idea as we thought it was effective.


Main image/ tagline

With the main image we are going to have it fairly big in the centre of the page, this is so it is one of the first things the reader sees. The tagline will be just below are will be incising so the audience want to open the magazine and flick to the page about the film. We will have the tagline medium size as well because it is an important part of the front cover. Bottom page banner

We have decided to put a banner going across the bottom of the cover, after analysing the film magazine we noticed this is a quite regular feature and that was good because the article circles were the bigger articles in the magazine where as this shows different variety in the magazine that isn't all related to social realism .



 



 




Moodboard


Here is a mood board I created for my social realism film. The pictures I've included are some of the ideas that I was to add to my film. For example I've got pictures of gangs who I want to involve in the film and also pictures of rough estates where I want my film to be set. I've also included pictures of weapons and drugs, this shows that my film will include violence and events that are illegal. This shows how dangerous some areas are and how some peoples lives include these activities on a day to day basis.

Samantha

script treatment


New script treatment

 Outcast

The film I shall be creating a ‘teaser trailer’ for shall be called ‘Outcast’, due to my protagonist’s condition. The protagonist will be a fatherless seventeen year old boy that is called Jack. However, recently Jack had been diagnosed with Autism, prior to being diagnosed Jack had always been an outcast and never really fit in throughout his time at school.  

Joe grew tired of this by the time he was sixteen and once he had reached the end of year 11 he left education completely, deciding that he’d had enough of being an outcast and struggling in social interaction he tried to change. Before the his final exams in GCSE Jack contemplated suicide as he began to hate life, Jack then started to write a diary about how he felt throughout the day, regarding his feelings and thought on what would happen, he found this helped ease the angry that would build up sometimes. Jack is the perfect social realist character as he is the hegemonic, working class teenager who has been troubled in some form and is now trying to better his life, typical codes and conventions of social realist films have been met, such as the film being shot on a hand held camera, encoding realism within the narrative. The grainy, urban mise-en-scene paired with a de-saturated colour palette shall be within the typical conventions of this genre also.

The film shall be shot in parts of Stockley, Uxbridge, at home and at Stockley Academy. I have decided to set the trailer in these two settings as the settings I have in mind are typical to urban social-realist films, concrete based landscape in which Jack finds normality and tranquillity to write peacefully.