Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tests?Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Q4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
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The Hunt Film PosterFor part of our ancillary task we were instructed to create a film poster to go alongside our short film in order for our film to be marketed. We therefore wanted this to look as professional as possible and to link in with our film as much as we could. We used the picture of the main character Amy holding the necklace in front of her face, to show the importance the necklace plays within the film. As you can see by the images we edited the necklace on Photoshop to make the colours really stand out. This will catch peoples attention which will also emphasise the importance of the necklace in our piece. We are happy with how our film poster turned out, and we think it looks as professional as we could possibly look. Below is the final poster for our short film. The Hunt Film Magazine ReviewWhen thinking of magazine review ideas we thought of one which we all liked the idea of, however we quickly realised that it was quite complex, especially having an image that took up the whole page, with the text over the image. We decided to use one half of the double page spread for the only image on our piece, which has the necklace and flowers that are very important to our piece. We then put all the text and information on the other side. The layout is quite simple, however we think this makes it quite professional looking. We also particularly like the bright colours in the review as they link to the film poster also. We created the magazine review on Photoshop so we have also created a 9 frame visual to show how it was made and what we included. Also below is our final magazine review.
In order to help us make our film magazine review, we looked at reviews for other films, so that we had some ideas for what to include. Comparing a website film review with a magazine film reviewTo help us understand what makes a magazine review different from other reviews, I looked at a review online so I could see the difference. Overall, I feel that a magazine review is a much more visually interesting way of presenting a review, with less text and more/or larger pictures.
Below is the first film poster we made. We wanted the colour of the text to match the colour of the necklace, however when we finished, we realised that this made the poster look quite unprofessional. When we realised that the poster wasn't looking how we wanted, we made the one below. On this poster, the text is all white, which makes the poster look much more professional, as well as making the text stand out. We made some changes to the layout of the text at the bottom of the page, to make our piece look like professional film posters we had seen. We also edited the necklace, making it brighter, so that it stands out against the rest of the poster, because the necklace is such an important part of the film.
This is a design for our potential film poster. We have used a photo which includes the main objects we used in the short film. I think the colours in the photo that we will use will really stand out. The title will be at the top of the poster so it instantly attracts attention. The font will be bold and in capital letters. There will be the actors names and other information about the film including the release date at the bottom of the poster. It could be improved by using a better font and if the necklace was on the centre of the photo. This is another potential film poster design. This features a photo we took of Ashley, holding up the necklace in front of her face. We like this because it features the main character, and also the necklace, which is an important part of the film. We are going to edit the photo so that the necklace really stands out. There will be a short piece of writing at the top (such as 'coming soon' or the name of our actors) and the title and the rest of the writing will all be together near the bottom of the page.We think this film poster will be very effective, and will attract the audiences attention, enticing them to watch our film.
Analysing film posters will allow us to see what works and what doesn't in different film posters, and then use some ideas as inspiration for our own poster.
This poster is for the film Maleficent. This is a fantasy film, so in many ways is quite different to the film we are making. However, what I liked about this poster was the simplicity of it. We are planning on having a simple film poster, with the main character of our film and maybe the necklace, as it is very significant to the plot. This film poster also has the main character on it, featuring a plain background, so that the audiences attention is all on the character. This poster has very dark colours, bringing out the more sinister tone of the film, and the only bright colour is the red of her lipstick. This is an idea we can use for our poster, with dull colours on everything except for the necklace, making the necklace stand out, because of its significance to the film. It has Angelina Jolie's name at the top, and as she is a well known actress, this will help to attract people to the film. The Walt Disney logo is also on the film poster, as Disney is a very well known company, so people will know the film will be very professional, and of a high standard. This is our rough first edit for our short film. We have gathered some feedback in order to help us with the final edit. We have not put the music that we will be using in the film as of yet.
Day Two- 13.12.15
Day 3- 14.12.15
We asked some people that we know, who have acting backgrounds, if they could send us a video of themselves performing a small part of the script. This allowed us to see how well they came across on camera, and how they interpreted the characters. This is Ashley. We liked her audition, but felt that she was more suited to the character of Amy, who is the main character. Amy does't speak much, because her character is mostly on her own, but there is a lot of acting to portray the emotion to the audience, and we feel that Ashley would be well suited to this. This is Chloe. We liked the audition, feeling that she portrayed this particular character very well. We think we will have her as Harriet. This is Josie. This is also a very good audition, and we feel that she plays the victim part of Anna very well. We therefore want to cast Josie as the part of Anna.
While planning for our short film, I watched someone else's short film, which is roughly the same length as ours, to see how they put their credits in the film. This piece of research will help us when putting our credits in our film, as we are not sure how we will put them in, without it being too much of a distraction from whats going on in the scene. This film has the title at the beginning, and the rest of the credits at the end. I like the idea of the title at the beginning, and as we plan to start our film all in darkness, in will look good to have the title overlaying the darkness. However we want our ending to be quite sharp, as it is a cliffhanger, so we may not want credits at the end, because we feel that this may interfere with the atmosphere we want to create. This film, has the credits overlaying the video. The film name appears at 7 seconds, with the actors names at 14 seconds and 18 seconds. The editor's name comes at about 20 seconds, and the name of the person who edited the music at 24 seconds. The names of those who shot the film come at about 27 seconds, with the writer and director at 31 seconds. All this occurs over the opening sequence. We are thinking of using something similar for the actors names, the editor, director, sound and camera person, while putting the title of the film over the beginning, like in the first film (above)
In our lesson, we presented a pitch to the class and our teacher which showed our ideas and plot for our short film. We then received feedback and ideas from our class which gave us opinions from people outside of our group. This was very useful for us and developed our initial ideas more. Our class asked questions such as how would we avoid the members of the public when filming and asked how we would represent our film as the 1940s. These questions helped us think about how we would solve these problems so they will not be an issue for us when filming. They also said how we would need to stick to the codes and conventions of adventure films and not to drift off too much to another sub genre. Presenting our pitch to the class gave us some valuable market research and helped us improve our ideas for our short film.
Mise en scene means "whats in the scene." It can cover many things, including costumes, props and scenery.
Depending on the type of adventure film, the costumes will vary. If it is a typical quest, the characters may be depicted wearing something like armour. But if it is a more everyday quest, like the one in our film, the characters may be wearing very standard clothing. This is the case in our film, with the characters in standard clothing, however we have to make the costumes typical of the two times the piece is set in. This is particularly important for the flashback scenes, which are set during World War Two , as we need to make sure that the costumes are realistic of that time. Props also vary from film to film. We have watched some films that use an object, which has significance. In our film, this will be the necklace. This is the object that Amy finds, which sends her on her journey to find out how her Grandmother got the necklace. Necklaces have connotations of romance, as they are usually a gift given to someone by their lover. Scenery will also vary from film to film, with some Adventure films being set in fictional lands, and others in the real world. We will be filming a scene set in Amy's bedroom and we will have to look at Amy's character and reflect this in the decoration of the bedroom. It is important that the scenery in the flashback scenes looks like it is World War Two. We are filming these scenes outside, in Alexandra Gardens which means this will be easier than if we were filming in a house, where we would have to make the decor look like the 1940s. This is the initial script for our piece. There are quite a few scenes without any dialogue, but this is the script for those scenes that do have dialogue.
In the beginning: Mother: Amy, can you bring down the box of your Grandmas stuff? Amy: Sure, i just want to look through it first. Letter (to be read in a voiceover) Anna: how could you do this to me? You knew that necklace was from Fred, and now he's gone and I have nothing. If i can't have him back I will get the necklace, and I don't care how long it takes me. In the first flashback Harriet: did you hear that Agnes is working at the munitions factory. I think i'll join her next week. Anna: I might do the same, but I can't bear those ghastly uniforms. I don't want to damage this (shows necklace) Harriet: How did you get the money to pay for that with your ration cards? Anna: Fred bought it for me before he was called up. Harriet: He left already? Anna: A couple of weeks ago. Harriet: Oh right... In the second flashback Anna: Give it back Harriet: No. It was supposed to be mine. You don't deserve it. Anna: How could you say that. I loved him. Harriet: I loved him long before you were here. Anna: I can't believe you would do this. Clearly our friendship means nothing to you. I will be doing the majority of the editing in our piece. It is important to look at editing in other Adventure films, so that I can make sure that the editing in our piece fits in well with the Adventure genre.
A lot of Adveture films use quick, fast paced editing as a way of creating action. This includes techniques such as short shot durations and sudden cuts and transitions. We plan on using this technique, especially during the flashback sequences to create action. Although there is a lot of fast paced editing in Adventure films, some scenes also do the opposite, using long drawn out shots to create suspense. In scenes where the audience is waiting to know what will happen, the use of long waits, and dragging the scene out will help create a feeling of tension. We are considering using this technique within our piece as well, maybe at the beginning, when Amy is discovering the box of clues about the necklace. A trunk shot is a shot which captures the scene from within the trunk of a car, a technique often used by Quentin Tarantino. This is an example of a trunk shot in the film "Pulp Fiction" We will be taking inspiration from this type of shot at the beginning of our piece. Instead of using the truck of a car, we will be using the inside of the box.
This is our storyboard with our preliminary piece of music. This piece of music has not been finalized as we want to wait until our final piece is edited to merge all the different tracks together. We may also change a couple of bits of music, which may be too dramatic for the final piece. This is our initial idea for our plot. We have left room for changes, are aware that this may change, but so far, we are happy with this.
Our character (Amy) is arriving home from her Grandmothers funeral. As she goes upstairs to the attic, we can hear her mother, telling her to bring down the box of her Grandma's stuff. While Amy is looking through the box, she finds a necklace, and some old photos, including one of her grandmother wearing the necklace. Amy then puts the necklace on. That night, she has a dream of her Grandmother's hand holding the necklace. The next day, she continues looking through the box, and finds a letter. A non-diegetic voice over tells the audience that it is from the original owner of the necklace, who wants it back, saying that one day she will have it back. That night, she has a dream of when her Grandmother was young. We see snapshots of her Grandma's friend, and her boyfriend. The boyfriend gives her Grandma's friend a necklace, while telling her that he has been called up to fight in the war. The Grandmother is looking on jealous. We then see the Grandmother and her friend arguing about her taking the necklace. The final snapshot is of her Grandma, walking through a park and feeling guilty about what she did. Amy goes to the park that she saw in the dream, and comes across a carving in the tree, from the soldier, and the friend. That night, she dreams again of her Grandma taking the necklace. While she is asleep, we see a hand try to take the necklace from around her neck. She wakes suddenly, and looks in the mirror, where somebody has written "I want it back." We believe that this film fits the adventure genre, because it shows the character on a quest to solve a mystery. We found in our research that an adventure film often has other sub-genres and we feel that there is an element of Thriller in our piece, because of the hand at the end, and also an element of mystery. ![]() It is important that we know about the key elements in Adventure films, so that our Adventure film will be easily recognisable as belonging to that genre. The key elements of Adventure films include: Action-filled, energetic plots. Travels, quests and exploring new lands. The characters facing a struggle. Heroic characters. These are the key elements of Adventure films and are all things we need to aim to put in our own short film. It is important that we know about the main elements of Adventure films, so that we can make our film easily recognisable as belonging to this genre. The main features of Adventure films are: Action-filled and energetic plots. We are thinking of having a necklace in our piece, where the character has to find out where it came from, and how it ended up in her Grandmother's possession. This means it will be an exciting mysterious plot, that the audience will want to keep watching to find out the answers. Travels, quests and exploring new lands. There will be an element of a quest in our piece, with the mystery of the necklace. The characters will face a struggle. In our piece, this will be the haunting our character faces from the original owner of the necklace. Heroic characters. Although our main character may not have the traits of a typical hero, she should be someone who the audience will identify with. Todorov believed that the narrative of a film is a transformation, the characters are transformed through the events and disequilibrium of the film. He identifies five parts of a narrative structure. These are:
In order to help us make our short film the best that we could, I looked at another students short film, and analysed it in relation to the mark scheme. This is the film that I watched: Analysing with the mark scheme:Holding shot steady-I would say that this was proficient. The camera was generally held steady, without much shakiness.
Framing shot appropriately-Again I would say that this was proficient. The composition of the shots were clearly thought out carefully. There was some variety with shot types, although there maybe could have been a bit more. Variety of shot distances-They showed a basic variety of shots, with a few close ups and wide shots. Appropriate material for task-I would say that this was excellent. It is a short five minute film, and features many codes and conventions of short films. Selecting Mise-en-scene-This was proficient. The costumes fit the two eras in which the story took place, as did the props. The use of the letter, newspaper and necklace all fit in with the storyline and looked like they were from World War Two. The setting was also appropriate, with the more modern garden decorations and swing in the scenes set today. Editing for meaning to viewer-Proficient. The editing is clean and the scenes all fit together very well, although there are a couple of moments where I thought this could have been better (for example at 2:45, where it jumps a little bit) Varied shot transitions, captions and other effects- Minimal. There were minimal effects and transitions in this piece, however in some ways I feel like this fits the sample nature of the plot. Use of sound with images/editing-Basic. Both songs fit in with the two different eras in which the plays were set, however they did not create the music themselves and there were not really any sound effects. Using titles appropriately-Basic. I title is used near the beginning with the title of the film and the name of the student, and then credits at the end. Overall I think this film was good, and made to a high standard, relevant to the mark scheme. However I think that they could have improved on their use of sound and variety of shots, and these are things that we will try to include in our short film. Watching this film was useful because it again showed us how we could use a simple "adventure" to make an effective film. We like the idea of the two time eras, contemporary society and the 1940s, and this is something we are definitely considering doing in our piece. |
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