Evaluation

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

I analysed a short film, after doing my pilot, and then knew the codes and conventions of real media short film production. When I analysed 'Inside', I realised a code and convention of a short film was not much dialogue, so when I did my short film I tried to minimise my dialogue. With my pilot study there was lots of talking, and so I didn't really focus on a proper narrative and so not much story was being put across through acting. My film would have also ended over five minutes long and still not much story would have been revealed.

When I did my real short film I had an idea that a girl was possessed and kills her family, this was an easy narrative that could be understood through acting and music rather than through dialogue and it also meant I could use my family rather than get outside actors/actresses in. I think my media product uses and challenges conventions of real media products.

I followed the codes and conventions as I used a variety of shots and I didn’t include much dialogue. However, I challenged the codes and conventions by putting more story within the credits. This was to make the credits more enjoyable to watch and it left slight ambiguity, like ‘Inside’ did.

My main short film uses codes and conventions through the use of camera shots and angles. I used: 'text shots' to introduce  my film and concluded characters and the name of my film and 'production company'. I use mid shots, long shots, close-ups, pans, extreme close ups, over the shoulder shot, point of view shots, low angle shot and tilt down angle, these were some of the shots from 'Inside'. A range of shots not only conform to codes and conventions but it makes it more interesting to watch.

When analysing 'Inside' I found their transitions were either a cut or a fade and so I used both. When the death of James occurs, I did this through a point of view, low angle shot as this showed the murderer as powerful and James as vulnerable, as he died I was going to show his eyes closing however using my hands or two black objects meeting didn't really work and look realistic, so I thought I would show this through a fade to black before the images of his dead body. I also used fade when Emma was walking, as 'Inside' had used a fade when their actress was walking through the woods. This then made my film similar to an existing product. The majority of my edits were cut, though, as this is a code and convention.

For my music, the music I used were either from my own Itunes library or from YouTube. I used the music "Evanescence - Bring me Back to Life" backing track for the underlying music that went all the way through, I felt this music was subtle as it was just a calm twinkling so it made the scenes without sound seem eerie and less boring. Although silence can be good to create suspense and tension, I thought that it would be better with the underlying music and sound effects.

I then used sound effects to create tension and suspense. I used the iconic famous 'Psycho' music by Bennard Herrann for the putting down of the knife. This may seem a little bit predictable, as in 'Psycho' the killer comes in with a knife and the music plays, but I think it is 'edgy' and creates suspense.

My poster has a picture of the main character, like the posters I analysed and the magazine review page has a still from the short film, like the review pages I analysed. Both my poster and review page conformed to the codes and conventions of real media products because I looked at the colours, images and layouts and then I used these ideas when creating my poster and review page. 

When looking at a magazine your eyes follow a 'Z' down a page, we automatically look from top left to bottom right, this means the most important things should be at the top, e.g. my title, however my film name is at the bottom of the page, this is because this was how the layouts were of the ones I analysed. I tried to follow the codes and conventions because it would then connote to people that this was a horror film, black and red connote things like death, evil, blood and these things all are present within my short film.

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

My poster has an image of the main character, the girl, who is possessed which gives the idea that she is an important character and when watching my film this because obvious as the main story is about her.

For my review page I had an image of the dead mother, Sandra, this was to show people reading my review page that murder is present. This links to my main film as it was included within my film and therefore shows the idea to readers that this film will contain murder.

My poster and review page have black and red as they are colours which connote horror.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

SURVEY FEEDBACK


Before I started to create my film, I knew I wanted to do horror, this is where my passion of films lie. Therefore I specifically created a survey that was horror film orientated.

I asked questions mainly based on my short film, these were all compulsory to fill in, the last question was optional and this was about my poster and review page.

I created my survey on survey monkey and then put the link on my status on facebook. However, only one person did the survey and answered in an unhelpful way. This meant I would have a problem. I messaged all my online friends and asked if they watched horrors, for those who said yes I asked if they would do my survey and this meant I was able to get some reliable responses.

Because with just my facebook friends it meant that the age range was pretty minimal, so I asked my mum to put it on her facebook (where a few of her friends filled it in) and I also asked my boss and manager and they both filled in separate ones, however my manager didn’t take it seriously (as he doesn’t really watch horrors) and so I didn’t included his response.

Audience Feedback:

I originally wanted to asked those who had filled in my questionnaire to watch my film and then answer some questions on it, however I couldn't remember everyone I had asked and the surveys were anonymous. So, I'm going to put the film on my facebook page to see if I would get any responses and I am going to ask my family. This means I will hopefully get a range of different ages that had viewed my film and completed my survey.

The questions I asked:

1) Did you enjoy watching my film?

2) Was the use of music/sound effects good?

3) Would you recommend this to your friends and family?

4) If I had to do a project like this again, what would you suggest I do to improve the film?

I created a survey on Survey Monkey with these questions for people to fill in after watching 'Revenant'.


The responses I collected:

As you can see from my results, some of my friends thought that what I created was a trailer, rather than a short film. I'm not sure how they got the confusion though. This meant that I probably wasn't clear enough in showing that this was a film, or the fact that it is a short film suggests it is the trailer rather than a film as they probably don't watch short horror films.

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

Construction:

For my construction, I, obviously, used a camera and editing programmes. I used my own fuji film camera for the filming and photographs, this camera is quiet good quality and so it would make my film look good quality. For my editing, I used a programmed called ‘VideoPad Video Editor’, I have used this programme before and understood how it was worked, this meant I had an advantage when I came to edit as I didn’t have to learn a new programme. I was also aware of the things the programme had to offer.

I used a computer software programme: Itunes, for music I already had that I could use and I used the internet for other score and sound effects for my film. I also used Paint.Net for some of my credits.

Research:

I used the internet and book resources for my research, books were more reliable as they would definitely have to be correct. With the internet I had to use many different websites to find out one thing otherwise my facts might be incorrect.

I did try and show my research on prezi, however I didn’t understand to use this programme and I didn’t want to waste time learning how to use it. I then tried on powerpoint and turning it into a movie, but this wouldn’t upoload to my blog and so I had to print screen all of my different slides and upload them to my blog.

Planning:

For my planning, I used internet for my surveys, both to create and get responses from it. I used survey monkey for the creation of the survey and I used facebook for the collection of responses. I also used YouTube to analyse a short film. 

With my pilot study short film, I used a camera and editing programmes. I used both 'VideoPad Video Editor' and 'Windows Live Movie Maker', to see which one offered more. I found that the 'VideoPad Video Editor' offered more things and helped make my film better than 'Windows Live Movie Maker' would have done.

Evaluation:

For my evaluation I used the internet, and typed up my evaluation on the blog. I also used Survey Monkey to gather audience responses to my film. 

I was going to create another short film for my evaluation, but I felt this would be very time consuming and I was running low on time. If I had created another short film, I would have used PowerPoint and recorded it, I would have recorded my voice using a computer software, I'd have used my videocamera clips and I would have used google for images.