FINAL PRODUCT- SHORT FILM

This is my final main product:

To clarify, I did a short film, which lasts approximately five minutes and the story line is that a young couple are planning to get married, the woman lives at home and the man is in the army. She is planning her wedding, trying on wedding dresses, etc. and he is away at war. She receives a letter, informing her that he has been killed while fighting in the army. She then has flashbacks about the time he proposed to her and the film ends with her lying in the middle of the bed she once shared with him, holding his photograph.

I used an instrumental version of the song To Build A Home by The Cinematic Orchestra. I chose this because it is very dramatic and goes from a slow, orchestra-style tune, to more dramatic sounds, which reflects the build up of the film and the storyline.

The people involved in the making of the film were:

• Megan Quill
• Gemma Graham
• Antonio Townsend
• Lynn Rose
• Karen Quill
• Mick Quill
• Beth Hazard
• Chris J. Allan. 

FINAL PRODUCTS- Poster and DPS

These are my final products after all changes were made.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

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

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

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

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

This is the link to a video that I made answering the question: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?



To summarise, the new media technologies I have used throughout are:

iMac- To edit my film, and construct all of my ancillary tasks on. Was also used to do online research. It had a big impact on my work as without it, I would have had to use a PC and this may have taken longer.

Mac Book- I used my own personal MacBook when I was at home and in between lessons, to edit all of my work and work on my blog. This was because if I couldn't access the iMac in the classroom, as it was a weekend/there was another class using them etc. I was still able to work on my products.

Premier Pro- I used this software to edit my short film. It took a few practices to get used to it and to learn about all of the different editing tools but my work definitely benefited from using this kind of professional software. I was able to focus on editing styles and transitions and it has many effects and editing tools that a few other programmes I've used have not. I think it helped to make sure my work was of decent quality.

Photoshop- This was used to create both of my ancillary tasks- DPS and Poster. I used this last year, so I was able to use the software again with more confidence this time. This in itself sped up the process of creating both of the products. This was mainly used in the construction stages of my work.

Da Font- I used this website in the planning and research stages, as I looked through a long list of fonts to find the kind of style I would like to use and made a note of them/put them on a moodboard. This sped up the pace when it came to constructing my work because I already had a clear idea of the fonts I was interested in using. This website enabled me to pick fitting fonts, so that my work looked more professional and attractive.

Blogger- I have used blogger to track my progress throughout each process in the way you would use a journal. This helped the research and planning process as I could always check back and see what I had already found. It has also been beneficial to post drafts every so often so that I can look back and see my progress and how i've improved following feedback.

YouTube- I used YouTube to research different kinds of short films, to give myself an idea of the kind of editing styles and cinematography etc. was frequently used. Doing this inspired my work and gave me some very good ideas about what to include and what I wished to avoid. I also used this to upload my work so that people can view it without difficulty.

Panasonic Camera- I filmed the whole of my short film on a Panasonic camera given to me by the college. This was a good quality camera, so my film has turned out to look like it is of high quality visually. This was better than using something like a smartphone camera, as it made the editing process easier.

iPhone- I used my iPhone for various different reasons. To record videos for focus groups, to research, to use the blogger app and track my progress, to contact my actors, to take photos etc. Having a smart phone made many of the processes quick and easy and I was able to do work on the go.

iMovie- I used iMovie on my MacBook during the evaluation stages, so that I could edit a video of myself answering one of the questions. By doing so, I was able to provide a good quality video to include more new media into my work and I find speaking is a better and easier way to get a point across than text sometimes.

Final Audience Feedback

I took to twitter, where I know I have a lot of my target audience present, to ask for their feedback about my print tasks. Here are some of the responses I received:

I am happy with responses I have received and I'm happy and satisfied that I am now finished with my products and they are complete.

Work Adjustments

Following my feedback, I have made a lot of the changes that had been commented on, on both of my print tasks.

 

This is the title on my double page spread. It used to be very simple and plain but I decided to add more colour and to create a camo effect on it to match with the theme and to brighten up the page.

 

I adjusted the colour of the introduction box to make it easier to read, as well as adding a little more detail. I changed the final line of the introduction and made it the same as the tagline of the film that is on my poster as I think this adds more intrigue and people may be more inclined to want to read on.

 

This used to be my 'update' box and it was bright purple before any changes were made. I think that the purple didn't match anything and didn't have any significance to the genre or theme of the film. I decided to change it to green and white with a camo background to link with the theme of war and to match better with my poster. I also changed the font so that it was clearer and made it smaller so that it didn't take up unecessary space on the page.

I also changed the colour of the boxes at the top of the pages to match with the rest of the features and to link better with the theme of my film. I made them smaller so they didn't draw too much attention and changed the font so that it looked more professional.

I have added a small section on the page to get the audience/readers more involved in the film itself. I have inluded a twitter and facebook address and then the logos, which also adds more colour to the page.

I changed the colour again on this quote, to match everything else that is now green on the page. I didn't like the font that I used at the start, so I have changed it to create a more hand written effect and I feel this works better with the rest of the article as it stands out more.

 

 

 

 

 

On my poster, I also added the logos of the social media websites alongside the addresses that were already present. This adds more colour to the page other than green and black, and draws the audience's attention. They logos are well known so this will also evoke interest.

One of the comments made on my feedback was to try and consider using a different colour other than green on poster. I decided that I wanted to carry the camo theme on again to link with the war style, so used a spray paint tool with different colours to achieve this.

 

 

I changed the font and used a brighter green so that the names of the actors are easier to read and I think this font looks more professional than the last one I had used.

Time Management

My main product is completely finished at this point, as are both of my ancillary tasks. However, if after feedback there are changes that can be made to improve, I will make slight changes to everything if there is time.

I am still working on adding more content to my blog about my progress, as well as the evaluation.

Work Feedback

I often get feedback from my course teacher so that I can make the necessary changes to my work to make sure I keep improving it.

Below are some images of feedback I have recieved.

This is some feedback I recieved about my most recent draft of my double page spread. This shows that up to this point, I have quite a low grade so I will take all of the comments on board and make sure that I make enough changes to build up my grade.

She has said that I need to left align the columns and the kicker in my texts. It would be better if I was a little more brief in the image captions, so that I don't give too much information away about the narrative. The rest of the comments are based on alignment and sizing of different parts of the article. I'll be sure to make all of these changes in order for it to look more realistic and professional.

  

This was a feedback sheet that I was given about my short film. I am to review the use of hand held camera shots and pans as at some points they appear to be a little bit shaky. The scene where the characters are outdoors is too dark so I may need to refilm. However, given certain circumstances with my actors, I am not able to refilm so I will have to use some editing tools on the software in order to brighten up the colour and lighting as best I can. It was also commented that the opening scene could benefit from being a little bit shorter as it appears to go on for a very long time. Again, I will make sure I take these comments on board and make necessary changes.

 

 

After the above feedback sheet for my double page spread, I immediately made the changes that were put forward. After I had done so, I emailed my teacher personally and asked if she thought I had improved and advice on what else I could do to make it better. This was really helpful as I am now able to make the three changes she mentioned in the email to make the product as good as I can.

 

 

 This is another feedback sheet that I recieved, this time about my poster. She said that the quality of the image was very good, as was the integration of text and language. She commented that I have a good understanding of conventions.

There are still areas to improve, however. The changes I need to make are: use a different colour other than green as it is not clear what this colour signifies. So, I would like to include some more colours to create an army/camo effect, especially on the title font. The rest of the comments again are about the alignment and sizing of things and to make necessary adjustments to some positionings of things. She also advised that I include some social media logos to go with the text I have included. I will make sure I consider all of these comments and follow the teachers advice as best I can to make sure my work improves.

Latest drafts

These are my latest drafts of my products: 

 

Overall, my poster reflects a drama genre, with the dark colour scheme and facial expression of the actress. I have kept a black and green colour scheme to hint at the camp/army theme, with a contrast to the white wedding dress. I have kept very little information on the poster because I wanted it to be mysterious and left to the audience's own interpretation. I kept a lot of common poster conventions, like the credit box on the bottom and the title of the movie being the largest font, as well as a tagline, the two main actors names and a quote from a well know and well respected newspaper. I feel that the poster would benefit from a change in font for the actors names, brightening up the colour of them and I would like to consider a change of layout or position of the information of the bottom. I'm considering including the logos of Facebook and Twitter to put alongside the addresses on the bottom. I think I will also brighten up the title a little bit by making the colour closer to camouflage, which will also hint at the narrative more. 

My double page spread article is also almost complete. I have kept a purple and white colour scheme because I thought they went well together and the purple is attractive and eye catching. However, I feel that I should probably change it to a better fitting colour, like greens and browns that will highlight the war theme.  I was researching what articles in film magazines commonly looked like and I decided to similarly have a mixture of images from scenes in the film, but also a photoshopped image of the main character. I have captioned all of the images, to make sure the readers understand what is going on in them. The opening paragraph explains what the film is about, which I found was common in a lot of review articles. I have also included an 'Update' box, which gives the reader the general information about the film, like who is starring in it and the production company etc. I think I should probably look into the size of the text and the box of my update section as it could be a little bit too big. Also, I want to change some of the fonts to make them look more professional and make the box at each top corner a little bit smaller. 

CHOOSING FONTS

I went through a process of choosing which fonts I wanted to use on my poster and magazine. Here are a few that I was deciding between at the start:

These were all fonts picked from dafont.com, however in the end I decided on this font: 

 

and I decided that it looked better and suited the army/camo style if it were in a dark green colour. 

For the credit box on the bottom of my poster, I used this font: 

It has the titles of the crew already formatted to each letter, which helped me to include all of the necessary roles that would be in a professional film. 

Below is an example of every other font I have used either on my poster or on my double page spread article:

I used this because it is simple and easy to read, and will look better on my work, rather than having lots of different artistic fonts. 

I used this font for the title of my magazine and for the update title box on my article page. It is bold and eye catching and easy to read, so that is what I chose it. 

I used this font for the title "Reviews" because I wanted it to contrast with the rest of the text, especially the titles. I wanted it to look almost hand written, to make it interesting and creative. 

Every other font are simple and easy to read because I didn't want a font to take away from what the text was saying, like the actual article itself on my double page spread. 

Final Draft of dps text

This is the final piece of text that I have written for my article. I have adjusted it quite a bit to make sure that it is full finished and looks professional before I add it to my work. This will be the last changes that I make on it.

 

An emotional tale of real heartbreak and sorrow; the film chronicles the life of a young woman, whose life is turned upside down when she learns that her soon-to-be husband has been taken away from her for good. A very brave choice of plot as it is something that affects the lives of many and any unrealistic element could cost the film its success.

At first glance, some would say that it’s just one of those cheesy, cliché rom-coms where the man goes off the war and the woman is left on her own. The kind of film you would associate with the likes of Dear John and even The Notebook. But when looked at closer, it is quite a convincing and emotional love story.

Grace Smith, conveyed by actress Gemma Graham, is an example of the suffering of many women. Graham stated: “I worked hard to get it right. I didn’t want to overdo it, but I wanted to convey the emotion the way it should be. I wanted to do it justice.” Acted flawlessly, Graham did an excellent job.

Don’t be expecting a detailed script to guide you through the story, because that is the complete opposite of what you are presented with. . On paper, that seems unusual and you might start to think that it will be a task to follow along without speech from the characters. . But the acting from both Gemma Graham and Antonio Townsend, along with the nicely fitting choice of instrumental music, tells as much of a good story as a script would. In fact, the lack of speech makes the ending scene so much more emotional and effective.  

Set a small city in the north east of England, in your average neighbourhood, Bombshell is an eye opening experience that shouldn’t be missed. As close as it is to becoming somewhat cliché, the director pulls it back with good cinematic choices.

The scene to look out for in particular is near the end, where Smith finds herself alone in her bedroom she would share with her fiancé. The flashback cuts forwards and backwards from the bedroom to their wedding proposal adds to the intensity of the emotion and we as an audience are invited to feel more sympathetic as her fairy tale-like love story has come to a tragic end.

 

Magazine Article- Progress

As I was working on my auxiliary tasks, I took print screens every time I added something particularly important and any changes that were made. 

Here, I have added a title and a box containing information about the film, as I saw something similar in a magazine called Empire, which is a film magazine. I have added two photographs, to give the audience an glimpse of what to expect in the film and a title and page numbers. In the purple boxes at the top of the pages, I am going to add text. 

This is a print screen of a little bit later, after I had done a little bit more work to it. I have added the magazine title and the title of the page in one purple box, and in the other I have added some information about what is on the opposite page. I've included small details like captions, and lines under text, as well as putting in a photograph of the main character, which will be surrounded by text once my article is put on.

Here is the way my article currently looks. I have added the full written article, in columns, added a quote within the text, which is a common convention of a magazine article. I used the same coloured font for the opening paragraph as this quote, and it explains to the audience what the film is about.

Editing progress and choices

These are some screen shots of the editing process of my film. As you can see, I worked on the volume of the sound, making sure that the song was always playing loudly throughout, but went quieter at certain parts to be sure that the sound effects could be heard. I used editing choices like putting filters on the flashback scenes, using straight cuts, fade to blacks and fade to white transitions to link scenes and in the end I have to far decided to use a simple font on a rolling title to tell the audience who was involved in the film. 

TIME MANAGEMENT- Editing schedule

I made a brief written schedule so that I could manage the time I had during lessons and out of lesson time, so that I leave myself the appropriate time to do each task. 

Editing Progress- Short Film

After getting on with editing my short film, I am currently half way through the editing process. I still need to edit certain parts together and add in sounds effects and music.

I have decided that I will use editing techniques like the fade to white transition, to signify the fact that she is going back in time, in the style of a flash back.

I will connect scenes with a fade to black transition, for dramatic and to show the passing of time. An example of that is shown here:

I have decided to use this siren sound effect:

and this sound effect for the army helicopter: 

I need to finish editing and put all of my sound and transitions together now. 

FILMING AND EDITING PRACTICE- WAITING ROOM

Before I started filming and working on my own short film, I had some practice within the lesson. We were given some very brief details about what had to occur in the film and were given a camera in our groups.

It had to be a short film, without any speech, and the instructions of what to happen was basically: 

A person is standing alone on their mobile phone

Someone else goes to greet them 

Person A sees something shocking on their phone and walks out

Person B stands confused and shocked. 

So, my group decided to make some changes and make it appear like some kind of waiting room. It was completely silent, but during editing practice, I put a ticking clock sound in the background to demonstrate how this was based around waiting and that what was happening in the film was taking a long time. Also, when person A went to pick up her phone after it rang, I edited in a typical text messages sound over the top, so that the audience were aware of what had happened.

After doing this, I think I am a lot more confident with filming in general and I have a better idea of how to achieve certain shot types, camera angles and movements. 

In this one, I used shots like close ups, two shots, extreme close ups, midshots etc. 

I also have a better understanding of editing and how to edit using Premier Pro. 

DPS Article- New version

I have made some changes to my magazine article as I feel it could be much better and at the moment does not sound very professional or have the tone that I would like it to have.

An emotional tale of real heartbreak and sorrow; the film chronicles the life of a young woman, whose life is turned upside down when she learns that her soon-to-be husband has been taken away from her for good. A very brave choice of plot as it is something that affects the lives of many and any unrealistic slip could cost the film its success. At first glance, some would say that it’s just another one of those cheesy, cliché rom-coms where the man goes off the war and the woman is left to pick up the pieces. But when looked at closer, it is quite a convincing and emotional love story. Grace Smith, conveyed by actress Gemma Graham, is an example of the suffering of many women. She stated: “I worked hard to get it right. I didn’t want to overdo it, but I wanted to convey the emotion the way it should be. I wanted to do it justice.”

Acted flawlessly, Graham did an excellent job. Don’t be expecting a detailed script to guide you through the story, because that is the complete opposite of what you get. On paper, that seems unusual and you might start to think that it will be a task to follow along without speech from the characters. But the acting from both Gemma Graham and Antonio Townsend, along with the nicely fitting choice of instrumental music, tells as much of a good story as a script would. In fact, the lack of speech makes the ending scene all the more emotional and effective.

Set a small city in the north east of England, in your average neighbourhood, Bombshell is an eye opening experience that shouldn’t be missed. As close as it is to becoming somewhat cliché, the director pulls it back with good cinematic choices. The scene to look out for in particular is near the end, where Smith finds herself alone in her bedroom she would share with her fiancé. The flashback cuts to forwards and backwards from there to their wedding proposal adds to the intensity of the emotion.

MIS-EN-SCENE

Mis-en-scene:

Lighting: 

Connotations: Low key: creating a very unsure, tense atmosphere before we find out that her fiancé has been killed. Low key: To show how she goes from being happy and content to sad and depressed, with shadows to suggest this shift in emotion
High key/warm lighting: during flashbacks, to remember the positivity and love she had in her life

Denotations: Ranging from high key to low key, depending on mood and atmosphere

Props:

Connotations: Texting on her mobile phone, to suggest that she is quite young, has a lot of friends and a social life. 

Christmas tree depicts the time of year, as she takes it down after a few scenes, this can imply a change in time. 

Engagement ring implies her close and loving relationship with her fiancé as they plan to be married. Her looking at it a lot also connotes the fact she is happy in her relationship

Denotations: Props include a mobile phone, christmas tree, letter, engagement ring. 

Setting/Location:

Connotations: Entire film takes place inside and outside of her house. House is fully decorated and homely so suggests it is very lived in. Setting depicts that she is a normal woman with a normal life, as she spends time in her house. 

Denotations: All of film takes place inside or outside of a house: bedroom, living room and garden. 

Costume:

Connotations: Females wear normal 'every day' clothes- just highlights how they are normal people, going about their every day lives.The uniform of the soldier at the door is significant because it is a hint at what is about to happen. 

The uniform of the soldier who she is supposed to be marrying is also significant because the first time we meet him, this is what he is wearing, which immediately gives us information about him and his career, suggesting he is a strong, patriotic man, who is obviously proud of who he is and what he does, as he wears his uniform to propose.

Denotations: Every character wears normal, casual clothing/pyjamas except the male actors who both wear army uniforms. 

Character: 

Connotations: Main female character seems like a normal woman, as she lives in a normal house and wears casual clothes. She appears to be very much in love and excited to be married as her facial expression and performance suggests when she tries in her dress. She is an emotional person and the way she reacts to the death of her fiancé shows this, as well as how in love she is. 

Soldier is very proud of who he is, the way he carries himself and the way he proposes wearing his uniform. Very romantic in that he sets out the garden with lights and champagne. 

Denotations: Main character is Grace Smith, who lives alone while her boyfriend/fiance is fighting in the army. 

Soldier

2 friends

Soldier at the door

Actors/Casting: 

Connotations: I wanted the soldier to be very tall and quite handsome and young, so it was realistic that he was about to get married and was also fighting in the army. The main female had to be confident to take on the roll of a widower and had to be young to match up with the soldier. 

I wanted the two best friends to be older, so that their performance and facial expression would seem proud and like they had been there and experienced their own weddings. 

Soldier at the door was always to me kept anonymous, so that there was an element of mystery, but had to be male. 

Denotations: 2 young main actors, one male, one female. 2 older friends and one anonymous man to play the soldier who comes to the door with the letter. 

Camera Angles and Movement: 

Connotations: Slow zooms for dramatic effect, to draw the audience into certain details of the film, i.e. people in photographs, the time on the clock, etc. Lots of midshots, to enable the audience to see detail into the life of the main character, the things around her house, clothes she wears, to show her normal lifestyle. Close ups, especially of the characters face at points in the film, to show a closer look at her facial expressions, like her distraught face when she learns her boyfriend is dead, emphasises their close relationship and her genuine sadness, also a contrast to the close up/midshot of when she is trying on her wedding dress, to compare the emotional change from one scene to the other, showing how much her life has changed for the worse. 

Denotations: A variety of camera angles and movements, such as: close ups, extreme close ups, midshots, two shots, pans, tilts and zooms. 

Mis en scene and Post Production: Visual Analysis

Diegetic Sound:

Connotations: No diegetic sound will be used, to make the piece more dramatic and lack of speech will leave room for the audience to focus on the action and have more of an emotional response.

Denotations: No diegetic sound will be used in the film

Non Diegetic Sound: 

Connotations: Sound effects will be added, like an air raid siren as she wakes up and a helicopter when she opens the letter, so that audience get a hint about the life of the character and it foreshadows the dramatic events to come. 

Denotations: Music will be played through the film, with sound effects at certain points, like air raid siren and army helicopter.

Music: 

Connotations: Music will be played throughout the film. It will be a slow paced, orchestra-style song that will gradually build up at the same pace as the action does in the film, so that it has a dramatic impact on the audience and adds to the emotion and sad atmosphere. 

Denotations: One song to be played throughout the film, building gradually. 

Editing: 

Connotations: Straight cuts from each seen, to link them together so that the audience can follow easily. Some scenes will be joined by fades to that it can show passing of time or so that it leaves time between scenes so the audience can reflect on what has happened previously. Some fade to whites will be used as a way of implying that the character is thinking back in the style of a flashback. 

Denotations: A variety of editing styles, fade to white/black, straight cuts and music edited in over the top. 

Special FX

Connotations: There will be no real special effects, so that the film is as realistic and relatable to the audience as possible. 

Denotations: There will be no special effects added to the film 

Skill Development

Skill Development: 

From last years coursework, I developed some skills that are helpful to me this year. Because I made a a magazine front page, double page spread and contents page, when it came to making my magazine article, I'm finding a lot easier to work on it having done it once before. Also, I had learned a lot about conventions of magazines and what kind of elements to include. 

I used photoshop last year, and that is also the programme I am using this year for my poster and my double page spread article. Because I had already learned how to use Photoshop last year, I was able to get straight onto working on it and I am finding it a lot easier to use this year. Though incase there were any parts of the programme that I was unsure of or had forgotten how to use, I was given a guide on different features and how to use them before I started editing my work.

For all of the products, main film and 2 auxilliaries, I have done a lot of research so that I am able to develop my skills and make the best products that I can. I did some online research about what film posters, review articles and short films are like and what kind of elements to include. I watched some short films online, to make sure of certain things like the running time of them and the kind of cinematic choices that were used and what kind of institutions and companies made and produced these kind of short films.










Overall, my skills from last year have developed and helped me whilst making my products this year. I have also learned a lot more and am currently learning how to use the programme Premier Pro, which I am using to edit my short film. 

 

Bombshell- Storyboards

I created some story boards for my film before I began to film it. I did this so that I had a clear idea of what i wanted to happen. I drew each shot on a post it note so that it was clearer and I wouldn't forget and it would making filming easier. I included notes like who I needed in the film, the kind of lighting I needed, camera angles and shots, props, etc. Whilst filming I may not stick to the story boards if I feel at the time that I have a better idea or something else will work better.