Media Technologies and How They Have Been Used During the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages of Our Final Media Production

The stages of our production using digital technology:

Planning

Animatics - Final Cut Express

Making animatics on Final Cut Express have helped us think about specific shots and camera moves we could use during our filming. It also helps us to think about how the sound works with each shot specifically including dialogue and music. 

Script - Microsoft Word

From writing out a full script we know exactly what our actresses are saying - both voiceovers and dialogue. In turn this saved us a lot of time because we weren't spending time rephrasing dialogue before we filmed.

Research

Internet - Google, YouTube, Wikipedia

We have used the internet to research into existing products, codes and conventions for both short films and dramas. By looking at existing products and conventions we had an idea of what was expected of dramas and short films. Gustav Freytag was a 19th century theorist   who believed that all dramas were set up in five parts. Freytag's dramatic arc/pyramid is made up of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and finally denouement. This helped us structure our own drama short film. My breadth of knowledge of conventions has grown and if I were to create another drama short film I believe I would be able to create a stronger and more emotional final media product. 

Construction

Final Cut Express - Editing

We decided to use Final Cut Express for all of our editing rather than iMovie because it has a wider variety of effects and potential to create a media product. iMovie on the other hand feels more limited and restricting.

iMovie, Microsoft Word and Easy Speak - Commentary 

Adobe Photoshop - Poster

Adobe InDesign - Review

Evaluation

Adobe Photoshop - Photo infographic and Photo montage

PowerPoint - What I have learnt from audience feedback

Grab and Print Screen - Screenshots for evaluation questions

Throughout our media project I have gained a variety of skills and explored new technologies I have never used before to help create our final media product. Some of these skills include: creating the poster on Photoshop, review on InDesign, editing and animatics in Final Cut Express (credits, title, filters and effects, sound manipulation and music) commentary on iMovie, blogging on Blogger and uploading on YouTube. Without the use of digital technology a film would not have been possible to be made - everything form filming, editing, marketing, distribution and exhibition all require the use of digital technology.

The Effectiveness of the Combination of Our Main Product and Ancillary Tasks

What I Have Learned From Our Audience Feedback

What i have learned from audience feedback

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Ways in Which Our Media Product Uses, Develops and Challenges Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products

The commentary for Bringing Back Hope which is a teen drama short film aimed towards young women between the age of 15 and 25.











Please see the comments to see the full written script for the commentary.
Apologies for the out of sync sound

Making the Poster

The edited version of the poster I had drawn was used as the background as a guide when creating the poster on Adobe Photoshop. I had taken several pictures of the journal and necklace on a table at different angles until I was happy with the positioning of them. 

This photograph was the basis for the poster

I began by inserting the photograph of the journal and necklace on the table into the Photoshop file and using the magic wand tool to cut out both the necklace and the journal separately. By doing this I can move each element separably and adjust the size, colour and detail accordingly. 

Once the necklace and journal were cut out the texture of the table was disturbed and incomplete so I used  the same photograph again and blended the texture of the wood with the help of the spot healing brush and copying and pasting sections and blurring them together.

The heart element of the necklace seemed rather small and doesn't attract the audience's attention as much as I'd like it so I enlarged it using the transform tool without making it look disproportional to the journal.

Using the bevel and emboss effect I created both a shadow and highlighted effect on the necklace's chain which gave it a three dimensional aspect.  I also made a shadow for the necklace  so it didn't look as if it was floating over the table.

The overall brightness of poster seemed dark and uninviting. To try and improve this I have increased the brightness and lowered the contrast as well as taking out a lot of yellow to give it a more natural look to the wood. Selective colour was also used which can lower and even remove cyan, magenta, black and yellow out of any individual colour.

I am going to re-create the poster because the table, necklace and journal don't look as if they fit together and do not look like they are at the right angle. This is due to me taking a photograph of the objects seperately and from a bird's eye view. To fix this problem I will re-take the photograph at a slanted angle but I may use the necklace from this poster.

Here is my updated sketch of Bringing Back Hope's poster. Here Hope is situated at the front of the poster to make her more of a focal point to the viewer's eye. I have also added a bedroom background to set the location.

After sieving through several images of Hope holding the teddy bear we chose the image we thought was the most effective. The necklace and tagline were added into the new poster layout as well as the a background - a bed which suited the colours of the room we shot a large portion of the film in (my bedroom)

To fix the outline around Hope we blurred the outline inwards towards the subject and then outwards causing it to disappear. The angle of the table was adjusted to suit the same perspective as the bed so it appears that it is in the same room.

The credits and legislation was added to the footer of the poster as well as the PG and dolby digital logos. We decided to rate our film as parental guidance (PG) because we cover a serious theme of despair which could upset younger viewers but there is no violence.

We have carried across our use of the colour blue from our Despair, Loss and Isolation moodboard to help to bring across the coldness. Blue is often associated with sadness and loneliness. By using different layers of blues it created more depth and wasn't sore on the eyes as the original yellows and reds which are very warm colours.

We looked at three rather different fonts Papyrus (1),  Colonna (2) and Segoe Script (3)

We decided to use Papyrus due to it's clear letters yet stylised style. The first letters of each word stand out well from a distance. Where as Selgoe Script isn't clear enough for our film poster. 

The purple fonts in our poster has been used to attract our audience of 15-25 year old women and young people. An outer glow we applied to help the font stand out even more.

I wanted to indicate the feeling of hope in our poster subtly; I have done this by using a pale pastel yellow and applying a gaussian blur to it - this created a heavenly hope feel to our poster. I then copied and pasted it under the other words as well as on top of the cloud keyring of the journal - indicating that the journal is a tool for hope. 

The final version of our second poster for Bringing Back Hope

Poster Mock-Up

"You don't know what you've got until it's gone"

This mock-up of our short film poster shows an extreme close up of a table with a necklace and journal on it. These are the personal objects from our short film which belonged to the sister; along with the teddy bear that Hope (The girl in the centre of the image) is holding. The necklace and teddy bear are the most important items in the short film and they are shown in each of the flashbacks which are derived from the sister's journal. I have decided not to include the sister within the poster itself to create a feel of mystery. I decided to leave the background white to create a feel of dead-space where Hope clearly stands out against the background and she is seen as the focal character. In a later version i may add in a scene of the Sister's bedroom which I will fade out to keep Hope as the focal point.

The sister's childish innocence and immaturity is shown though the iconography of the teddy bear. Hope's face is not clearly seen underneath her hair as she is holding the teddy bear; this is to give the impression of depression and emotion. She does not want to show her face she just wants her sister back with her. 

Above - I have redrawn the poster mock up with some more details.I have left it in black and white as if it were a line art as it will be easily transferable to Adobe Photoshop which I will be using to create the poster. The chain of the necklace now embraces the tagline for our short film to symbolise that important things are kept safe - sometimes those people can feel trapped or misunderstood and feel the need to escape.

Below - An analysis of my own poster for Bringing Back Hope. We have decided to use this mock up for our 2nd poster choice.

Poster Analysis

Before we can create a poster for our own film we should research into existing posters of a similar genre and target audience. I decided to analyse the posters for "Speak".
Speak is an independent film created by Speak Film Inc. directed by Jessica Sharzer and distributed by Showtime Networks (USA).
It is a serious teen drama which tells the story of a young girl called Melinda Sordino who has a traumatic experience over her summer break - she is raped by a senior. During the party over the summer break she calls 9-1-1 and everyone believes that she called the police to break up the party when in fact she was trying to get the senior Andy Evans from getting away with it.
 On her first day of high school she feels lost and doesn't feel that she can tell anyone about what she has been through and so she goes mute. Melinda spends her free time in the art room and in a storage closet which she makes into her own space to draw trees as an escape and to express her feelings.

Filming

I am the Co-Director and the Camera person of our short film.

For our short film we filmed in two main locations; Stella's house and my own house. 

Stella's house was used to film:   

• Birthday flashback
• Teddy bear flashback
• Sister fight flashback
• Sister leaving the house

My own house was used to film:

• All of Hope's scenes in her sister's bedroom with the journal
• Sister assurance scene

We found that we had recorded all of our short film in four days but we had scenes to re-shoot and shots which we found were missing. Some scenes required a lot of practice takes; for example the sister fight scene where Hope slaps her sister and the crying scenes of both sisters in the film. 

Presentation

Below is our presentation of our pitch. I believe it could have been improved with the addition of more research on existing media products on the internet ;for example ,on youtube and short film production company websites. We could have included more information about our location; which (we are hoping) is my bedroom. We will also be filming outside of a house for the sister's birthday scene and the hallway of a house for the arguement between the girl and the sister about the teddy bear. Presentation for Pitch

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 Throughtout the course of our planning and research I have:

• Created the presentation with the aid of stella, priscilla and tosin
• Created the target audience and despair (loss and isolation) moodboards on Adobe Photoshop
• Distributed the questionnaire to pupils and teachers in and around St Martins and Dunraven Sixth forms and tallied up the results and put them into charts
• Posting on the group blog - most posts have a contribution from myself
• Took all the pictures of the sticky notes and put them onto black paper for the animatics
• Offered my bedroom as our main location for our short film as well as the teddy bear and necklace (props)
• Research into Freytag's pyramid and bereavement
• Looking into props - my own personal objects which could be used for our short film
• Helped draw up the storyboard onto the storyboard sheets once the order of shots was chosen

Bits and pieces

Props 
In our short film we will need a few props which include:
- a teddy bear
- a journal
- a necklace
- and possibly an iPod
I have taken photos of the items which I have and feel could be possible props for our short film.


Teddy Bears

Jewelery

Location
In our short film we will be filming mainly within one room (the young girl's) and a couple shots in a kitchen, hallway and outside a house.

Bedroom
My room may not be suitable because it is rather large and the sound could bounce off the walls and create an echo. It also lets in a lot of light in the daytime and we were hoping for a darker low key lit room so the film feels darker.

My Room - The Young Girl's Bedroom

 

We should also be filming:

- Outside of a house for the sister's birthday scene where Hope gives her sister a necklace.

- In a hallway of a house with stairs and a kitchen downstairs. This will be used as our location for the two sisters arguing about the sister's teddy bear. The teddy bear will be drowned iu the kitchen sink but the sister can't see from the stairs.

Target Audience - Moodboards



Moodboard showing images which represent Despair, Loss and Isolation
By Lorna

Despair, Loss and Isolation

I have made a moodboard about despair, loss and isolation on Adobe Photoshop to create a visual image for our theme of despair. I wanted to make it feel cold and uninviting so I lowered the opacity of all the images on a single layer and added a blue layer underneath it and played with the image setting until i was happy with the result.

Despair can take someone to a whole new place and level of depression. They don't feel any encourgement to go out or do something. Most people in dispair will be in a place where they feel comfortable and sage in such as their bedroom. More often than not people wish to be alone and away from the rest of the world.

A dark room is one of the most common signifiers for despair. The room has low key lighting and gives the feel of isolation. A small ray of light breaking through the curtains could signify hope.

Possible possessions

Necklace - A heart shape to represent the love between the two sisters. Could be a necklace inscribed with their name(s).

Journal - Personal diary entries which could tell the story of the two sisters through one of their eyes. A note inside the journal apologising to the sister about a fight that they had.

Rose - Slowly withering and dying. Connotes the death of one of the sisters. No one lives forever.

Teddy bear - Sesisitive side of the lead character. She hasn't quite matured enough to accept her sister's death.

Sketchbook - Shows sketches or photographs of the two sisters which the lead character has drawn.

Moodboard based upon teenagers and young people between the ages of 15 and 25
By Lorna

I have also created a moodboard for our target audience of fifteen to twenty five year olds. Teenage and young women are more likely to be affected by our short film because it deals with the loss of a loved one; a sister. Sisters can often feel like best friends as well as family to their siblings and in that sense the loss of sister can have a strong impact on their siblings.

We have decided that our target audience is going to be:

- Teenage girls and young people between the age of 15 and 25.

- People who have lost someone they love and feel like they can relate to the film

- People who feel trapped or isolated in a situation and can't seem to find a way out; but there is always a way

- Young people often turn to other things when they are depressed such as smoking, drinking and drugs which all have a negative affect on themselves.
- Other people may find the need to go out on a shopping spree or comfort eat in order to compensate for their depression.

Drama Presentation

Research into our Chosen Genre - Drama

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Research Into Our Chosen Genre

Drama

Dramas are one of the most realistic genres and are usually rather serious films which have a strong emphasis on emotion. They are pulled together with strong characters, dramatic and/or intense situations which draw in the viewer or audience. 

- Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets.

http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

- Emphasis on Emotion and Character
Characters have moral ambiguities and complexities
More developed than stereotypes, these characters have ability to fail or make mistakes
Drama raises more questions than it answers
“How life really is.”

http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/narr.html 

Narrative Structure

Calm setting

Conflict or discourse where mistakes are made and consequences are realised

A struggle - Emotional between two people/someone vs themselves

Freytag's Theory - Freytag's Pyramid
Gustav Freytag was a 19th century novelist.

Freytag believed that every drama can be divided into five major acts or parts. These were known to be: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and finally Dénouement. They are also known as a Dramatic Arc.

Exposition: At the beginning of a film the exposition provides the background information needed to understand the story. Following the exposition is the focal conflict or problem which the story is based around; although this may not be clear until further into the film.
Rising Action: The initial conflict becomes more complex as other smaller conflicts become noticeable. These conflicts make the road of the protagonist more difficult and deters them away form reaching their goal.
Climax: The key turning point within the film where something could progress the story further or go terribly wrong. 
Falling Action: The point in which the climax is reversed and the conflict starts to diminish slowly.
Denouement: Also known as the resolution of the film where the conflict is finally resolved. The word denouement was derived from the French word 'denoer' which meant "to untie". More often than not this is the ending where the protagonist is better off than they were when the story was first introduced.

Our short film will be using Freytag's Theory and it will be based around a young girl who is in despair.

 Please! - Paul Black - An Example of a Drama Short Film

"Why won't you just speak to me!?"A short film telling the story of a novelist named Peter Dunn who is struggling with his work and his relationship with his wife and daughter. The short film begins with the main character talking to himself which straight away tells us he is in a distraught state.The lighting is very low key with the only source of light being a lamp on the right-hand side of the room. The house/flat is an unhappy setting and so we are told from the exposition that the film may not end well. We know that he is a troubled man particularly when he looks at a photograph of who we believe to be his wife and daughter while holding a gun to his head. He is then seen on the phone in little clothing and drinking alcohol as he is shouting down the phone for someone to talk to him. These first couple of minutes could be used as the entire short film and it would not feel like anything would be missing.This short film works wells as a drama due to it's dramatic structure. There is a conflict between Peter Dunn and himself as well as his wife. The other conflict is when he is sitting in his car waiting for another driver when someone behind him is constantly beeping. This causes the car in front to knock on Peter's car aggressively and heightens his stress until he brings out the gun and points it at the driver and then to himself in a threatening way.Peter overcomes the conflict with himself and all seems well until his young daughter Lucy starts playing with the gun which he left in the car while he was on the phone. These final moments catch the audience and keeps them waiting for something bad to happen; which it inevitably does when Lucy shoots her father accidentally. This turn in the narrative makes the audience feel the emotion and sincerity of the daughter.The short film is pulled together using fluid pans and cuts which connect each setting and scene together continuously. Non-diegetic music constantly creates a mood in each sequence. During the last scene Peter's words from earlier in the film are ushered along with the daughter screaming "Dad!" This technique is used to tie the film up and loop it back around to the beginning.
When Five Fell by Wongfu Productions

This short drama was our initial inspiration for our own short drama which will be based upon a young girl who is in despair from the loss of her best friend. Wongfu Productions have used a collection of objects and a voice over to tell the story of the young girl we may do something similar.

Short Film - The Defintions

Online Defintions of Short Films

Definitions for 'Short Film' which I have found online.

- Any film that has a duration longer than one minute and shorter than fifteen minutes.

http://www.eicar-international.com/definition-short-film.html

- A trailer for a feature length film is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a "short" for the complete film Since the 1980's, the term "short subject" has come to be used interchangeably with "short film," an international, academic term used to mean a contemporary non-comercial motion picture that is substantially short than the average commercial feature film. There is no clear definition of the maximum length of a short film, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences classify it as 40 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/short_film

- "For me a short film is a piece of work under half an hour which tells a story - narrative is very important to me" Jeena Murphy (Film Maker)

- "A simple, self-contained story, no great development of characters, enough to know who they are and their role in the story. Usually very few characters introduced"

- "An opportunity for a film maker to communicate their ideas consisely. By that I mean there is no extra information. Everything is there and there is no "padding"."

http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_05/section_4/artc2A.html

- "Short films don't necessarily need to have an iron-clad story arc or a decisive conclusion, but must create an atmosphere that, briefly, transports you to another world."

http://suchandrika.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/adventures-in-short-film/

My Own Defintion of a Short Film

My definition of a short film is an innovative piece of media which explores a concept and communicates it within a short span of time between 1 and 30 minutes. These concepts can have both complex and simple meanings; it can depend on how the audience sees them. They often have a few main characters whp the narrative is based around and sometimes none at all. Short films can portray an emotional message across to the viewer using a variety of techniques.

                     

  

‘Mankind is No Island.’ – Jason Van Genderen - An Example of a Short Film

"Do we love the people or the place"   

Two cities New York and Sydney which are divided by an ocean may seem very different but in fact have a lot in common – a vast amount of homeless people who are ignored by the public everyday. Images of words from restaurants, road signs and shops were used to create a message about the homeless. These images sync with the non-diegetic music almost making it seem diegetic. There aren't any specific characters except the homeless but the audience still feels connected to the homesless men who are shown. A red-shaped heart balloon is used as a symbol of love itself; when the homeless man is ignored by the people in both New York and Sydney it blows by across the floor as if to give a visual image to the emotion and neglect they must be feeling.
"Mankind is No Island" - Islands are beautiful places that thrive in the sun with lush greens and calm seas. Mankind can be heartless and uninviting. People wish to live in beautiful places where everything is perfect but instead live in places where people do not care for others who are less fortunate than themselves. This is why i believe this title is so powerful; it makes you think and wonder about other people's lives which are more difficult than our own.