Tuesday 10 May 2011
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Evaluation Q1
Evaluation Question 1 Draft
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My film ‘String Along’ uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products through elements of form, characters, narrative, sound and Mise en scene. Firstly the form is an essential element that we observed in other movies and ours and manipulated it into our own. Camera techniques such as speed and pace in our film are sometimes medium to fast paced, the reason being for this is because the film is short, the mood and tension is vital in order to prepare the audience for the plot point, this effect is essential because the audience need to feel the tension of the atmosphere, they need to be aware that something is bound to go wrong with the characters and something big will happen. To perceive this kind of dramatic atmosphere in our audience, will, reflect on their reaction to the plot point, therefore ways in which we could achieve this atmosphere is through the use of camera pace, for example, towards the plot point more shots were cut and closely placed together, there are more shorter shots and no pans, to reduce the romantic atmosphere and prepare for the heart breaking plot point, this conforms to films of all types as it is typical to paces up shots prior to plot point. However there were pans that were medium to slow paced, such as the ‘day dream’ scene, this had shown that even though it has romance in it as a genre it still has a little speed in the shots which gradually pick up speed as we approach the plot point, other shots are medium to fast paced in terms of how long they are shown on screen and unlike most romantic films, such as ‘The notebook’ where shots are mostly slow and relaxed. Though, the reason films like The Notebook used this pace was because it is a film of constant romance whereas my film has a high show of dramatic plot points and dramas as that is one of the main genres of our film. So the next question may be.. ‘well, why is your film not mainly fast paced?’… Although my film is not primarily a romanticised film, it is also drama, so the combination of both means their needs to be a balance of both genres meaning elements of both genres such as speed of shots need to be combined well and suit each other, therefore the main use of medium paced shots suit as they are not too fast too fall into an action style or heavily dramatised film, or too slow to fall into a soft and heavily sensitively romantic film, but in the middle to create a balance between the romance and drama. Through Lighting, our film carry’s a lot of it’s own style. Unlike most films, romantic films, the lighting tends to be very natural or ambient, to create a sense of complete realism, such as ‘Monster-in-law’ where even though there is comedy in it the romantic scenes do have ambient or natural lighting, such as the beach settings where the sunlight glimmers. Our film however, contains heavy artificial lighting which shows the character as someone who lies and hides secrets and is not true to others, she has made herself the way she is and it is her herself that destroys fate with her own unnatural actions, this is shown through lighting in the bedroom, the main light is on at all times, the blinds are halfway closed, the dressing table lights she herself turns on and in the abstract scene the red lights artificially expose the abstract world with the strings of fate. The lighting also says a lot about the theme of ‘love, danger, and the strings’ that the red light symbolises, the lighting helps the audience to constantly link both worlds as Delilah wears a red dress and red props such as flowers and cushions that are shown in the real world so to link the abstract world, the red light is shown.
Characters are used to from films such as ‘Indecent proposal’ and even soap dramas such as ‘Eastenders’ where characters on cheated on. However, we have challenged the idea of who is the love triangle is focussed on. As we commonly find focus on the characters that are being cheated on us, we decided to make our main character the one who is cheating! This we imagined to be a more interesting approach to storyline and plot, as we begin to focus on the world and thoughts, desires and mentality of the trouble-maker and by doing so, adding an exciting thriller element to the whole film.
Narrative is an important structure which follows many forms and conventions of other media products, for example the tradition of the red string of fate follows the story of two people tied to their fate, they don’t know who this person is, but as they follow the string they will find there ‘love’, that is their fate. However, we subvert this idea and instead we added our on thriller like twist, where Delilah plays with the strings of fate and is attached to two men, so there are 3 characters in the red string of fate, traditionally there is just the one woman and man (in he Chinese fate), but Delilah continues in ignorance. This typical fate can be seen in many short red strings of fate clips but we are challenging tradition. Delilah herself destroys the strings of fate and in the end is completely unattached; the men leave her, the ties become untied, and the character breaks the tradition and chooses her own fate. Again, like most red string of fate clips we will find that the string is never broken, the string controls the two people bringing them together, however we then subvert it and we cause the strings break. Mise en scene is used to link to the red string of fate through costume, hair and make-up, where Delilah is seen in red mostly, a red stress symbolising her potential destructiveness, either the Red can be seen as positively as ‘love’ or negatively as ‘danger’, characters are usually associated with a colour/s to create a sense of identity to the character. Her hair is in curls/waves, we specifically done this style to give a hint of personality, her outgoing character, but also to show how the her hair (the string) can become twisted (knotted) which is shown through the style of her curls and waves and therefore events do not run smooth, her plans do not run smooth and like we see in the last scene of the film where her hair is messy we see the idea of the curls (string) falling out, untangling, symbolically showing the events exposed and revealed and inevitably causing destruction to the fate of love. The location is not a typical romantic setting, just a simple house will simple red carpet for the stairs and a simple living room with a few candles lit to ‘set the scene’ rather than a something like a restaurant or a beach even, such as monster in law which shows the beach setting in which the couple first meet. We use a simple setting to show how she attempts to conceal her cheating. Her body language is very confident and flirtatious when she takes James’s hand and leads him to the main room but also innocent at times (when she giggles), however when she leads him to the room we see that again she seems confident, she is in control over the relationship.
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My film ‘String Along’ uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products through elements of form, characters, narrative, sound and Mise en scene. Firstly the form is an essential element that we observed in other movies and ours and manipulated it into our own. Camera techniques such as speed and pace in our film are sometimes medium to fast paced, the reason being for this is because the film is short, the mood and tension is vital in order to prepare the audience for the plot point, this effect is essential because the audience need to feel the tension of the atmosphere, they need to be aware that something is bound to go wrong with the characters and something big will happen. To perceive this kind of dramatic atmosphere in our audience, will, reflect on their reaction to the plot point, therefore ways in which we could achieve this atmosphere is through the use of camera pace, for example, towards the plot point more shots were cut and closely placed together, there are more shorter shots and no pans, to reduce the romantic atmosphere and prepare for the heart breaking plot point, this conforms to films of all types as it is typical to paces up shots prior to plot point. However there were pans that were medium to slow paced, such as the ‘day dream’ scene, this had shown that even though it has romance in it as a genre it still has a little speed in the shots which gradually pick up speed as we approach the plot point, other shots are medium to fast paced in terms of how long they are shown on screen and unlike most romantic films, such as ‘The notebook’ where shots are mostly slow and relaxed. Though, the reason films like The Notebook used this pace was because it is a film of constant romance whereas my film has a high show of dramatic plot points and dramas as that is one of the main genres of our film. So the next question may be.. ‘well, why is your film not mainly fast paced?’… Although my film is not primarily a romanticised film, it is also drama, so the combination of both means their needs to be a balance of both genres meaning elements of both genres such as speed of shots need to be combined well and suit each other, therefore the main use of medium paced shots suit as they are not too fast too fall into an action style or heavily dramatised film, or too slow to fall into a soft and heavily sensitively romantic film, but in the middle to create a balance between the romance and drama. Through Lighting, our film carry’s a lot of it’s own style. Unlike most films, romantic films, the lighting tends to be very natural or ambient, to create a sense of complete realism, such as ‘Monster-in-law’ where even though there is comedy in it the romantic scenes do have ambient or natural lighting, such as the beach settings where the sunlight glimmers. Our film however, contains heavy artificial lighting which shows the character as someone who lies and hides secrets and is not true to others, she has made herself the way she is and it is her herself that destroys fate with her own unnatural actions, this is shown through lighting in the bedroom, the main light is on at all times, the blinds are halfway closed, the dressing table lights she herself turns on and in the abstract scene the red lights artificially expose the abstract world with the strings of fate. The lighting also says a lot about the theme of ‘love, danger, and the strings’ that the red light symbolises, the lighting helps the audience to constantly link both worlds as Delilah wears a red dress and red props such as flowers and cushions that are shown in the real world so to link the abstract world, the red light is shown.
Characters are used to from films such as ‘Indecent proposal’ and even soap dramas such as ‘Eastenders’ where characters on cheated on. However, we have challenged the idea of who is the love triangle is focussed on. As we commonly find focus on the characters that are being cheated on us, we decided to make our main character the one who is cheating! This we imagined to be a more interesting approach to storyline and plot, as we begin to focus on the world and thoughts, desires and mentality of the trouble-maker and by doing so, adding an exciting thriller element to the whole film.
Narrative is an important structure which follows many forms and conventions of other media products, for example the tradition of the red string of fate follows the story of two people tied to their fate, they don’t know who this person is, but as they follow the string they will find there ‘love’, that is their fate. However, we subvert this idea and instead we added our on thriller like twist, where Delilah plays with the strings of fate and is attached to two men, so there are 3 characters in the red string of fate, traditionally there is just the one woman and man (in he Chinese fate), but Delilah continues in ignorance. This typical fate can be seen in many short red strings of fate clips but we are challenging tradition. Delilah herself destroys the strings of fate and in the end is completely unattached; the men leave her, the ties become untied, and the character breaks the tradition and chooses her own fate. Again, like most red string of fate clips we will find that the string is never broken, the string controls the two people bringing them together, however we then subvert it and we cause the strings break. Mise en scene is used to link to the red string of fate through costume, hair and make-up, where Delilah is seen in red mostly, a red stress symbolising her potential destructiveness, either the Red can be seen as positively as ‘love’ or negatively as ‘danger’, characters are usually associated with a colour/s to create a sense of identity to the character. Her hair is in curls/waves, we specifically done this style to give a hint of personality, her outgoing character, but also to show how the her hair (the string) can become twisted (knotted) which is shown through the style of her curls and waves and therefore events do not run smooth, her plans do not run smooth and like we see in the last scene of the film where her hair is messy we see the idea of the curls (string) falling out, untangling, symbolically showing the events exposed and revealed and inevitably causing destruction to the fate of love. The location is not a typical romantic setting, just a simple house will simple red carpet for the stairs and a simple living room with a few candles lit to ‘set the scene’ rather than a something like a restaurant or a beach even, such as monster in law which shows the beach setting in which the couple first meet. We use a simple setting to show how she attempts to conceal her cheating. Her body language is very confident and flirtatious when she takes James’s hand and leads him to the main room but also innocent at times (when she giggles), however when she leads him to the room we see that again she seems confident, she is in control over the relationship.
Friday 14 January 2011
Evaluation Q2
2. How effective is the combination of your main task and ancillary tasks?
The combination of my main task and ancillary tasks are very effective in many ways, that each of my tasks work together in such ways that complement each other, especially the main product itself, the film. Firstly, one of the ancillary tasks is the Poster, a poster is made to advertise, persuade, draw and tap into target audiences by attracting them to watch the film using well thought-out image and text and combining these elements cleverly to produce an effective poster that fulfils its role. In my poster I had in my mind to show the main character as she is the main element of the film, to show the main props (red string) and to show a strong re-occurrence of the frequent colour scheme in the film, ‘red’, through Mise-en-scene and lighting. Before making the poster the ideas in my head was to include the main character in all posters, to also show the two men in a poster, to include the tagline which is seen in the movie through the cookie fortune, ratings of the film and also short positive verdicts. I also was imagining a contrast of colours in the posters light and dark colours to show the contrast of the two worlds, reality and abstract, which will link to the main product, in all, every film poster I want to produce with the same matching house style. The posters I made were based on many other posters but in particular ‘Two Lovers’ and ‘Last Night’, these are both romance films that carry quite similar story lines and the same genre a romantic drama. Two lovers has posters which shows themes of seduction and closeness through an image of bare arms of two people holding each other, this hints the element of temptation which the main character falls into, other poster images show the main character surrounding equally on each side (right and left) by a woman, his ‘two lovers’. This also shows he is equally tempted by both ladies and the fact that they wear black revealing dresses emphasises this point, it also shows the seductive themed atmosphere. Similarly, in my poster I have an image of the main character and the two men equally on each side, this shows her indecisiveness and equal temptation to both men, also the red colour of her dress (costume) links to the theme of ‘love’, the string is held between both her and the men and this is one of the main props that link the characters, with the title of the film together. In my poster my title is written similarly to ‘Last Night’ film poster, the way the colours of the names of actor/actress are half blue and white half blue relate to the whole night time colour that is associated with blue and black mostly, which, we see in the background image also. This creates a whole linking house style effects and links image with text through colour and content of text. Similarly I have used this style of linking the red colour theme through the dress (costume) that Delilah wears in the image and the props (String) to the title and names of actors and actress. This also helps in building familiarity of theme and film by creating a strong link between props, character and title and making it the most vibrant colour in the poster, showing its importance in the film. Like ‘Two lovers’ the positioning of the characters I found were significant but also quite basic and I expect that kind of positioning once understanding the film plot, the man is the main character who has two lovers, since he is the main character he dominates the fore ground, the two women are equal to him and both dominate the background equally to each other showing they are levelled, probably through the male characters view or perception of them being the same. Similarly my film uses similar positioning as the two men share the background equally and Delilah stand centre middle foreground in between both characters to show her control and to show she is the main character in the film. These aspects in which I created my poster in are similarly used to compliment the review, draw enough attention and curiosity towards the film in order to progress audience into taking further action, to read the review, as my poster creates curiosity by giving all the hints of the film but not giving the ending away it enables the audience to question the film, what is it about? What happens? Audience then look to the review for a more inside closer look, for the answers about what the film really is about and at the same time, I use the review to persuade the audience even more by giving them personal opinions and viewpoints on the film and verdicts. In my review I had a similar layout to Empire magazine, review of ‘The American’. I used Empire Magazine as I had found it to be the leading seller for film magazine in Britain and is known to have continuously outsell its market rivals such as ‘total film’, therefore due to the success of the magazine I trust it to be the magazine that I should draw my inspirations from and follow its line of achievement. I used ‘The American’ review because it was most eye catching to me, the layout and positioning of the images and text was enough to attract my attention and length wise the content was enough to ‘inform’ me without dragging it on, for example their was other reviews in empire magazine such as ‘monsters’, but I was disinclined to read the whole review as it was a 3 page long review and I wanted something that was quick, easy, informative and simply straight to the point . ‘The American’ had an image on the top right as that is typically the first place majorities of people look as they begin to scroll down, the image is used to show the audience something interesting from the film, a character typically or something primarily important about the film. An article newspaper styled writing surrounds the image, the reason being for this style is to resemble the newspaper style, this suggests the review is trustworthy like the way we would trust the news we should trust this review because it is just as honest! So audiences would trust the reviewer’s opinion and view towards the film and take their word for it. The review has the content which verbally denotes the film in a persuasive and divisive language whereas the poster denotes the film through less content of text and more of image. An example of the divisive language I use is the technique of using ‘chatty’ language which helps the reader’s interest and engagement with the review and reviewer as it seems like a friend’s unconditional opinion to the reader about the film. These two products are essential as they work together to cover different ways of communicating the film to our audience, through poster which is usually seen almost anywhere, from busses to billboards and then through reviews which is seen in magazines, film magazines (especially for film buffers), the internet etc.
This helps relate to the house style of my film, as the colour red links through these products to my main task, the title is evident through props in my film and the idea of the title is explained in the review, so it prepares audience to have more inside knowledge about the red string of fate, review image is taken straight from the film to show a solid link that this shot is from this exact film and this also helps the house style flow. The positioning of the men show how Delilah has control over them and that she equally has a hold on them, and the lighting shows the dark side the film turns into, relates to the abstract scenes, and the bright faded lighting shows her dream world which is far from reality, this links to the film and the scenes and colour and lighting we see.
The combination of my main task and ancillary tasks are very effective in many ways, that each of my tasks work together in such ways that complement each other, especially the main product itself, the film. Firstly, one of the ancillary tasks is the Poster, a poster is made to advertise, persuade, draw and tap into target audiences by attracting them to watch the film using well thought-out image and text and combining these elements cleverly to produce an effective poster that fulfils its role. In my poster I had in my mind to show the main character as she is the main element of the film, to show the main props (red string) and to show a strong re-occurrence of the frequent colour scheme in the film, ‘red’, through Mise-en-scene and lighting. Before making the poster the ideas in my head was to include the main character in all posters, to also show the two men in a poster, to include the tagline which is seen in the movie through the cookie fortune, ratings of the film and also short positive verdicts. I also was imagining a contrast of colours in the posters light and dark colours to show the contrast of the two worlds, reality and abstract, which will link to the main product, in all, every film poster I want to produce with the same matching house style. The posters I made were based on many other posters but in particular ‘Two Lovers’ and ‘Last Night’, these are both romance films that carry quite similar story lines and the same genre a romantic drama. Two lovers has posters which shows themes of seduction and closeness through an image of bare arms of two people holding each other, this hints the element of temptation which the main character falls into, other poster images show the main character surrounding equally on each side (right and left) by a woman, his ‘two lovers’. This also shows he is equally tempted by both ladies and the fact that they wear black revealing dresses emphasises this point, it also shows the seductive themed atmosphere. Similarly, in my poster I have an image of the main character and the two men equally on each side, this shows her indecisiveness and equal temptation to both men, also the red colour of her dress (costume) links to the theme of ‘love’, the string is held between both her and the men and this is one of the main props that link the characters, with the title of the film together. In my poster my title is written similarly to ‘Last Night’ film poster, the way the colours of the names of actor/actress are half blue and white half blue relate to the whole night time colour that is associated with blue and black mostly, which, we see in the background image also. This creates a whole linking house style effects and links image with text through colour and content of text. Similarly I have used this style of linking the red colour theme through the dress (costume) that Delilah wears in the image and the props (String) to the title and names of actors and actress. This also helps in building familiarity of theme and film by creating a strong link between props, character and title and making it the most vibrant colour in the poster, showing its importance in the film. Like ‘Two lovers’ the positioning of the characters I found were significant but also quite basic and I expect that kind of positioning once understanding the film plot, the man is the main character who has two lovers, since he is the main character he dominates the fore ground, the two women are equal to him and both dominate the background equally to each other showing they are levelled, probably through the male characters view or perception of them being the same. Similarly my film uses similar positioning as the two men share the background equally and Delilah stand centre middle foreground in between both characters to show her control and to show she is the main character in the film. These aspects in which I created my poster in are similarly used to compliment the review, draw enough attention and curiosity towards the film in order to progress audience into taking further action, to read the review, as my poster creates curiosity by giving all the hints of the film but not giving the ending away it enables the audience to question the film, what is it about? What happens? Audience then look to the review for a more inside closer look, for the answers about what the film really is about and at the same time, I use the review to persuade the audience even more by giving them personal opinions and viewpoints on the film and verdicts. In my review I had a similar layout to Empire magazine, review of ‘The American’. I used Empire Magazine as I had found it to be the leading seller for film magazine in Britain and is known to have continuously outsell its market rivals such as ‘total film’, therefore due to the success of the magazine I trust it to be the magazine that I should draw my inspirations from and follow its line of achievement. I used ‘The American’ review because it was most eye catching to me, the layout and positioning of the images and text was enough to attract my attention and length wise the content was enough to ‘inform’ me without dragging it on, for example their was other reviews in empire magazine such as ‘monsters’, but I was disinclined to read the whole review as it was a 3 page long review and I wanted something that was quick, easy, informative and simply straight to the point . ‘The American’ had an image on the top right as that is typically the first place majorities of people look as they begin to scroll down, the image is used to show the audience something interesting from the film, a character typically or something primarily important about the film. An article newspaper styled writing surrounds the image, the reason being for this style is to resemble the newspaper style, this suggests the review is trustworthy like the way we would trust the news we should trust this review because it is just as honest! So audiences would trust the reviewer’s opinion and view towards the film and take their word for it. The review has the content which verbally denotes the film in a persuasive and divisive language whereas the poster denotes the film through less content of text and more of image. An example of the divisive language I use is the technique of using ‘chatty’ language which helps the reader’s interest and engagement with the review and reviewer as it seems like a friend’s unconditional opinion to the reader about the film. These two products are essential as they work together to cover different ways of communicating the film to our audience, through poster which is usually seen almost anywhere, from busses to billboards and then through reviews which is seen in magazines, film magazines (especially for film buffers), the internet etc.
This helps relate to the house style of my film, as the colour red links through these products to my main task, the title is evident through props in my film and the idea of the title is explained in the review, so it prepares audience to have more inside knowledge about the red string of fate, review image is taken straight from the film to show a solid link that this shot is from this exact film and this also helps the house style flow. The positioning of the men show how Delilah has control over them and that she equally has a hold on them, and the lighting shows the dark side the film turns into, relates to the abstract scenes, and the bright faded lighting shows her dream world which is far from reality, this links to the film and the scenes and colour and lighting we see.
Evaluation Q3
Q3. What have you learnt from audience feedback?
Audience feedback is especially essential towards the pre production, production and post production stages of the making of my film. Audience feedback is crucial to me as it tells me and my group ways in which to extend our ideas, ways in which to connect more to audience’s wants and expectations, and ways in which to improve the film to a better standard.
Throughout my film making process I have gathered feedback from audiences of many ages and of both male and female but majority and primarily females aged 12-30 years range. As the film is mostly directed at women and teenagers but still could be directed at a small minority of men. I have gathered feedback to do with technical aspects, the treatment pitches, and storyboard and ancillary tasks.
When pitching my treatment I had feedback that the story “did not have enough plot point, we should have her getting caught”. In our first treatment our storyline was that she cheated with two men and did not get caught. So, therefore by understanding that many audiences agreed on this issue of the plot point being too light we decided to have the woman getting caught and to focus more on the reaction and the after math of her getting caught which enabled us to challenge and develop other similar stories about unfaithful relationships as we focus on the ‘cheater’ rather than the ‘cheated’.
Another suggestion was made that in our first treatment we wanted to include about 3 men who are being cheated on. However through audience feedback we was told that it would be too many characters to focus on in such little time, also, how will we organise 3 characters and set it up, it may be too much. We also came to another problem where we found it difficult to plot all three men catching the woman (Delilah) out at the same time as it made the story become more complicated and unrealistic. There was also the burden of having to figure how each male character will be shown in such a way that the audience can tell they are in love with Delilah and we realised this may create a problem in time management too as the film is short and their may be too much to show in too little time. Therefore we decided to cut down to two characters that were reliable and available, also and mainly good at acting. We thought this would be the safest approach which also will seem more realistic and would be like a love triangle dilemma.
Other feedback related to the lack of clues in the treatment, a lack of clues to ‘the red string of fate’ and the colour red which is a theme that follows and is dominant in the film throughout. Therefore I decided to draw a mind-map of possible ways to show the theme, we came up with, red props, red costume, ‘Chinese food, fortune cookies’ as it relates to the Chinese originated red string of fate tradition. We also had the location that hinted red all over, even when Delilah walks down the stairs the carpet is red and this represents the theme of red in subtle un-obvious ways.
When creating the storyboard for my film we decided to get more opinions and feedback on the shots and angles chosen in the storyboard. Audience said that shots seemed to be too choppy and ‘simple’, not enough clever ‘cinematography’ is applied and shots just tell the story rather than showing and telling the story in a more interesting unique way. So going back to research on cinematography I gathered and reminded myself some ideas of ways in which I can re-arrange the way the shot shows what’s happening. For example we planned to use a simple shot where the camera waits at the bottom of the stairs for the character to come into the long shot and walk all the way down. We realised this shot would have been too long and boring, so we had a short shot of the figure emerging down the stairs and then a cut to a side view close up of her feet in her red shoes walking down the red carpet stairs. This shot of her going down the stairs is critical to the build up of the plot point as it shows her following the red string of fate (by walking down the red stairs) and the fact that more red is shown shows we are getting closer to the main plot point where she will get caught.
Other ideas we developed by looking at subjects in the frame through interesting shots, for example there is a part where Delilah opens the door and lets James in who then leaves the door ajar as them two walk off to the living room, we choose not to show this through a boring way by showing the actions one after another. Instead we filmed the part where the door is left ajar from ‘outside’ looking ‘inside’ into the house and seeing the characters in dark sinister lighting walk away, they also look insignificant and that’s what this shot does, it builds up to a point where the characters cannot control the situation and something bad is going to happen, we sense that these characters are being watched and they don’t know and that they are exposed, the truth will be exposed.
During post production we gathered feedback at different stages on aspects such as shots, music, and order of shots, length of shots, quality of shots, colour, lighting, audio and visual effects and transitions. From audience feedback after the first few pitches of the film at editing post production process, I was told that some shots were ‘too long’ such as the stairs shots and this wasted time unnecessarily and also in particular with one shot where the shot seemed too unstable and shaky so the length of it had to be minimised, some important shots were also ‘too short’ such as the part where Delilah pulls the thread off her dress and this needed to be emphasised as some audiences said that it did not connect with the second shot enough where the thread falls on the floor seeming as if it fell out of nowhere, some transitions did not match such as ‘dip to black’ did not suit the day dream sequence, so I decided that dip to white is more suitable as it gives a light white dreamy effect.
After getting feedback on the assembly edit we then moved on to inserting music into the film. As we went through this stage we got much feedback from audience as we had few issues, there was too many music pieces in the film and they didn’t work well together. Some music pieces were either too ‘folky’ or ‘country’ like or they seemed too ‘hip-hop’ and less feminine. We then needed to re-evaluate and have more group meetings specifying and researching the music type we needed. After finding the correct music we added that into the film, audience gave more feed back and said that the music jumped from one piece to another too abruptly, the music needs to come in more softly. With this feed back I then looked at editing the pieces of music, the volume levels needed to be altered with for parts where the music is coming to an end we needed to change the volume gradually as the piece ended, we also had to add transitions such as ‘exponential fade’ where the music softly evaporates. These transitions and editing tools allowed me to create a smooth transfer between one music piece to another without looking to abrupt and unsuited.
For my ancillary task I created a review for my film and posters, this is to promote and advertise for my film to my audience. I organised feedback from two group members, to get a good insight from what they know about the film and the connection they can find in that with the posters and reviews, and with 2 external audiences to understand what they can gain from the advertisement and posters and feed back to me how successful it is. From audience feedback I understood that house style was continued throughout all posters and worked well. The split screen effect was successful as it looked professional and had shown the two worlds ‘abstract and reality’ which the film revolves around, it also showed the character who looked ‘innocent’ and then this idea is contradicted in the image below in the poster and ‘works very well’. The colour of the word ‘string’ is in red and this shows a connection between the colour and string which reflects on the Chinese tradition of the string of fate. However, poster 2 and 3 looked too bright and needed a darker contrast to add that drama effect rather than too much of a light hearted romantic effect. The second poster seems to be the least successful poster due to the fact that it creates an image that looks to ‘sweet’ there are not enough hints of any downfall or contradictions to the character that comes across very happy and content where in comparison to my other poster I have a split screen of a sweet image and then a contradicting image which showed more of the world of the film. Therefore, from this comment I now understand what is missing from the second poster are more hints and clues of betrayal, the red string or clues of unfaithfulness and I can show these important elements of the film by adjusting colour and contrast, by adding more images or selecting different and more appropriate images such as an image I had of of Delilah standing with string connecting to both men on either side.
My film review was also successful, audience commented on the strong link between the review and poster that it related and you could match the description of the film in the review with the posters and develop a stronger understanding of the story. Audience feedback said my film had the ‘right balance of chattiness’, this was successful with the audience because it helped the audience develop comfort in a casual atmosphere with the reviewer and therefore trust the reviewers judgement of the film. The image of the review was said to have matched with review however, although it showed a image which contained the main characters and important elements such as the ‘string’, a more different image then the poster images should have been chosen. To develop and improve from this feedback a better image should be one that is not in the posters but looks similar (so we can tell the review and posters come from the same film product), a more dramatic and intense image should be there to highlight the characters in distress, this would create a more interesting look to it and an edge to the film. Another issue with the poster was the layout; unfortunately the layout did not look professional enough and needed to look tidier in order to look like a real film review and in order to make it more presentable to the audience. With this feedback I went back to my review and changed some areas that needed altering such as the text boxes, where I had to line it up so words would not cut off the page. By doing so my review looked more professional and presentable for the audience. In all audience said that both the poster and review worked well together with the film and the two products complemented each other.
Audience feedback is especially essential towards the pre production, production and post production stages of the making of my film. Audience feedback is crucial to me as it tells me and my group ways in which to extend our ideas, ways in which to connect more to audience’s wants and expectations, and ways in which to improve the film to a better standard.
Throughout my film making process I have gathered feedback from audiences of many ages and of both male and female but majority and primarily females aged 12-30 years range. As the film is mostly directed at women and teenagers but still could be directed at a small minority of men. I have gathered feedback to do with technical aspects, the treatment pitches, and storyboard and ancillary tasks.
When pitching my treatment I had feedback that the story “did not have enough plot point, we should have her getting caught”. In our first treatment our storyline was that she cheated with two men and did not get caught. So, therefore by understanding that many audiences agreed on this issue of the plot point being too light we decided to have the woman getting caught and to focus more on the reaction and the after math of her getting caught which enabled us to challenge and develop other similar stories about unfaithful relationships as we focus on the ‘cheater’ rather than the ‘cheated’.
Another suggestion was made that in our first treatment we wanted to include about 3 men who are being cheated on. However through audience feedback we was told that it would be too many characters to focus on in such little time, also, how will we organise 3 characters and set it up, it may be too much. We also came to another problem where we found it difficult to plot all three men catching the woman (Delilah) out at the same time as it made the story become more complicated and unrealistic. There was also the burden of having to figure how each male character will be shown in such a way that the audience can tell they are in love with Delilah and we realised this may create a problem in time management too as the film is short and their may be too much to show in too little time. Therefore we decided to cut down to two characters that were reliable and available, also and mainly good at acting. We thought this would be the safest approach which also will seem more realistic and would be like a love triangle dilemma.
Other feedback related to the lack of clues in the treatment, a lack of clues to ‘the red string of fate’ and the colour red which is a theme that follows and is dominant in the film throughout. Therefore I decided to draw a mind-map of possible ways to show the theme, we came up with, red props, red costume, ‘Chinese food, fortune cookies’ as it relates to the Chinese originated red string of fate tradition. We also had the location that hinted red all over, even when Delilah walks down the stairs the carpet is red and this represents the theme of red in subtle un-obvious ways.
When creating the storyboard for my film we decided to get more opinions and feedback on the shots and angles chosen in the storyboard. Audience said that shots seemed to be too choppy and ‘simple’, not enough clever ‘cinematography’ is applied and shots just tell the story rather than showing and telling the story in a more interesting unique way. So going back to research on cinematography I gathered and reminded myself some ideas of ways in which I can re-arrange the way the shot shows what’s happening. For example we planned to use a simple shot where the camera waits at the bottom of the stairs for the character to come into the long shot and walk all the way down. We realised this shot would have been too long and boring, so we had a short shot of the figure emerging down the stairs and then a cut to a side view close up of her feet in her red shoes walking down the red carpet stairs. This shot of her going down the stairs is critical to the build up of the plot point as it shows her following the red string of fate (by walking down the red stairs) and the fact that more red is shown shows we are getting closer to the main plot point where she will get caught.
Other ideas we developed by looking at subjects in the frame through interesting shots, for example there is a part where Delilah opens the door and lets James in who then leaves the door ajar as them two walk off to the living room, we choose not to show this through a boring way by showing the actions one after another. Instead we filmed the part where the door is left ajar from ‘outside’ looking ‘inside’ into the house and seeing the characters in dark sinister lighting walk away, they also look insignificant and that’s what this shot does, it builds up to a point where the characters cannot control the situation and something bad is going to happen, we sense that these characters are being watched and they don’t know and that they are exposed, the truth will be exposed.
During post production we gathered feedback at different stages on aspects such as shots, music, and order of shots, length of shots, quality of shots, colour, lighting, audio and visual effects and transitions. From audience feedback after the first few pitches of the film at editing post production process, I was told that some shots were ‘too long’ such as the stairs shots and this wasted time unnecessarily and also in particular with one shot where the shot seemed too unstable and shaky so the length of it had to be minimised, some important shots were also ‘too short’ such as the part where Delilah pulls the thread off her dress and this needed to be emphasised as some audiences said that it did not connect with the second shot enough where the thread falls on the floor seeming as if it fell out of nowhere, some transitions did not match such as ‘dip to black’ did not suit the day dream sequence, so I decided that dip to white is more suitable as it gives a light white dreamy effect.
After getting feedback on the assembly edit we then moved on to inserting music into the film. As we went through this stage we got much feedback from audience as we had few issues, there was too many music pieces in the film and they didn’t work well together. Some music pieces were either too ‘folky’ or ‘country’ like or they seemed too ‘hip-hop’ and less feminine. We then needed to re-evaluate and have more group meetings specifying and researching the music type we needed. After finding the correct music we added that into the film, audience gave more feed back and said that the music jumped from one piece to another too abruptly, the music needs to come in more softly. With this feed back I then looked at editing the pieces of music, the volume levels needed to be altered with for parts where the music is coming to an end we needed to change the volume gradually as the piece ended, we also had to add transitions such as ‘exponential fade’ where the music softly evaporates. These transitions and editing tools allowed me to create a smooth transfer between one music piece to another without looking to abrupt and unsuited.
For my ancillary task I created a review for my film and posters, this is to promote and advertise for my film to my audience. I organised feedback from two group members, to get a good insight from what they know about the film and the connection they can find in that with the posters and reviews, and with 2 external audiences to understand what they can gain from the advertisement and posters and feed back to me how successful it is. From audience feedback I understood that house style was continued throughout all posters and worked well. The split screen effect was successful as it looked professional and had shown the two worlds ‘abstract and reality’ which the film revolves around, it also showed the character who looked ‘innocent’ and then this idea is contradicted in the image below in the poster and ‘works very well’. The colour of the word ‘string’ is in red and this shows a connection between the colour and string which reflects on the Chinese tradition of the string of fate. However, poster 2 and 3 looked too bright and needed a darker contrast to add that drama effect rather than too much of a light hearted romantic effect. The second poster seems to be the least successful poster due to the fact that it creates an image that looks to ‘sweet’ there are not enough hints of any downfall or contradictions to the character that comes across very happy and content where in comparison to my other poster I have a split screen of a sweet image and then a contradicting image which showed more of the world of the film. Therefore, from this comment I now understand what is missing from the second poster are more hints and clues of betrayal, the red string or clues of unfaithfulness and I can show these important elements of the film by adjusting colour and contrast, by adding more images or selecting different and more appropriate images such as an image I had of of Delilah standing with string connecting to both men on either side.
My film review was also successful, audience commented on the strong link between the review and poster that it related and you could match the description of the film in the review with the posters and develop a stronger understanding of the story. Audience feedback said my film had the ‘right balance of chattiness’, this was successful with the audience because it helped the audience develop comfort in a casual atmosphere with the reviewer and therefore trust the reviewers judgement of the film. The image of the review was said to have matched with review however, although it showed a image which contained the main characters and important elements such as the ‘string’, a more different image then the poster images should have been chosen. To develop and improve from this feedback a better image should be one that is not in the posters but looks similar (so we can tell the review and posters come from the same film product), a more dramatic and intense image should be there to highlight the characters in distress, this would create a more interesting look to it and an edge to the film. Another issue with the poster was the layout; unfortunately the layout did not look professional enough and needed to look tidier in order to look like a real film review and in order to make it more presentable to the audience. With this feedback I went back to my review and changed some areas that needed altering such as the text boxes, where I had to line it up so words would not cut off the page. By doing so my review looked more professional and presentable for the audience. In all audience said that both the poster and review worked well together with the film and the two products complemented each other.
Evaluation Q4
4. How did you use new technologies in the construction & research , planning and evaluation stage?
What how why!
Many types of technologies were used at all stages of pre-production, production and post production. One important technology was camera. Camera links to my research as I researched various camera techniques, shots and cinematography by looking at various films and directors such as Robert Lepage’s ‘Far side of the moon’. In my research I also used a still camera for creating my own research in cinematography where I made series of pictures or ordinary day objects into something interesting or uniquely shot as inspired from ‘Robert Lepage’, I used this camera because it was a quick and efficient way in recording my work, helping me experiment various types of shots and techniques. This research came in handy prior to my planning for the production as I learnt different camera styles and applied that to the style of shots in my film. For the stage of planning a still camera was also used to take images of the rehearsal so we could go through the images and make any changes to shots we planned to use. I also used a still camera for the photo storyboard to help me plan how the film will actually synchronise and it’s chronological order, it helped me to outline shots that didn’t suit or wouldn’t follow, we could outline everything in a shot and eliminate unnecessary things in it. Not only did it help me outline those issues but also space issues in the location, how much space we will have to move around, what side will the camera be on? For example, the daydream photo storyboard was in a different and more open location where we had access to all sides of the bed, therefore, we could take shots from any side and we did as that is what we planned in our storyboard (where we had the shot reverse shot of Delilah and the two men), however, when visiting the location afterwards we realised that the bed was up against a wall which meant there was not much space to move and place the camera. So, for the side that the men lay on the bed (the side of the wall), we realised we would not be able to do a over the shoulder shot of them looking at Delilah and therefore switched to a point of view shot. This enabled us enough space to shoot. A simple video recorder was used to document discussions and meetings of the group, where the treatment, script and other pre production issues where discussed prior to the filming.
For the construction stage a XHA1 Cannon digital camera was used to film for the production stage, the camera enabled me to create many different shots and pans as it had zoom functions and focus adjustments which helped me apply depth of field in shots in the ‘daydream’ scene. The camera I used was digital and easy to transfer to the editing program, it corresponded with the editing stage as I could easy record and take the necessary shots that I and my group wanted. With print screen shots from the film, which was recorded by the Cannon XHA1, I took many stills from the film and used them for my ancillary tasks (poster & review).
The technology of sound was used for my research into music for my film which also worked along the use of internet. The majority of music sound files I found on the internet and both technologies worked together to enable good research into many soundtracks. The use of internet helped me to find sites that had copyright free music which is what my film needed. With the music files I then uploaded onto the editing where I could then trim and adjust sound levels, add transitions and audio effects.
Adobe premiere pro is a software that enables you to crop, cut, adjust and apply effects, transitions and apply many other functions to recorded film material. Therefore we began to research possible styles and effects in films, clips, music videos or adverts such as ‘channel 4’s seven days’ television advert where the split screen effect was used. Other research I done was on titles where I looked at other opening sequence titles or music videos that appealed to me due to the different effects and styles used which had been made through editing software’s, this helped me to plan my titles for our film by giving us an idea and something to work on and towards. Adobe premiere pro was a software I used to make adjustments to my film, I used tools such as the razor tool to cut specific amounts of the clip as some clips were too long which took up time unneccerily. I also used effects and transitions such as dip to white in the daydream scene. The editing software also allowed me to make audio adjustments to the volume level so I could lower the volume gradually as it ended and add and exponential fade to soften the ending. I could add audio effects such as ‘delay’ however some problems did occur when it would not transfer onto the clips, therefore I needed technical assistance from a teacher who was more experienced with the software. However, this does not undermine my ability to use the effect an software it just a common technical fault which I have learnt from my As prelim and film to immediately ask for assistance in order to work efficiently and to make use of all the time I had. With the adobe software I could enlarge shots and take print screen shots in which I then pasted into ‘paint’ and then saved as an image. This was used for my ancillary tasks (poster and review) and the technologies made the images easily accessible and usable.
The internet was essential for researching directors, cinematography, films, posters, reviews, films, clips etc. My main sources of information for research was ‘google’ and ‘youtube’ where I the most results from for research. Youtube was used for researching music videos to look at different styles and effects, also to look at films and to get information on directors etc. Google was used for general research into music, directors, movies, images etc. I also used the internet to access websites such as slideshare.com where I converted Microsoft office documents and power points into a slide which was then converted into html and added into the blog. Similar websites were kizoa.com where I added several photos of the photo storyboard, cinematography research etc all into a slide which then converted into an html format and then I added it to the blog.
Using the internet one main technology was the Blog on blogger.com this was used to view other blogs and group member’s blogs which contained our work. The blog is the world of my film I designed the template with a background of red roses linking to the idea of a romantic genre, hinting the world of my film to do with love or relationships etc. The blog was used to file all my research, planning and other media related work in. The blog helped construct my film as it was used for feedback purposes as I received comments for my ancillary tasks, the reviews and poster and from there it helped me learn and improve on my work. The blog was a quick and efficient way to communicate with group members and research peoples work as we had links to other people’s blogs and previous blogs which were in relation to our work.
What how why!
Many types of technologies were used at all stages of pre-production, production and post production. One important technology was camera. Camera links to my research as I researched various camera techniques, shots and cinematography by looking at various films and directors such as Robert Lepage’s ‘Far side of the moon’. In my research I also used a still camera for creating my own research in cinematography where I made series of pictures or ordinary day objects into something interesting or uniquely shot as inspired from ‘Robert Lepage’, I used this camera because it was a quick and efficient way in recording my work, helping me experiment various types of shots and techniques. This research came in handy prior to my planning for the production as I learnt different camera styles and applied that to the style of shots in my film. For the stage of planning a still camera was also used to take images of the rehearsal so we could go through the images and make any changes to shots we planned to use. I also used a still camera for the photo storyboard to help me plan how the film will actually synchronise and it’s chronological order, it helped me to outline shots that didn’t suit or wouldn’t follow, we could outline everything in a shot and eliminate unnecessary things in it. Not only did it help me outline those issues but also space issues in the location, how much space we will have to move around, what side will the camera be on? For example, the daydream photo storyboard was in a different and more open location where we had access to all sides of the bed, therefore, we could take shots from any side and we did as that is what we planned in our storyboard (where we had the shot reverse shot of Delilah and the two men), however, when visiting the location afterwards we realised that the bed was up against a wall which meant there was not much space to move and place the camera. So, for the side that the men lay on the bed (the side of the wall), we realised we would not be able to do a over the shoulder shot of them looking at Delilah and therefore switched to a point of view shot. This enabled us enough space to shoot. A simple video recorder was used to document discussions and meetings of the group, where the treatment, script and other pre production issues where discussed prior to the filming.
For the construction stage a XHA1 Cannon digital camera was used to film for the production stage, the camera enabled me to create many different shots and pans as it had zoom functions and focus adjustments which helped me apply depth of field in shots in the ‘daydream’ scene. The camera I used was digital and easy to transfer to the editing program, it corresponded with the editing stage as I could easy record and take the necessary shots that I and my group wanted. With print screen shots from the film, which was recorded by the Cannon XHA1, I took many stills from the film and used them for my ancillary tasks (poster & review).
The technology of sound was used for my research into music for my film which also worked along the use of internet. The majority of music sound files I found on the internet and both technologies worked together to enable good research into many soundtracks. The use of internet helped me to find sites that had copyright free music which is what my film needed. With the music files I then uploaded onto the editing where I could then trim and adjust sound levels, add transitions and audio effects.
Adobe premiere pro is a software that enables you to crop, cut, adjust and apply effects, transitions and apply many other functions to recorded film material. Therefore we began to research possible styles and effects in films, clips, music videos or adverts such as ‘channel 4’s seven days’ television advert where the split screen effect was used. Other research I done was on titles where I looked at other opening sequence titles or music videos that appealed to me due to the different effects and styles used which had been made through editing software’s, this helped me to plan my titles for our film by giving us an idea and something to work on and towards. Adobe premiere pro was a software I used to make adjustments to my film, I used tools such as the razor tool to cut specific amounts of the clip as some clips were too long which took up time unneccerily. I also used effects and transitions such as dip to white in the daydream scene. The editing software also allowed me to make audio adjustments to the volume level so I could lower the volume gradually as it ended and add and exponential fade to soften the ending. I could add audio effects such as ‘delay’ however some problems did occur when it would not transfer onto the clips, therefore I needed technical assistance from a teacher who was more experienced with the software. However, this does not undermine my ability to use the effect an software it just a common technical fault which I have learnt from my As prelim and film to immediately ask for assistance in order to work efficiently and to make use of all the time I had. With the adobe software I could enlarge shots and take print screen shots in which I then pasted into ‘paint’ and then saved as an image. This was used for my ancillary tasks (poster and review) and the technologies made the images easily accessible and usable.
The internet was essential for researching directors, cinematography, films, posters, reviews, films, clips etc. My main sources of information for research was ‘google’ and ‘youtube’ where I the most results from for research. Youtube was used for researching music videos to look at different styles and effects, also to look at films and to get information on directors etc. Google was used for general research into music, directors, movies, images etc. I also used the internet to access websites such as slideshare.com where I converted Microsoft office documents and power points into a slide which was then converted into html and added into the blog. Similar websites were kizoa.com where I added several photos of the photo storyboard, cinematography research etc all into a slide which then converted into an html format and then I added it to the blog.
Using the internet one main technology was the Blog on blogger.com this was used to view other blogs and group member’s blogs which contained our work. The blog is the world of my film I designed the template with a background of red roses linking to the idea of a romantic genre, hinting the world of my film to do with love or relationships etc. The blog was used to file all my research, planning and other media related work in. The blog helped construct my film as it was used for feedback purposes as I received comments for my ancillary tasks, the reviews and poster and from there it helped me learn and improve on my work. The blog was a quick and efficient way to communicate with group members and research peoples work as we had links to other people’s blogs and previous blogs which were in relation to our work.
Thursday 16 December 2010
Lighting in Other media products.
I have used the film Monster-in-law which is a romantic comedy, even though its got comedy in the film it still is combined with the romantic genre, the romantic genre is constantly hinted our through lighting throghout the film, such as the beach scenes, where the natural sun and shadows make the set glow like most beaches do, however taking into consideration this is a mainstream hollywood production, we know some artificial lighting must have been added or the lighting in the shots have been altered, however, the natural 'look' is what creates this realism. This creates a realistic effect and we reflect this kind of realism on the couple that their love is, real. Similarly to our film, we hope to work in similar ways by allowing the natural light to come in through the windows in the room to show the nature of herself, her actions and in contrast to monster-in-law we plan to have the character switch the light on showing her love is not real through the (natural lighting) but fake, through the artificial room lights that she will switch on in the film.
At other times ambient lighting is used, the colour walls are a warm yellow which is combined with the light to create warm brightness in the room, which reflects on the closeness and comfort of the two being together. similarly we plan to use this intergration of soft colours in the day dream scene, where the colours blend and are not harsh, this is to highlight Delilah's 'ideal' perfect world.
Posters from magazines research
This poster i found interesting as the elements
in it seemed pretty persuasive, many quotes of opinions about the movies are on the poster this gives that quick review of the film along with ratings of the film at the top.
In my poster i hope to use this style of content as my film like this one is the first of its kind, meaning there is no sequel to it, it is the first one of its type, therefore, to gather new audience, the poster needs to be attractive, interesting and very persuasive.
From empire magazine i found lots of film posters which i will use as an inspiration and influenence for the making of my own magazine posters.
In this poster im going to in particular analyse the layout of the poster. the title is the biggest, in big font/weared font. This suggest the film is rough. the red taglines and text are balanced at the top and bottom of the poster, this is to emphasise the blod shed in the film and to portray the main genre, horror. The logos of cinemas from many areas are all shown at the bottom, this gives the feeling of exclusiveness, that the fact it is showing in many cinemas must mean the film has it's value and it must be good if it is showing in so many places.
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