Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 1

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

Camera angles and movement

‘2AM: Smiling Man’ (2013) uses a collection of camera angles and movement to highlight rises in tension throughout the short film. These shots include; medium shots and closeups to examine the character’s emotion and fear, handheld tracking and over-the-shoulder shots of the character for a voyeuristic feel, low-level wide shots to magnify the vast space around the character and focus on the isolating setting, slight high angles to depict inferiority and superiority between the antagonistic pair - conforming to Levi Strauss’ binary oppositions theory, and extreme long shots that illustrate the distance between the two characters. With framing, the smiling man is positioned in the right third of the frame, connoting a mysterious, menacing characteristic. I gained inspiration from these techniques and decided to use a selection of these shots when producing the storyboard for Anything But Social to depict the seclusion she experiences, to concentrate on how she is made inferior by her binary opposites - the cyberbullies, and to make her body language and emotions of sorrow a focal point for the audience.


Sound

Media products of the drama genre use various capabilities in terms of sound, this being the use of a non-diegetic soundtrack, diegetic and non-diegetic dialogue, and sound effects. It is crucial to have sound within a drama as it is used to convey different feelings and helps to create atmospheric tension.

An example of the use of sound in a short film is in ‘The Strange Thing About the Johnsons’ (2011). The media product consists of diegetic dialogue throughout, with returning bass beneath - used as a suspenseful sound, resembling that of a heartbeat to show anticipation. This heartbeat-like effect suddenly stops when the male character confronts his father about the story he wrote, recalling all of the instances where his son has abused him. Three minutes into the short film sweet, fairytale-like non-diegetic music is played. This makes the idea of a child masturbating to a picture of his father nonsensical - almost comedic, reflecting the positive times that the father and son shared before the obsession and sexual abuse occurs. The music contradicts what happens throughout the short film as the acts that take place are deemed wrong in society, relating to Gauntlett’s theory (2002).

In my short film, there is no dialogue. This is because we desired to build suspense and agony and drive the narrative through sound non-diegetic music. I made sure to include sound effects to add to the actuality factor of the product. Initially, it was planned to have a line of dialogue from Lucy Merrill’s mother to indicate that she was getting ready for school and insinuate that she is glued to her phone, practising Tessa Perkins theory of stereotypes as teenagers are typically fascinated by technology. Still, we decided not to include this dialogue in the final edit as it made more sense for the events in the short film to take place when her parents were not home, leaving her free to provoke pain on herself. The dialogue also interrupted the atmosphere created by the sound.


Editing

A wide range of editing techniques was used when producing my short film to enhance the alluring factor of the narrative. Continuity editing was used to make sure there was a flow of the narrative, adding to the realistic aspect of the piece. The continuity takes the audience on the protagonist’s journey of depreciation, allowing them to feel for the character and relate to them via similar emotions and experiences. Stimulated by ‘A Social Life’ (2016), I decided to apply match-on-action and superimposition (e.g. when she throws the book and when the images of her flashbacks are layered over a medium shot of her looking distraught). The match-on-action furthers the continuity and actuality of the short film, while the superimposition allows the audience to get an insight into the mind of the character. From watching ‘A Social Life’, I also engaged with the idea of exhibiting the activity on her phone and incorporated this into my short film. When editing, the messages that the protagonist receives as shown as closeups/extreme closeups rather than being layered over the frame. This is so that the audience could focus on the messages and the character’s emotions separately, as the two in the same frame would cause one shot to be distracting from the other. These full shots, therefore, invade her privacy and display her in a vulnerable way. This editing makes these shots almost appear as point-of-view shots for the audience as they are engrossed in the social media cycle just like Lucy.

I thought very carefully about the types of transitions that I would need to use to portray the narrative effectively. As well as using standard fade in/out transitions, I used crossfades between each flashback to show the passing of time and highlight her weakening due to occurrences driven by the narrative, and a ‘dip to white’ transition to distinguish the present from the past. When separating the flashbacks from the present day, I also changed the saturation of the footage. The present-day consists of a cold palette each flashback is a warmer palette, displaying how the character used to be full of life but is now dull and damaged inside. The use of this technique was inspired by the TV Drama ‘13 Reasons Why’ and the short film ‘Tick Tock’ (2011).

After watching ‘Post-It’ (2014), I understood that the conventional opening credits of a short film consist of the companies involved in the production and distribution of the short film. As for the ending credits, these consist of an ascending text with specific spacing between a job role and the person allocated to it.



Poster

A poster had to be designed for my short film as a promotional package, to raise awareness of the product and stimulate attraction to it. The codes and conventions of a film poster include the film title, an image resemblant of the film’s narrative, the leading actors’/actresses’ names, awards won by the film, and an institution blurb. Short film posters are a bit more abstract and stylistic than that of Hollywood blockbusters. Opposing Richard Dyer’s star power, short film posters do not focus on the stars of the production, but more on the meaning behind the image as a focal point. The designer of the poster creates patterns via specific placement so that the eye follows a path - this is the poster’s reading direction and is important in advertising as the reader ends up at the designer’s call for action, evident in the poster for the short film ‘Stutterer’ (2015). The short film title should take up the bulk of the composition.

When thinking about what image I wanted to display on my short film poster, I took inspiration from the drama film ‘Gladiator’ (2000) and decided to have the protagonist as the focal point of the poster. At first, I made it so that the audience could recognise Lucy Merrill and see the emotion of sorrow in her facial expression and body language, getting an idea of the overall theme of my short film. However, when playing with different filters and effects on Photoshop, I came across the ‘stamp’ feature and really liked how this made the poster more transcendental, conforming to the typical short film poster. Conventionally, posters for successful short films have awards from film festivals on them, highlighting how strong the film is as a whole and convincing a wider audience to watch the short film. As well as this, they contain social media handles, using convergence to promote the short film even further.


Film Review

Expanding my promotional package, I generated a film review. Before starting this, I looked into the different types of film review magazines that are available to the public and decided that I wanted the review to be of a casual tone, similar to Empire, rather than the formal style of the BFI’s Sight & Sound, to appeal to my target audience of 15+. As the critical analysis of an Empire review may not be as serious as that of a Sight & Sound review, I decided to take inspiration from both magazines, so that my target audience is engaged by the tone of the review, yet are still made to read about and connect with the serious topic of cyberbullying and its effect in people. This analysis will broaden my potential target audience and appeal to people from the age of 15 to the mature age of 25+, with the addition of enthusiastic media students/ students fascinated by the film industry. Driven by this inspiration, I examined the layout of various Empire film reviews, particularly the film ‘Joy’ in the December 2015 paper issue, and used this as a basis to construct my review. I was intrigued by the difference in layout between the physical copy of the magazine and the online version, but figured that it was more sensible to recreate that of the physical copy as the online page has technological features like hyperlinks to social media and other film review articles - which I wouldn’t have been able to achieve when creating my film review on Adobe Photoshop.

When studying the different film review layouts, I identified the unifying features between them. The header resembles the theme of the review magazine, acquainting the audience with what they are reading. The film title must be in bold to catch the eye of the reader and let them know the context of what they are reading. The information on the film would be the film's length, release date, certification, cast, director and plot outline. The reader is informed of these things to determine if they would go to the cinema to see it - i.e. a person under the age of 15 would be able to watch a 15 certificate film so they would not read the film's review. This information attracts the film's audience. An image from the film is also reviewed. It introduces characters but does not display them doing anything groundbreaking, as to not ruin the film. A strapline accompanies the image, summarising it in little detail as possible to ensure not too much of the narrative is given away. The summary (verdict) and rating display the critic's view on the film; it determines whether or not the film is worthy of praise. The review should be structured in columns and should not take up most of the page. This is because it is meant to be a short read. It should not take up too much of the reader's time. The issue information is located at the bottom of the film review page.

Adobe Photoshop was the most appropriate software to use for constructing my film review and making it look professional as it provides 3D effects, text boxes, shapes and adjustable marginal lines to help with the spacing of columns and the measurements needed to replicate that of a film review by Empire. To ascertain a successful review, I had to correspond to the layout, themes, and style of the content of Empire.

Film Review Draft #3

To improve my film review I followed my previous feedback. When doing this I thought to include the typical 'IN CINEMAS' header that Empire uses, but as my short film will be released on YouTube this isn't needed.

Film Review Draft #2

Film Review Layout

After making my first draft, I realised that I had tried to design the layout for a one-page review based on the layout of a two-page review. Because of this, I decided to construct my film review again, using a typical one-page layout found in the Empire magazine. My layout is based on the film review for 'Joy' (2015) in the December 2015 paper issue.

Film Poster Questionnaire & Results

After developing my four posters, I needed to identify which one of these were the most effective for marketing and promoting my short film.

As shown above, the majority of people who took this questionnaire are 15+, supplying me with valuable opinions from my target audience.

Responses

Poster 1

• 'Gives a sense of entrapment and confusion'
• 'I feel the poster reflects someone looking at a computer screen as its a close up off their face'
• 'Her face'
• 'Close up picture makes it more personal'
• 'I think the zoomed in face works well'
• 'It looks the most professional.'
• 'Colour scheme'
• 'It’s different, something I haven’t seen before and not cheesy' 

Poster 2

• 'The font matches and the social media icons relate to the story'
• 'Shows how different social media platforms can affect someone mentally'
• 'It was subtle and the colours worked better than the others'
• 'Seems more in line with the theme'
• 'I liked the font'
• 'The text that looks digital, connoting the narrative'
• 'Identifies the girl, social media and the title without looking crammed'
• 'It seemed the most realistic to an actual film poster and it looked the most professional'
• 'To me personally, it looked the most professional out of all 4, and I liked how the girl was the centre of the social media apps which could be viewed as symbolic of her being trapped.'
• 'Good representation of what the short film will be about'
• 'The title and the whole image is simple, a bit like the supersize me fulfil poster'
• 'The body language of the character'
• 'Simple and appropriately describes the storyline'

Poster 3

• 'This made me wonder about the dangers of cyberbullying'
• 'Contrast'
• 'The Social media icons and the sad looking girl.'
• 'It's dynamic and fun'
• 'More attractive to the eye, plus indicates some element of bullying at the beginning'
• 'The background shows the typical apps which are being used by many teenagers. The girl with her hands crossed over signifies how she has had enough of social media. She has a melancholic face and has her back turned to the apps.'
• 'I like the background on this one and the picture of the girls shows clearly what the short film is about.'
• 'It is clear and not blurred. Not too many things happening at once'
• 'The backdrop for the poster shows the case of the problem clearly and her position on the cover helps you understand what kind of story it is.'
• 'Incorporates social media elements seamlessly, clearly represents the narrative'
• 'Stresses the idea of social media being a nuisance'
• 'They seemed trapped in their phone'
• 'I think the background as apps is a good way to show her isolation.'
• 'It shows a lonely girl in the midst of social media icons'
• 'The background images of social media icons clearly gives the audience an insight into what the film is about'
• 'The background relates to social media and also shows the girl on the front as alone.'
• 'The background of poster 3 really pushed across the idea of social media and cyberbullying which fits well with the film’s narrative.'
• 'Clear'

Poster 4

• 'Colour'
• 'Preferable graphic'
• 'Was the best one'
• 'It illustrates the effects that cyberbullying can have on an individual'
• 'The colours of the poster, black, show how she's been in darkness due to the cyberbullying'
• 'It’s more intriguing as it’s quite different from the others and gives a bit more of an insight into the actual storyline'
• 'Looks darker and more serious than the others; like it would be related to bullying'
• 'It looks the best'
• 'The dark colour is eye-catching and portrays sadness and fear'
• 'It hones in on the solitude one feels when suffering from cyberbullying. I like the blackness'
• 'It looks more dramatic'
• 'The girl appears to be disconnected from the audience'
• 'Seams the edgiest. Bullying still has a stigma around it so the movie poster should signify that'
• 'It looks edgy (abstract)'
• 'The dark colours create a negative effect which is a good colour for someone getting bullied'
• 'Good contrast of black and white, black showing darkness but white showing there’s still light somewhere inside of you.'
• 'Feels the most like a tragedy which is the genre'
• 'Best aesthetic'
• 'It's clever and simple, but also a powerful image that has more of a lasting impression.'
• 'She has been put in the dark'
• 'Looks the coolest, less amateur and more appealing'
• 'The contrast of the colours'
• 'Has a feeling of depression and loneliness, which suits the storyline'
• 'The reverse of colours suggests a sinister theme to the film' 

Evaluation

From this research I have gathered that most of my target audience favour the last poster, this being the most abstract - which is typical of a short film poster.

I agree with the statements saying that the poster conveys the narrative of my short film in a clever way. I attempted to do this with the composition of this poster, its colour scheme and the effects available on Photoshop. When I first made the poster, it was designed so that the audience could recognise Lucy Merrill and see the emotion of sorrow in her facial expression and body language, getting an idea of the overall theme of my short film. However, when playing with different filters and effects on Photoshop, I came across the ‘stamp’ feature and really liked how this made the poster more transcendental. The character looks as if she’s been stamped, suggesting that she is not her own person and something has a hold on her (social media). As her eyes are white, the audience cannot tell where she is looking and assume she is looking directly at them, entrapping them just like social media has done her. Another interpretation can be related to the colour scheme of the poster. I used a certain colour scheme to portray certain messages. Black was used to represent the negativity that surrounds her, while the green resembles growth and highlights how the character wants to grow as a person but can’t as she is victimised. The navy blue/purple symbolises the confusion she experiences as she is unaware of what she is doing wrong to receive the abuse. Light blue is often associated with stability, contradicting Lucy Merrill’s characteristics as she is pushed into unstability. Lastly, the white corresponds with the character’s innocence and purity implemented in her conscience, illustrating the idea that the eyes are windows to the soul. Notice that the majority of the poster’s hue is dark, depicting the overall adverse atmosphere of the film.

In conclusion, I will be using this media product as my official poster for my short film.

Photoshop

I had the task of producing a film poster and a film review. When doing this, I had to become familiar with the different tools and effects of Adobe Photoshop.

As an introduction to using Photoshop, my teacher set me a task of creating a film poster. When doing this I practised importing images into Photoshop and removing unwanted areas of an image (e.g. background). I also discovered the different layers you could add onto text to create eye-catching titles.

To expand my knowledge of Photoshop, I watched the following video;

From watching this video and completing the task, I understood what tools I needed to used to achieve the desired effects for my short film poster. Here is a video of how I used these tools, showing a segment of the process of creating my ancillary texts.

Film Review Draft #1

After studying the layout of the review of 'Daddy's Home' (2015) from Empire (both the paper issue and the online issue) I produced the first draft of my short film poster.

Film Review Analysis

In order to produce a successful film review, I looked into the different types of film review magazines that are available to the public and studied the layout and structure of a typical film review produced by this institution. I decided that I wanted the review to be of a casual tone, similar to Empire, rather than the formal style of the BFI’s Sight & Sound, to appeal to my target audience of 15+.
 

Film Review Distribution

I looked into the different types of film review magazines that are available to the public and decided that I want my short film review to be of a casual tone, similar to Empire, rather than the formal style of the BFI’s Sight & Sound, to appeal to my target audience of 15+. As the critical analysis of an Empire review may not be as serious as that of a Sight & Sound review, I have decided to take inspiration from both magazines, so that my target audience are engaged by the tone of the review, yet are still made to read about and connect with the serious topic of cyberbullying and its effect in people. This analysis will broaden my potential target audience and appeal to people from the age of 15 to the mature age of 25+, with the addition of enthusiastic media students/ students fascinated by the film industry. Driven by this inspiration, I examined the layout of various Empire film reviews, particularly the film ‘Joy’ in the December 2015 paper issue, and used this as a basis to construct my review. I was intrigued by the difference in layout between the physical copy of the magazine and the online version, but figured that it would be more sensible to recreate that of the physical copy as the online page has technological features like hyperlinks to social media and other film review articles - which I won't be able to achieve when creating my film review on Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is the most appropriate software to use for constructing my film review and making it look professional as it provides 3D effects, text boxes, shapes and adjustable marginal lines to help with the spacing of columns and the measurements needed to replicate that of a film review by Empire. To ascertain a successful review, I need to correspond to the layout, themes, and style of content of Empire.

Film Review Content

In lesson, I was able to analyse this review for the film Bad Moms (2016) and examine the language used.

Using these resources and my knowledge of the style of content of the Bad Moms review, I was able to make a draft of my film review for my short film.

I gained feedback from this draft and understood that I had to expand on my opinions and explore all aspects of the film.

The Guardian

Before starting my A2 Media coursework, I attended a trip to The Guardian with my class. Here we were able to analyse the layout of a typical article, as well as understand how various genres of articles are written in specific tones. After this, we were asked to create our own individual articles. Mine was of the Christmas genre. When creating this, I was shown how to search for an image related to my article on the Guardian database and place it into the allocated image box. There were several layouts for a person to choose from when creating their article, introducing me to the different styles and layouts of articles. From this trip, I understood that articles are written in columns, include images and image captions, and display enlarged quotes from the article itself. I will apply this knowledge to my film review when I planning it's creation.

Film Poster: Second Drafts & Feedback

Responding to the feedback I received for my first drafts, I developed my four posters and gained feedback from my target audience on these.

Film Poster: First Drafts & Feedback

Film Poster Analysis

The codes and conventions of a film poster include the film title, an image resemblant of the film’s narrative, the leading actors’/actresses’ names, awards won by the film, and an institution blurb.

Hollywood Blockbusters - 12 Years a Slave (2013)

The institution blurb is has a grey font. This isn’t very easy on the eye against the white background, suggesting that, although it is fairly large, the blurb should not be the main focus of the film poster. The institutions want the audience to focus on the main image presented. The award on the poster assures the audience of the film’s value and encourages them to watch it as it has been awarded by them, the people. The surnames of the actors/actresses are always capitalised as people are referred to by their surname in the film industry. A person's surname is unique, making it easier to identify actors and actresses this way rather than their first names (many people have the same first name).

Further Analysis:

The situation of the actors' names is atypical as they are not presented at the top of the poster but on the body of the image. This is so that the consumer can focus on the image of the poster and determine whether or not the film ends happily or tragically. If the cast names were present in a dark font at the top of the poster it would disturb this image. From the use of a white, glowing background, I can infer that the film ends happily as this colour is symbolic of freedom.
The character's costume consists of ripped black trousers and a beige shirt. The colour black symbolises death, suggesting that the film focuses on the severe brutality against slaves rather than portraying the limited information the audience has received through education. This idea is supported by the rip in his trousers, informing the audience of the cruelty the character experiences. This confirms the film's genre; historical drama. The colour beige has connotations of confusion, implying that the character is confused as to why people of colour are treated wrongly.
The font of the title is a quill type style, resembling the era that the film is set in.
The number '12’ is the only text printed in a non-greyscale colour, highlighting the length of the trauma the character experiences. The underlining of the title brings significance to it, implies that there is only one strict focal point of the film; the life of a slave.

Short Films - Stutterer (2015)

Short film posters are a bit more abstract and stylistic than that of Hollywood blockbusters. Opposing Richard Dyer’s star power, short film posters do not focus on the stars of the production, but more on the meaning behind the image as a focal point. The designer of the poster creates patterns via specific placement so that the eye follows a path - this is the poster’s reading direction and is important in advertising as the reader ends up at the designer’s call for action, evident in the poster for the short film ‘Stutterer’ (2015). The title ‘Stutterer’ is printed 5 times to resemble a repetitive stutter, hinting its significance within the short film. The short film title should take up the bulk of the composition.

 

This product is typical of a film poster. The actor's and actress' names are at the top of the poster. Usually, there is a lot of space between the characters names and any images on the poster, but this space is disregarded on short film posters as they contain very few characters. The character is presented centre frame, perfectly positioned using the rule of thirds.

Conventionally, posters for successful short films have awards from film festivals on them, highlighting how strong the film is as a whole and convincing a wider audience to watch the short film. As well as this, they contain social media handles, using convergence to promote the short film even further. These features are evident in the poster for 'Beating Hearts' (2011) and the teaser poster for 'Ape' (unknown).

After analysing the Hollywood blockbuster and short film posters I constructed a table listing each element displayed in the posters, allowing me to identify the similarities and differences between them.

I studied this institution blurbs on the posters for 'Attack the Block' (2011) and 'Ronin' (1998) and devised a structure for the institution blurb that I include on my film poster.