Sunday 11 April 2010

Friday 9 April 2010

Evaluation

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

Here are 9 short films that i think have all or maybe some of the conventions of a short film:



1. Inside: This is about a man in the mental hospital. It shows the audience the different characters in his head but at the end the show a twist, which would be one of the conventions. The number of characters used wouldn't normally be found in a short film but it really shows the audience the way they have though about it. I would say the genre would be typical, and every short film is a horror or a thriller film. You couldn't relate to the main character, but it shows a surreal life and this would be one of the conventions also as most films I've seen are not what you would expect in real life that you would see but they do occur. This inspires me as they've thought about the mise en scene and this brought the whole film together. You could actually believe that they're in a mental hospital. They've used a mixture of digetic and non-digetic sounds and this is affective as well. This film was between 1-5 minutes.

2. Noise: A man who listens to the millions of every day sounds loses his hearing and is lost in the vast emptiness of sound. This is similar to 'Stolen Life' as its about struggles that people go through everyday, and this film is very inspiring as they've shown what I believe is a typical short film. They've use non-digetic sounds-voice overs and music to show the emptiness the man is feeling in the film. This I would say is a real life even that deaf people go through, shows a message to the audience of how people live. There wasn't a twist in the film as we see that he was deaf to begin with. This film was also between 1-5 minutes.

3. Temptation: Is it possible to live beyond the reach of temptation? This short film really inspires me to make meaningful films that would show the audience a message that would make them think, this film exactly did that. The dialogue used, I think is in his mind so I would believe that would be a non-digetic sound. It shows the way people go through all the temptations everyday. This film was 3 minutes long which fits in the short film conventions. There is one main character and a lot characters that come and go, this is affective as it helps show what he is feeling and thinking.

4. The Plan: A man quits his job, leaves his girlfriend and drives to Vegas to put all of his money on red. This film was less than 5 minutes long which a short film should be, it was also affective as the other ones. It had a message in the film that you shouldn't drop everything and run off to do something crazy, which makes an audience think and also draws the audience in. They've used a lot of quick cuts and this kind of editing skill is mostly used in short films, this helped me with my film as long cuts wouldn't tell the story in less than 5 minutes.

5. Teeth: Two men fishing and one loses his teeth. This is a very sweet but funny film its just over 2 minutes long and I think they've shown a lot in just two minutes. I love the way the filming was done for this short film, showing two old men in the middle of a lake fishing and laughing and messing around, it feels like their in their own world, it shows a beautiful meaning of friendship. This film would challenge the conventions of a short film, as it is it what I've seen before in a short film. They are mostly serious and show a sad side to life, but this film just makes me smile every time I see it, and I think this is a really affective film.

6. The Box: About people's curiosity getting the better of them. This would be a horror film and this film is good as it made me think about the box and wanting to know whats in there, it draws an audience in and this what makes a affective short film - you need to get the audience attention from the start other wise they drift off. This film conforms a short film conventions as it uses all the quick cuts and shows a big twist in the film.

7. Invisibilities: A short film inspired by the stories of four people who are suffering from silent disabilities. This is about 4.30 minutes long. This is a film to show what some girls go through everyday, they can't do what 'normal' kids can do because of their disabilities, and this is really inspiring for a lot of girls. This confirms the convention of a short film, showing quick cuts and showing every thing in a little time, its really good. The music used really comments the film really well and I like the way they've put the whole film together.

8. The Black Hole: A sleep deprived office worker finds a Black Hole whilst photocopying late one night Suddenly the possibilities seem endless. Will greed get the better of him? This film is really good because of the illusion they have created to show that a piece of paper can help you get chocolate from a vending machine. I love the way they have shown how greedy people can get in a split of a second. This film is defiantly a short film convention - has all the short cuts, its 3 minutes long, the genre is thriller, it portrays a real life situations and it's between 1-2 characters.

9. The Switch: Animation about a box making people into boxes. This short film is really affective as it uses simple objects to create a funny but cute film. This has all the convetions of a short film also - it has only one character, they've used editing in a way to create an audience wanting to watch on, its about 3 minutes long as well. This would be a lot of work to do as its animation, I would love to make an animated short film.




1. This shows two main protagonists side by side in one frame, this is challenging the conventions of short films as its usually one main instead we have two in our film.

2. There are also other characters in the film in order to tell the story of the two main protagonists, this is challenging the conventions as most short films have one character and thats it but most of the short films I've analysed have used more than one character and is as good as having one protagonists on its on.

3. This is one of the central protagonists in the film, we have used more than one protagonist as its a story about two different people with the same passion.

4. This is one of the central protagonists in the film, I would say she is the main one as the story the ends, the audience seems more simpathetic with Tina and would have the public talk about her more and the way she is being treated.

5. This scene is the started of the twist in the film, Sandra is lowering Tina to think that she is genuinlly being nice and making her feel good about her art work, she also helps Tina out by giving her a new pencil so she can carry on drawing.

6. This is where you see the real reason why Sandra is interested in Tina and being nice to her, this shows one of the conventions of a short film as this would be the twist in the film, the audience thinks that there is nothing going on at the moment but when Sandra pulls her phone out, the audience then sees a bigger picture of what to expect next.

7. This is showing Tina on the streets looking for food or shelter, this shows the difference in lifestyle as its showing typical themes for a dramatic short film.

8. This is another character shown in Stolen Life and this also challenges the conventions of a short film. I think having some extras helps tells the story that we are targeting to our audience.

9. This shows that we used non-diegetic music over most of our film as Tina is in shock. Even though the mood of the film changed especially in this scene, the music had mellowed down and ends the plot and sums up the film.

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

Here is the script for this evaluation task:




Here is a video of Me, Vanessa and Rebecca talking about our products we've made:

A2 practical projects/Short film/Evaluation for film, poster, trailer from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.



This is our radio trailer:

Radio Trailer by niisha


Question Three - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I decided to upload our short film on to YouTube as I wanted to get a public response to our film and get constructive feeback. One person said that they loved how the music is connected with the film, this shows that the music that we composed our selves worked and is perfect for our target audience. Another person got the idea and the message that we wanted the targeted audience to understand and feel the contrast between the two artists, one being a well know artist and one being a homeless. This is a better way to show off the hard work we put into this film and this will be up on facebook for everyone to see and maybe I can get reponses to those that i wouldn't consider being the targeted audience we was going for.




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

Thursday 1 April 2010

Thursday 25 March 2010

Sunday 21 March 2010

Film Poster

This is the pictures we took for the film poster, we took as many as we can so we could make sure that we had enough choice and different levels so that we can produce a good poster.





This is the final design for our film poster. I think it looks great and all the fonts and colours used fit in with our film, and the picture we used show the big difference in the two character's lives.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Music

Most of the short film I've analysed have hardly any digetic sounds and use a piece of instramental music to get the feel of the short film. I believe its more affective than having a lot dialogues and digetic sounds. I started looking a different beats and playing around with them to get the perfect sound for our film and this is what i came up with:

Stolen Life Soundtrackbyforsyth

Friday 19 February 2010

Moodboard

I did this mood board to give me a better understanding of the stereotypes verses reality. I found images on the internet and researched words that relate to homelessness. This should give a clear idea of the way we represent homeless people in our short film.


Tuesday 2 February 2010

Story Board

This is the story board for Stolen Life, We didn't exactly stick to the plans when filming beacuse it didn't look right. We did what we wanted to but changed some things, for example, the scene where Tina goes into a corner shop and begs there. When we got to film that scene it was raining and we thought it would be affective if she was begging outside in the rain than just begging in a shop.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Location Shots

We went around on the streets finding possible place where we could film and we came up with a few ideas and we decided to shoot in the following places:





This is where Tina is going to spend the rest of her life, sitting her in a quiet place alone. The graffiti gives the impression that this is in a unwanted area, contrasting with the nice cars and houses around her. This area is perfect for us to film as there will be not extra noises that will be picked up and noone will distract us.





This is a dead end road where it shows Tina, our homeless character, is not segegated from society shows loneliness. This also shows that this is the only thing thats left for her.




The wet weather conditions shown here would put the icing on the cake to draw the audience emotionally towards Tina. These connotations of rain is depression and sad.




We was planning to use a different bus stop but we thought that it would be a great way to show the hard life that homeless people go through everyday. This would hopefully draw in the audience making them feel sorry for Tina.




Sandra will be walking down this road as it matching her status. This creates an idea of wealth and power that contrasts with the graffiti on the wall where Tina will be.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Different sounds

I researched on different instramental music to get the feel that its a sad piece of film. I searched on youtube and found some music that I thought would fit with the consept of the film but it was`way too serious. Here are some music I found on youtube:









This would be a perfect piece of music to use in my short film, but then i had to look at the legal side of this and the process of getting permission to use any type of music for my film. I would need to contact the people that produced the music and ask them if i could use their music in my film and that would take about two weeks maybe to get permission or not. All the music I found on youtube were dramatic and we didnt want to bring that feel to the firl as our film is not as dramatic as this music; we needed it to fit in perfectly. I learnt the basics of Logic and started to use the program to create the music we wanted with a guitar recording, hoping it would reduces the dramatic feeling.