Media Evaluation. Part 2.

Media Evaluation. Part 1.

In what ways does the media product use from lawrieleighpainter

Critical Evaluation - Part 4

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These images demonstrate the production of my Critical Evaluation - Task 2

This image shows the way how I read my Task 2 evaluation. It's a TelePrompter App for the iPad. You type text into the generator, then when you press the 'start' button, the words appear on the screen.

This is an example of what the words look like when they are on the screen. This made it much more easier for me to produce my task 2 evaluation. The words were easy to see because they were displayed on an iPad.

I thought this was a clever background to shoot my Task 2 Critical Evaluation. The poster in the background ads a professional touch to the evaluation. A Sony HDR-CX190 Handycam was placed on top of the tripod and a Jessop's light was stood on a smaller tripod to the left of the camera. I postitioned the lighting at that angle so that it lightens my face but also doesn't beam a shadow on the poster whilst filming. 

Critical Evaluation - Part 2

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Critical Evaluation - Part 3

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Critical Evaluation - Part 1

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

The following clip is our group's 5 minute short film called 'Alice'.




‘Alice’, is a fictional horror/thriller story. However the film is shown in a documentary style. The documentary style aspect of the film means that the technique ‘shot reverse shot’ is nonexistent. This is because, the majority of the film show the interviews of the people who used to be in Alice’s life.  The interviews are shot using the conventions of a documentary style film. Documentary style and interview camera angles are commonly medium close-up shots, as shown in my research. The medium close-up shot combines a mid shot and a close-up shot which shows the face more clearly but doesn’t get uncomfortably close.

The ‘Mother’ interview shot uses a high angle medium close-up shot. This makes the mother look powerless over her daughter Alice who the interview is about. 

As opposed to the opening shot when Alice is first shown to the audience where she is filmed using a medium close-up shot and the close-up shot of Alice which appears halfway through the mother’s interview. These are both low angle shots which give the impression that Alice is powerful and dominant.

Throughout the film, Alice is shown to be smoking a cigarette. This uses mis-en-scene and suggests to the audience that Alice is a rebel and doesn't care about damaging her lungs or killing herself.

As well as documentary styled camera angles, standard film camera angles were used in our film. The scene where Alice is walking through a tunnel, the camera angle begins as an over-the-shoulder shot. When Alice walks down the tunnel, the camera begins a dolly shot which slowly follow Alice down the tunnel. It gives the impression that someone is walking behind Alice. By the time Alice gets to the end of the tunnel, the shot has developed into a long-shot which gives a larger perspective of  Alice’s surroundings.

This camera angle is how the scene begins.

This is the long shot camera angle how the scene ends. I used a "flashframe" transition to get the really bright effect when the scene is merging into the next scene. This looks really professional and paid of in the editing.  

Throughout the film, many editing techniques are used to achieve a smooth level of continuity.

When Alice’s mother is first shown to the audience, she boils the kettle and makes a cup of tea. This scene is a perfectly edited sequence which establishes logical coherence between shots by using quick cut editing. This editing technique is achieved by cutting to continuity which achieves a smooth transition of time. Basically, it gives the effect of breaking a lengthy task down to only last a few seconds, and only includes the most important features of the subject of which the shot is representing. Inspiration for this shot is sourced from the “Gearing up” scene from the film “Commando”. This can found in my ‘Editing Techniques’ research.

A lot of positive feedback was received from my films questionnaire feedback data. For instance, “The editing was good. In some places shots were cut to the music. There was also an interesting use of transitional effects between shots.” This was answered from the question, “What did you think about the use of editing throughout the film?” The music matched the cuts in the opening sequence where the pictures in the photo album where shown. This visually satisfies the audience and makes the transitions between the photo shots smooth and appealing. This demonstrates a level of continuity throughout the film; including a high level of editing even in the smaller detail. The non-diegetic sounds match the visual footage shown on screen. The non-diegetic sound is the Alice’s voice-over, and the footage shown on screen relate to the things she says. An example of this is in the opening sequence when Alice says in the voice-over, “...this is the main protein in bone and is essential for its strength, so my doctor told me I had to eat more protein.” Whilst at the same time some footage raw meat on a butcher’s counter is shown on screen. This shows the fluency and continuity of the opening sequence.

The way each shot is filmed influences how the audience will perceive the narrative and characters.  “I enjoyed how camera shots were related to the narrative” - this is a piece of questionnaire feedback data in answer to the question, “What did you think about the camera work and camera angles used in the film?” This shows that appropriate shots were shown in accordance to the narrative and voice over. This is important to satisfy the audience and make them further engaged in the film.

“Excellent editing, I thought the way images blurred in and out e.g the text made it eery.” - This is a piece of questionnaire feedback data in answer to the question “What did you think about the use of editing throughout the film?” Attention to detail in the editing process helps the film to achieve the Horror/Thriller genre. The paradigm of the horror/thriller genre was researched so that I could incorporate some of those paradigm factors into my film. Blurring the text in the title sequence gives the film a horror styled eeriness. The music which is used throughout the film and radio trailer is a piano based song called “Love Hurts”.  The song reflects the horror/thriller genre achieving continuity. The sound effects which are used throughout the film are appropriate each scene. I have used, horror drones when appropriate to create tension; a cinematic boom when the title Alice appears in the title sequence. A reversed chime effect is used after the end scene which intensifies and underlines the shocking twist at the end of the film and retains the audience’s attention.

The radio trailer uses the same music “Love Hurts” and similar sound effects. The horror drone from the film, a heartbeat sound effect when Alice’s voice over is played. This is the first clue to what Alice actually is... A human in a world surround by Vampires. There are sound effects which are only included in the radio trailer such as a lightning effect to start and finish the radio trailer which strengthens the horror/thriller genre.

  

The most complex editing is shown in the “pool hall” scene. Firstly, the shot was wire framed to evenly fit the screen and look more of a framed angle shot. Secondly, the “pool hall” shots purpose is to demonstrate a passage of time, suggesting that Alice is in her own world thinking about her life, whilst not paying attention to events happening around her life. Because of this, the shot was speed up 850 times quicker than the normal speed that the shot was filmed at. 

To make the shot look more attractive and professional, a “wide frame” effect was added to the shot which creates a trail effect. This allows the balls of the pool table to travel 850 times quicker than normal with ghost like trails behind their wake. This visually stimulates the audience and achieves a level of high quality editing. The following clauses are quotes from the questionnaire feedback data. “Editing was very good. Loved the use of time lapse in the snooker hall”, “particularly liked the shots around the pool table creating the effect of time passing very clever”, “Brilliant film work, especially the part by the pool table where Alice stood still but everything else was moving around her.” And “Interesting - created trendy normal images -particularly liked the shots around the pool table creating the effect of time passing very clever. A hint of Blair witch documentary style - maybe hints of the monster inside or the dark side ... Haunting wanting to know more”

These questionnaire responses illustrate that the “pool hall” shots were effective. 

Another editing technique which is demonstrated in the film is the 180 degree rule. This can be seen in the Ex-best friend scene of the film. The interview shows Alice’s Ex-Best friend as a medium-close up shot sat at a table and facing the camera. In the interview the shot cuts to the right of the character where she is seen to be reading her book in the same place as she is sat in the interview. When the shot jumps to the right hand side of the character, the positioning of the camera angle keeps in the boundaries of the 180 degree line which makes the cut look fluent and natural. This high level of continuity visually satisfies the audience and makes cuts smooth.

Match-on-action is another editing technique which was used to strengthen the continuity of the film. “I liked the cutting between Mum's cuppa and the girl drinking coffee” This is some questionnaire feedback data of someone’s answer to the question “What did you think about the use of editing throughout the film?” This demonstrates the use of match-on-action of the transition between the two shots. This allows the transition to run smoothly. The shot was wire-framed to perfectly line up with each shot. The shot was flawlessly edited to capture the motion of the mug going to the mouth and then back down to the table.

A great example of a use of Match-on-action can be seen in our group's preliminary task before we created our short film. This task practiced are film making skills, i.e. camera work, acting and editing.

Our film follows the conventions of the horror/thriller genre throughout. Mainly this is achieved by the suspense and anticipation that the audience doesn’t know what is Alice’s illness and what makes her different from everyone else. This keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. The music follows the horror/thriller genre. The piano music is very eerie and carries with it a feeling of suspense. The following quote is from the questionnaire feedback data which suggests that the film has audibly achieved the conventions of the horror/thriller genre. “The sound effects made the film look more professional. The piano music went well with the genre of the film.”

The dark lighting throughout the film makes the shots look gothic which adds finesse to the shots and helps to achieve the genre of the film.

CLICK HERE for research about "Hitchcock the master of suspense". 

An audience pleasure which is provided from the film could be the Richard Dyers’ Utopian theory. The theory is the suggestion that people watch fictional films for the escapism and distraction from their everyday lives. This applies to my film for the people who wish to escape from their everyday lives and experience a fictional world that is unlike realism which contains monsters in a world which appears normal. However, the full extent of the theory goes on to say that people want to escape to a fictional place which is a perfect and ideal world; a Utopian society. In this case, this is not fully achieved from my film. However, the most significant audience pleasure which applies to my film is the uses and gratifications theory. This theory suggests that the audience take an active role in interpreting and associating the film with their own lives. My film ‘Alice’ is based around the angst of teenage life. The film appeals to anyone who is a teenager or has a relationship with a teenager. They could be parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, teachers or anyone who knows a teenager. This is because the main character of my film is a teenager; and the troubles and angst of teenage life is represented in my film. The following piece of questionnaire feedback data “From watching the film, who do you think is our films main audience and why? (Gender and Age)”, was answered to the question “From watching the film, who do you think is our films main audience and why? (Gender and Age)” this data strengthens my point. One theory which the uses and gratification theory can fulfil is educating the audience from the film. In the opening sequence of my film, the main character Alice talks about a bone illness which she was diagnosed with when she was young; called “osteogenesis imperfecta”. This is a real disease which gives the audience a level of education.

The film subverts the narrative of the film deliberately. This is because the final scene gives the film a complete twist. The final scene reveals that the Mother along with everyone else are Vampires; by saying “She’s not normal Alice, she’s not one of us” then snarling her vampire teeth at the camera. This adds a surprising twist. The narrative makes the audience think that it’s going to be Alice who is the monster to the audience. But actually, she was normal like the audience, but is not normal in a world full of vampires.

Creating Our group's Film Poster

The following clip is a Prezi explaining the process of how I created our Short Film's Poster, using Adobe Photoshop software.


 

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Editing Techniques

Here is an example of a very effect editing technique. This clip is from the film "Commando" and is the famous "Gear up" scene. It is a perfectly editing montage of exaggerated weaponry and sound effects to match.



I have used this editing technique as inspiration to create the kettle scene in my short film. The kettle scene used quick editing to show Alice's Mother boiling the kettle and making a cup of tea.

The following images demonstrate the order of shots in sequence.

The sequence doesn't particularly feature match on action because the quick cut editing is supposed to give the effect of breaking a lengthy task down to last a few seconds and only include the most important features.

Interview Questionnaire Resullts

This is the questionnaire results video from our preliminary research before we started the creation of our film. 

Not only did this questionnaire help us practice our filming and editing, but it gave us great insight and different ideas of how to adapt our short film idea into something that will appeal to a majority of audience. 

In the interview we asked people about their preferred film genre, their opinion about films with a twist ending, general feedback of our film idea and many more contributing questions.  

...

Alice: Radio Trailer Script

The following image is the script for our radio trailer for our short film Alice. The script was created on 'Celtx' and shows the different features which will be contained in the radio trailer. The script shows the character or narrator's speech, sound effect which will be in it in their specific place and the dialogue which will be used.

ALICE: Official Short Film (alternative ending)

This is the final and official version of Alice the short film by Celestial Pictures.

The first draft of our groups short film was posted on YouTube. I created a questionnaire on google docs. I posted the questionnaire on Facebook and Twitter which contained a link to my film. This enabled me to receive feedback about the film from the audience. This is so that I could make any amendments or changes which could improve the film.

After questionnaire data was analysed, some people didn't fully understand or come to grips with the narrative and genre of the film. People were also confused about the mystery behind Alice's illness.

The feedback from the audience suggested that a few changes should be made on the film to make the narrative and genre of the film more understandable. The audience who answered the questionnaire showed a lot of concern about the lack of information at the end of the film about Alice's illness and why she's the odd one out from everyone else.

However, this official version of Alice uses an alternative ending, which will reveal the truth about Alice's illness and why she is not like everyone else. Afterall, "The supernatural is the natural not yet understood" - Elbert Hubbard

Thriller/Horror/Sci-fi Radio Trailer Research

The following YouTube clips are film radio trailers which follow a horror/thriller genre.

 

The Alien 1979 radio trailer is very basic. But that is all that it needs to be. The radio trailers mainly consist of music and sound effects which are used in the film. The music links to the genre of the film. There is very little dialogue in the radio trailer. The only part of dialogue in the trailer says "In space, no one can hear you scream! Alien, rated R from 20th Century Fox". However, in this short piece of dialogue, a lot of things are mentioned. These things are:

• The name of the film. 
• The age certificate of the film.
• The film's production company
• And the films tag line "In space, no one can hear you scream!"

However, the radio trailer contains no diegetic dialogue from the characters in the film. This is a common feature of modern radio trailers because they can give the audience an idea about the narrative of the film. 

The following two YouTube clips show two similar radio trailers which contain diegetic dialogue from the characters in the film. 

  





From this research, I will contain the features used in the Alien film, which apply to my film. These are:

• The name of the film. 
• The age certificate of the film.
• The film's production company
• And the films tag line "In space, no one can hear you scream!"

I will also include some diegetic sounds from my film which will be some of the character's dialogue. This is because I want to give the audience an idea of the narrative of my film.

Alice: Short Film Script and Analysis

The following images are screen shots of the script of our groups short film.

The script was created on an Apple Mac desktop via software called Celtx.

The script shows the scene heading, characters name, action and dialogue for each section of our short film. This was an important feature which made the production of the film run smoothly.

The images are in chronological order of which they are shown in the film. The script was created at the same time as the storyboards for each scene. This was so that a clear layout of the different sections of the film and narrative would be shown. This would also show the order of which the scenes would be produced. Because of this, the film production team and actors would be able to familiarise themselves with each part of the film before the filming. This would increase productivity.    

Alice: Final Film Poster Analysis

This is the final film poster for the 5 minute short film Alice.

On the first draft film poster, our groups production company logo was missing. Therefore, I edited the logo on to the poster. This has made the poster more realistic by following the exact conventions of a film poster.

From researching thriller film posters I acknowledged some significant features which need to be contained in a thriller film poster. Firstly, most thriller film posters included a blue tint, which sets an eerie yet intriguing mood. The credit text at the bottom of the poster follows the conventions of any film poster. The text has been stretched and orthographically follows the same features of any other film poster.

The film certification is displayed at the bottom right of the poster, as well as our group's production logo and Barnsley College logo.

The title of the film is displayed in the centre of the poster and has a considerably larger font size than the other text. This makes the film title more distinct and noticeable. This is a common feature in other film posters.

Alice: Radio Trailer Analysis

This is our groups official radio trailer. The radio trailer was created using Imovie on an Apple Macbook Pro. The radio trailer was based on several radio trailers which I researched. The Radio Trailer is 27 seconds long which is an ideal length for a trailer which can only use audio.

The audio from the radio trailer uses diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Some sound clips from the short film have been abstracted and included in the trailer. Also, a voice over has been added to the trailer which allows extra information to be included in the trailer.

The non-diegetic and diegetic sound from our short film:

The diegetic sound from the film which is in the trailer is some of the quotations from some of the characters interviews such as:

• "to how close we actually were, I just didn't think that she'd actually do it to me"

The non-diegetic sound from the film which is in the trailer is some of Alice's voice over which introduces Alice to the audience. 

• "My name is Alice, I'm 19 years old and I'm a monster"

There is also a narration throughout the radio trailer. The narration helps give the audience more information and details about the film. For instance:

• The production company who made the film. - "A Celestial Studios Production"
• Strong statements which intrigues the audience. - "Someone who cannot be helped"
• A quote which is used in the film and on the film poster. - "The supernatural is the natural not yet understood"
• The radio  trailer ends with the name of the film, release date and the rated age certificate. - "Alice, coming soon, rated 15

Alice: Final Radio Trailer

This is our groups official radio trailer.

Alice: Film Production Logo Analysis

Our groups production logo was created on Adobe Photoshop. An image of a moon is incorporated in to the logo. This is to link our logo with our short film. Our film is about a girl who is supernatural. The film is a horror/thriller film which links with the eeriness of the logo.

Celestial means: "Positioned in or relating to the sky, or outer space as observed in astronomy" or "Belonging or relating to heaven." 

The idea that Alice is something from outer space or belongs to heaven is very intriguing. Small clues are left throughout the logo design, radio trailer and film poster, which give more information about the story line behind the narrative shown about Alice's illness.

The black and white text and image carries on the theme of good and evil. The white contrasts the black background and dark shadows on the moon. This concept related to the horror/thriller genre of our short film.

Questionnaire Feedback Results Analysis

Feedback Results

Feedback received from the Questionnaire has brought to light some issues which need to be changed.

The main issues from the questionnaire results are that in some cases the audience wasn't sure what the plot and narrative the short film is. People was confused with the issues surrounding Alice and that they were quite difficult for the audience to understand.

Here are some of the data from the questionnaire:


What could have improved the film?

• "Again, it could be my stupidity, but I couldn't quite work out the purpose of the film."
• "More of an insight on what happened to her."
• "To see what Alice was hiding from everyone."
• "I'd like more obvious clues about what was wrong with Alice. What was it that she had learned to live with? She said herself "it was never about her bones."
• "better ending."
• "more if an insight of what happened to her."

Was the music and sound effects appropriate for the film and why?

• "Yes & no. Initially I thought this was a horror genre, given the title sequence & music - I found this to be effective. however, as i continued to watch, i couldnt decide if it was a spoof or documentary. Perhaps it's just me but I was a little confused, sorry!"
• Created drama and a sense of seriousness and tension."

Did you understand the film's plot and storyline?

• "Not entirely."
• "I think, but need to watch it again."
• "I think so."

This data suggests that more information about Alice's illness needs to be shown in the narrative. The lack of information in the narrative about Alice's illness confuses people about the purpose of the film. These issues need to be addressed to improve the overall film.

To show Alice's illness in more light and to reinforce the horror/thriller element of the film, a final shot has been added at the end of the film. The shot shows Alice's mother brushing her teeth in the mirror. She'll then say "Alice isn't normal, she's not like us" then turn around and scream towards the camera whilst showing her teeth. She will show that she has vampire fangs. This will completely turn the plot of the film on it's head and add an unexpected twist. The audience will be startled by the scream and at the same time find out that Alice was the only normal person and the rest of people are vampire monsters. This will reinforce the thriller and horror aspect of the film and also add an unexpected twist to the narrative.

The following images are some results from the questionnaire which has been entered into column graphs and a pie chart:

These results suggests that our film will appeal more to a younger audience. People aged 15-17 were by far the most popular age answer my questionnaire.  

Because the genre of our film is Horror/Thriller; these results suggest that we were successful in making the film as a Horror/thriller genre. 

The common place where short films are released is online on various sites such as YouTube. This strengthens our initial thoughts.

Thriller Film Poster Research

The following images are a selection of thriller film posters:

Thriller Film Poster Conventions 

Mainly, film posters are portrait. However, I found some posters which were landscape. For example, the Inception poster above.

The majority of Thriller Film Posters have a blue tint. This creates an eerie, yet intriguing mood.

Here is a screen shot of 'Thriller film posters' which was searched via Google images. 

  As seen above, the majority of thriller film posters include the blue tint which is a common convention.

The title of the film is has a very large font compared to the rest of the text. This helps the title to stand out from the rest of the poster. The title is displayed in the centre of the poster, but differs from the top to the bottom depending on the images in the poster. For example, posters which contain close-up shots of faces, usually displayed the title underneath the face or across the eyes of the character. If the poster contains a background image, then the title text is normally place at the bottom of the poster or adapting around the scenery.

There is no specific criteria for a thriller film poster. The graphology of thriller film posters are always different. However the contents which are shown on them are always the same.

Factors which are always shown on a thriller poster:

• Title of the film
• Credit text (at the bottom of the poster)
• Blue tint effect
• Directors name and previous films which the director has made
• Age certification
• Production Company logo

Factors which can vary in a thriller film poster:

• Text clauses from the film
• Release date
• Actors name (usually if the actor is not shown on the poster)

The research in to Thriller Film posters will help me to produce a Thriller film poster which contains the conventions of a thriller film poster, but also includes unique elements which apply to our 5 minute short film.  

 

Alice: Film Production Logo

Alice: Film Poster Final

This is the final film poster for the 5 minute short film Alice.

Alice: First Draft Film Poster by Josh Walker

This is my first draft film poster for the 5 minute short film Alice.

Alice: First Draft Short Film

This is the first draft of our 5 minute short film 'Alice'. The first draft's purpose is to receive feedback from the audience. The data collected from the questionnaire will be used to improve the film.

Depending on the results from the questionnaire; re-filming and/or re-editing shots could take place which will create a much better finished film.