Shannen Smith's Evaluation

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

An artistic convention is a method or style of conveying or portraying something that is widely used and recognised as meaning a certain thing, or conforming to a certain style. This can be applied to films, art, music or anything artistic.

Short films which are evidence of typical features of a generic short film

• Narrative organisation in short films usually is usually very simple, yet it is made exciting and interesting with other features. For example, in the short film "On Hold" (1), the narrative is a young man making a prolonged phone call to the  bank, yet it is made to be funny and interesting through other conventions such as representation and mise en scene. 

• Character representation is one of the main conventions of short films, as it can be one of the main themes of the film, as well as helping build upon other conventions such as narrative. In the short film "love...HURTS!" (2), character representation is key as it is one of the main themes of the film - the two childrens' stereotypical representations are turned on their head and swapped around. 

• Typically the camera work in short films is quite a big focus for the film maker. This is because it allows a simple narrative to come to life with different shots and angles. The camera work in "Rocket" (3) is quite complicated and it has various shots and angles to make its simple narrative of a dog creating a rocket exciting and entertaining. 

• The use of sound in short films varies, however it is quite common that there is little to no dialogue. This helps the narrative stay more focused. In the place of dialogue, the diagetic sounds are often heightened to create a more dramatic effect - a good example of this is in "love...HURTS" (4). A non diagetic soundtrack is often used to help create a mood and genre for the film.  

• Mise en scene is usually kept simple in short films due to small/no budgets and limited time to portray the film. Because of this, only a few or less locations are used - a good example of this is in "Two Cars One Night" (5), as the only location used is in a car park outside a restaurant. Props, costume and makeup is also usually kept to basics due to budgeting. 

• In a lot of short films, the editing/post production stage is the most important, as most of the sound and visual effects will be added in here. This is a much simpler and cheaper way to create big effects rather than having to do it to film - for example an explosion can be edited in rather than actually made. This is used in "Rocket" (6) at the end where the dog flies away in the rocket - which obviously couldn't be done without post production. 

How our short film challenged, developed or used forms and conventions used in real media products

• We challenged the generic short film narrative theme of using a simple idea by using a more complicated narrative - where the meaning of the film only really makes sense at the end. 

• We followed the short film convention of strong character representation - and also developed it by reversing stereotypical character roles, such as having the elderly characters be shown as the true vandals. 

• We used a mixture of both simple and complex camera work - from a simple tripod still shot in the news room to the handheld rapid movement shots for the riot scenes. 

• We heightened a lot of the diagetic sound in the film to develop the mood in certain scenes - for example in the cross cut shots where the sound was key to create an eerie and thought provoking affect. 

• We challenged the typical use of mise en scene in short films by using quite a few locations; the news room, the live news report, the various locations in the riots, the den - and this allowed us to make our narrative more realistic. 

• We used & developed post production conventions as a lot of our film was put together with the visual effects of Final Cut Pro - for example the news report is built almost entirely from green screen work and visual effects. 

Ancillary Tasks

Poster

Real film poster conventions include:

• Title & title design which fits with the title in the film itself 
• A main background image/focus image
• The main stars/actors 
• A tagline
• Reviews/ratings from appropriate sources
• A credit block 
• Age certification (if it has been rated)
• Cultural references (if applicable) - it could be to other films or to a book/theatre show 
• A website 
• A release date 
• Any awards or nominations
• Production or connecting company logos

A good example of a poster with these conventions is below. Click the image to view it larger.

The Django Unchained poster uses almost all of these conventions whilst making the poster look exciting and interesting. There is also a clear house style and thought out design. We took inspiration from this and made sure our poster used as many of these conventions as possible, whilst looking well thought out and designed.

 

Conventions used in our poster

I have annotated our poster like the Django Unchained poster. Click the image below to view it larger.

• Our title was large and one of the key focus points on the poster. We made sure it was the same design as the title in the opening of our film. 
• There is a clear tag line, in a similar style to the title, which also helps it connect to the genre of the film. 
• We created a production company logo and put this with similar company logos - such as Film 4 & Dolby Digital. 
• There is a credit block which is clear to read yet is not the main focus of the poster. This was important as the picture and title should be the main focus. The website is also in this style. 
• There are logos of nominations and film festivals
• There are reviews from relevant sources - the sources we chose (Little White Lies & Everyman Cinemas) are the most likely to review a film such as ours, rather than a source such as The Daily Mail or The Telegraph.
• The background/main image gives a clear insight to one of the main themes of our film and helps attract the target audience of teenagers. 

Review 

Little White Lies Review Conventions

Below are some examples of Little White Lies reviews:

The main conventions of a Little White Lies review are:

• A title in the font Century Gothic, size 30pt - the numbers in the ratings are also in this format
• The following information beneath the title in the font "Aparajita" - "directed by", "starring" & "released"
• 3 block columns - each 52.4mm wide and 107mm in length - with around 6 paragraphs and 550 words of review content
• A large still image from the film at the top of the page (sized 168mm x 70mm)

Including language techniques and conventions such as:

• Sarcastic humour with quirky/complex language
• Restricted code that only the target audience would understand 
• Constant references to other relevant films 
• The use of similies, adjectives, metaphors & complex nouns 
• Hints towards points in the film yet avoids giving away big spoilers

When we went to write and create our review, we wanted to make it exactly the same, so we used all of the conventions and techniques that the Little White Lies reviews have. Our review is below:

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary products?

I have filmed myself answering this question. Please watch this below:

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I gained audience feedback on my products to see what my target audience thought of them. My target audience is males from the ages 12-25. 

The film

To get feedback on my film, I posted it onto social networks and asked people to comment their opinion, message it to me or text it to me. I did this because most of my friends on the social networks fit into the target audience of our film. 

One person sent me feedback via text message. Their initial response was that they enjoyed it. When I asked for some constructive critisism, they responded with the following texts:

From this feedback I have learnt that the discomfort of the actress towards appearing in the film was obvious to some of the viewers. From this I've also learnt that this makes the news report seem less realistic. If I recieved this feedback earlier on, we would have refilmed these scenes. 

I also recieved a Facebook comment on the link to the video. They said:

From this feedback I've learnt that the twist at the end was understood and worked! I am very happy with this. I've also learnt that the beginning was good and bad - we did want it to have an unnerving affect, however we didn't want it to seem like something scary would develop. This could suggest that we made it slightly too enigmatic. 

As my brother is almost 13, he fits into our target audience for the film. I asked him to watch the film, and then be filmed by me to get his response. This is below:

From this I learnt what he enjoyed - the riot scenes and news report scenes. This also confirmed that the film fits the target audience well - 12-25 yr old males - possibly due to these scenes. 

Poster

I also asked my brother to take a look at the poster and I filmed his response to it. 

From this I learnt that the poster works well with my film due to the youth/graffiti theme. I also learnt that the main picture on the poster really helped towards this effect too. 

Overall from the feedback I learnt that most people viewed the film and enjoyed it, as well as learning some adjustments I could make to improve it, such as the way scenes are acted. 

4) How did you use media technology on the construction, research and planning, and evaluation stages?

To answer this question I made an interactive presentation on Prezi. You can view & explore this below:

Evaluation By Colette Newey

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

Short Film

Our finished short film uses a variety of forms and conventions in order to present a plot that challenges dominant ideologies of the representation of young adults. 

Films that have inspired my short film

Narrative Organisation

When researching short films I found myself most drawn to films with a restricted narrative such as the film 'A touch of Black.' Important pieces of information are hidden from the audience's view and only revealed at the end of the film which creates an enigmatic feeling and keeps the watcher gripped until the very end. The film has a linear structure and fits with Todorov's theory of narrative;  a disruption, confrontation, resolution and equilibrium are all present in said order. I like the way the audience are drawn in and fed false information, then proved completely wrong at the end. Narrative in short films is usually simple but made interesting by features such as mise en scene, camera work and characterisation.

Characterisation

I liked the idea that our film's characters should challenge dominant ideologies about character. Film is a very influential medium and by challenging ideologies you can start to portray a certain social group in a completely different way to what is usually seen. Characterisation is one of the main conventions of short films. In the film 'About a Girl,' we are fed information that makes us believe the character is the stereotypical teenager, (she wants to be a popstar), but we are then proven wrong at the end when we realise something shocking about the character. 

Camera work

When looking at camera work, I was interested films which use simple but varied shots to keep the film from becoming boring. 'Eve' was very interesting for camera work; it used a variety of shots- long shots, high angles, low angles etc. I particularly liked the use of high angles to seem threatening to the subject. The narrative of a short film can usually be defined by the camera work e.g. some short films also used flashbacks such as 'About a Girl' which we understand as going back in time. 

Sound

Sound in short films depends on the genre of the film that the director is trying to create. The short film 'Christmas' uses both diegetic and non diegetic sounds as well as music. The short film 'A touch of Black' uses a non diegetic voiceover creating a feeling of mystery and enigma to the film- a convention of it's thriller genre.

Mise en Scene

In short films settings are generally limited as there is not enough time to fit all locations into the short amount of screen time. Because of this settings are generally very simple. In the film 'Steal his heart' various locations are visited which shows that different locations can be used but only if it fits in with the plot. Mise en scene is crucial in a short film as it helps the audience to decifer the genre of the film. For example a horror film will be set in a woods and main props may include a knife. 

Use of genre conventions- 
Short films are usually hybrids as they tend to be original- most film ideas have been done before. Although they may have different genres they all contain one similar convention- they want the audience to relate, sympathise or understand the film. The film 'Christmas' is a thriller/comedy hybrid and therefore uses conventions from both of these genres.

Themes and issues

Most short films address an issue or theme that is currently important in society. Themes can be lighthearted e.g. young love in 'Steal his heart' or can be very strong and deliver a disturbing message such as teen pregnancy and death in 'About a Girl.' Social realist short films usually have a big impact on the audience and  can make them question their views on a subject.

We decided that our film should have a  restricted, linear narrative. Short films typically have a twist at the end of the film that the audience aren't expecting and we did this through our use of narrative. We missed out plot points about the rioters (who they were) in order to reveal them at the end. This style of narrative is very common in short films including 'About a Girl' and 'A Touch of Black.' As said in Roland Barthes theory of narrative, out film contains various enigma codes which lets our audience feel involved with the film as they try to decifer what's going on.

As the main twist of our film was centred around our characters, building our characters was crucial to our film. Usually in media products characters are very stereotypically represented e.g. a male antagonist in an action and adventure film. We wanted our audience to assume a character's stereotype before being proven wrong. We reinforced the dominant ideology that young people are 'yobs' throughout the film before realising they were actually elderly people at the end. Our main aim in this film was to challenge ideologies portrayed by popular media products. I was inspired by 'About a Girl,' when thinking of how our characters should be represented as at the beginning of the film the characters are represented as very stereotypical but they then challenge ideologies of their social groups at the end when we learn something about them. After deciding how we wanted to represent our characters I created these sketches about costume design (below). The costume reflected the character we were trying to create and they were based on general stereotypes. 

We used a variety of different shot types during our film. As short films are generally lower budget than feature length films, experimental camera work is crucial in creating a professional looking film. Our shots varied from static medium shots, high angle cctv shots to handheld night shots. We used high angle CCTV shots to feel like the audience were surveying the scene and extreme close ups to create a feeling on unease and discomfort.

The sound in our film went along with the general conventions of a short film. We combined diegetic and non- diegetic sound in order to create a realistic looking film and used parallel sound throughout. As our film was of the social realist/ comedy genre we avoided using a soundtrack throughout the film until the comedic twist was revealed at the end and we added an upbeat, acoustic song which fits the mood of the film.

We challenged the use of mise en scene in our film by using a multitude of different settings. Usually in short film only a couple of locations are used and it's uncommon for a film to be set in only one place. By using a variety of locations we could portray the hugeness of the riots that we were trying to create. In this way, the mise en scene in our film is closer to the conventions of a feature length film rather than a short film. Because of this we also used found footage of David Cameron talking about the riots as we were unable to film him ourselves as our production was so small.

Our film is a social realism/ comedy hybrid. We used conventions from both of these genres such as the use of a well documented event as the setting (common in social realist films) and using a comic twist at the end. Our film is alike to other media products in this way as it is a hybrid - common in short films.

As well as entertaining the audience, our film raises some important issues and challenges ideologies  about age and class. In this way it is unlike other short films; a small amount do focus on these themes (such as teen pregnancy in 'About a Girl') however mostly they are lighthearted and created to give laughs to the audience (the theme of love in 'Steal his Heart.') Our film reflects on the London riots but in a comedic way. It questions the representation around young people and portrays them as victimised by the older generations when in fact the elderly are just as bad.

Little White Lies Review

Conventions of a Little White Lies Review:

Layout Conventions: 

• Title-centered, Century Gothic font, size 30
• 'Directed By,' 'Starring' and 'Released' under title, Aperajita font
• 3 columns of review content, approx 550 words/ 6 paragraphs, Aparajita font. Columns are  52.4mm wide x 107mm long.
• 'Ratings' at the bottom of the right column. 'Anticipation,' 'Enjoyment,' and 'In Retrospect.' Each scored out of 5. 
• Large 168mm x 70mm still image from the film at the top of the page
• Large letter at the beginning of the review

Language Conventions:

• Puns, sarcasm and dry humour 
• Distinguished and superior adjectives and complex nouns
• Metaphors and similies
• References to popular relevant films
• Sophisticated, film language and references

I wrote the review using all of the above language conventions. We then designed the template on InDesign using all of the exact layout conventions to make our review look identical to one that would be published by Little White Lies:

Film Poster

Before creating my own poster I looked at relevant film posters such as the one above for 'Kidulthood' to look at the key conventions used in a film poster. I chose this poster to look at as it is a film that has the same theme as our own film by looking at the modern representations of young people.

Conventions of a film poster include:

• A large title. Font style depends on genre of the film and style of the poster
• Tagline
• Billing Block
• Website
• Film Certificate
• Ratings/ reviews from relevant organisations
• Large Image, usually featuring main character/s
• Actor's names (depends how well known the actors are) This is not featured on this poster as the actors are relatively unknown.
• Badges/ logos of production company/ies
• Award nominations (if relevant)
• Release date

Here is our film poster:

Conventions our poster uses:

• Large title. We used a graffiti font to connote the theme of the film and to reflect and attract our audience of young people
• Tagline, 'blame the yobs'.Also in graffiti font to connote the idea that the characters are vandals.
• Billing Block
• Logos of film festivals, production companies
• Website to find out more about the film
• Review/ ratings. Our reviews are from companies that would be likely to review a short film like ours instead of well-known newspapers such as The Dail Mail who would not agree with the representations in our film
• Image features one of the main characters which is a simple convention. Gives audience a clue about the characters
• No actor's names as our actors are unknown

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

I answered this question in a video below:

**when stating that our audience were 'young people' I meant young adults/ teenagers from ages 13-25**


3. What have you learned from your audience feedbackTo collect feedback from my demographic I published my video on the social networking site Facebook.

I sent this message (below) to a group of people on Facebook that represent our demographic. I also shared the video from YouTube onto my Facebook wall so that people could leave short comments on it as well:



By using Facebook for my feedback I could determine the age of the people I have recieved feedback from 
and then decide whether they fit my target audience andif I could include their feedback in my evaluation.

 I also sent the url of our video to the audience via text message and Blackberry Messenger and recieved feeback in this way. All of these technologies are popular amoungst young adults- our target audience, which made them great platforms in which to collect feedback. Feedback was crucial for us to find out what our target audience thought about our film so we could improve it.

Here is some of the feedback I recieved:

via Facebook:

                       

via BBM:

-All the people I recieved feedback from were in a 16-19 age bracket. I had 2 pieces of feedback from each gender. 

Positive Feedback

-From this feedback I have learnt that the part of our film that the audience liked the most was the twist at the end, partly because they'd never seen a film with this before and also because it was such  a shock to them. Generally our audience aren't used to hybrid films as young adults usually watch feature length films 

with one fixed genre, however everyone I received feedback from had positive points to make. 

- Everyone I asked agreed that the main new reporter played a very convincing role in the film (this explains all the "your dad was amazing" messages I recieved for feedback!), however the female news correspondent looked slightly uneasy whilst playing her role. 

- Our editing techniques were also enjoyed by the audience. The shot where a young boy spray cans over the camera was pointed out in some of the feedback. I have learnt that although it takes a while, taking time with editing really makes a difference to the final product of the film and it is visible and doesn't go amiss by the audience. The news report opening impressed the audience as did the news report itself- one person said that they thought it was completely like a real life news report!

-Our poster also received good feedback. The graffiti title proved popular with one boy saying that he liked it because "It's different to the boring fonts you get on other posters." It also reflects the themes of our film.

Points to improve on 

- It was pointed out that although the audience understood the film at the end the film did seem quite confusing part way through. The main causes of confusion were the cross cut scenes such as the knife scene (although one person did point out they liked the use of close up in this scene) which did prove slightly confusing and a bit over-enigmatic. 

- The lighting was a bit too dark in the opening, establishing shot. Initially we wanted the shot to have low key lighting to create an enigmatic feel to it, however once we'd uploaded or footage the shot was a lot darker than we'd thought. If I could film this again I would focus a lot more on the lighting.

-It was also noted that you could "hear people laughing during the mugging." It was our intention to include this in this shot to create the idea that the rioters were filming the mugging on their phones and laughing about it throughout, however I have learnt that it confused some of our audience members!

- Our review received no points to improve on at all which I was very proud of! Our poster received all positive reviews except one small detail- there was a large gap of black space under the tagline and title. This has made me learn that we need to organise our layout in more detail and make the best use of the available space on the poster.

Overall from our audience feedback I have learned:

- Make time to plan. The main downfalls of our film were the small things that would be really easy to put right such as lighting and mise en scene.

- Keep it simple. Sticking to one simple idea throughout is the best way to keep the audience engaged. In a short film you don't have time to explain a complicated idea and using too many different scenes can confuse the audience.

-Keep your twist a secret! The main reason our film was so successful was because none of our ancillary tasks or our film hinted towards the 'big reveal' in our film at all and the twist was kept towards the very end. By keeping our twist a secret we could hook the audience until the very end.

-Spend time on editing. Another main attaction of our film was the news report. Although it took ages to film (4 times!!) as well as construct the hard work paid off and it turned out to be one of the most realistic and entertaining parts of our film.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Finished Review!!!!

Here is the finished review! Text By Colette, Design by Shannen.

Final Poster

After further consideration of the poster, we decided that a few things needed adjusting.

• I changed the sizing, spacing and location of the reviews
• I added some film festival logos above the credit block
• I removed the "coming soon"
• I moved the productions logo and changed its location

The final poster is below:

By Shannen

Little White Lies; Research and Review

About Little White Lies

Little White Lies is a film (and sometimes gaming) magazine published by Church of London. They release their magazine every other month and theme each issue around a particular film they have enjoyed recently. The typography of each issue represents the theme (The 'Django' issue (above) featured tiny chains in between paragraphs). 

Little White Lies' primary audience are middle and upper class males although they are growing in popularity with young adults, particularly those studying film. A large part of the magazine is taken up by film reviews. They also post reviews on their website. 

^An example of a Little White Lies Review

We are creating a review for our film 'Yobs' in the style of Little White Lies. The graphology of the review contains the following:

• Title- Century Gothic font, size 30
• 3 Pieces of information under the title- 'Directed by', 'Starring' and 'Released'. Aparajita font
• 3 Columns of review content- approx 550 words/ around 6 paragraphs. Aparajita font. Columns are 52.4mm wide x 107mm long. 
• 'Ratings' at the bottom of the right column. 'Anticipation,' 'Enjoyment,' and 'In Retrospect.' Each scored out of 5. 
• Large 168mm x 70mm still image from the film at the top of the page

Language techniques used include:

• Puns
• Distinguished and superior adjectives
• Metaphors and Similies
• Sarcastic, dry humor

We are going to create our film poster using this structure. We will create it on Adobe InDesign as it is a better programme for text than PhotoShop. 

^ above is the template for our review that Shannen made on InDesign. We will insert our review into the three columns when completed.

The first draft of the Review

London's burning, London's burning etc etc. In Summer 2010 the whole world watched in horror as the youths of the capital decided it would be a brilliant idea to decimate the town;  let's face it, we've all been there when we were younger, our parents didn't understand and so forth, however we never actually acted on our temporary misjudgement and 'shanked up' the city .  Thanks to novice directors  Colette Newey and Shannen Smith we got to relive those devastating, dreadful scenes in what sounded like The Daily Mail's nightmare  and we couldn't bloody wait (we could).

It could be argued that this film is a debut for all actors involved, which is unsurprising when noting the short film platform and although they deliver to a satisfying and authentic standard we are still left wondering who the antagonist is. Mark Newey makes his debut as a suave news reporter Mark Smith, working for the audaciously named company 'CBB News.' Inventive.  Aside from this blatant filched title the news report is impressive- especially when taking the director's student budget into account and the fact it was actually shot from Newey's kitchen in a tiny rural village in Sussex. We then find ourselves thrown into the news headline Terror in London.

Cue hoody and balaclava wearing teens wreaking havoc on the poor, unsuspecting residents. We behold the yobs, Charles Newey, Angus York and Edward Newey, mugging an innocent old lady, demolishing a ford fiesta and running riot through the streets whilst filming every move on their newly hijacked mobile phones. This is perhaps the most arresting part of the film; we follow the young delinquents on their expedition around the city and relish in the pure carnage they evoke. The young actors perform brilliantly, suspiciously so, and we can't help wondering whether they've partaken in an event like this before.

Meanwhile we cut between the scenes of destruction to a dingy, grotty kitchen where we witness an enigmatic character obscured from our view partaking in your general kitchen shenanigans; cutting a red  blood-like object, lighting a gas stove with a match and limping threateningly across the doorway. It's erratic and strange and sends our inquisitiveness into overdrive. To say any more would impair the film's big reveal but take it from us- this is undoubtedly one to watch.

Although without the big budget effects, grittiness and screen time of other cinematic products involving hoody clad minions such as Attack the Block and Kidulthood, Smith and Newey  still manage to deliver a refreshing and humorous portrayal  of a seemingly mundane event. Albeit the deceleration in pace towards the climax of the film, this invigorating short film is a breath of fresh air- Newey and Smith shine as new directors.

A social realism/comedy hybrid short  film depicting 'the humorous side' of the London Riots? We were sceptical too, but incredibly these five minutes of supposed cinematic puerile delivered us with a few short minutes of escapism, intrigue and a tiny smirk at the end.  

Anticipation:

Enjoyment:  Refreshing, playful and damn right ludicrous 4

In Retrospect: Our nan would look great in a hoody 4

-Review Written By Colette, Review Template Designed by Shannen.

To Improve: 

• We may need to add a bit more to this. It is 520 words and the LWLies reviews tend to be 550-600 words. When we have inserted this into the template we can see if we need to up the word count.
• We could talk about the plot more, however it's hard to do this without giving away the twist at the end of the film!
• Add more film terminology. LWLies write for a film-educated audience and use a lot of film terminology.

By Colette :) 

Final Poster!

For how I made this final poster, please read our previous post on which features from both poster we decided to put into this one.

By Shannen

Updated Film!

After the added filming yesterday - as explained in the post below - we have spent the morning editing and fixing the previous video. We also edited some sound issues that still remained in the previous video. So here is the new film below: