This is 16 screen grabs from our short film.
1. Screen shot 1 shows our title Dumped. It is written in white chalk on a grey piece of sugar paper. We asked our main actor Rewan to write this as we felt it would give it a better look and it suits the film quite nicely. This also was something different from the type of normal visuals of title we normally see. Usually they might be typed and so we wanted to do something different.
2/6/8 & 9. These four screen shots show Billy sitting under the stairs at various times during the film. These screen shots link to the significance of the stairs that we wanted to portray through the film. They show Billy continually returning to the stairs for comfort.
3&4. Screen shots three and four show two different angles we decided to use for our opening scene of Billy walking out of his house and up the hill towards school. Screen shot three shows Billy walking out his house and as he turns the corner the camera pans with his movement and turns to screen shot four. Screen shot four shows our second shot. This shot we made quite long to give a feel of what was happening.
5. Screen shot 5 shows another different camera shot which we decided to use. This was a lower shot through the railings in the alley way. We decided to use this shot as it fits in with the theme of Billy feeling isolated, it feels as if you can't get too close to Billy, emphasising his loneliness.
7. Screen shot 7 shows another different camera angle we decided to use. This one was an over the shoulder shot of the teacher as she was reading the register. We decided to use this shot as we wanted to use various shots other than the obvious ones throughout the film and we felt this fitted in nicely with this scene as you can see the teacher reading the register as well as Billy walking into the classroom late.
10. Screen shot 10 also shows a different camera angle. We decided on this one because we wanted to keep the theme of loneliness going through the film and we felt a high angle shot would show that the school was deserted and only Billy was around, once again on his own.
11&12. Screen shot 11 and 12, show the shot reverse shot camera style we used for the conversation that Billy and the teacher have in the quad. This was maybe a slightly more obvious choice of camera angle and shot size to use but we felt it suited the scene.
13. Screen shot 13 shows another different camera angle. We decided to use this camera angle here because we wanted to keep the mum's identity quite hidden and so we felt but not showing her face front on, and just having a slight vision in the interior mirror in the car, that this was carried out. This again shows the theme is loneliness and will help the audience feel connected and empathise with Billy.
14/15&16. These three screen grabs show our running scene. Screen grab 14 shows Billy running outside, he has just heard the bad news and the audience may be thinking why is he running and where is he running to? They may recognise the location and may assume he will be returning to the stairs. Screen grab 15 shows Billy running down the corridor, lengthing out the running scene and again helping the audience to empathise with Billy and fill their minds with questions. Screen grab 16 shows Billy running across the playing fields. In this screen grab you can see other people in the background, and they don't even notice Billy, again emphasising the theme of isolation and loneliness for Billy.
This is the front of my postcard, which I have annotated saying why I have used what I have.
This is the back of my postcard, which I have also annotated.
Here I have written about how I have used a QR code as well as a website for my audience to find out more information about the film. I have also written a synopsis so the audience are able to get a slight hint of what is to be expected from the film. There is also a cast and crew list which is used as a qunique selling point to draw in a wider audience. It is slightly harder for short films to use this so I have put it on my postcard so the audience can see who is involved and look out for furture work by them in the future.
This is my film review, which i have annotated.
For my film review I chose a slightly different style to the normal film review you may see. As our film was about loneliness and we used quite dull colours for the title of our film, I wanted to keep this feeling going throughout all my products. For my postcard I kept the same colours from the film and so I felt it would be suitable to keep this theme going for my film review as well. The second review I have entered is also quite a sad theme and I chose this particular short film to add to my review page as it fitted in with our film and the theme of black and white. I have used quite simple text styles as well as keeping it all black and white.
Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Below is a screen grab of the beginning of our film.
This shows the title of our film 'Dumped' on a grey scale background. I have chosen a screen grab of this particular part of our film as this relates to my postcard. When I was making my postcard I wanted the title to be written in the same style as it would be seen in the film. So I took the writing from the title shown here and inserted it onto both the front and the back of my postcard.
This is a screen grab of Billy sitting under the stairs.
I have chosen to screen grab this because this is the main photo I have used on the front of my postcard. I chose this picture to have on my postcard as I felt it showed Billy in his comfort place and you can tell by his facial expressions that he is feeling upset. I felt that as an audience member who hasn't seen the film yet, this picture seemed to give a hint of what was to be expected, although from only looking at the postcard they wouldn't understand the stairs, I feel that after watching the film the audience will be able to look back at the postcard and understand the significance of the stairs and why Billy is looking so glum.
This screen grab is of the high angle shot in the quad.
I have used this screen grab as I have spoke about it in my film review. When we were deciding our storyline and locations we wanted to include a range of various shots to make the film slightly more interesting and shows of our skills more. When deciding to film the conversation in the quad, we tried out a few shots and angles but in the end we decided to use this high angle one to start the scene off and we were very happy with out decision. I wrote about it in my film review as I thought it was something that a critic may pick up on, the fact we had used an unusual camera angle but felt it worked quite well within the film.
This is a screen grab of Billy running across the field.
I have chosen this screen grab because I also wrote about this in my film review. After watching Truffaut's 400 Blows, and seeing the running scene at the end, we wanted to recreate our own version inspired by this. In 400 blows, the young boy is running for a very long time and finds himself at the end of the beach on the sea bed, having nowhere else left to run, he turns and looks at the camera and there is a freeze frame. We felt this grabbed the audience as the running keeps them on the edge of their seat, wondering where he's going or where he will end up, and the freeze frame at the end really accentuates the character's emotion through facial expression.
These three screen grabs show Billy and the stairs.
These screen grabs fit in with both the film review and my postcard. Similar to the first screen grab, the main picture on the front of my postcard is of Billy under the stairs. We wanted to make a point of the stairs as Billy uses them as a kind of comfort place where he goes when he is upset. Throughout the film we see Billy as quite lonely and he seems isolated from the other people around him, we see him continually going back to the stairs. However, as i mentioned in the film review, the significance of the stairs may not necessarily easily be picked up on. I think maybe for film critics or people with more knowledge about short films they would pick up more on the significance of the stairs, whereas other audience members with less knowledge of short films may miss the significance and might feel we have just repeatedly used similar shots in film, as our feedback proved.
Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I played our final short film to one of my family members, aged 40 and she gave quite positive feedback. She told me she felt sorry for our main character and she understood the storyline and could follow what was happening. This shows that what we had hoped to achieve had worked. She had not seen many previous short films before had said she enjoyed the style of it and although it is a short film we achieved a good storyline and she did enjoy it. She said she thought it was quite an interesting choice of storyline, one she had not seen previously, and she liked the idea of using less dialogue, she felt it helped emphasise the feeling of Billy being isolated. This is good feedback as it shows our storyline was clear and the emotions we hoped that the audience would feel through Billy's character came across. This would help in the future if i was to go on and create more short films as this feedback would enable me to take in consideration members of the audience who have not seen many or any short films in the past and try and make sure our storyline is clearer.
I also played it to another one of my family members, aged 20. As he had never watched a short film before he said he did enjoy it and thought the styling and genre was quite different and interesting. He did not understand the significance of the stairs, we wanted this be seen as Billy's comfort place and unfortunately this was not picked up on by this particular audience member.
We also showed our final short film to two teenage boys and two teenage girls. We chose these four people because they were of the right age range for our target audience and we wanted to see whether they understood their film and to get their thoughts and ideas on how they felt about the film and whether we achieved what we wanted to.
This is a video showing the feedback we received from the two boys.
From this feedback we can see that both boys seemed to feel quite drawn to the film and empathised with Billy, which is what we was hoping for. The both seemed to feel that the freeze frame at the end of the film was very effective, which is good for us to know as we was not 100% sure if we wanted to use it or not, but in the end we thought it did look good and as an audience it brought you a bit closer. They thought that the storyline not really telling much, and Billy not speaking much was actually quite intriguing. It was good to hear that they both felt quite sad for Billy as that is what we was hoping our audience would feel.
This is a video showing the feedback we received from the two girls.
This feedback shows us that they didn't pick up on idea and use of the stairs as a comfort place for Billy. When we asked them about the stairs they didn't really understand what we was talking about, which made us think that maybe we didn't make it clear enough that he was using the stairs as a comfort place when he felt lonely. This has helped us, in that if we was to create another short film we could incorporate all feedback like this and make sure that if we wanted to place something like the use of the stairs again, we would have to make sure it is clear what he is doing and why. They did however, both seem to understand Billy's situation, the fact his mum was not very caring for him and that he was quite alone and isolated inside and outside of school. They also commented on the end freeze frame and said similar to the boys, as it left a kind of cliffhanger and they were left wondering what would happen to Billy next.
From looking at the feedback as a whole, I think if I was to create another short film I would try and create a storyline which a wider variety of the audience would be able to understand, whether they had watched other short films in the past or not. Also if I was going to use a significant object in the film, such as the stairs in this film, I would try and make more of it and make it clear to the audience what was going on.
I showed the front and back of my postcard to some students from my school of the age of our target audience.
This is what they had to say about the front of my postcard.
http://youtu.be/yNeidCmjEOI
This is what they had to say about the back of my postcard.
http://youtu.be/GwC4jWBL_e4
From both of these feedbacks I feel quite pleased with the outcome of both the front and back of my postcard. They seemed to like the idea of using dark colours for the back and liked the idea of using the title of the film in the same way. They also mentioned the slogan and who it could carry the audience and create enigmas for them. They also mentioned the QR code which was a good thing as it is quite a modern thing that would be found on recent short film postcards.
I also showed some other students my film review. This is their feedback.
http://youtu.be/XkKYfW1RYH0
From this feedback I feel pleased with my film review as well. They all said how they liked the fact I used both critical and complimentary comments and I didn't take a personal view. They liked the layout and they thought it was a good review altogether. I also showed my film review to another group of students and they picked up on the fact that the pictures were black and white. Without me giving them hints as to why I had done it one student asked me if I did it on purpose to link in with my postcard. This is pleasing to hear as it means that my decision was recognised in a good way.
Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
'New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th that refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content.' - Wikipedia
Although new media technologies are presented in many different forms, they are mostly described as digital and having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible and interactive. Some examples of new media technologies would be internet base technologies such as websites, video games and DVDs. Old media technologies would include television programs, feature films or paper-based publications.
New Media has seen many benefits worldwide. Through technologies like blogs and social-networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, it has allowed a mass of communication all over the world.
This is a montage of images of all the new media technologies I have used whilst creating my short film.
Blogger
I have used Blogger a great amount throughout this course to allow me to portray all the work I have done over the course of my AS and A2 media course. It has also helped me to show how all my work has all helped me create my short film and everything building up to the final project. Blogger has been a very useful piece of new media technology as without it my work could have been less organised, taken a lot more time and possibly could have been at a lower standard. Blogger has been useful in that it has allowed me to post every piece of work I need, organise each piece in a good order and it allows you to edit and delete posts wherever needed. There is however the risk of using Blogger in that there is a possibility of loosing your work,as whenever you use a computer there is a risk of something going wrong and sometimes if it does not auto save or recover, your work is lost. Flip Camera
Flip cameras have been an extremely useful piece of new media technology on this course. When we came up with our original first idea and had a synopsis and a draft of the first script, we used a flip camera to record members of our target audiences reactions and feedbacks. The flip camera was very helpful in this circumstance as it made it a lot easier for us to gain the feedback we needed, without needing a tripod and recording camera, it was also less intimidating for our audience as it is a lot smaller than a normal camera. We also used flip cameras to record one us shooting one of our scenes of our main character running down the corridor as we are using a new piece of equipment that we hadn't used before, the dolly. Without the flip cameras we would have had to either wrote down everything our members said for feedback, which would obviously be very time consuming and could become boring and it would also mean that we could not present things such as our new piece of equipment on our blogs and we would have to write about it instead.
YouTube
We have used YouTube quite a lot throughout both AS and A2. It was very helpful when we were researching previous short films. YouTube helped me to see more short films other than the ones students had previously made at my school, I was able to see other schools work as well as other short films. Using YouTube alongside other research tools, I was able to see some codes and conventions of short films which then helped to build our knowledge and lead us to create the final short film. Without YouTube my research would have suffered, I would have had limited resources into short films which also means my blog would have suffered and would have been at a much lower level than I could achieve. YouTube also allowed us to upload our videos from the flip cameras and so without either of these, we would not have been able to video what we needed and present it on our blogs.
Google and Wikipedia
Both Google and Wikipedia have been used quite a lot throughout my coursework, especially when doing the research side of things. Google has helped me to search further into short films, it has allowed me to find new short film websites, enabling me to watch even more short films, as well as searching things such as short film festivals. When we were researching into some of the short films we had watched in class, I used Google to be able to see how much budget each film had, what awards they were awarded or nominated for, where it was filmed and how and I was able to search the producers to be able to see more of their work. Wikipedia has been extremely helpful as whilst researching it has helped me to define certain key media terms and also allowed me to research into more detail. This is similar to what a researcher working on a Hollywood film may have to do, they would have to research into certain parts of the storyline and maybe the locations around them. Without either of these it would have made my research slightly more difficult of course there are other search engines available which I could have used if necessary or I would have had to use other sources such as books from the library.
Adobe Premier Pro
We used Adobe Premier Pro to capture our footage , create a rough cut and create our final short film. Once we had recorded the footage we needed, we plugged the camera into the edit suite and used Adobe to capture each scene we needed to use, this also then helped us to create our logging rushes table, cancelling out any filmed scenes we did not need or want to use. Once we had each scene we were able to create a rough cut, placing all the scenes in order joining them together. We then went through from the beginning and went through each individual tiny detail making sure we had the perfect short film we had hoped for. Adobe helped us to do this as it has all the tools and effects we needed, and it is quite a simple program to use. Without this piece of new media technology we would not have been able to edit our short film as quickly as we did, nor would we be able to edit it as well as we were able to.
Adobe Photoshop
This new media technology helped me whilst creating the front and back of my postcard and also when creating my own film review. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to edit images and add in texts in ways which other programs do not allow you to do. Photoshop helps to produce a higher quality outcome. Without Adobe Photoshop I would not have been able to create both the front or back of my postcard as well and the quality would possibly have been much lower, I would not have been able to use the title in the way I wanted on my postcard.
Sound Recorder
We used a sound recorded to record the piano sounds which we created ourselves. From researching other short films we came to a decision that we wanted to create our own music and so we used a piano in a music room at our school and used the sound recorder to record what we came up with. We were then able to connect the sound recorder to the edit suite, allowing us to edit the sound onto our short film. Without this piece of new media technology, we would not have been able to record this sound, although we could have maybe used another type of recording equipment, this sound recorder was most appropriate and effective.
The digital camera was used quite a lot throughout the process of the making of our short film. We used this camera to take the pictures for our location recess for all the locations we had chosen to use in our film, just like a location scout might do in the industry. We also used the digital camera to take photographs of our main character for our postcards. Also once we had asked Rewan to write out the title of our film, we used the camera to take pictures of this so we could again, add it to our postcards. Without this piece of new media technology it would have made the process a lot slower than it was with it. If we didn't have this camera, the location recces would have been a lot harder to create and our postcards would have suffered.
Sony PD150 Camera
We used this camera to film all of our footage needed to create the final film. When on location we set the camera up on the tripod and plugged in the sound boom and used the camera to shoot the footage. Without the camera we would not have been able to shoot our film, or we would have had to use a different camera and maybe one that wouldn't have created such a high quality footage which would have impacted the way the whole film looked and maybe impacted our grades.
