Notes Final Film

Notes Radio Trailer

Final poster

Here is our final poster containing segments from our personal designs and new segments that we liked more.

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation question 1:

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

Throughout the film which I had created it was important that continuity was kept all the way through as this adds a sense of realism which the audience could then relate to. Also, by having continuity it would be easier for the audience to understand and follow the structure of the film which I had created. A shot which was used in my film was a match on action and this helped to link two shots in different locations. In this scene one of the main characters Laura has had an argument with Matt and storms closing a door. However, we needed two different angled shots as there were two rooms which needed connecting. The door slam also conveyed emotion in the film as it demonstrated the anger which the characters were feeling for each other. This reflected how the audience would feel about the characters as these are the actions which would be relatable. 

I then used a high angle close up which shows the character Laura making a cup of tea following the argument she has had with Matt. When editing the footage we shortened them down considerably to turn it into a sequenced jump cut. This shows the tea being made faster than it would have been normally. I chose to do this to this particular scene as it wasn't essential to making up the storyline. However, it was important to include as it shows passage of time after the argument when Laura has walked away. Also, by having an everyday activity of making a cup of tea it adds a sense of realism to the film as people also do the same.




Another key sequence within my film is the title sequence which displays different areas of our location. It also gives and insight as to who is in the film and who has done what. I think the title sequence helps to connect different scenes in the film which are not related. By creating this it has allowed me to easily connect the scenes together. This is also a montage as there are different video/images which are used which wouldn't make sense if they weren't together. Once connected the montage demonstrates the location and the characters within them. This also gives the audience and insight to the audience to see what the film could potentially be about. This includes iconic object and places in the film which could be symbolic later on. It also character builds within the sequence as we learn who the people behind the costumes are.

Other shots used are shot reverse shots. We chose to include this through parallel editing. By having shot reverse shots occurring at two different locations at the same time it establishes the communication between the characters and the time at which they are taking place. It also adds continuity as the conversation has flow between the characters consistently. Also, when Matt is in the shot there is background noise of the TV. When the camera is focusing on Matt you can always hear the noise of the radio which keeps the continuity throughout the film as the scene always remains the same as it is set in the same timeframe.

close up in my film

Close up in my film.

Home alone close up

 One key shot which was frequently used was a close up. We used close ups in our film for different reasons. The first reason being that we wanted to show the audience the characters face clearly. By doing this it is easy to convey the emotion that the character is demonstrating. For example, in this shot Laura is angry with Matt and her hand gesture and facial expression show this to the audience which helps to develop the plot of the storyline in greater detail. Another reason for the use of close ups is to help the audience understand the film better. As methods of verbal communication help to show the audience what is happening in the film we needed to convey this clearly in an alternative method to convey the storyline. When showing the communication on the post it notes we zoomed far in to show what was written to help the audience understand what was happening. I chose to include multiple clsoe shots as I had got inspiration from the movie Home Alone. Like in my own film Home Alone uses close ups to convey the characters emotions so we understand how they're feeling or reacting to something which has happened within the film. By doing this we can create a mood or feeling towards this character such as either empathising with them or taking a dislike to them through the way that they're presented to us.

Home alone establishing shot

Establishing shot in my film.

Throughout the whole production of my film I kept referring back to the research which I had conducted as this gave me inspiration of what I could include in my own film as well as how I could develop my own ideas.  I looked particularyly at the film Home Alone. I chose this as it had similarities linked to my own film. By having a film that is similar it is easy to see what positive effects certain shots can have on a film.The film Home Alone begins with an establishing shot of the house which is one of the main locations of the film. This gives the audience a sense of knowledge as to where the characters are and it gives an impression of what type of people may live there. As this was done in Home Alone I thought it would be a good idea to do this in my film as it would give the audience an insight as to where the film is set and what it is about. By doing this it engages them and will make them want to watch the film more.Once we had decided to use an establishing shot I decided that a sound bridge may work well as the argument noise could begin whilst the establishing shot is on and then continue when the interior of the house is shown. This shows that there is no time span which means that it is continuous straight throughout. This way the audience won't become confused.

During our film there is a time change through night and morning. Due to already using multiple cut and fade to blacks I wanted to use another method to show time change. When I had researched this I came across time lapses. The time lapse clearly established the time of day change as it went from dark to light. I created the time lapse by filming in the same spot and the same angle to keep the shot the exact same to keep the continuity otherwise it may look like a different location at a different time. Once filmed I sped up the shots to produce a quicker video to show time passage.

When we were creating the film one of the things we needed to focus on was demonstarting the genre which we were conveying. We did this through character representation and the plot ending of our story. At the start of the film there is not much demonstration that the film is a comedy. However, the arguments build up the film and add tension which supports the film ending. Generally in comedy films there is the funny aspect throughout the whole film where as in ours this doesn't happen until the end.This goes against the genre as the theme is normally present all the way through.
However, our film does support some themes to the genre which we were conveying. The location of the film shows the genre as domestic comedies as when you think of domestic comedies films such as Home Alone and Juno come to mind. There is also the relationship between Matt and Laura which shows the arguments and the struggles which takes place in the domestic comedy films.

Before we started creating the film we had already decided what audience we were trying to achieve. This meant that when creating the film we could have this in mind and make it as suitable for the target audience we wanted to achieve. We decided to choose this film certificate as then it would appeal to a wide range of audiences as it is a film which could be related to by many. This was also a suitable age rating as there was an expletive hand gesture which some parents may not want their children to see as they may copy. I'm confident that I achieved this as when we getting feedback our audience age range enjoyed the film and supported the ending which we wanted to.

After we had established the storyline of our film I set out to find similar examples which could help when I was developing my own film. I specifically wanted to look into short films as this would then be more relatable when creating the film which I wanted to a high standard. Below is a film which I found and analysed in order to get the post it note theme across.By looking at this film is showed me how to convey theme and character as well as showing a range of shots which I could use. By having this background knowledge of short films it contributed more into the success of my film as it impacted the way I made and produced my own film.

The film I have created

Evaluation question 2

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once we had established the stroyline which we were going to use for our film we began to research exisitng films which may influence us to adapt our storyline. Once we were happy with our storyline we began to write our script which we could then allow a diverse audience to read and see what they thought of our film. I began by setting out a list of questions which would be appropriate and useful to see what the postive and negative aspects of my idea were.

1. How old are you?
2. What is your occupation?
3. Do you understand our storyline?
4. Who do you think our target audience is? 
5. What genre do you think our film is?
6. Where would you expect to see our film?
7. Where do you normally watch films?
8. Could you relate to the characters in our film?
9. Would you want to watch this film?

I then used the internet and went on Google Drive where I then used Google Forms to create a survey which I could share through multiple platforms in order to get more feedback as well from different audiences to make it less biased. When I was creating the survey I gave optional answers for some questions and text boxes for others. This meant that I would get qualititive and quantitive data which would be easy to analyse as well as being informative. Not only did I ask questions about the film I asked personal questions such as age and occupation to see if there was a sepcific age or type of audience in which my film was appealing to. 

After a few days once I had shared mny survey I looked at my feedback which I got 12 responses for. The majority of people who answered my survey were aged 17-30 which meant there was a varied opinion through the age gap as well as there being other age audiences whom took part in my questionnaire. After the first question the second was the occupation of the people who had answered my questionnaire. This was to gain background knowledge of the people who had answered the survey. 

One important question which was essential to see if my audience understood the film. The majority of my questionnaire audience understood the film. However, 3 people of this audience didn't understand the script of the storyline which we had written which meant we had to look back over to see which parts were hard to understand so that a wider range of audiences could understand and watch the film more easily. I also wanted to know who people thought our audience was aimed at. This meant that then I could see if the film was heading in the right direction. Popular answers have 'Teenagers or Young adults' alongside 'families or couples'. As we were aiming for our film to have the 12 age rating certificate this meant it would be suitable. Also, all apart from 1 person the audience knew which genre my film was. This meant the meaning and tone of my film was coming across in the way which I wanted it to.

The last question I asked was to see if the audience would want to watch the film and 9 out of 12 would want to. However, this didn't concern me too considerably as people like different genre of film so not every film will appeal to all audiences. I have already analysed the full questionnaire here.

Also at the planning stage of my film production  we filmed a video questionnaire as this would have more qualitative information and we could then also reference it with detail later on. As we were getting more information from the already structured questionnaire we didn't ask as many people as we had enough information to know how we wanted to film to be.

After all the research was carried out and we had analysed all our results we needed to research into audience for film classification. In order to do this I went onto the British Board of film classification (BBFC) to see the guidelines for each age rating. Once we had seen what was needed we chose to make our film a 12. This was down to the expletive demonstrated by Laura at the early stages of our film. Also, by setting our age rating at a 12 it allows room for multiple audiences ages.

When it came to filming we wanted to keep the genre apparent through out. In order to do this I reflected on previous examples which I had researched to see what techniques were used to do this. The main thing which I thought would help convey the genre and mood of the film was the characters relationship. As it is a domestic comedy the characters needed to have an argumentative relationship which was shown in a unique way as the communication was done through post it notes. In order to get the creative idea of the post it notes we wanted to display an argument as well as show during. In order for the viewers to understand the film they need to be able to see what was written by the characters in our film. To portray this we used a range of close ups to show what was happening. We also used close ups when we were filming the characters reactions as this would convey the mood of characters to make the audience understand.
After we had done a rough cut of our film we exported it onto YouTube where we got audience feedback as to what they thought was good and what they thought could be improved. By doing this we could tweek the last parts of our film and make it more suitable and enjoyable for the audience. Once we had gotten our feedback we found out that the audience enjoyed the music within the film and they thought the title sequence was creative and original. However, the negative aspects were that they thought the shots of the close up post it notes were not on for long enough and not everyone was able to read them. In order to improve my film we went back onto Adobe Premiere Pro to make the changes required.
Overall improvements to be made:
Lengthen post it note shots so it can be easier to read for the audience.
Shorten some shots so there is no excessive time

Evaluation Question 4