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

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation question 2 from BrandanWiles

Evaluation question 1

Throughout the production the 180 degree line was stuck to closely as a breach in the line would distort the view of the viewer and ruin their immersion in the film. Here's an example of the 180 degree line being observed during a shot reverse shot conversation. 

A demo of the 180 degree line rule.

Shot-reverse-shot.

Due to the short nature of the film several montages like sequences, time lapses and fade to blacks were used to connote a passage of time. This helps keeps the viewers interest in our film as it cuts out boring and mundane sequences that would not be add any value to the film, entertain the viewer or further the plot line. 

Time lapse.

Jump cut sequence of Laura making a cup of tea. 

 Match on actions are a great way to progress through a film's setting. They allow for continous action with 2 shots that wouldn't otherwise be possible in a single shot, such as transferring rooms or a far shot and a close up. 

 Warm lighting was used in our film to connote happiness and love. 

The editing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro which is an industry standard piece of software. Being industry standard there was a wealth of information and tips and tricks on the internet that was utilised in our film. As the film was independently created the internet was a good free platform to learn how to use the software outside class hours. The software allowed for easy joining of clips together, separate editing of sound clips that was useful for both the film  and radio trailer and lots of pre-sets within the software that allowed for easy application of effects such as rolling credits and dip to blacks. 

Adobe has their own forum based on-line help, that's free of any cost, to help anyone struggling with the software or encountering errors within the software. At one point we lost the data to our radio trailer but a quick internet search, and useful feature with Premiere, we were able to track the file down which was saved in a automatic "autosave" folder within Adobe's program files on windows. This also made us enforce more care and caution when saving our project and made us make back ups more frequently. 

Our film fulfils the expectations of a domestic comedy film as it is set in a similar setting, a house, and features a relationship at the forefront of the plot. From the first establishing shot the setting is apparent. 

Opening shot from Edward Scissor Hands which is similar to ours.

The shot from Edward Scissor hands is said to come from the famous film "Citizen Kane".

As mentioned in our Pre-filming questionnaire our film fits loosely within Todorovs theory of narrative which is split into 5 stages. 

1. A state of equilibrium
2. A disruption of that order by an event "disequilibrium"
3. A recognition of that event. 
4. An attempt at restoration of that order. 
5. Return of a new equilibrium. 

As our film fits loosely within this criteria we have certain aspects omitted such as the original state of equilibrium as we begin the film mid argument as well as a return of a new equilibrium, although it is implied. 

The disruption of our equilibrium is Matt and Laura falling out and the recognition of the fallout is both of their retrospective phone calls to their friends in the film. An attempt at restoration of the equilibrium is Matt handing Laura a note telling her to wake him up but this forms our final joke. 


 A happy tone is used throughout the film which is reflective to the genre as it's a "comedy" film. The film doesn't conform to Douglas Pye's theory of genre which states "Films have to conform to audiences expectations of narrative." The film subverts this theory as a plot twist, as shown in our film with no visible resolution, which would be typical of a domestic comedy, is not common within the genre itself.


Our film was in part inspired by multiple short films found on Youtube and an full length film coming in 2016. Sticky notes are a good medium to experiment in for a short film as the they leave out dialogue which helps the audience interpret the meaning of each note. 

The genre of our film was a domestic comedy which is a sub-genre of comedy and is commonly found in sitcom situations such as "Modern family", "Friends" and "The Simpsons". The conventions of the sub-genre usually involve roles for each of the characters and revolve around a close family or friends environment. Our characters can be divided into easily distinguishable roles with Laura being the girlfriend and Matt the boyfriend as well ass Matt being the catalyst for problems and Laura being the restorer of order. Irony is popular in domestic comedy style films and we have it in our production where they say they are never speaking again but Matt is unable to be woken up due to the lack of speaking and the post it note left to wake him.  
The aim was to produce a modern and relate-able film to our target audience. To achieve the small humour part a small physical joke was used at the end of the film; throughout the film the tone is happy which is set by our music. The aim was to provide the audience with a sense of pleasure from giving them an insight into a fictional characters life. This can provide them with things they are missing in their lives as Richard Dyer's theory of entertainment theorised. 

Richard Dyer's theory of entertainment theorised that people will get a sense of pleasure seeing things they lack in their life and these are categorised into; energy, intensity, abundance, transparency and community. Our film fits well into the transparency and intensity elements included in the theory.

Here Laura's inner emotions can be seen through her gesture, this fits the "intensity" section of the theory because the emotions are so strong. 

Transparency is the development of a characters' emotions known by another character. Matt being unaware of Laura's feelings as he left the room but Paige (on the phone with Laura)  knowing them and as well as the audience helps develop their roles and emotions within the film. 

Laura on the phone

While Laura is on the phone the dialogue continues into the short montage like sequence of Matt packing the bag, this helped keep our film under the time constraint as well as furthering the plot line. 

Our film fits in with Steve Neale's theory of representation of gender within film. Matt fits on with many common sterotypes that are associated with people his age. He's going out with friends, his outfit and his persona. This makes Matt a relateable character that the audience will either feel like or possibly know someone similar. 

 The sticky notes act as a set up in the film as they are a slow method of talking to someone which enabled the final joke. I'm confident that the audience pleasure was achieved as our surveys conducted pre and post production were positive. After showing the film to peers they commented that the twist was "surprising" and "unexpected". 
  

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation question 2

Here is my evaluation question 2 powerpoint.

E Valuation question 2 from WogeyBear

Evaluation Question 4

Research
Within the research stage of our film I have used many new media technologies, mainly the Internet. The Internet offers a variety of things such as Youtube, The BBFC and Blogger. The Internet has a range of content that helped me within the research stage of production. It helped from researching into the genre of domestic comedy and what the conventions of the genre, to researching into music that we could have in the background of our film.

Youtube helped with researching into similar films such as Step Brothers and Home Alone. This helped us research what went into a Domestic Comedy and what was expected of a Domestic comedy. We realised that a domestic comedy is conventionally set in a house and around a family.

Youtube also helped us look for example shots within films, a good example of parallel editing that I found in The Silence of the Lambs.

We decided to use parallel editing within our film, however ours has dialogue bridged between all the separate shots which assists with continuity. This allows the audience to see the plot develop, with Matt packing a bag and going away and Laura talking about her troubles at the same time.

To gather audience feedback we used Google Docs, specifically its survey feature to collect data and put it into a graph. We handed out the surveys by email and social media sites such as Facebook. 

Within the research stage, I used Blogger to post all of the research for our film, Blogger allows you to add pictures, link websites. embed videos and write about the content. However there are some issues with Blogger, 

Planning
Within the planning stage of our production, we used Celtex, Microsoft Word and online storyboards. We used Celtex to write the script for the film, this allows us to film without forgetting lines. Celtex is user friendly and is easy to use. It is a professional software which helps us give our production a more professional feel.

Notes Script

The website we used to create the storyboard was www.storyboardthat.com. This website was good as it offered it's services for free and it had a lot of options for the background, characters and even props.

Microsoft word helped with creating a shot list. This allows use to film and it allows us to know what we are supposed to be filming. The useful thing about word was that there is an option to create a table, this helped us as it allowed us to say which shit we wanted, who was in it, what was going on in the shot, any dialogue and the equipment we needed for that scene.

Shot list here.

Construction
In the construction stage of our production, we used industry standard software which helped create a professional standard product. To create a professionally looking film poster we used Adobe Photoshop.
 
I have decided to get some practice on Photoshop for when we have to design our own film poster.
The first poster I decided to do was for a horror film. With this poster I practiced how to layer images, crop out images and add text. This was my first time using Photoshop, I wanted to learn the basics of Photoshop.

With the second poster I decided to do it for a sci-fi. In this poster I tried to enhance my skills of cropping and layering. I also tried to add effects, I added a lens flair.










Having learnt the basics of Photoshop, I decided to create my film poster. I was pleased with the final product and it was what I imagined in my mind.
One good feature of Photoshop is the font steel tongs, which have short cuts to certain words, I added these four tags to show the main people that worked on the film and their jobs.

To edit our film we used Premiere Pro, it is a professional editing software that is used regularly within the film industry. It was also my first time using Premiere Pro, however I have had practice in using other editing software and Premiere pro was similar.

One good feature that Premiere Pro has is its multiple layers that you can have for sound and imagery. This allows you to have multiple sounds overlaying each other in a scene, For example you can have the sound from the scene, layer over the top some sound effects then have music over the top of them all.

The effects tab

Constant gain

Another good feature is the array of pre-set effects that Premiere Pro has. One effect that we used within our editing is the volume effect. This allows you to change the volume on your audio. Another effect we used was a constant gain, this effect allows you to fade out the volume of your audio so that it is not an abrupt stop in sound.

Video effects

Premiere Pro has a vast array of video effects, We used a zoom, cross dissolve, fade to black and crop, to name a few.











One difficulty when using Premiere Pro is that it is a complex software it use to begin with. The tools on Premiere Pro are difficult to understand however once you know what they are and what their function is they editing process is much easier.

One tool that was difficult to find was the cut tool, this is due to it being called the razor tool on Premiere Pro. Moreover the icon is a razor blade whereas i am used to the cut tool being symbolised by scissors




Another tool that was difficult to find was the in and out marker, within Premiere Pro they are symbolised by these brackets. This was misleading as it is unclear that these brackets mark in and out.


The camera we used was the Canon Legria HFG25, this camera is a high quality camera that gives a professional standard recording. There are great features that this camera can do which gives the film a professional look. One feature it has is a focus pull which we used in our title sequence. Another feature we used was the cameras, easy to use, manual focus setting, this allows you to set one thing in the frame in focus and also does not make the recording distorted when it is over exposed to light. To keep the camera in a fix position and steady, we used a tripod. This makes the film footage not shaking which aids the film and makes it of a higher quality. 
 


The Zoom Recorder is a professional voice recorder which captures the voice at a industry quality. We used the voice recorder to capture the voice of the narrators voice in the radio trailer. We also used it to record the voice over in our film of the new reader on TV when Laura turns the TV on.










Evaluation
In my evaluation stage I used different software such as Blogger, Powerpoint, Prezi and word. These were useful, they allowed me to use different types of media into my evaluation. Blogger is a multi-media platform, it allows you to use use photos, links to other websites and allows you embed videos. The only issue with Blogger is that sometimes the formatting gets messed up when you copy text or photos or embed videos. Then you have to copy the text into an un-formatting document, such as notepad, to remove the formatting. This is very time consuming. Powerpoint is a useful platform to use, you can add photos, text, links and videos. You can also use Slideshare to embed your Powerpoint onto Blogger. Prezi is easy to use it is similar to the others as you can put the same things one. However it was difficlut to insert a video onto Prezi and took a while for me to find out how to do so. Word is very straight forward it is easy to use and you can add photos, text, links and videos. Then I used One Drive so that I could link it on Blogger.