Change of plans!!

Quite near to the deadline of the project, we were told that we had chosen the wrong priliminary task.
The brief we chose -the short film brief- required two ancillary texts to compliment the main product. We had to choose two from a film review, a radio advert and poster.
We chose to do a poster and we had gotten confused with the trailer brief and chosen to do a website instead of either a film review or radio advert.
Therefore are now starting to make a film review to go with our short film.

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

'New media technologies' is a term used to represent the different forms of communication that can be used through computer technology. It is a developed version of the term 'old media forms' which represents print and static representations of text and graphics, for example; newspapers and magazines.

There are many types of new media technologies that are used these days;

• Websites
• Streaming audio and video
• e-mail
• DVD
• CD-ROM
• Digital cameras
• Mobile computing
• Etc...

The main technologies we used through the process of completing this coursework are the Apple i-Macs, Blogger, i-Movie, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks and Adobe Dreamweaver.

In previous tasks, before A2, we had only used computers which had the windows software. For this project we had to use the Apple i-Mac's. They use their own software which is totally different from the Windows software. The mouse works differently and also, functions which seemed straight forward on Windows were totally different on the i-Mac's.

In AS, we were introduced to the new way to log our work throughout the whole project, using Blogger. At first we all thought it was quite difficult to use as we did not know how to use the functions to the best of its ability. However, when doing the A2 coursework, we found it much easier to use and discovered different ways of showing our work on the blog.

Research:

When carrying out research for the development of a product, it is important to use as many resources as possible.
For this coursework we carried out questionnaires, researched on popular genres, popular cults, popular codes and convention and also we researched markets which our product could cater to.
We used a video camera to film footage so that we got some practice in the field of filming for a short movie. We also used websites such as Google and YouTube to find appropriate resource materials to be inspired through. One main resource we used was the Virgin Media Shorts competition site. The site consisted of short film entries made by the public in order to win the competition. The site was very helpful as it gave us an insight on the different types of short films that can be produced.

In the AS coursework project, we had chosen to do the print brief. Our research only went as far as using 'old media forms' such as actual magazines to analyse and Google to find information.

Planning:

Planning is a very important stage in the developing process. It organises how you should go about producing your film. The main part of planning a film project is storyboarding. At first we used storyboard sheets and had done the images by hand in small boxes. We then drew the images onto A4 pieces of paper and scanned them onto a computer. We had done this so that we could transfer the images onto i-Movie to make an animated storyboard.

Construction:

The main construction piece was the construction of the film itself. First we used a digital camera to capture photographs of the setting and location. We then used a video camera to film the footage. Both of these technologies are very popular in today’s time so we were all very comfortable in using them. We had no problems with functioning the camera's and filming went smoothly. We then had to transfer the footage onto the i-Mac's and start editing the film.

Neither of us had used the i-Movie software so we had to fiddle around with the programme to get used to how it worked. Editing started of very well, but at times it was extremely frustrating. This is because the programme would close down suddenly before we had even had a chance to save the film. But we overcame this problem after the technicians had looked over the software. With the programme came quite a few editing tools however we felt it was not enough. Later on, a lot more tools were added and as our film was based around extensive use of special effects, so the extra effects which were installed really helped us.

To go with the film, a piece of music had to be produced. Garage Band, a software developed by Apple was used to do this. This software allows you to choose from a wide range of different beats and types of music. The selections are then put together to form a piece of music.
To make the film more effective, we edited the film to the beat of the music. We did this so that the film was more enjoyable to watch and the music was also noticeable.

Along with the main product, two ancillary texts also had to be produced. We chose to produce an advertisement poster and a promotional website to compliment the film.

The poster was produced using the Adobe Photoshop software. In the AS coursework, to produce posters we used the Microsoft Publisher programme. However we noticed that Microsoft Publisher did not allow us to produce a poster which would be on the same level as professionally made posters. Adobe Photoshop has more tools and functions and allows you to produce products using a higher level of skill and of a higher standard.

The second ancillary text we chose to produce was a promotional website. The website was to consist of a number of pages including a page for a trailer, cast and crew page and a few more. As all three of us take ICT at A level, we were quite familiar in using the Adobe Dreamweaver programme. The website produced could be compared to professionally made websites and it is a very interactive website.

In the last stages of the project, we found out that we were not supposed to do a website as a priliminary task, we were supposed to do a film review. The film review was created using Microsoft Word. As we did not have a lot of time on our hands, we thought that it was the right programme to use as we are all familiar with it and have no issues in using it.

Evaluation:

During the evaluation part of the project, we used Blogger.com to post the main part of the evaluation. We then used Microsoft PowerPoint to convert the worded parts into a more presentable version. Also, to make the questionnaire results a bit easier to understand and more visual, Microsoft Excel was used to make pie charts.

Overall, during the coursework sections of the Media Studies A level, we have learnt a lot about new media technologies and are now much more comfortable in using new software’s, programmes and products.

Question 3: Film Questionnaire Results

1. Do you feel that the special effects used to portray the feelings are effective?

- 2 out of 6 said YES
- 4 out of 6 said NO

2. If not, what do you think we should do to improve?

- more effects
- funky colours
- more shots
- blurred effects
- split screens
- screen overlaps

3. Do you feel that the genre we have used is relevant to our target audience?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

4. Do you think the film represents today's teenage life?

- 2 out of 6 said YES
- 4 out of 6 said NO

5. Do you think that the story line of the film is relevant and realistic?

- 3 out of 6 said YES
- 3 out of 6 said NO

6. Do you think the film is long enough for the 'short film' category?

- 4 out of 6 said YES
- 2 out of 6 said NO

7. What type of genre/type of music do you think will compliment the film or would you associate with the film?

- spaced out music
- techno music
- fast
- big beats
- tension music
- different genres merged together e.g. rock and opera

8. What would you rate the film at this point?

- 3 out of 6 people rated 2 STARS
- 3 out of 6 people rated 3 STARS

9. What is the reason behind your rating?

- storyline isn't all that
- needs to be more effective
- make the teenagers experience reach out to the audience
- need a good piece of supporting music

10. Do you think we used a wide range of camera shots and special effects?

- 5 out of 6 said YES
- 1 out of 6 said NO

11. Do you feel that the camera shots complimented the film and storyline?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

12. Overall, what do you think we should do to improve?

- improve storyline
- use more special effects
- use a music track
- use shorter clips
- use shorter cuts


We used the results from the first questionnaire and took into account all the negative points. We focused on those points and improved our film. After showing the final draft of the film to our audience, we conducted another survey using similar questions. We did this to see if our film improved the way the audience wanted it to improve.

1. Do you feel that the special effects used to portray the feelings are effective?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

2. Do you feel that the genre we have used is relevant to our target audience?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

3. Do you think the film represents today's teenage life?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

4. Do you think the film is long enough for the 'short film' category?

- 5 out of 6 said YES
- 1 out of 6 said NO

5. Do you think that the story line of the film is relevant and realistic?

- 5 out of 6 said YES
- 1 out of 6 said NO

6. Does the music compliment the film?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

8. What would you rate the film at this point?

- 3 out of 6 people rated 4 STARS
- 3 out of 6 people rated 5 STARS

9. What is the reason behind your rating?

- realisitc of the genre
- love the music
- realistic
- good use of special effects

10. Do you think we used a wide range of camera shots and special effects?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

11. Do you feel that the camera shots complimented the film and storyline?

- 6 out of 6 said YES

The results of the second questionnaire shows us that we took into account the answers from the first questionnaire and improved our film based on an audiences opinion.

Question 3: Film Questionnaire

We carried out a questionnaire before we completed the editing for the film. This questionnaire was carried out to see how we could improve the video using feedback from people other than the media teachers and ourselves.

Here is the video:




Here is the questionnaire we used (click to enlarge) :



















Here is the final draft of the film:




Here is the questionnaire we used (click to enlarge) :

Question 2

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

Media products are rarely put onto the market without ancillary texts that are used to support them through advertisement. When a film is created and screened in the cinemas, advertising methods such as billboards, TV adverts; websites, trailers, magazine advertisements etc are made to compliment the new media product.

When putting our products together alongside our main media text, we made sure that the correct codes and conventions that we wanted to portray to our target audience were shown in a suitable way, using a range of media and design techniques. This was resolved after a great amount of research on similar genres of film, poster and website products so we were able to recognize significant features and apply them to our work as well as using new ideas that we thought up as a group. This was a risky process and included a trial and error process throughout yet we feel that our products are a great success.

Poster

The poster consists of certain codes and conventions that facilitate the genre we want to represent.

Firstly, we can see that the poster we created follows the commonly used structure of a poster used in public for real media productions:

The red section, on the template we created, includes the names of actors that star in the short film (in a real life media product, these names usually consist of award winning actors and actresses) but we just decided to stick to the real life names of our friends who kindly stepped in to film with us.

The green section consists of the main information needed in order to advertise the film for what is included. Our poster contains the actors from behind (used to hide the identity of the actors to enhance the feeling of ‘mystery’ in the final piece). The piece of lighting that was chosen to be placed in the top left corner is there to create the imagery of another world being entered when intermingling with the danger of taking magic mushrooms. The rest of the poster is of a darker contrast as it represents the darkness from the character’s lives and the reason they would feel intrigued to take the drugs.

The mushrooms and bottles were included in order to reflect significant features that would be included in the short film. They were placed above the title to look as though they were growing from within the letters as well as representing the forest floor, revealing the setting of the short film. The characters were then placed around the décor to look as though they are walking from them, creating a 3D effect, giving the poster depth.

The blue section is where the title of the film sits. The title was created to look bewildering and mysterious to imply a similar feeling by those who decide to take the mushrooms, reflected by the shadowed effects and the colour scheme (dull colours, texture). The font used is simple yet effective in order to create the desired codes and conventions for our genre as it is easily read by the audience yet the lettering is of different sizes, giving the title shape.

The orange section on the model poster structure contains the names and logos of the institutions that were involved in the production of the film, the names of those who were involved in producing the film and their job roles in doing so, and a flash of colour in the centre stating that the film is ‘coming soon’ enabling the audience to recognize when they will be to view the film as well as enhancing their inquisitive mind towards seeing the film. *if you say you can’t do it you want to.

Website

We decided that the website as a whole, like the poster, should follow the regular structure of a website promoting and expanding on information about the film that has been produced. These factors consisted of including;

- a homepage: this introduces the film in little detail and contains the hyperlinks to navigate the user around the site, the logo representing the film, the use of the mushroom images etc.

- a synopsis: enabling the users to visit the site to read about the basis of the story without revealing the storyline so they are able to decide whether or not the film would interest them. In order for them to want to go and see the film, it was important to make the synopsis attractable, using a cliff hanger technique so they insisted on going!

- the cast and crew list: this then gave the audience insight on the backgrounds of the real life cast for those who felt the need to know. This could be due to the fact they are interested in acting, they went to the same school as the actors or just plainly because they wanted to know their names.

- the trailer: so the audience could see video footage of what the film is about. They are then able to tell a lot about the film through the codes and conventions used, helping them analyse whether or not the film is suitable or attractive for them.

- the gallery – this allows the audience to view pictures that were taken from filming the product and clips from the actual film itself. Again, this gives the audience insight to what is included in the film as well as background information about the film being produced.

Again, the codes and conventions of the film are represented by the use of graphology techniques including images, colour schemes etc.

Main Product

In order to create a successful media product, we needed to include the codes and conventions that are incorporated in short films and products used for the same genre that we are creating. When considering these codes and conventions, we found that the following were most effective and the reasons we decided to use them:

We also ensured that it followed a regular schema for a short film. This consisted of a beginning, middle and an end as well as an introduction, problem and a solution.

Introduction: Shot shots, titles, introduction to the characters as a group etc

Problem: Discovering the mushrooms

Solution: How the characters react to the drugs in their individual states

The music in the film was created by ourselves, using Garageband on the Macs, in order to avoid any copyright problems that may occur. This was a great advantage to us as we were then able to create the music using specific sound clips to create what we intended to portray.

Eg: Change in tempo

Change in rhythm

Varied of instruments

All of our media products were created with the same codes and conventions in mind. Due to the consistency of images, colour schemes, fonts, camera angles, costuming, special effects, music etc, we strongly believe we have created a media product that clearly represents the intended genre in the form of a short film alongside the ancillary texts that support the representation of this.