Evaluation
In what ways does your media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Short film
It can be argued that Independent short films, like mine, do not have specific codes and conventions relating to genre. However, generalisations can be made about what categories these short films can be placed in according to their genre such as horror, romance etc. Nevertheless, I picked Art Film genre as it is difficult to categorise some short films such as my own. Most of these Art Films however, tend to be experimental and the narrative is lost by unusual cinematography or visual effects. Oppositely, my film is driven by narrative and does not include any visual effects or graphics. Nevertheless, some Independent Art Films can be driven by narrative and looks at certain individuals in society like the majority of short films I researched. Also, I felt that my audience would not relate to an experimental film; they would prefer a narrative to follow.
My short film shows the narrative of the girl and her addiction to video games. The audience are taken through the story through the shots used such as shot-reverse-shot of the video games. According to the Reception theory, this provides a relationship with the viewer and the character as they see through the character's perspective and experiences of life. The audience is then 'sewn' into the narrative. By multiple use of these shots, this could evoke emotions from the audience as they feel connected to the characters, therefore provokes tears. I believe that the second half of my film evokes emotions more as not just the cinematography but the acting and non-diagetic sound (soundtrack) emphasises the atmosphere.
The representation of social groups in my film subverts conventions and stereotypes. For instance; the girl is addicted to video games rather than the boy. I have chosen to reverse roles to oppose assumptions made by the audience that it is usually boys who hibernate in their rooms, playing games until they discover girls. Nevertheless, Feminists would argue my film still represents patriarchal power. This is because the girl is trapped in a home, surrounded by patriarchal control such as her father and also the boys speaking to her on the games. In addition, they would argue that she does not achieve freedom at the end as she still has a male influence in her life.
Film poster
My poster conforms to most codes and conventions of existing material because I researched the layout of Art film posters. Most of them had the image at the top of the page and the title, date and billing box at the bottom. However, the images used in existing products only had one or two layers such as of the central protagonist and another object/person or a graphical amendment to one image. Oppositely, my poster has several images as I have split up one image with the protagonist and her toys. These toys surrounding her I think lacks professionality as they do not blend in with the background or even her. Nevertheless, I think that the toys along with the illustrated props make the poster look quirky like real media products, for instance; Napoleon Dynamite and Juno.
The props and other images used in the poster convey different meanings. One prop in particular does not fit the genre. The gun is more wild-western than modern so does not compliment the modern army outfit. Saussure would argue that the gun signifies wild-west America which suggests the film might have shoot-outs, bounty hunters and sherifs. This is not what my film represents but the gun could also suggest childhood innocence as the gun does look like a toy gun found in a toybox. Therefore, anchoring the stuffed toys around her also. Additionally, the stuffed toys used were not used in the actual film so could give audiences false impressions. Nevertheless, they were intended to be used in the film but were used in the poster production instead. Also, they are more symbolic of the juxtaposition of her being aggressive and the toys representing childhood innocence.
On the other hand, I have used typical conventions of a movie poster that are a requirement. For example; age certification which needs to be shown by law. I think by applying this, it makes my film poster look more realistic; having insititutional stamps. The same can be said for the festival award logo. On the contrary, these award nomination logos on existing artifacts blend in with the poster. I could have cut out the background of the logo so that it looked part of the poster rather than placed randomly. Oppositely, the placement of the film title, release date(s) and billing box make the poster look similar to real media products.
Film review
My review conforms to some extent to the codes and conventions of real media products. For instance; the background. The background was made simply from a rectangle and I applied a texture. I found that textures were added to the background of one existing product (Rock Sound) but others had block colour backgrounds with a few graphic elements like with the border of Escape magazine. The texture I decided to use implies the theme of the army and modern warfare which is what most violent video games are about.
The layout of the review was similar existing artifacts I researched. I intended have the image cover half the page like I found was a common feature in film reviews. Although, the image became too pixelated once enlarged so I had to decrease the size. To amend this issue also, I added a recommendations column which shows which films/TV shows the film is comparable to. According to Blumer and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory recommendations are needed so that audiences feel connected to other people and also products. Thus, they can associate my film with others they may have seen before. Or vice versa, as The Online Gamer is a TV show not many have heard of.
The structure of my review conforms to conventions of real media products. The opening summarises the story in a 3 point sentence. Then I extend slightly on the synopsis but not giving the ending away to the reader. The rest of the review looks at individual items in the narrative such as actors, questioning the director's intentions at certain moments and the cinematography. As well as the structure, I use similar language techniques to existing reviews. I have used satire like Total Film used to review Killing Me Softly. I added,' As always a knight in shining armour appears (on a skateboard rather than a horse; how very modern!.' This is also quite like the way Rock Sound critique cliches of romance, specifically the theme of virginity, in all american films. On the other hand, I did not use linguistic devices such as alitteration, quotes and rule of three which are common in reviews.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think all my products compliment each other because they all represent the genre I tried to convey. Art and Independent films are usually distributed online, albeit from an institutional website such as the BBC or Vimeo. I already had a Youtube account so I distributed my film on there. In addition, my target audience mentioned that they watch short films on Youtube. My review shows this choice in distribution as the whole magazine is dedicated to online films. Also, the colour scheme of the magazine (red and white) is the same as Youtube. I decided upon this as there is not a film magazine in the industry that specialises in online films; therefore I have created a niche market. Art and Independent films have niche audiences so this compliments well. The online nature of my film is also repeated in my poster with the release date. As well as this, the use of festival awards and show date conveys the Art/Independent genre also. Most indie and art films are shown at these types of festivals. In my research all but one Art film posters have Raindance or other festival award logos. Additionally, this is how Art/Independent shorts are distributed via both the internet and festivals. Not many are shown on silver screen; mainly animation not live action shorts.
Furthermore, the props used in all products compliment each other. In the thumbnail of the film, the older girl is holding an imaginary video game controller. This implies that she does not know how to interact socially due to being stuck in her room for her whole childhood. Therefore, she does not know social protocol when introducing herself. In the screenshot of the film in the review, she is listening to the worldwide online gamers who are fighting against her. Although, at this point, she is taking them off in shock of seeing the boy outside her window. The poster also adds the headphones but they are digitally illustrated. In fact, the video game props on the poster are all illustrated, this emphasises the contrast between what is real and what is not. Alternatively in the poster she is holding a gun rather than an imaginary video game controller or headphones. According to Saussure's theory of semiotics, the gun signifies violence and death. This relates to the desensitisation the video games have caused. This is shown in the scenes when she is staring unemotionally at the screen both when she is little and when she reaches adolescence. This scene is outlined in the film review as I add 'she is glued to the computer screen, tapping away at her xbox controller'. Also, in the film, the sound effects of shooting and the abuse from the headset contribute to the theme of aggression and violence. Nevertheless, the gun is a toy gun which compliments the teddy bears around her as it implies her childhood innocence and imagination has been lost. On the other hand, her attempt to interact with Reece shows her imagining a controller is in her hands or this could be interpreted as her shock of not having the controller in her hands.
In contrast, I do not think that the products altogether collaborate well because of the facial expressions of the central protagonist. In the thumbnail of the video, the older girl looks gleeful. Yet, in the film review she looks confused and finally in the poster she looks unemotional. Nevertheless, each of the images symbolise a different moment in the film. The thumbnail shows her happiness of letting go of her addiction. It also defines the title; Loading... Escapism. That is the moment of her escape. However, the thumbnail gives the story away. The image used for the review is at the pinnicle moment of the film where she notices the boy. The confusion suggests the turnstile in her life where she gives up her gaming life for real life. The poster represents her childhood as a whole being destroyed by the games. It does not have any relation to the romantic element to the story; it only focusses on the theme of desensitisation. The romance in the story is the main driving force and perhaps could have been implied in the poster aswell. Maybe an image of the boy on the skateboard could have been added to represent this.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
http://prezi.com/gm8hk3-a0weg/audience-feedback-for-my-advanced-portfolio/
In all stages I used Blogger as an electronic portfolio. This was useful to hold all of my data for my coursework. Nonetheless, there were some issues at school with the filtering system and also there was a few weeks were pictures could not be uploaded both at school and at home. This posed issues with my time management but I did other tasks in those weeks to make up for it. Also, sometimes it was difficult to manage images when organising them onto a page as it would be difficult to move them as they would have a link elsewhere on the page.
In my research, I used predominantly Internet Explorer to look at the history of my chosen medium, how theories can be applied to film today such as the crude hyperdermic needle theory. I looked at a variety of websites per topic so that I could determine the validity and reliability of their data and facts. For instance; Wikipedia is well known to lack in validity as anyone can amend the 'facts'. So it is best to look on several more websites to back up the research. To show my analysis of two short films in particular I used prezi.com which is an alternative presentation software. It was hard to navigate to start with and I found problems such as the limit of zooming in. Nevertheless, the finished presentation looked effective.
In my planning stages, I used a mix of mediums such as paper and electronic. I scanned in sketches of character profiles and storyboards. On the other hand, I used Prezi again multiple times to present my storyboard and extra scene ideas. Although, Prezi updated so I had to work around the new actions and tools. Furthermore, I used social networking sites like Facebook to organise my actors for my film. For the production, I used the same camcorder and tripod as before. Nevertheless, the second session filming, the tripod was missing the plate which attaches to the camera so I had to sellotape the camera to the tripod which caused it to be unstable. When editing my film, both times, I used Serif Movie Plus but I had several problems firstly with the corruption of files (I did not want to convert them because it decreases the quality of the video). So, I used the updated Movie Plus on the teacher's computer. However, I had issues with sound when using the project on the updated version. This delayed my time management.
The software I used for my ancillary texts production, to create both my poster and my review page, was Serif Page Plus. Even though they have basic graphics, it created an effective and professional look, particularly with layers and complimentary colours used.For my poster, I used a bridge camera, tripod and back drop for my photo shoot for my poster. This made the images look more professional. I edited these images in Serif Page Plus using the cut out studio. Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to smooth all the edges of the foreground. However, it looked better than when I used the same tool last year for my AS music magazine. I think this year, I was more vigilant in smoothing out the edges using a smaller brush as last time I cropped a lot of the original image. As well as the cut out studio in Page plus, I used the logo studio to create my production logo. I combined several graphical elements and arranged text to form it.
In addition to Page Plus, I used other software to enhance the look of my poster. I added the background created in Adobe Illustrator. I had not come across this application before so it was hard to navigate and find what tools did what. I experimented with these different tools and found how to apply gradients and textures to a simple rectangle. My original thought was to create a gradient that symbolised the edges of a TV screen however most of them looked too bevelled. So I resorted to using an elliptical one. Nevertheless, once applied to my poster, it complimented the shape of the foreground image and the direct mode of address of the older girl.
For my review, I used most of the tools in Serif Page Plus.One tool I used was the texture tool. I applied this to the background but decreased the opacity so there was a balance of the original colour and a subtle suggestion of texture. I also used the shape tools to create the white background for the body copy as well as the 5 star rating.
Another application I used for the finishing touches of the poster was Serif Photo Plus. I added the sharpness tool to decrease the pixelated effect of the screen shot. After using this tool, I experimented with other filters on the same page to see how else I could improve the image. By doing this, I realised the screen shot needed more 'warmth' so I changed the brightness and contrast bars to eliminate the 'coldness' from the naturalistic lighting.
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