Final Film

evaluation

                                                 The Evaluation

 

      As the candles fade out, we have come to the end of our movie project. Over the past 13 weeks we have grown in our journey and gained knowledge and experience on the way. Looking back to week one as we set out, my key knowledge of the media industry was minimal so before I started this project I new the more research I did would benefit me in the long run.

       My media product challenged forms and conventions of real media products such as we took the main theme of our film from a well known universal film called the sixth sense. We took the basis of a supernatural feeling and sense to the film with out making the audience aware that it is going on. To make this possible we had to ensure we avoided the obvious tensions such as media effects like loud, dramatic music that would build up to the main tension in the scene. The reason we did not want to do this was because we didn’t want our film to become a ghost story, we wanted to take a more supernatural approach, more of a memory loss without the actual reality of there being a ghost in the film. On the other hand we did not challenge the forms and conventions so much as we followed a quite basic ending, in witch you would usually find at the end of a dramatic film. The story unravelled and let the audience realise the story. It was the main focus of the film and in the last few scenes this was were the use of cameras, lighting and sounds were found the most effect full. I think the fact we challenged the fact of giving away there was a sixth sense (supernatural) being within our film made our film more interesting and challenging to understand, we gradually hinting unusual acts slowly building up to our ending makes the reader ponder, but with keeping it low key we do not give away to much to soon leaving the rest of the film to be pointless and drag on. We capture the audience right from the start and keep them clinching on right till the end as they want to see how the story unfolds. This could either of worked to our advantage or not, but from visual feedback the audience, mentioned they enjoyed the feeling of uncertainty.

       Through out the film we used the cameras and lighting to our advantage. We pre planned the frames so we could get the most effective shot possible. In our shots there’s very rarely a scene were we have just framed the shot in the centre, we wanted to take it to the next level and felt framing to the left or right gave a better background or scenery shot, this also helped when it came to the Miesce’ on scene witch through out the film we kept natural by using natural scenery such as a field that backed onto the house and a real definition of a normal family home. We felt by doing this the story became more believable and the audience could relate and play a role in the film. By developing our media product we were able to use the sound to help give shuttle hints of things maybe not being what they seem, we did this to play on the audience mind, start to get them thinking without them really knowing the whole truth. The lighting was controlled and we used the natural light. We pre planned are shooting day, there fore able to capture the lighting through out the day witch again made our film more realistic and natural.

     We also used narrative, by doing this we were able to use our shots to establish the time and as stated above the lighting played a big part in this as we were able to shoot sunrise witch represented morning and we used this right into the dawn light. We used it to establish a place, the family home we used was situated in a quite village. It had the feel of a family home, and we chose before hand they we wanted to keep it in a minimal area so we did not confuse or overload the audience. One example of sound narrative we used was at the start of the film as the alarm clock goes off, this alarms the audience and explains without words that it is 9.00am and the family are just waking up, this was also an effective of technology as it’s the first sound you hear in the film and it alarms and catches the audience off guard. They was also another good use of narrative that ran through the whole film, the separation between the husband and wife, and this sets of right from the first scenes in the film, the husband goes of to work leaving the women in bed, the women does not work so you have the sense of the provider and the stay at home mum. This was also a good way of representing the fact that the husband had moved on from the dramaand he’s getting on with his life whereas the women has still not conquered and over come here fears. She’s stuck in her fantasy world and till the end of the film she is not freed from that life.

    With in our film we also use emotional content. The main use of this comes in at the end scenes when the husband arrives home from work. The speech and the physical emotion the actors display show impact. The impact of reality when the women realises that her son has gone works up well and builds up right till the end scene. The emotion in the film helps the audience to feel tragedy, weakness and letdown. It helps them to relate to the film and with the actors given them a sense of role to play.

    As well as creating the film we also created ancillary text. Firstly the poster, witch from days of research we found in particular the best poster suited to the genre of our film would be to keep it plain, to link with the film and leave the audience guessing and give them space to come up with there own concoction. We stuck to two main colours black and white as we felt these represented a supernatural sprit and the feelings with in the film are dull. The main picture shown on our poster is a snapshot from the film itself and using technology such as photo shop we manipulated this to make it more effective and focus basically on the birthday cake witch is used in the end scene of the film. Again from using research we manipulated the text to make the poster seem realistic and made it reach out to a wide target audience. We used a tagline to draw in the attention of the audience ‘ Birthday wishes don’t always come true’ this combines with the film, and again gives that sense of uncertainty, it leave a wide gap for the audience to come up with there own conclusions of the film.

   As well as the poster I created an article based upon the film including interviews from the director and actors. I researched into magazines such as movie review and Q to gain inspiration for my article. Again I wanted to keep the same theme running through the film and ancillary texts so I kept the colours to a minimum and did not over crowd the page. I also used a big font to draw in the reader’s attention. The title also has cracks in this, I thought this was a good way of representing the broken memories of the family, or the heart brake the mother feels at the end of the story. Another representation I thought it could be was the film itself, the identity of the mother is broken because of the tragedy of her son. She can not face reality so within her mind plays a role over and over again.

    I think the combination of the main product and the ancillary texts work well along side of each other as they all have a sense of distortion, simplicity but with a lot more hidden within them. They draw the attention of the audience because of the simplicity, makes them want to no more, read between the lines,

   For our project I used various types of new media technologies, mainly for the editing purpose of the film. With this we were able to construct the different frames and put them in order as they would appear within the film, we could then cut scenes down and play about with them. It also enabled us to cut and add in sounds such as the alarm clock the beginning of the film and the music played through the montage. By using the editor we were able to construct our film in a way in witch we imagined in.

  For the research we used new technology to in different aspects. We set up a account on Blogger witch then enabled us to keep a personal diary of research and edit it and keep it all in one place, this also helped us with time management of our project as we were able to set what we had done and what we needed to be doing. To find my research I mainly used the internet such a google such engine, through this I research posters, movie reviews and articles as well as using ‘you tube’ to research other short films. For the planning part of the project we used Blogger to upload are story bored and shooting script, we planned out how long we had to do each part and when we were going to start and finish by. This was mainly useful to us as then we were able to move on quickly and start filming.  For my evaluation I found Blogger came in more useful then in any other part of the project as I was able to bring up my account and look back over everything I had uploaded from research to the end final projects. I then usedMicrosoft word to right out my evaluation. Over all in my project I feel that me and my team have been successful in creating a film to the standards we wanted it as well as a poster and article to accompany it. If I were to re-do the project then I think we would of maybe started filming a bit earlier so then it was not so much of a rush at the end and when creating my article I would maybe of used a different programme to further my knowledge as I already new how to use publisher.       

Movie poster

For are movie poster we wanted to keep the same theme as the movie therefore using a simple layout to hold suspension and leave mystrey to our audience. As shown in are previous research we were inspired by the sixth sense poster, having the theme of the black background and the main picture focused in the centre of the page. By using photoshop i minipulated the photo of the cake with cadles and changed the brightness and contrast, i also used the round cropper tool to pick out the section we wanted to focus and and by using the inverse button changed the rest of the photo black to blend in with the background. I think this was a very effective image and the orange of the flames worked well with the deep black background.

For the text we wanted to keep it plain and simple, and using the obvious black on white effect worked well as it made the writing stand out. We recerched posters so we could pick out items to use on ours. For instance the writing at the bottom of the poster listing all the directors and actors is very life like to the posters that are out at the moment.

We also used a tagline to draw in the audience and leave a sense of mystrey about the film as we did not want to give away the story line from the poster.

I think our poster came out very effetive in the end and im pleased with the turn out, the only dissapointment i would say would be the quality of the photo, as we only took it on a digital camera therefore not getting the best quality pixuals.

My movie Article

For my movie article i used a plain but effective theme layout so the attention wasn't taken away from the writing too much. I wanted to use visual effects to give the reader something to look at and i will also help to attract the readers. My article is constructed with a review and then interviews with the director and actors. For the interviews i wanted there to be an obvious diffrence between the question being asked and the answer being given, therefore i used a two tone effect, witch also helps to attract the reader.

Questionnaire example

Below is a copy of a questionnaire that we created for people to fill in when they watched our film. we handed these out to people in our target audience and got a range of age results that were in our target market. We made sure we asked them specific questions so that we covered the range of criteria for a strong mark. We also tried to cover this criteria in as few questions as possible in order not to inconvenience our audience, this means we had to make our questions precise and to the point. The showing and the questionnaires were a success and we hope to use our results in our evaluation.

Evaluation questionnaire

 

1. To what extent do you think our film appeals to our target audience of 18+?

 

Not at all   To some extent    A reasonable amount     With great accuracy

 

2. Please rate our shot composition, lighting and framing

 

1 Very poor    2 Poor     3 Satisfactory     4 Good       5 Very good

 

3. Please rate our camerawork and angles

 

1 Very poor    2 Poor     3 Satisfactory     4 Good       5 Very good

 

4. Please rate our editing

 

1 Very poor    2 Poor     3 Satisfactory     4 Good       5 Very good

 

 

5. How effective did you think the use of music was in the film?

 

Not at all   To some extent    A reasonable amount     With great accuracy

 

6. Please rate our actors

 

1 Very poor    2 Poor     3 Satisfactory     4 Good       5 Very good

 

 

7. Did you see the twist coming in the plot before it was revealed at the end?

 

              Yes                                                 No

 

8. Was the story clear?

 

Very clear                     Confusing in parts                     Very confusing

 

 

 

9. Was the twist in the plot clear?

                 Yes                                                 No

 

10. What were the strengths of the film (e.g. the plot etc) and was there anything you particularly enjoyed about the film?

 

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11. What were the weaknesses (e.g. any irrelevant scenes) and was there anything you disliked about the film?

 

 

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This poster is similar to what we want out out come to be, the blackness surrounding the women is the effect that we want in our poster. The tag line gives the impression that the film has a twist which is what we want out poster to give. There is minimal text on this poster and towards the centre of the poster there is a cake which shows that the semiotics of a birthday party. However in this poster the main focus is on the women rather than the cake which is what we want the focus of our poster to be on.

The sixth sense has a similar plot to our film and the poster has similar colours to our as well. Black is the main colour of the post which connotes the same feeling that we want ours to, the bright colours around the little boy are very much alike to the colours of the candle flames on our cake. The font style looks like chalk handwriting on a blackboard and it gives off the impression of horror