Poster - We conducted a questionnaire to find out what kind of film posters people prefer. We listed numerous real film posters including Hot Fuzz and The imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. The result was the landscape poster of Dr Parnassus, which is quite unconventional. We then tried to create a draft of a landscape poster for our ancillary task however the landscape poster didn't fit with our film. We first decided to have a poster containing band members with instruments however this made the poster look crowded and unprofessional. We then decided to move away from the landscape poster containing the actors to a less conventional portrait poster with no actors on. We took a photo of a guitar resting against a door this is unconventional as there are no people on it so there's no direct mode of address to draw people in, however I think the lack of people on the poster will pull people's attention towards the poster. We kept the text on the poster to a bare minimum as we wanted it to look like a poster advertising a music event as well as a film. this adds to the mockumentary style of the film and makes it a little less conventional.
Film Review - The film review is quite conventional in its layout, with a large image at the top underneath the name of the film. The text is then presented in a column format and a quote placed in the middle of the text. We looked at film reviews in magazines and decided to create an "important information" box like many magazines do which contains running time, genre and release date. We used an unconventional picture to grab readers attention and intrigue them as they'll want to find out what part of the film it's from and what's happening in it. It's unconventional as its a still taken straight from the film rather than a posed picture with direct mode of address. We used a five star system in red as this catches the readers' eye as they're flicking through and it determines the "quality" of the film thus determining whether or not they'll read it.
Short Film - For the short film we decided to create a mockumentary, this meant researching existing mockumentaries and looking at the forms and conventions used. We found that mockumentaries need to seem natural but actually be slightly exaggerated to provide entertainment. We used conventions such as jump cuts, awkward pauses, looks to camera and mistakes to make the film look as real as possible. We developed the use of the jump cut as most mockumentaries use it once or twice our film had to be quite short therefore we used a lot of jump cuts to cut down on time. The actors addressed the camera and the crew when speaking which is conventional of a mockumentary but they didn't let it get in the way of conversing with the other actors making it look realistic and natural. The mise en scene is quite conventional as the costume, make-up and acting are all naturalistic and they fit with the genre of music and film. However, the lighting was not conventional as we filmed at night and we only had lamps rather than one main light meaning the setting is dark which gives the film a grainy quality.
We looked at quite a few mockumentaries to get a grasp on conventions used and how we could utilise them to our project. In Drop dead gorgeous interviews to cast and camera are conducted so we used this film as a template for the interview scenes in our film, we looked at framing and composition. We also looked at The Office in which awkward pauses and banal conversations or situations are filmed, this gives the film a sense of realism and cements it in the mockumentary genre.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I believe the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks is quite effective. The poster relates very well to the main product as it is made to look like a music poster that you would find in a pub or club. The use of the instrument links it to the musicians and the musical undercurrent of the film while the door links to both the name of the film and the setting (Back Room). The colour scheme of the poster also links to the colour in the film through the mise en scene as the lighting was quite dark which (unintentionally) made the film fairly dark connecting it to the dark colours on the poster. The white door contrasts this darkness and makes it an effective, eye-catching poster, whilst in the film the white door is almost always in shot.
The film review proves an effective combination with the poster and film as the use of white, black and red connects all three texts. The still used links it to the film as it demonstrates the sarcastic humour, comedy and conflict evident throughout the film. It also links to the poster as no direct mode of address is used, this contrasts and links with the film as direct mode of address is used throughout as the characters talk to the camera or crew.
I believe the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks is quite effective. The poster relates very well to the main product as it is made to look like a music poster that you would find in a pub or club. The use of the instrument links it to the musicians and the musical undercurrent of the film while the door links to both the name of the film and the setting (Back Room). The colour scheme of the poster also links to the colour in the film through the mise en scene as the lighting was quite dark which (unintentionally) made the film fairly dark connecting it to the dark colours on the poster. The white door contrasts this darkness and makes it an effective, eye-catching poster, whilst in the film the white door is almost always in shot.
The film review proves an effective combination with the poster and film as the use of white, black and red connects all three texts. The still used links it to the film as it demonstrates the sarcastic humour, comedy and conflict evident throughout the film. It also links to the poster as no direct mode of address is used, this contrasts and links with the film as direct mode of address is used throughout as the characters talk to the camera or crew.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We received comments from our peers throughout the project, specifically people who weren't taking media as a subject so they could look at the film, poster and review objectively. We received mostly positive comments on all three texts, however one bad point that people pointed out was the grainy quality to the film, we had to explain that this was due to bad lighting which wasn't fixable.
We also recieved comments from our teacher through Blogger to help keep us on track.
On the poster people stated that it was interesting as it was a picture of a musical instrument rather than actors. This is the effect we wanted to achieve, we wanted it to be interesting and intriguing much like the Hot Fuzz poster as it draws people in.From this we've learnt that unconventional posters can be quite effective as they intrigue people although they are less obvious which could be considered a downside.
On the review we asked friends which image looked the best as we had six to choose from, we all agreed that the image we chose was the most effective. The chosen image links well to the content of the film and moves away from the poster by using an image containing actors which makes the review different but not too different from the poster and film. Our peers also stated that the review looked good as it was quite conventional but the use of bold colours draws you in. This taught us that conventions don't always need to be challenged to create an effective piece of work, instead colour and images can be much more effective and draw the reader in.
We asked the opinion of those who acted in the film (none of whom were actors) and we asked the opinion of a couple of peers who weren't involved in the film. They generally came out with the same comments, that it seemed very natural and realistic. They reckoned that the finished product did come out like a mockumentary and effectively too. One person commented on the audio which was, once or twice, fairly quiet however this was a technical issue that we could not rectify.
We received comments from our peers throughout the project, specifically people who weren't taking media as a subject so they could look at the film, poster and review objectively. We received mostly positive comments on all three texts, however one bad point that people pointed out was the grainy quality to the film, we had to explain that this was due to bad lighting which wasn't fixable.
We also recieved comments from our teacher through Blogger to help keep us on track.
On the poster people stated that it was interesting as it was a picture of a musical instrument rather than actors. This is the effect we wanted to achieve, we wanted it to be interesting and intriguing much like the Hot Fuzz poster as it draws people in.From this we've learnt that unconventional posters can be quite effective as they intrigue people although they are less obvious which could be considered a downside.
On the review we asked friends which image looked the best as we had six to choose from, we all agreed that the image we chose was the most effective. The chosen image links well to the content of the film and moves away from the poster by using an image containing actors which makes the review different but not too different from the poster and film. Our peers also stated that the review looked good as it was quite conventional but the use of bold colours draws you in. This taught us that conventions don't always need to be challenged to create an effective piece of work, instead colour and images can be much more effective and draw the reader in.
We asked the opinion of those who acted in the film (none of whom were actors) and we asked the opinion of a couple of peers who weren't involved in the film. They generally came out with the same comments, that it seemed very natural and realistic. They reckoned that the finished product did come out like a mockumentary and effectively too. One person commented on the audio which was, once or twice, fairly quiet however this was a technical issue that we could not rectify.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In the construction and research stage we used media technologies such as Blogger to keep our work stored on, to evaluate our work and to keep up to date with everything. I had used Blogger once before so I found it fairly easy to get started and get writing straight away, Blogger is a much simpler programme to use than the one we used last year (onenote) and has made the project much easier to keep on top of. Updating and changing information is simple and quick to do leaving plenty of time to work on the actual project although there was one issue with Blogger as we were blocked from using it in school which took time to fix and meant we couldn't look at our blogs in school.
We created an introductory PowerPoint to determine which projects we wanted to do and to narrow down our options to Short film, Teaser trailer or a Music promotion video. We've used PowerPoint many times so it was quick and easy to navigate helping us to get started on our project on time.
As the film is a music mockumentary we researched bands and quotes to get the characters and the dialogue just right, we looked on music magazine sites such as NME and Q and searched them in Google to find out how famous they and their quotes were. We then added some images of the bands to accompany their quotes on the blog.
Google also came in useful when we searched for film review to analyse, we used a few different sites including talktalk.com and totalfilm.com to get the reviews from. I uploaded the reviews onto my blog and we analysed them on paper.
To analyse and research mockumentaries we watched a few DVDs and analysed them on paper, I created a table on publisher to analyse the mockumentaries and we then scanned them into the computer to upload onto blogger. We scanned all written work into the computer to upload onto blogger.
The questionnaire was created in word, the results from the questionnaire were made into graphs using Excel, from here we copied and pasted the graphs into word to analyse and evaluate them.
In the construction and research stage we used media technologies such as Blogger to keep our work stored on, to evaluate our work and to keep up to date with everything. I had used Blogger once before so I found it fairly easy to get started and get writing straight away, Blogger is a much simpler programme to use than the one we used last year (onenote) and has made the project much easier to keep on top of. Updating and changing information is simple and quick to do leaving plenty of time to work on the actual project although there was one issue with Blogger as we were blocked from using it in school which took time to fix and meant we couldn't look at our blogs in school.
We created an introductory PowerPoint to determine which projects we wanted to do and to narrow down our options to Short film, Teaser trailer or a Music promotion video. We've used PowerPoint many times so it was quick and easy to navigate helping us to get started on our project on time.
As the film is a music mockumentary we researched bands and quotes to get the characters and the dialogue just right, we looked on music magazine sites such as NME and Q and searched them in Google to find out how famous they and their quotes were. We then added some images of the bands to accompany their quotes on the blog.
Google also came in useful when we searched for film review to analyse, we used a few different sites including talktalk.com and totalfilm.com to get the reviews from. I uploaded the reviews onto my blog and we analysed them on paper.
To analyse and research mockumentaries we watched a few DVDs and analysed them on paper, I created a table on publisher to analyse the mockumentaries and we then scanned them into the computer to upload onto blogger. We scanned all written work into the computer to upload onto blogger.
The questionnaire was created in word, the results from the questionnaire were made into graphs using Excel, from here we copied and pasted the graphs into word to analyse and evaluate them.
We used Fireworks to create the film poster final drafts and the finished film poster. In fireworks we used tools such as the lasso tool to create a professional looking poster. We used a camera to take the photo of the guitar against the door, however we only managed to take one as the camera was running out of charge.
We used publisher to create the film review final drafts and the finished film review. We used publisher for the film review as the review contained text and we needed to display this in a column format. The image in the film review is a still from the film so we used a handheld camera to take it and we then print screened the image from the film and transferred it to publisher to place in the review.
We used Word to create the script, I printed the script off a few times to correct it and make changes on it. I then updated these changes on Word and finally printed it out when it was finished. We then scanned the script in to place on our blog.
We used Word to create the script, I printed the script off a few times to correct it and make changes on it. I then updated these changes on Word and finally printed it out when it was finished. We then scanned the script in to place on our blog.
During filming we used a handheld camera to shoot the film. This caused some issues with the quality of the filming as the lighting wasn't very good which gave the film a grainy quality, also the audio was sometimes a little quiet due to the quality of the camera. When it came to editing we took the film clips from the camera's memory card and transferred them to the Mac. We then converted the files to MP4 files in "Handbrake" so we could edit them in iMovie. Once in iMovie we took the clips and edited the successful clips together, we didn't add any effects as it is a mockumentary, the only unusual editing technique we used was Jump Cut to give it that Mockumentary feel. We added credits and music from iMovie at the end, this was the only audio we added.
