How did you use new media technologies in the construction, and research, planning and evaluation stages? Jenny Allan

This question had to be shown in the form of a Prezi the link is below hope you enjoy :)












Prezi Question 4

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

•  Narrative organisation 
• Characterisation
• Mise en scene 
• Use of genre conventions
• Editing/post production 

Narrative organisation

The short films I have decided to look at are "Waving At Cars", David Beauchamp,2008, "The Archivist" James Lees, 2008, "The End Of The Line" Max Pugh, 2005, "Signs" Publicis Mojo, 2009, "Inside" Trevor Sands, 2008. Each film has its own uniqueness and really helped our group decide on what to have in our film. Short films contain some of the most inventive and unconventional work to be found in film making. Each film I have chosen to write about contains their own personal narrative and they way they have been organised really connects with the audience. 


All the films have a beginning, middle and end apart from "Waving at cars" which has an open ended ending. Narrative organisation allows the audience to establish the setting the characters and what situation they have been put into and this is all because of the layout of the beginning, middle and ending. I think having an open ended film sometimes can be quite interesting at time allowing the audience to make there own ending up. "Signs" is the longest short film I looked at and therefore has a completed short film. It also, had many locations and more characters were involved unlike "Waving at Cars" which is very short and has three main characters and the ending is left for the audience to understand.  

Characterisation 

Each short film had only a few main characters in them mainly just two. However, this is depending on how long the film is.  But the way they are presented really allows the audience to understand who they are trying to portray, this could either be stereotypical or they play a character that was meant for them. 


For example in "Waving at cars" the male character physically abuses his wife and the audience can see this by his actions. This is shown through the use of camera work, and sound mainly. There is a close up of his hand upon hers on the trolley showing he has a tight grip over her so she can't escape almost like she is trapped. The dialogue that is used his language and body language as well with it is very aggressive and he is very threatening and the audience can see this. 

It is a lot like "The Archivist", where he is so obsessed with his girlfriend and the audience can see how far this goes. Again, this is shown through mise en scene and sound. Throughout the film there is the sound of the vacuum machine as the film goes on the audience recognise that, that sound is him wrapping something else up that his girlfriend had touched or even looked at. Each prop has a symbol of characterisation in this film because each one is about their relationship and how he as an unusual obsession with her.  


I think the characterisation is very important in a short film because if their stories they are telling make no sense then the short film would have no narrative organisation.  These conventions of short film need to work together to make a good short film. 

Mise en scene 

The props used in "The Archivist" are very good, because each one was thought through and used and had its own relevance to the film. This influenced our film and one of the good things about our film is that the props we used were toys that would have been played with in the 1940s and the location everything to do with the 1940s was thought through properly so that it would work. 


The lighting in this film as well is very interesting, there is very little light when he is in the main room and this fits well with the film because it itself is quite dark and twisted. Also, what I noticed when watching the film I thought that when he was with his girlfriend in the beginning everything seemed brighter almost as if the lighting was fitting with the mood of the film because as it goes on and their relationship gets worse then the lighting gets darker. 


The setting was good for all the films each one was in a different location which showed that short films can have variety and there not all in the same locations. 

Genre Conventions 

The films that I have picked, I have tried to make them all have a diverse and different so that the audience can see the difference between each short film. One is about domestic abuse/drama, mental disability/drama, romance, romantic/drama and a split personality. I think it was good to write about different genres because then is shows my point made earlier about short films being inventive and unconventional. 

Editing 

I have chosen two screen from the short film "The End Of The Line" because I thought it had the best editing techniques used out of most of the short films I had picked. Because there was so much used in the film, the colour change to show the importance of the beach to this character which links to characterisation, and also, all the filters used to show her confusion and show what the problem is with her. I think in our film we should have used more editing techniques this made of improved our film and would have been better. 

REVIEW

Evaluation

We have started on our evaluations and the bit we are doing as a group is mini commentary of how well all our products work together. We chose to film this using a green screen as we haven't used this before and we hope it will make it more visually interesting! 

Finished Product

Here is a final video on YouTube

Jenny Allan- Editing

Today we finally finished our product but watching it back the sound of the voice over doesn't match the time period and also, there is a moment in the garden scene where you can not hear Costa (Benjamin's) voice it is very faint among all the other sounds. I will plan to change these as soon as possible once this has been done our main final project is finished. All we need so sort out is our film poster and review.

Jenny Allan - A problem

Today we had to put our titles into our film because we forgot to before putting all our sound into our film. Doing this made the sound out of place and needed to be moved. We did this but the sound levels were then disrupted. We were so close to finishing but not need to redo all  of our sound levels to make it fit back in with the imagery in the film. I am hoping to finish this sometime tomorrow and hopefully get it back up to the standard we had it at. 

Jenny Allan Film Poster Design

 

Here is my film poster design, this one is my 1st draft i would like to do another one because for starters i have got the title wrong for the film and secondly films posters normally have a person or the main characters on the front i will ask artimis and sophey if i can borrow some images from them so i can do this.

Editing Process

• We have finished our rough cut. To create an aged atmosphere we added a sepia effect to all our shots. 
• To show how our scenes go from the past to the present (in the time period of the 1940's) we added in a cross fading transition which fades between the 2 shots. This gives it a really nice feel and emphasizes the emotion in the story.
• We also have the problem of hearing traffic in the background of some of our shots so we are going to get rid of it and add in some rural noises either through garage band or from our own recordings.

Film Posters Jenny Allan

Here is my analysis on the film poster of "Brighton Rock" The mise en scene normally shows the representation of characters and location. But the reviews and ratings along with age certification show what audience this film is for. The title shows a good sense of narrative showing where the film is or gives the spectator an idea of what the film is about. The descriptive words finally give us an idea of what the genre of the film could be in this case "THRILLING" related to a thriller also, the novel that has been written its genre is a thriller. To me I really like this poster i think it really shows the meaning of the film we understand a little about the main characters we get an understanding of the location and the title of the film is bold enough for me to see clearly what is called. The description words also, helped me understand the meaning of the film, and what genre it belongs to. 

Here is an analysis from the film poster of Fish Tank. The photo is very interesting, the lighting has lit up her face and the surroundings behind her which allows us to understand her character and the representation of her. The location allows the audience to see what kind of film this could be the poster is a picture taken from her bedroom, which has childrens' drawings and the wall paper is falling off, this also, shows what genre the film could be. I really like the poster for fish tank, because we see the main character of the film and although the title seems baffling  the poster helps it become more understandable, with the descriptive words and the blurb about the production team and the other related films this helps the audience understand what this film might be about.

Title Ideas

We weren't completely satisfied with the title 'Forsaken' so we came up with some new possible titles.

• Letters 
• Abandoned
• Disowned
• Outcast
• Crestfallen
• Shamed

Second Day Of Filming

Taking a break..

A lot of our shots were hand held

Shooting our first scene where Myrtle finds the letter!

Jenny behind the camera!

Our Re-Shoting- Jenny Allan

We finally finshed all of our shots and made sure this time there were no fire extinghers in the background of the shot or any other props that weren't around in the time pierod our film is set in.

Sophey told me though unfortunatly that our last shots are a bit wobbly because we had to use the camera handheld throughout mostly because the tripod was completly broken and the camera sat unsteadly on top. We thought it would be so much better to use the camera handheld because the tripod was so broken.

Unfortunatly today Artimis and Sophey are not here and Sophey has the camera so therefore I can not edit. So will just work on the blog and finish off everything that needs to be done on here, that I can finish.

Shots we learnt from - Jenny & Artemis

Last week we shot 2 scenes and then edited the footage together. I think what worked well was the fact we had a lot of footage to work with and had a variety of angles, shots etc. However because of the time period we are setting it in, there has to be a lot of work put into the props and setting etc. Unfortunately we missed out a few things like fire extuinguishers that were on the wall and small things like that that broke up the continuity and showed it wasn't in the 1930's - 40's. We are going to need to film some of these shots again.

We think that this shot was particularly successful because the high angle enables the audience to see the setting and because it's quite big it creates a sombre atmosphere. 

We also like this shot however there is a lack of continuity with the radio because in this shot it's at the side yet in the next shot it's by the window. We also didn't think about the fire extinguisher which they wouldn't have had in those days. However we do like the dark lighting and the fact that a silhouette was created because this carries on the eery ambience. Also the cinematography worked well because the long shot showed off the big hallway and emphasized the atmosphere. 

This shot was quite bad because in it we can see the scaffolding which wouldn't have been present in the 1930's - 40's. We also managed to cut off the top of the female characters head so  the framing was unsuccessful. 
Next time we go to re shoot this luckily all of the paint and scaffolding will be gone so hopefully it will be easier to reshoot. 
We will also keep an extra eye out for things like fire extinguishers and any other objects that might affect the continuity and were not in that time period. 
What also needs improving is the lighting in some of the shots. In many cases it was too dark and this was because we were only all available to film in the evening. Seeing as half term is coming up we are going to be able to shoot during the day.

Film Posters- Jenny Allan

Here are a couple of film posters we are studying that connects with our film in either sound or story line:-

The Lost Prince, 2003, Stephen Poliakoff : This film is set around the same time period as we are filming ours in, just before the World War, the boy is diagnosed with epilepsy and having learning disabilities the boy becomes isolated from his family. However, his mother is very loving but finds it difficult to connect with her son. 

This film is very similar to ours which is were we got our initial idea from. We want to reach the audiences emotions like this film did. The poster however, is something that I wouldn't want to use for the film we are making, maybe include all the characters and have the most important prop in there somewhere.     

What I need to work on- Jenny Allan

Last year in media we had to make a two minute opening for a Thriller, in this post I am going to explain what I need to work on to make this years task much better than last years. 

Our opening was about a girl being followed and stalked by someone who has always wanted to be with her. This was honestly a bad opening, we ran out of time and the narrative was rushed. The dialogue for the film was made up on the spot and avoided the sense of realism. 

What went well and badly:

* Camera Work 

The framing was good in our film everything was in shot and at the right height. This was one of the good things in our film.

The camera movement was very smooth as  well so everything ran together. We had a few panning shots when the main character is walking to her house. We tried to make things look like they were normal and that nothing was wrong.

I'm hoping the camera work this year will be good if not better than last time. I'm hoping that we can really narrate the story across with the cinematography.

*Mise en scene 

 We didn't use many props associated with the genre of Thriller this might be one of the reasons why are film failed. We used 3 main props in our film this being a mobile phone, some food from the freezer and a television. However, we did in fact use a lot of props in our mini narrative but they made no sense with the film. This year we have done a prop list and have many more things to be using in our film. We need to make sure that the props we use were around in the time period that our film is being set in the 1940s. We have set a much bigger task for ourselves.

The location we used last year wasn't very interesting I thought and was a bit cliche. I think we should have spent more time looking for a better location so that our film would have been a little bit more interesting. Also, I have learned that if you find a good location then it can do most of the work to fit with the style of genre for you. This year our location is in an old manor house which really connects with our film.



 
* Editing 


The editing if I'm honest wasn't the best there was one shot that was out of focus and blurred when it wasn't meant to be. 


Because we have the wrong video up on youtube I can't see how good the cutting was on the other film but on this one the order it has been put into is all out of order and makes no sense.

I think the cuts could have been more effective by using the advantages on the mac, and also, during the mini narrative I think the cuts could have been much quicker to create a more tense atmosphere. 

This year I have learned much more on editing techniques and hope to improvise this into the media film. I feel as those the way it has been edited makes the film much more interesting to watch and engages the audience more.  




* Sound

I think we should have put a soundtrack over the top of the beginning scenes so that it wasn't so plain and to be honest a bit boring we could have made people jump when the main male character walks into the camera shot watching her walk down the road. I think this would have created a much more thriller effect and also, might have made the audience emphasis with the character and fear for  her. 


The dialogue of the phone conversation was obviously thought of on the spot. It jumped away from the sense of realism and they way it was spoken made the film look like a comedy or the way it was spoken. We could  have also, had the sound of a phone ringing to allow the audience to understand that her phone is ringing and that there is someone on the end of it instead of her just reaching into her pocket to answer an un-ringing  phone.

I remember in our old film when the male character appeared from the behind the fridge we did have a noise that was meant to make the audience jump


What I'm going to work on: 

This year I am going to make sure I work on timing make sure everything is ready to be filmed and completed not rushed and make the sound work well with the editing and the camera work. 

Also, make sure there is a good communication in the group and that we all know what we are doing at what time and where. 

The video that I have uploaded is the wrong one on "youtube" but there isn't the right copy anymore so this is the only one I could find.  

Analysis of scenes in our film Jenny Allan

Enigma Code 

They raise questions in the viewers mind 

In our film we would want these questions to be raised: 

- Why did George keep it a secret from Myrtle?

- Why did he pretend Benjamin died? 

- Whats wrong with Benjamin? 

- What happens after Myrtle finds Benjamin? 

Restricted Narration 

This is when the character knows as much as the audience the examples we have of this are both parents don't know what is wrong with their son. However, the audience know what George has done with Benjamin but Myrtle doesn't. 

Character Construction  

This is how we are going to communicate our characters through the use of Mise en Scene and Camera Work: 

- Lighting is going to be quite bright but the colour will be de-saturated this will give it a more dramatic and sinister tone. 

- Extreme close ups going to show something is really wrong with Benjamin 

- Some of the flashbacks we are going to have we have decided to have them in slow motion to make more of an impact and making sure it really connects with the audience. And it shows the bond between Myrtle and her son. 

Anamatic

 

There were to many shots to include in our storyboard but when the dialogue is being said, the shots will be shot/reverse shot. This is written in the post of the shots lists which also includes the dialogue.

Mise en scene-Jenny Allan

Costume

Costa: Benjamin 

• School shorts 
• White shirt
• Braces 
• Long socks 
• Plimsolls
•  

Katie: Myrtle

• 1940s Tea dresses

• Side parting
• Gelled 

Ed: George 

• Always a suit 
• Smoking cigars or pipe Tobacco 

Hair and Makeup

Katie: Myrtle

• 1940's Dress 
• Bold Makeup 

 Ed: George

•   Mustache

 Props

We did a Google image search and found ideas for our props and costumes.

Here is an example of the ball of wool Benjamin will be playing with. It would have to be plain white so that it fits in with the period of time. Also, it shows the beginning of his schizophrenia. 

We are going to need to use a bed in one of ours scenes so we needed to see what bed covers looked like in the 1940s. 

Here are some of the toys that were very popular in the 1940s, they are bought for Benjamin but he was never interested in the only thing he was interested in was his ball of wool.

We are also, going to take some images of our own to show some more props for example, the photos, plant, chairs, lamp, frills, suit cases, bathroom soaps, towels and a radio.

Synopsis- Jenny Allan

While looking through boxes of her dead sons belongings, Myrtle stumbles across a document that changes her life all over again. In late 1930's the family were happily together, living in Anderson house, when George and Myrtle realize there is something different about their child, Benjamin. Her husband takes a twisted role and deceives her. Where is her son now? And is he dead or alive?