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

What we have learned from our audience feed back? sophey sommers

What we have learned from our audience feed back?




our two sorces that gave interesting comments:

Our target audience for our short film was from the range of 15 to 40 and targeted at females. 

when researching and asking questions to our audience we found that mainly the females enjoyed it more. We did this research but sitting family members down from our group’s families and getting there feed back. 

This helped when we used internet sites as well. 

The representations we chose and found all gave an answer relatively the same saying it was an imaginative idea and used good location, also including expert shots and mise en scene. 
What our group feel we have learnt from our feed back has helped us on what to do and what not to do in future projects; for example using better sound/editing  and better filming equipment, we ourselves understand this but others found this gave our film an old world quality.

From ‘Facebook’ one of our comments was ‘very intriguing’ this helped us feel that it gave a sense of it captivating the audience.  


On 'Youtube' comments like:

This helped us learn that they had enjoyed the short film, the camera work and that we used all the correct techniques, like the 180 degree rule (wasn't broken),  transitions where all correct. 

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. 

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?- Jennifer Allan and Sophey Sommers and Artemis Karadimas

Video responce: first draft:

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! 

Final Review - Artemis

When it comes to period dramas, they are often judged on their historical accuracy. The ones that are believable, credible and realistic are those that receive the highest ratings. We might have been forgiven in thinking that this was too great a task for Allan, Karadimas and Sommers to pull off, however in this case the sense of profundity, obscurity and setting is what makes it convincing. Forsaken flirts with both the power of patriarchy and gender representation in the 1930’s. As with their previous film ‘Asylum’, Sommers, Allan and Karadimas capture the thrilling element in their period drama skilfully.

Fragile mother Myrtle’s life is a portrait of the dominant ideology whereby women were seen as second class citizens to men. Acclaimed actress Katie Sommers plays a woman of the 1930’s effortlessly, not questioning her husband about the sudden demise of her child and acting pretty hopelessly in general. Her perturbed expression and cluelessness allow the story to go on, as her actions enable George (Edward Johnson) to get away with such an iniquitous and immoral act. She portrays the submissive dependent mother with ease and grace as we see the story from her point of view and feel with her the emotional roller-coaster she is on, going back and forth between the past and present. Although it has to be said it is difficult to feel sorry for Myrtle under the circumstances when she asks no questions, giving the impression of her naivety. Would we like to believe that put in that situation we would have seen the bigger picture? Or perhaps we might have been just the same, defeated and accepting of the sometimes cruel hurdles life has to throw at us. 

Johnson applied the phlegmatic and ruthless exterior you would expect a man to have had in the 1930’s that allows him to make the deplorable decision of putting his son secretly into an institution for the mentally ill. His lack of emotion imitates the patriarchal ideology set in the 30’s without flaw. Some may say that he was a little too convincing in his role, stating very matter of fact that his only child had died, deceiving his wife so dexterously and only offering her his cold hard shoulder in her time of need and comfort. The cliff-hanger ending enhances the story, leaving the audience with enigmas and increasing the depth of darkness.

Whilst we may have seen this kind of story before in the past film ‘The Lost Prince’, ‘Forsaken’ depicts a classic tale of deceit and lies, intertwined with love and power handsomely. A mix of history and the ever lasting issue of abandonment compliment this film perfectly. It makes for one of those narratives which poignancy has a lasting impression, long after the final shot. 

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