Callum Ruane

:8103

Centre number: 20299

Centre name: Bishop Walsh Catholic school

Short Film - Lucky Dip

Article Page 

Film Poster

Evaluation - Question Four

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

Research

When it came to the research side of my coursework one of the main forms of technology that I used was the Internet to learn and find out about different conventions of short films and trailers and how they are both aimed at a particular target audience. I mostly used the website 'YouTube' when it came to viewing different short films and trailers as I am familiar with this video site so I knew that it would be reliable when helping me find what I was looking for. 

The Internet also came in great use for my research as it allowed me to read about different films and why they have been classified to  a particular age rating whether that be a PG or an 18. This is important to know when making a film as I need to make sure that I classified my film to the right rating for public viewing so that my audience knew what to expect. I learn through reading on the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) that a 12A ratings are suitable for children aged 12 and over. However, people younger than 12 may see a 12A so long as the are accompanied by an adult. My short film features money and the lottery which can be seen by some people are a form of gambling. Due to the Internet helping me research into age ratings I agreed that my film should be classified as a 12A due to this. 

Another form of technology that helped me with my research into this course was the use of Microsoft Word. With word I was able to lay out, for example, a photograph of a film poster and then begin to analyse what I could see made it so professional. This was good as I could save this document and refer back to it when creating my own film poster carefully looking at the conventions that i annotated that makes a successful film poster. 

Surprisingly Netflix was also a great way to research into different genres of films and their conventions. Netflix is a provider of on- demand Internet streaming media available to viewers all around the world and by having access to my own account I was able to frequently watch films of different genres to get an idea of the sort of film I was going to create. 

Planning

For Planning i again mainly used different Microsoft software's to note down and experiment with different ideas when planning my products. For example when it came to planning out the layout for my article I used publisher to create different templates that I could possibly use and where I could place things like my main image or the title of my film 'Lucky Dip' 

Construction

The software I used for the construction of my short film was 'IMovie'. I filmed my whole short film from an iPhone 6 plus camera so because of this I wanted to continue working with Apple products so that the quality of my recording matched the quality of the tool that I created my film on. Using an iPhone to film all of my film was brilliant. I was lucky enough to get an iPhone 6 plus back in September when I started the A2 course. The video camera on the iPhone 6 plus is crystal clear and has many new features such as image stabilisation  so I thought it would be silly to not experiment with it and create my film on.

In all fairness I actually really enjoyed working with iMovie along the process of creating my film due to the fact that it was stationed on an Apple Mac computer which I had never really had a chance to work on before in the past. iMovie is a fantastic tool for creating a short film on as you can see both your event (the location of all your recorded clips) and the project (your film that you are putting together) both at the same time on the screen allowing you to drag in, edit and play around with different clips that might feature in your film. The tools also gives you many editing choices such as fade in and outs and various sound FX that are provided already.

This is the layout of my iMovie page where i created my film. as you can see the film is up in the top right hand corner with all of the different clips that i recorded next to it on the left hand side ready to be taken down to the bottom timeline and edited. at the start i thought that iMovie would be very difficult and confusing to use and that it would take me a while to get used to it, however i managed to familiarise myself with iMovie very quickly and my film did not take that long to construct.

Another thing that i enjoyed about iMovie was the fact that you did not have to save every single time you were done using the computer due to the fact that it automatically saved your work for you. this was beneficial as when i logged back on i could carry on without having to find my saved work. If i had used the computers down in my media classroom then the tool that i would have used to create my film on would of been 'Adobe elements' i had a play around on this at the very beginning but i did not enjoy it one bit. Adobe is very slow to use and the quality of effects and video definition was not to the standard that i wanted for my film. overall i am very pleased with the construction of my film on iMovie and hope to use this again some time in the future.

Q3) Audience feedback video

Evaluation - Question Three 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The Apple Mac computer that I used to edit and create my film on are all up in the music technology department on the other side of the school from where my media classroom is. This was good as It enabled me to regularly ask people from the drama and music department what they thought of my film so far and give me feedback on what to include and change. it was also good having people from a different department give me feedback on my films progression because I felt that they were totally honest with me whereas if I was to of asked someone in my media class their opinion on my film I feel that they would of been much more soft on giving me criticism as they are friends with me. 

I originally started filming back at the start in November with a male main character rather than a female one. The storyline was the same concept but a little different in some scenes although I was told by a few people that they thought that it would be more believable using a female as they come across as more vulnerable than a male and would face a day of bad events much more harshly. At first I was stubborn and ignored this criticism that I got from people and continued using a male main character although after long thought and consideration I decided to start again and use a female as my main character instead which I feel from watching my finished product is really effective. 

I asked people after they watched my whole short film what scenes were their favourite and why. a majority of people said that they enjoyed the scene where my character is walking along and her bag of shopping splits and spills out everywhere resulting in her having to put it all into the bin. This scene was one of the hardest to film during the creation of my short film as I did not realise how hard it would be to cause a bag to split, I had to cut a hole in the bottom of a plastic bag and gently tape the hole up balancing the milk and eggs on top. it took a number of attempts of my character walking towards the camera before we actually managed to get the bag to split and the eggs and milk to come pouring out across the path.

When I finished my short film and gave it to my teacher to watch and allowed her to show it to her English class to see their reactions. Along with my teacher everyone thought that the film was interesting with good editing and unexpected twist at the end. It was pleasurable to hear a whole class of people say good things about my work after I spent so long on it, but however I still felt that they were being bias due to the fact that both me and my teacher were present in the room as they gave me feedback. From this I decided to go and ask one of my school technicians to watch my short film up in the music Technology classroom and give me his honest opinion to what he liked best about my film and things I could maybe do to improve it. 

Evaluation - Question Two

How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts? 

I believe that the combination of my main product (short film) and the ancillary texts (film poster and article page) all combine together successfully. The basis of my whole film revolves around the lottery so the main reason I feel that the combination of all three products were a success is due to the fact that they all show something resembling the lottery on each of them. 

For example my short film title is 'Luck Dip' this relates to the lottery as you can choose a lucky dip lottery ticket. The poster for my film shows my character holding a lottery ticket to the camera and the article has the blue lottery logo inbetween the words 'Lucky' and 'Dip' with a salmon pink background, the same colour as a lottery ticket showing that they all share similarities.

Also on my poster where you see the character holding up her winning ticket, she looks unhappy and almost annoyed and dark due to one side of her face being slightly covered. This is effective as it fits in with the tragic events that occur in my film when she finds out the ticket is ruined. If someone was to see this poster on the street they would instantly know it was about the lottery because of the ticket being held up to the camera, but not why she looks so unhappy, causing them to want to go and view the film and find out what happens. 

If I could do anything differently I would maybe think about changing the title to something a little less obvious, although I did ask a girl who watched my film right at the start where the title appears whether she knew what that meant and she said no so I think I just about get away with it until the audience realise that the lottery is involved from the small hints such as the panning down from the logo outside the shop and the purchasing of the ticket or the watching of the draw on the TV.

Evaluation: Question One 

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

Short Film

when creating my short film, I believe that I used and challenged forms and conventions of real media products but in my own ways. when creating my own film I believed that it was important to challenge some of the conventions to show that my own film has my own twist to it. when it came to the planning of my short film I researched into many different genres of film such as horror and comedy to get an idea of how they relate to the audience and storyline. although after this research was complete I decided to follow the genre of Drama as I believe that it matched my films storyline better than anything else. although I did not create a horror or comedy film, my research was still useful on helping me get an understanding on target audience and what to look out for.

my short film also challenged forms and conventions of real media products as I decided to create my own production company at the start of the film. my production company was called 'Green Wave Pictures'

To create this opening to my film I went down to my school science department and asked one of the physics teachers if there was any way that we could make a pulse machine like you would see in a hospital next to a patients bed that I could film for the start of my product.

To do this my teacher found a very old machine that when working  created a green pulse across the screen. to do this we had to place a magnet through a box connected to the device causing the wave to jump up and down. I turned the lights off and filmed up close the pulse jumping up and down whilst he put the magnet in and out of the box. this was a huge success and I am glad that I have it at the start of my film as I feel that it makes my film look more professional.

Film Article Page

when I started putting my article page together I decided that I would try to follow the same conventions of an article page rather than challenge them. from this I knew that my article page would at least look professional and be a success. like many article pages that I looked at in my planning  I started by putting the title of my film (Lucky Dip) at the top of the page overlapping my main image.

I also wrote out two Columbus of text about the narrative and a teaser of plot of my short films plot so that the audience would be hooked and want to watch the film to find out what happens. along with the Columbus of writing about the main plot of my story, I also decided to create some small boxes to fill in the empty spaces telling the audience about how they can 'Write their own review' or about when the film is expected to be released.

Film Poster 

when creating my film poster I tried to match it to the conventions of a real life poster as I wanted it to look as professional as possible. I feel that from the final production of my poster, this works really well.

As you can see from my completed film poster, I have tried to follow the conventions of a film poster as best as possible. I have the age rating down in the bottom right hand corner with the production company and website for views to read on further (find my article page) and the bold black title at the top on the lottery ticket 'Lucky Dip' I tried not to add a lot of text on to my front cover as I wanted the main image to attract an audience towards it causing them to want to go and see my film to find out what this girl has got to do with the lottery. 

My Target audience and Genre 

It is tricky when trying to establish what particular genre my short film falls in to as there are no scary, funny or dramatic thriller scenes throughout. If I had to choose a genre for my short film I would probably say it relates to 'Drama' as it is about the unfortunate events that happen throughout a persons day that could also happen to many other people in real life.

The target audience for my film 'Lucky Dip' I expect to be aimed more at younger people as they can relate more to my main character who is also young. Furthermore I am confident when I say that the majority of people in their lives have at least once thought about what it would be like to win the lottery and never have to work or stress about money problems again. Lucky Dip takes this thought and turns it into reality as my character ends up winning the jackpot.

My film is rated a 12A due to the fact that it is about the lottery which in some ways is a form of gambling. However I wouldn't expect the target audience for my film to be the ages of 12 but maybe 15 - 30. 12 year olds are less likely to think about money and gambling unlike a 15 or 30 year olds that dream about buying video games or expensive cars and clothes. 

Uses and Gratification theory

Blumler and Katz developed the Gratification theory in the 70's According to Katz and Blumler research there were some components comprising the Uses and Gratifications Model including active audience, audience initiated media choices and media competing with other sources of satisfaction. 

Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures.

Personal relationships - Companionship through identification with television characters and sociability through discussion about television with other people.

Personal identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and explore individual problems and perspectives. 

Surveillance - Information about "what's going on in the world".

Narrative of my short film 

My short film is based around a female character (played by Jessica Freeman) who lives at home with her mom and dad that she doesn't see a lot of, has a car that she adores and full time job in a pub that doesn't really pay that well. 

The story begins with my character arriving home from somewhere and going straight upstairs to her room to avoid an argument taking place in the lounge downstairs. As the night goes on the character (whos name is anonymous to the audience the wholes ay through) watches telly and gets ready for bed. In the night we see a man suspiciously walk up to her car and inspect it before eventually stealing it and driving off. Because of this in the morning after our character has had breakfast and got ready for work she realises her car has gone and is late for work resulting in the loss of her job.

On the way back home she receives a text from her mom asking if she will to stop off at the shop and get some items for her. When our character enters the shop she notices a lottery stand and decides to try her luck an  buy a lottery ticket for that evenings draw. She arives home and places her work clothes into the wash before going upstairs to relax and watch telly. Later on she happens to flick over to the lottery and realises that the numbers that she picked have come up and that she has in fact won. Although to match the traumatic events of her day so far she realises that she forgot to take the lottery ticket out of her coat pocket first before putting it into the wash ending the film with the discovery of a ruined ticket and leaving the audience to think for themselves what could possibly happen next.

Planning my short film

Locations: Main Location

The main location of my film will take place inside the characters house where we will see her inside of her bedroom alone watching the television and other rooms such as the bathroom and kitchen as she gets ready for work.

The street and driveway will also play an important role in my film as I hope to start the film with my character driving down her road and parking outside of her house ready to go inside. From this scene later on when it gets dark I will have another actor walk along the pavement until he stops next to the car, looks inside and steals it. 

Other Locations: 

There are a few other locations that I will use in my short film that will not be visited again by my character once they have have been already used and seen by the audience. These will be places like the train station on they way to where my character works, and the shop in which she will buy some food and a lottery ticket. 

Actors/Actresses 

In my short film I will have only one main character that we will follow the whole way through. The actor will be my cousin (Jessica aged 20) who will be portrayed to the audience as an only child who lives at home with her Mom and Dad and has a job at a pub. I will use my cousin as an actor because of reasons such as she can drive so I would be able to experiment filming in a moving vehicle, she is only young with a boring job so like most young people she dreams of being rich and never having to work again matching the plot of my story where she purchases a lottery ticket and ends up winning. 

I will also have a male character that we will only see when he is about to steal my main characters car in the middle of the night when she is asleep. To play this character I will use my uncle (Jessica's dad) as he will be there and available for me to use. 

Props and costume 

The main props that I will use in my short film will be:

A car - this is the first thing that the audience will will see being driven home by my character and parked outside her house until the night time where it will be stolen and revealed to my character as she leaves in the morning to go to work. 

Lottery ticket and lottery draw clip - for this main scene in my film I will use the Internet on an Xbox linked up to the TV to go onto YouTube and find an old lottery draw from the past to play on the screen as if it is actually on TV as my character turns on her telly. I will then purchase a lottery ticket with the numbers from that draw so it will appear to my audience that my character has actually won the lottery. 

Costume

we will see my character in costumes such as baggy casual clothes during the day time, her dressing gown in the morning when she wakes up and her work clothes with a jacket over the top. The jacket is the main item of my characters costume throughout my whole film as this will be the jacket that she places into the washing machine an forgets to remove the lottery ticket from the pocket before she turn it on. 

Dialogue 

My short film will have very little dialogue. This can be risky but I feel that having no dialogue the whole way though helps the audience understand the loneliness and emotion that my character feels.

Genre: Comedy - Target Audience 

The target audience of a comedy film is very dependant on the content of the film. For example children’s films labelled as PG’s or U’s can have comical scenes in which would link it to the comedy genre the films would appeal to young children as well as parents as they are often family film, however the audience would be completely different for a comedy film labelled as a 12 or a 15, these films have the target audience of the certificated age given to the movie as the base, the movies are likely to appeal to people over the labelled age of film simply because comedy has a large target market appealing to larger proportion of the comedy theme market. The final age partition of the comedy target audience is 18 certificates, these film although still based around comedy are often more explicit in terms of language and scenes, making the film heavily aimed at the over 18s.

Comedy can also be divided by the type of comedy for example spoofs may appeal to some of the comedy target market as the style of genre is tailored towards a certain area of the comedy market excluding some age groups and preferences of the comedy genre. In turn this may make the movie popular with its specific target market for instance ‘Superbad’ this film audience has been refined to a teenager/young adult audience.

Genre: Horror - Target audience and research 

I searched around on the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) website to find out about the genre of horror and the particular target audience that it is aimed at. I found that in the  and 90s, the Friday 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream series, as well as recent 21st century remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, (the original having been rejected on film in 1975 before finally being rated 18 uncut on film in 1999), and Dawn Of The Dead have proved hugely successful with newer, younger audiences, r establishing the horror genre as a top box office draw. 

The successful Saw and Hostel series and other works which would now be described as 'torture porn' illustrate how horror film-makers have raised the bar with ever stronger horror and gory images.This shows that although horror films are rated by companies such as the BBFC as high age ratings, younger people are still viewing them. Horror elements in films, especially those aimed at younger audiences, are treated with great caution. Many children enjoy the excitement of scary sequences, but where films are targeted at a younger audience, age rating decisions will take into account such factors as the frequency, length and detail of scary scenes as well as horror effects, including music and sound, and whether there is a swift and reassuring outcome. 

 

Research and planning| trailers and short films

As i am working with filming for my A2 coursework i thought that it would be a good idea to produce my research and planning for trailers and short films on iMovie.