It is now time to write a detailed evaluation of my project. My evaluation will include ways in which my film complements the codes and conventions of a typical short film and generally how efficient my actual film and two ancillary texts are. Also I will be revealing the type of feedback which was received from the audiences which watched my short film. Finally I will discuss the new media technologies which were used throughout the year.
Firstly there are numerous occasion in which my film sticks firmly to the traditional codes and conventions. I rarely challenged these conventions as I feel sometimes it is best to stick to what you know and what works best. These are some of the ways I have followed the typical codes and convention of short films.
There are obvious changes in every short film, however it is a well known fact that the narrative structure of all these films are pretty similar. There not called short films for no reason, meaning there is a lengthy time to tell the story. This means everything is more compact. It is typical for a short film to have some sort of twist. Whether it is during or at the end of the film, there is bound to be a part where the audience are stunned or shocked with immediate effect. In regards to my own film, the twist came at the end when the two stories emerged into one, and the man and woman both missed there bus. With the theme being based connectivity and the idea that one thing effects another, I wanted to show how loads of little things can effect something really life changing. That’s where the wow factor was hopefully introduced into my film.
A short film often consist of very few characters all playing major roles. This is the case as if you were to cast too many characters and personalities, the audience would become confused and mind boggled. With lengthy feature films you frequently see a lot of characters, for example in ‘Oceans 11’, where a gang of eleven people decide to con a casino. On the other hand in a short film, such as ‘Signs’ directed by, there are only two main characters. My film complements the traditional convention as there are only 4 characters playing the main roles. When talking about how compact the story is in a short because of the length of time, the same can also be said on the actors. As the characters played are often stereotypes so the audience can quickly relate to them. If the characters were not stereotypes and had detailed personalities, there would never be enough time to show this and the plot of the film. For my film I needed to find a stereotype which related to my actors to come across as decent and kind hearted as possible. For this reason I used smart casual, nice looking and Caucasian actors. The majority of actors in short films are unknown. This is the case as directors of short films work on a low budget, and the actors hired do not charge much as they want to make a prolonged out of feature length films. Because of this seemingly low budget a film crew has to produce a movie, you will sparingly see over extravagant film sets or settings. In fact, many are filmed outside in public places, where costs are next to nothing. So just like in real media, my film is set outside in the town centre and in a shopping centre where only permission has to be granted. When watching short films you will probably find some of the camera shots are much more peculiar than a mainstream film. Short film directors seem to have a huge amount of leniency with how they film footage. For example you rarely find the amount of handheld and canted camera shots in mainstream films than you do in short films. These two shots were both used regularly in my film, particularly handheld.
It seems that a lot of short films neglect a fair amount of dialogue and replace it with image and footage. This is again is where I feel I have kept to code and convention of your mainstream short film.
A way of counteracting the lack of dialogue is the use of a clever soundtrack. It is paramount the sound track complements the form and mood of the form to perfection. I feel mine achieved this by using the soundtrack of ‘Sweet Deposition’ produced by ‘Temper Trap’. The start of the track is very eerie, meaning the audience is expecting something along the lines of horror. But as the story starts to unveils itself, so does the song with it turning very pleasant and loving. Furthermore, just like in real media, sound effects were used in my film for sounds which couldn’t get picked up by the camera itself.
After spending many hours figuring out the best costume for our actors, we found simple would be best. However we tried to be cunning, as the first two actors are more covered up than the pair which eventually meets each other. Moreover, the first man and woman have quite big and bulky casual jackets on. Then as the story progresses and the audience start to understand what is going on, we change costume to something a little bit unveiling for both. This is easier to the eye for the audience watching.
My ancillary texts - The film poster and film review
After the completion of my film, I then produced a film poster and film review. A film poster is produced so people become aware of the film in general. Also it is done to entice the public to go and watch the film. A film poster gives a different route of marketing, than your normal footage preview. It should always include a title, tagline, main image, details of production and distribution companies and clear dates. Fortunately, these were all included in my own film poster. The main image should have some meaning, and is arguably the most important part of the poster. Traditionally you have one central photo of the main character or characters. I have stuck to that belief by placing the image of the man being very central with the woman looking down on him. I feel the most important aspect of the poster is that it does not give any clues away about the potential plot. Meaning they will not have a clue about the ending. All of our film posters were set to a very high resolution level and we all used cameras with at least ten mega pixels. This meant if we wanted or needed the poster to be blown up to any given size, this could be achieved. After this marketing process, it was time to promote the film, in the way of a film review. There are many different approaches which can be taken when making a film review. It was important to remember the film would not have been released before the review and this could change someone’s opinion altogether. With this in mind, I went down the route of being over exaggerated with the good points of the film, by using extravagant and over eccentric words. However, there was still room for some criticisms. I feel both my review and film poster work well together as both do not give too many clues away on the content of the film.
Feedback
Before a short film is released it is shown to many people to gain some sort of feedback. What sort of feedback you get normally indicates how successful your film is going to be. How people rate your film is generally determined by which age, race, gender and sexuality the audience are. However I did not have to be too precise on whom I presented my film too, as it was initially targeted for all young adults and above. Basically anyone old enough to understand the nature of connectivity and love could see it. In the end I opted to show my whole extended family as it ranges from young adults to old age pensioners. Even though my family are naturally highly critical I also thought it was best to show my media class mates. So I was sure there wasn’t no bias, and also for some cinematic knowledge. These were some of the responses to my film:
“Very clever sequence of events, and with a bit of romance at the end, just my kind of thing”
Nana aged 73
“After seeing the film poster I didn’t no quite what to expect, but it came up trumps!!!”
Mum aged 40
“Not a bad job from him…only criticism is that there could have been more of it”
Dad 42
“The best thing about this film is that it is real life, it has and does happen, well done mate”
Lewis (cousin) 22
“The use of handheld camera work and cut aways were a particular highlight for me, but did notice some continuity problems if he didn’t point them out”
Jack 17, media student
All in all I am pleased with my feedback, but as usual there is always something to improve on.
The use of new media technologies
The amount of new media technologies I have used from the very start of my project to now is been enormous. My main source of research and planning came directly from the internet. It is very efficient, and there were masses of information to prepare me for this major project. The main sites used were the search engine Google and Wikipedia, and also YouTube for watching example of short films. Another huge success was these blogs, which were helpful in organising my work and keeping everyone posted. They were also helpful on a day to day basis where I could put any thoughts down I thought would be important on the running of the project. When actually filming the project, we used a ‘flip’ digital USB camera which I had never used before and it had such quality in its resolution it was a pleasure to use it. Once filmed, the footage was then uploaded to a editing program named Magix Movie Edit Pro. That was when I was really in virgin territory as I never edited in my AS project. I was astounded about how well you could play about with the footage and make it look top quality. By the end of the process I was, adding titles, soundtracks, sound effects and cutting all over the place. I became confident in what I was doing, and I am very proud of the outcome. After my film was complete it was time for the film poster. After using a high quality camera to capture the perfect image, I uploaded it to Adobe Photoshop to edit. Again I was left shocked with what the program could actually do. In the end I air brushed my actors, and blacked out the background. I then blended the image and background together so it didn’t look as sharp.
That alone sums up this whole project, an enjoying and knowledgeable experience and I wouldn’t of done anything differently. Well not anything!!!
