I have created this 4 by 4 grid to illustrate if our film has stuck to the conventions or if it has broken away from the conventions:
Picture 1 - This is a screenshot of the title of our film 'Status', I believe that this develops a form of conventions that is used in a typical short film, this is because the title is normally displayed in the beginning so that the audience get a clear knowledge of what the film is going to be about before it starts and therefore in this case, the audience will have an early sense and find out that the film is going to be about status, however after some research I found that most short film titles have a black background and therefore we have broken away from the conventions a little bit, here is a link of an example of a title with the background being black:
Synchronicity Short Film
Picture 2 - This picture suggests the whole fact of how modern day societies work, especially in this day and age, all young people use a phone for instant messaging purposes. I believe that this forms a sense of convention because since our target audience is also young people, they can easily relate to text messages and have a feel of what is going on, and how does it feel to receive a tense text message.
Picture 3 - This picture also is conventional as we stuck to the whole idea of using school area location, it shows that Roxanne is sitting on the stairs, getting a little bit frustrated as she is waiting for her boyfriend, this is normal because most students do not like waiting and so they get a little bit fed up. Also sticking to conventions, we made sure that framing was right, sticking to the whole idea of the rule of thirds I believe that this shot worked really well.
Picture 4 - This photo brings out Roxanne's character, illustrating the fact that she is a nasty unlikable character, and therefore sticking to conventions as most girls who are in a relationship with the most popular football 'lad' in school tend to be full of themselves however it does also break away from conventions as most school/college relationships are portrayed as 'happy couples'.
Picture 5 - This photo develops James' character furthermore, and shows the nicer side to him, I believe that this again breaks away from conventions as an audience will feel that it is right for James to be with Ashley rather than his girlfriend Roxanne.
Picture 6 - This photo is a picture of James in goal with his arms out, showing enthusiasm and being a typical 'lad', I believe that this sticks to the conventions of real media products as it illustrates him just being a normal sixth form student who likes to have a 'kick about' with his friends.
Picture 7 - This is a picture of Ashley who gets brutally beaten up by the 'football lads'sticks to the conventions because it suggests that homosexuality in a school is seen to be wrong, immoral and therefore being unaccepted by the school students.
Picture 8 - This photo portrays a group of football 'lads' who seem very dominant and shouting abusive words towards Ashley and therefore making the audience feel sympathetic towards Ashley. This is again conventional because there is always some sort of bullying happening in a school.
Picture 9 - This photo is a picture of James and Roxanne, in the picture James roles his eyes as he is bored of Roxanne as she goes on and on about what her mum had bought her. At this scene, influenced by the French New Wave and Jean Luc Goddard, we decided to mute the sound completely so that the audeicne can get drawn to James facial expression and feel what he is feeling.
Picture 10 - In this picture there are a couple of boys who are playing football, as this is breaking away from conventions we decided to use hand held camera angles to show the fast paced action and to also get a feel of the sense of James' masculinity.
Picture 11 - This is a picture of James who is standing in the goal however this time not concentrating on the game and therefore looking down at the floor, this again breaks away from conventions because normally there would be dramatic sounds to feel part of a football became but wet thought that again, being influenced by Jean Luc Goddard and the French New Wave, we wanted to illustrate that he was disturbed.
Picture 12 - This picture is of James who receives a text from Ashley, as he places his hand on his head, this illustrates the fact that he is stressed and also thinking if he is making the right decision, I believe that this sticks to conventions as phone users do get a sense of tension if they receive a life changing text.
Picture 13 - This time James is the one who is texting back to Ashley, and so we thought that we could add each individual letter on the screen so that the audience feel a part of the whole texting them, this I believe breaks away from conventions because normally text messages appears on a phone and is then shot on a close up angle.
Picture 14 - This photo is a picture of James on a shot reverse shot angle, James is shown to be smiling in the picture as he feels that he has made the right decision to be with Ashley, this sticks to conventions as we used a shot reverse shot camera angle and to illustrate that there is a one on one conversation happening. #
Picture 15 - This shot is the ending of our film, a picture of two hands happily holding together, using the editing software, we decided to blur the hands out and by sticking to the conventions, as most short film use, we cut it to black and as a result the credits rolling over straight after.
Picture 16 - This is a picture of the credits which was deliberately in the colour blue to match the whole texting theme throughout the film. I believe that this sticks to the conventions as the credits starts rolling over with the list of cast and crew at the end.
Annotation of my postcard:
Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Here is a video of me pausing our short film and the parts that relate to my postcard and film review:
I was going to upload the YouTube video directly onto the Blogger however when I try to link it to here, Blogger doesn't seem to find it however I have added a link here that will lead you to the YouTube website outlining my thoughts about how effective the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is:
Comments on Ancillary texts
I have used a pair of hands in the front of the postcard along with James and his girlfriend, this was to illustrate that this picture is not as what it may look like however as the audience will assume that the hands is a relationship between his girlfriend why would James’ expression be as though he is not interested in Roxanne, this also links to my film review as the whole plot of our story is that James has a secret inside him that needs to come out, hence the quote ‘you can’t hide forever’. I use a picture of James by himself in the film review with his facial expression of thinking deeply about his future, which path should he choose.
Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Feedback from a year 10 student:
Audio rough cut feedback from 2 sixth form students:
Feedback from a teacher:
I have learnt that the teacher had found the film quite intriguing, getting drawn in to the film and also learning that James is a caring character and Roxanne being the unlikable character, this was a good response as we wanted this sort of reaction to our characters. The teacher also had said that she liked the mood of the music which was our intentions however she did mention that she would of preferred having more music throughout the whole piece. Also when I questioned her about the sound dropping in and out, unfortunately she didn't like it although she understand what we meant by it and she also thought that it was quite distracting and instead suggested to fade the sound so that it doesn't look as dramatic.
The feedback that I got from the year male student was quite pleasing as our intention was to make the audience feel that Ashley is his girlfriend Roxanne, as we deliberately did not mention Roxanne's name in it at all. Also since our audience was aimed at young students, the student found that the sound dropping in and out was interesting and how he had got drawn into James' facial expression.
After gaining some constructive feedback the one thing I would change after what the teacher had said, is although we were influenced by the French New Wave and Jean Luc Goddard's sound dropping in and out I believe that when we muted the sound completely whilst Roxanne was talking, it didn't seem like it flow well together therefore if I ever had the chance to change it I would have inserted some music so that the audience can get an understanding of what is happening and not get distracted by it.
Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I have researched and found that from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media the term New Media Technologies mean:
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century that refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. Another important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. Another aspect of new media is the real-time generation of new, unregulated content.
Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, and interactive. Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, video games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New media does not include television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications – unless they contain technologies that enable digital interactivity. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is an example, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors and donors for the benefit of non-community readers. Facebook is an example of the social media model, in which most users are also participants.
My own understanding of New Media Technologies:
New Media Technologies is something that is involved with us in our everyday life, some examples are: Internet, social networking website, use of phone - calls and text messages, film, digital applications and all these which now part of this modern day society.
1) Blogger: This was a very important website as I used this to publish all my coursework, it was very useful as I could upload anything I wanted, including videos and pictures, it was very easy to use especially having previous experience on it from last years AS course. Blogger is very neat and tidy as everything can be published per post so that it doesn't get all confusing, also because it is based on the internet it can easily be opened anywhere where internet is available. If blogger wasn't available I would of just used a different type of blogging site, either www.wordpress.com or www.tumblr.com
2&3) Video Camera and Tape: This camera was vital throughout the process of our filming and also as it was a professional camera, it came with a plug in microphone and as a result it gave a clear concise sound. We also used a tripod with it so that we can get clear steady shots. If this wasn't available I would of used my own camera at home which also films in high definition.
4) Adobe Premier Pro: This software was very useful when it came to editing our film. This software enabled us to add texts, correcting sound levels, music and adding different types of transitions such as cross dissolve. Therefore as a result we produced a final cut of our film from it.
5) Still Camera: I used this camera to take pictures for my postcard and review page, this camera had a high quality and therefore made my film review magazine and postcard pictures very professional. We used this camera to take pictures when in the process of filming and during location recce. If this wasn't available I would of most likely although a not so very high quality I would of gone for using my mobile phone camera or my basic camera at home.
6) YouTube: This is an online website which enables you to upload any videos, this video was really useful as when I had to gain some feedback from my audience I had to make sure that I had a website to upload it on so then it can be viewed through my blogger as it also didn't allow me to upload the videos straight onto blogger. I also used many research from YouTube by looking at several short films. If this website wasn't available I would of gone with www.dailymotion.com where it allows you to view videos and also upload videos.
7) Adobe Photoshop: I used this software to produce my postcard and film review magazine. This software allowed me to edit my photos, place them where ever I thought that looked best. As I have never used this software before, I found it quite confusing and hard to use however when I got to understand where all the buttons were used for plus I looked on YouTube on how to use some of the stuff which I was unsure with I got used to it and then actually found it quite easy to use. If this software wasn't available I would of probably gone with microsoft paint, although very basic, I believe that this is the only alternative one I know of where I could edit texts and pictures.
8) Google: This website was really important as I had got several research and information from when finding information about specific media elements and also attaching certain images from Google which I have used for this blogger. If this website wasn't available I would of gone on the website bing - which is near enough the same as Google and is also quite useful.
9&10) The reason why I put a mobile phone and Facebook together is because throughout our filming process, we decided to take each others mobile phone numbers and also keeping in contact via Facebook was very helpful as we could easily get in contact with each other if there was any problems, or if we needed to meet up, where would we meet and what days where we going to film. Facebook and phone was very useful as I had to use it a lot to get in contact with my group. If this wasn't available I would of just found my group member by going to their allocated form room or just sending them a message using www.hotmail.co.uk
11) Scanner: I used this to scan in my review pages and draft drawings of my postcard. If this wasn't available I would of just taken a picture and then upload it on to the computer.
12) UnsignedBandWebs: This was to help us find music for the beginning and end of our film. If this website wasn't available I would of gone on another website using Google and typing in unsigned or uncopyrighted songs in the Google search bar or I would of found an unsigned song on YouTube and then convert it to an MP3 file.
13) Flip camera: This was used to film any feedback from our target audience, to show what we have gained from our piece of work and to get a realistic thoughts and feelings about our film. A flip camera is very handy as it is very easy to upload on to YouTube using the USB stick. If this wasn't available I would of just used my phone or a camera of mine at home which records in high definition quality.
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