Text choices for my short film poster

In preparation for creating the ancillary task for my short film, I decided to start looking for font options for the title of the film. I think out of the 6 of them, my favourites are the third font and the bottom font. The bottomn font is thicker than the other, which means that it will stand out on the poster for my film and attract an audience, whereas the other font may be harder to see.

Ancillary task options

 

 

Before I can begin my ancillary task, I decided to create flat plans of options for my poster. I decided that to have a true representation of the film on the poster, it would be a good idea to take two photographs; a photograph of the character looking into the mirror from behind and then a photograph of the empty mirror. By taking two photos, I can cut out the part of the mirror in the image including the character, and insert a clipping from the other photograph of the blank mirror. By doing this, it can appear as though the character is looking into the mirror and there is no reflection looking back at her. This represents a scene in the beginning of the film where the character is getting ready, and upon looking up into the mirror she realises that there is no reflection.

 

Trouble whilst editing

Last week I filmed some of my classroom scene, in which I have a shot of; the class going into the classroom from the outside, the teacher telling the class to take their seats, a shot of the class sitting down, a shot of the teacher giving the class instructions, a shot of the class getting on with their work and the main character putting her hand up to ask a question.

When one of my extras who is in the class walks into the room, she comes in without a book. I took two shots were the main character puts her hand up to ask a question; one where the class are just looking at their books and she puts her hand up, and one where the class are flicking through their books whilst she puts her hand up. The shot where they are flicking through their books is the better shot, however in that shot she has a book.

I'm unsure on whether I want to re-film the shot altogether, or whether I could shoot the teacher telling the class to take out their books, followed by the shot of him giving the class instructions and then the shot of the class flicking through their books and the main character puts her hand up. I don't want to lose the last shot because I think it's definitely the better shot, so I'm swaying more towards just filming a shot where the teacher asks the class to get books out. In the first shot one of the extras is blocking the main character so you can't really see her, but in the second shot you can see her properly. 

Classroom script

 

 

I have started filming scenes for my short film, and so far I have filmed an outdoors scene where the characters are walking towards the school. I am also preparing to film another scene, which will be quite a pivotal point in the film. The scene that I'm wanting to film is the classroom scene, which is the point in the film where the audience will start to understand the plot of the story. I have made a script in which I plan to stick to, and how I want the scene to play out. 

Character Theory

Narative Theories

Location emailing

 

As I am wanting to film a section of my short film in a cemetery, and I knew that it would be best for me to get permission to film there first instead of just going there and filming anyways. As it is in a cemetery, I explained in the email that I will not be using any of the existing graves on the location and that they will merely be in the background, and that I will be taking my own fake grave with me to use on a spare patch of grass that they have at the back of the cemetery.

 

As well as this, I also explained that whilst filming we will be completely respectful and mindful of the graves, and any visitors on the grounds at the time of filming. I explained that this is only for my media coursework, and that it will be posted on a personal school blog and YouTube for the moderator to see. 

Short film editing practise: Love Compilation.

In preparation for creating my short film, we were given the task to edit clips from different films on iMovie, into our own film. Myself and two other people decided that we would use clips from 5 different films; The Fault In Our Stars, A Walk To Remember, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, Stuck In Love and The Notebook. We decided to use several clips from each film to represent love and relationships, and how love can turn sour in any relationship at any given time. The song that we used for the film was 'Say Something' by A Great Big World ft. Christina Aguilera, as we thought that this song would fit perfectly. All three of us searched through YouTube to find different clips from all 5 films that we felt would look to represent love, and that would fit with the song. We took turns in editing the film, and found that we were able to portray exactly what we wanted in the exact length of time as the song.



Storyboard changes

At the moment I am working on my storyboards for my short film, so that I can map out exactly what I want to film. Before this I created a shot list, of specific shots that I definitely want to include in my final short film.

However, I have came to realise upon looking at my shot list that there are more shots that I want to add, and that there are going to have to be several reaction shots included in my storyboards. I have kept a lot of the original shots that I wanted to include in my storyboards, but I have added shots that I feel as though will need to be included to improve the audiences understanding of the storyline more. 

Week 5

Short film poster analysis 2

Short film poster analysis

Music research: emailing Universal.

Before I could use the Nina Nesbitt for the end of my short film, I decided that it would be best that I emailed the production company of the song, Universal, to ask for permission.

Week 4

Character profile: Erika Bruce

As well as the main character, I wanted to have a character that would be frequently shown throughout the film that would be in close connection with the main character. I decided that I wanted her to have a friend group that will put the flowers down at her grave at the end, and to help the audience understand what the plot of the storyline actually is. I wanted to have a main friend from the group that the audience will constantly see and recognise, so introducing Erika Bruce!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actress: Rachel Mullen

Character: Erika Bruce, the main character's best friend

Height: 5ft 2.5

Hair colour: Blonde

Eye colour: Blue

 Character personality: This character's personality is very different to the main character's, as she is a lot more outgoing and has a bubbly personality, and is very sociable. Her personality will be displayed quite a bit throughout the film when the camera shows the main characters group of friends talking and laughing without her.

 



Character profile: Alice Marley

In order to make my short film, I decided that I would introduce the audience to the two main characters that will be seen in the film. First up is the main character; Alice Marley.

 

 

 

Actress: Laura Bruce

Character: Alice Marley

Height: 5ft6

Hair colour: Dark brown

Eye colour: Blue eyes

I feel as though she is the perfect fit for the main character in my film, and would be able to portray the emotions involved in the film.

Character personality: The personality of the character is portrayed as less outgoing than her group of friends and quite shy, however the character's personality won't be portrayed in the film as much are her friends will, due to the plot of the story.



Storyboards: part three.

These are the next two storyboards for my short film.

 

 

In these two storyboards, I have planned and detailed the classroom scene from my short film. In this scene, she enters the classroom to go through her normal lesson and when the teacher asks the class if anybody has any questions, the main character puts her hand up. The teachers fails to acknowledge that she has a question, and instructs the class to get on with their work and goes back to his desk. The following shot captures her reaction to being ignored.



Storyboards: part two.

These are the following three storyboards for my short film.

 

In this storyboard, I have outlined the scene in which the main character is walking to school. On her journey, she comes across her two friends whom she would normally walk to school with. They end up walking past her despite her attempt to tell them to wait for her and they ignore her, with the following shot capturing her confused reaction.

In this storyboard, I have then outlined a scene in which the main character walks into her common room and goes to sit down next to her friends. She verbally greets her friends as she walks in, but again they don't acknowledge her.

This storyboard follows on from the previous scene, and shows her reactions to her friends ignoring her.



Storyboards: part one.

In order for me to gain a rough idea of what my film will look like, I decided to start creating some rough storyboards detailing what shots will be included.

 

This is the first page of my storyboards, showing the first scene in my film. The scene is of the main character getting dressed in the morning and when she looks into the mirror, her reflection is no longer there. She then leaves the room and as she goes to walk through the door, a family member walks straight past her preventing her from leaving and ignores her.

 

This is the second page of my storyboards. This follows on from the first page and continues on with her day, where she leaves to go to school.



Shot list

Before I can begin filming for my short film, I need to work out what shots I want to include in my film.

I have created a shot list which contains a series of shots that I know that I want to include in my film.

 

 

1. The first/one of the first shots will be of the main character doing her hair in the mirror in the morning, and she pauses to look at herself and sighs.

 

2. The next shot will be of her getting up and grabbing her bag, going to exit the room.

 

3. As she goes to walk out of her room, her younger sister character will walk straight past her from the bathroom to her bedroom, completely ignoring the main character.

 

4. She then just ignores this and walks downstairs to leave the house. Just before she leaves, she shouts goodbye to anyone that would be in the house and she gets no reply.

 

5. The camera will then cut to her walking to school.

 

6. Whilst she is walking to school, a group of girls will walk past her. The main character will call to them and ask them to wait for her, as they are her friends, but they don't acknowledge her request and carry on walking without her.

 

7. There will then be several shots in which the main character is seen walking by herself whilst there are groups of people around her, like when she is walking into the school building and walking through the corridors.

 

8. Whilst she is walking through the corridors, people bump into her and there are shots catching her reaction to it.

 

9. There will be a shot of her walking into the common room and she sit's down next to her friends, where they then ignore her when she sits down. She just shrugs it off and pulls out a notebook to do work, until someone else walks into the room and her group of friends turn to greet them. At this point, she gets frustrated and leaves the room.

 

10. She then goes into a classroom and sits down next to her friends. There will be a shot of a class photo at the front of the room which will include the main character, and there will be a dissolve shot where Laura will then disappear from the picture.

 

11. Further on in the film, there will be a shot where she returns home and her parents are in the sitting room, but neither of them acknowledge her. There will then be a shot of a photo frame including a picture of Laura, with tea lights and sympathy cards placed around it. At this point she becomes extremely frustrated that nobody is acknowledging her and exits the house to go on a walk.

 

12. On her walk, she spots her friends in the graveyard so she follows them. There will be a long shot of the group of friends standing holding flowers. The camera will then cut to a shot taken from behind her grave where they put flowers down, and the camera will then cut to a front shot of the grave, which reveals that it is a grave for the main character. The follow up shots will show the reaction of the main character and the emotions of her friend group. 

Short film questionnaire results

  

In order to make my short film suit the needs of my target audience, I decided to create a  questionnaire to find out exactly what my target audience will be expecting from my short film.

These results will help me decide what changes to make to my film when I start filming, and gives me ideas to keep in mind when filming.

From my questionnaire results, I have found out that 87.5% of the members of my target audience that answered my questionnaire do enjoy short films.

For the next question, 4 out of the 7 people that answered it mentioned that they like the short film to be interesting, meaning that my target audience would like there to be an extra twist in the film in order to make it more interesting. Another thing that I noticed when people answered this question is that some participants mention about the film having a deeper meaning behind it, which suggests that the audience want something that will give them an emotional tie to the film, and it will help them understand it more.

 In the next question, most people said that they think that the short film should be 5 minutes long. This gives enough time for me to get the storyline across to the audience and make them understand what the plot is about.

 In the next question, I asked participants what kind of film genre's they like to see in a short film. They had the option to choose multiple genre's, and it turns out that 75% of participants answered that they like dramatic films. This proves to me that when making my short film, I know that my target audience will enjoy it.

In the next question, all participants answered that they do enjoy watching a tragic drama short film.

 

Short film questionnaire

Create your own user feedback survey

Week 3

Casting

Before I can begin to plan filming for my short film, I need to decide who I want to cast for my film. I gathered four different girls that I feel as though would all be good candidates to be the main character in my film.

 

Candidate one: Ellen

 

Candidate two: Laura

 

Candidate three: Nicole

 

Candidate four: Rachel

 

I have decided to use candidate two; Laura, as my main character for my short film. I feel as though she will be good to use as the main character as she will be flexible when it comes to filming the different scenes and she fits the description of the character perfectly.

 

Although I have picked Laura as my main character, I still feel as though these candidates would still be perfect to be included in my film. I think I will use candidate four; Rachel, as the main friend of the main character. I also plan to use the other two candidates as extras.

 



Little White Lies film review analysis

As well as my short film and film poster, I also need to create a film review for my short film. Before I could begin to create this though, I needed to do some research into the features of a film review so that I could make it look legitimate.

 



 

Short film research - background music 2

As well as trying to find music for the end of my film, I need to find other music that I can use throughout my film. I want to find soft, piano music that I can use for the beginning and the middle of my film. The music will still need to fit the emotions of the film, but I am still unsure whether I want any singing in the music that will be played throughout the beginning and middle.

 

So far I have looked at two piano covers of two different songs that I feel as though will fit the style of the film perfectly.

 



I am still undecided on whether I want to use either of these piano covers. I'm unsure whether to use a piano cover of a well known song, as I'm not sure whether a normal piano song would fit the theme of the film better. However, if I did use a piano cover of a well known song, my target audience would recognise the song and could be more interested to watch it. I will conduct further research into background music before I decide which to use. 

Short film research - background music.

In preparation of making my short film for my media coursework, I decided to look for different possible song choices that I can use as background music in my film.

 

As my film will be a tragic family drama, the music needs to be slow and soft to fit with the emotions of the film.

 

I first searched for a song to use at the end of the film, as that is the piece of music that needs to correlate with the scene perfectly and trigger the audience's emotions. It came down between two songs that I was toying between using for the end.

 

The Hardest Part - Nina Nesbitt

 

Little Do You Know - Alex and Sierra

 

I have decided to use 'The Hardest Part' by Nina Nesbitt. The reason that I have chosen to use this song over the other one is because I feel as though this song sets the mood of the end of the film much better than the other song, as it is a bit slower and the lyrics match what is going on in the scene that it will be playing on. I feel as though this song choice will help trigger the emotions of the audience and help tie the scene all together, and it will give the audience a better understanding of what is going on in the scene.



Short film pitch

Film title: Invisible
Target audience: Teens/Young adults
Tag line: Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Unique selling point: Based on the best selling novel 'Forgotten Girl' by Emily Watson.

Post it - short film analysis



Week 2

The Most Beautiful Thing - short film analysis.

Ronan's Escape - short film analysis

The Long Distance Relationship - short film analysis

In preparation of creating my own short film for my A2 Media work, I decided to analyse some short films that are the same genre of which I want to make my own short film into. 

The first short film that I decided to analyse is called 'The Long Distance Relationship' and was created by TheGRIMFILM.

Week 1

Chase scene sequence.

In preparation for making my short film for media, I created a short chase scene with a few other people to practise using the camera and practicing techniques.

 

My roles were filming and finding and adding music.

 



Analysing short films: part two.

In preparation of creating a short film for my media product, I decided to watch products that the previous year 13's had created for their coursework last year.

 

I viewed a short film called 'IN UNISON'. This is similar to the previous film that I viewed in a what that they both show the passage of time through someone's lives. The first thing that I noticed is that in the top corner of several shots there are dates to show the audience when the clip they are watching is set. Again, this shows the audience how time has passed. This short film made me feel very emotional as it showed how dancing partners strived to success and eventually found love and then after all of those years at old age they are still together dancing. It is definitely touching to watch, as it shows how they strived towards their goal and it finally paid off as they eventually won their competition a few years later from when they first started, and then as an added reward they got together. We are then made aware that the character 'Thomas' when in his older self is dancing with 'Emily' in their sitting room, he is just imagining it and his wife is in fact not able to dance with him like they used to as she is dying. It is an extremely emotional short film to watch and it definitely brought a tear to my eye. I think the relationship between the two characters is captured excellently as it shows the hardships that they went through when they first started dancing together and then how that escalated into a long-lasting relationship for them. I would definitely put this short film into the level four band on the mark scheme, with a score of 36/40.



Life Aquatic storyboards

In preparation for my year 13 coursework next year, I pieced together two storyboard sheets of stills of the film Life Aquatic to how I thought it could fit.

 

The order that I arranged the stills in isn't 100% accurate to how the scene actually plays out. However, I wasn't far off . There were a couple of shots that happened in the film that I didn't have a still of, so I just pieced the stills together till they fit together.



Analysing short films: part one.

In preparation of creating a short film for my media project, I decided to watch products that the previous year 13's had created for their coursework.

The first short film that I viewed captured a man reflecting on his past experiences through his lifetime, from being a small child to being in the army. At the beginning of the film we see the man sleeping, which is when he is reminicing on his childhood experiences. For this, there were several shots of a young boy running through what appears to be a forest with a filter over the top of the shots, which makes the audience aware that this is a flashback of a memory. I think these shots perfectly captured the essence of childhood and how simple life is when you are that age, as the young boy in the shot is seen carelessly running through the trees and having fun.
The man in present day is then captured sitting on his bed looking through old photographs, which then triggers memories to come to him of being in the army. We then get the impression that these are fond memories to the man, as he picks up his old badge and kisses it after looking at the old photographs. It is then apparent that the man's strength has deteriorated with age as we can see the comparison of when he was in the army, to when he is older and he knocks over the glass of water.
I think that the passage of time between the mans childhood, his army experiences and his present day self have been shown perfectly by using different filters over the shots to represent the passage of time, and the fading between shots shows that they are memories. I would put this short film into the level four band on the mark scheme, and give it 33/40.
 

Final article page

 

This is my final article page that I created using Adobe InDesign.  

 

 

Final article title page



 

This is my final article title page for my music magazine that was created on Adobe Photoshop.

Final contents page

This is my final contents page for my music magazine, that I created on Adobe Photoshop.



Final front cover

 

This is my final front cover page, that I created on Adobe Photoshop.

Evaluation question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation question six: What have you learnt about new technologies from the process of creating this product?

Article title page progression: part five.

 

Following my response from a member of my target audience that answered my questionnaire, I have made suitable changes to my article title page so that it is more suited to my target audience. When asked if there were any things that she thought would improve my article title page, she responded by saying that there could be the magazine website address down the side of the page, and the quote on the image could be a little bit smaller. Therefore, I slightly reduced the size of the quote, so that it wasn't so big but there wasn't a drastic change in size. I also added the website link down the right hand side of the image, so that readers are reminded that there is extra information available on the website.



Front cover progress part six

 

As I produced a filmed response of a member of my target audience answering a questionnaire on her thoughts on my music magazine, I decided to make some changes to my front cover so that it suited my target audience better. She answered that the only thing that she would change about my front cover is that she would like to see a price visible at the top of the page. Therefore, I have added my chosen price, which is £3, in the top right hand corner of my page.



Evaluation: Target audience response part four

Evaluation: Target audience response part three

Evaluation: Target audience response part two

Evaluation: Target audience response part one

Evaluation: Target audience questionnaire.

In order to find out what parts of my magazine are successful with my target audience and which parts are not, I have created a questionnaire that will be answered by my target audience. This will not only tell me which parts are successful, but will inform me on what can be improved on my magazine and what can be added. 

1. How old are you?

2. In your opinion, do you think the front cover of this magazine is attractive?

3. Do the articles featured on the front cover interest you and make you want to purchase the magazine?

4. Do the fonts on the front cover stand out to you?

5. What can be improved or added to the front cover?

6. Does the layout of the contents page look organised and is it clear?

7. Are the font sizes on the contents page clear and easy to read?

8. What do you think about the images featured on the right hand side of the contents page?

9. Is the colour scheme throughout the magazine consistent?

10. What can be improved or added to the contents page?

11. Does the right hand side of the article title page look too bare? 

12. Are the colours of the image on the left too dull in comparison to the magazine colour scheme?

13. Is the font size of the quote that is on top of the image too big? 

14. Is the introduction to the article too brief?

15. What can be improved or added to the article title page?

16. Is the layout of the article page organised and easy to read?

17. Do you think that the image on the article page should be the same shade as the image featured on the title page?

18. Does the big letter underneath the text make it difficult to read the article?

19. Is the article too short?

20. What can be improved or added to the article page?

Evaluation question five part four: How did you attract/address your audience?

The website that is dedicated to my magazine is featured on the pages of the actual magazine. This allows readers to gather even more information on things featured in my magazine and it encourages interactivity. Interactivity encourages the audience to develop a sense of ownership of the magazine, therefore they are more likely to buy it. As well as this, it also allows them to identify with the magazine and it allows them to form friendships with other readers from all over the world, due to the website.

There are certain features on my music magazine's website that would attract an even larger audience. My website would include free music downloads for readers of the magazine, which will automatically draw in a bigger audience so they can access free music. It would also include a message board where viewers can post their views on the magazine and who they would like to see featured in the next issue of the magazine. This allows readers to feel involved with the production of the magazine, meaning they are more likely to buy the magazine. Not only this, but as it is a message board, readers will be able to interact with each other and form relationships.

To entice a larger audience, my website will also include exclusive interviews with featured artists in the magazines and they are able to enter competitions to win signed merchandise by their favourite artists, and even concert tickets. This is a gimmick that will immediately entice a larger audience to buy the magazine, as fans of the featured artists will automatically want to join the competitions and view the exclusive interviews. 

Evaluation question five, part three: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation question five, part two: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evalution question five, part one: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation question four: What would be the audience for your media product?

My primary target audience for my music magazine is 16-25 year olds. I have re-posted the reader profile that I created for my magazine, as it explains what type of interests that the target audience that purchase my magazine will have.

As my primary target audience is more of a younger generation, their income will be considerably low compared to a mature adults income. My magazine is mostly targeted towards middle class females, however it could also attract the attention of some males. This means that most of their money will most likely be wasted as they don't have many responsibilities that require money. Therefore, they will probably spend their money on things such as clothes, beauty items, technology, food, music, magazines etc. 

My secondary audience will be people aged from 27-35 year olds. This is because not all people at the age of my primary target audience will enjoy the styles of music that are included in my magazine. However, slightly older people also may enjoy these styles of music and could be interested in purchasing my magazine.

Evaluation question three: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Editing the image: Article page

Editing the image: Front cover

Evaluation question two: How does your media product represent social groups?

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

Hi guys! Now that I have finally completed my music magazine for Media Studies, I am ready to start my evaluation. This is the first question of the evaluation.



Editing the image: Contents page part two

Editing the image: Contents page part one.

Editing the image: Article title page.

Before

After

To edit this image of my model to go onto my article title page, I used Adobe Photoshop. First, I slightly cropped the image so that there wasn't so much excess background and so that it would fit properly onto my title page. I then altered the colour of the image slightly to drain some colour out of it and make it almost black and white, however slight flecks of colour are still visable. I achieved this by bringing down the contrast and saturation, and I also brought down the level of certain colours in the image such as yellow and red.