Throughout the production of my coursework I have worked in various forms of media, such as short film, magazine articles, including film reviews, and film posters. All of which have as many forms and conventions as social realism, the genre I have been working in.
Short films have certain characteristics, which I had to incorporate into my film in order for it to be recognisable as a short film. For example a short film will usually be short in length ( about 4 to 6 minutes), meaning that there is little time for characters to be introduced. Therefore short films have a small cast, often featuring one main character. My short film meets many of these conventions and has an extremely small cast; only including one main character, a smaller principle character and a few small, unnamed characters.
Short films will also have an underlying theme, this is particularly a theme in British short films. A huge amount of short films act as social commentary, pointing out issues and taboos in society. My short film is not exceptions to this convention as it explores themes such as anti-social behaviour and the ignorance that comes with British national identity.
For example the film "Sold" (Nadia Attia) explores Britain's growing consumer culture and demonstrates this with very blunt symbolism. For example, the main character is attempting to use a television shopping channel to purchase things such as a girlfriend, a mother, a career etc. This imagery puts Nadia Attia's point about consumerism right in front of the audience and the main character. However the main character is oblivious this message.
This inspired me to create a scene where the main character, Mr. Smith would have the error of his ways bluntly put in front of him on a screen. In my film Mr. Smith watches a video of himself being beaten up by a gang of youths and the complete opposite of what e preaches to his students is right in front of his face. However Mr. Smith chooses to be ignorant to what he sees and convince himself, and his students, of the traditional ideology of Britain (fair play, stiff upper lip).
(The music, rule Britannia, contrasting with the images of Mr.Smith being beaten up highlights the contrast between his traditional beliefs and the reality of Britain which is right in front of him.)
My short film was highly influenced by other British short films I studied, such as “Gravity” which explored anti- social behaviour and violent crime among youths, as well as “Sold”, directed by Nadia Attia, which explored Britain’s growing consumer culture. I then noticed how in both films the main characters were oblivious of the negative aspects of Britain that they were displaying, inspiring me to make a film about ignorance to the true nature of the British people. This theme therefore fits into the genre of social realism.
My film is clearly recognisable as social realism and has many of the forms and conventions of social realism. For example my film has been filmed on DV film which gives the footage a realistic look and keeps any saturation of colour to a minimum. The film has a very gritty feel due to its urban setting and lack of bright colour. This allows me to accurately portray the gritty and bad themes of Britain, such as anti-social behaviour. British social realism films tend to make social commentary on the negatives of Britain, which my films certainly does. Examples of social realism can also been seen in the film poster for my film.
The film poster from my film represents the theme of the film as British due to the iconic images shown and shows that the film is about unclear vision due to the rain covered window (rain is iconic as British) that makes it difficult to clearly see the main image. The title of the film, “Viewpoints” is then written over that and is bold in order to attract the readers eye instantly t the name f the film.
Other forms and conventions of a film poster are displaying the names and possibly faces of the stars. However my films includes unknown actors so I decided not to use this convention. Our film is set in a variety of locations which is unusual for a short film which would normally have too little time to change location. However it allowed me to illustrate Mr.Smiths views, by showing Lukasz travelling through London. Photoshop was the software used to edit the poster and put together layers of images together.
Magazine articles and film reviews also have certain forms and conventions which were followed during the production of the magazine review. For example the review would need to be of a typical structure by including a headline, main image, star rating, break out paragraph etc in order to be recognisable as a films review. Also the target audience would have to be taken into consideration when choosing the correct language to use. For example a magazine aimed at a younger more casual audience, such as Empire would not include the technical language and writing that requires a prior knowledge of film, such as the language used in “Sight & Sound”. We didn't challenge many conventions of a film magazine as this may have alienated our target audience.
I have circled some of the codes and conventions of a magazine review. Such as the headline, star rating, break out paragraph and the main image.
I also followed the structural conventions, in order to make my magazine clear and easy to
follow. The structural conventions are something that anyone who reads a magazine will understand and allows them to navigate themselves through the review. Younger readers, which are magazine is aimed at, will be familiar with a star rating system due to film magazines such as empire and websites like You tube.
social realism and the media forms that they belong to. However I also had to keep it in line with my target audience of 15-18 year olds and insure that, the film in particular, is suitable for educational purposed in schools and colleges. Meaning that changes had to be made. An example of this is taking out he line “fucking pikey!” when the main character is being mugged, despite it adding to the gritty feel of the film which would reinforce the social realism aspect of the film.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My three products (short film, magazine film review and film poster) work together in terms of their genre, the narrative, the institution and their target audience. For example the genre of the film, social realism, carries through into the poster as the genre needs to be communicated effectively in order to attract the target audience and get across the basic themes and genre of the film. The social realism theme causes the gritty, realistic and urban feel to filter through all the work I have done and gave the writer of the magazine review a lot to write about in terms of theme and genre.
The narrative of the film is explained clearly throughout the film and prior knowledge is not needed in order to understand the narrative. The film article outlines, not only the narrative, but explores the themes and social commentary within the film. Therefore the magazine review is probably more successful in communicating the narrative than the film poster, which doesn’t give away details of the narrative except for some subtle signs, such as the unclear view of Britain and the title.
The audience will be able to understand the plot and narrative of the film without seeing the poster or reading the review but as the film is aimed at 15-18 year olds, the film review in particular is required to help the audience understand the theme and purpose, which is important for the film to be used for educational purposes and as something that provokes debate.
The main target audience for my products are 15-18 year olds but each product is aimed at a different audience also. The products all have educational value due to the themes of anti-social behaviour and British identity, allowing the film to be used as tool to provoke discussion among students and teachers. The themes within the film are relevant to current times due to violent crime among youths being an ever present topic in the media and our British identity is something which everyone can relate to.
The film poster can be used to reinforce this educational value as it contains it’s own themes and sums up the themes of the film. However the magazine review may be aimed at a slightly older audience as the it studies the film in depth and from an academic perspective. The magazine would act as a text book, outlining the key issues and themes in the film, whereas the poster would be open to individual interpretation and help the audience recognise the film’s themes themselves.
You can see on the poster that we used the photo manipulation software, photoshop to put a rain covered window filter over the image taken of one of our homes. The effect demonstrates how British people have the "ignorance" of seeing the reality of British identity. This was done using an image of rain, which is an iconically British theme.From an institutional point of view the magazine review and film poster are vitally important as they advertise a film and assist the audience with understanding deeper meaning to the film. They also contribute to attracting the correct audience for the film by using specific images and giving the film a gritty social realism film. The magazine and film poster assist with the distribution of the film as well as targeting the audience and they all combine together to help understand and promote each other. The magazine can also have an unbiased opinion from a third party point of view, which counters the film poster which is mainly an advertisement. People will therefore find the magazine review helpful, particularly from an educational perspective.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Film was uploaded to Youtube (video sharing site) (click the link) and then posted onto facebook, the social networking site, in order to get the broadest possible audience feedback.
Audience feedback is important when creating any media product and essential in reviewing your product and making changes. I carried out audience feedback on my film in front of a group of about 20 people which allowed me to collect information on the first draft of my film. The most common point made among the audience was about the brightness of the picture, the language used and finding the film difficult to follow. The mugging scene of my film was filmed in very dark conditions with only one street light. Therefore the picture was found to be very dark, especially once it was projected onto a large screen. I used iMovie to increase the brightness and contrast of the footage to correct this.
The audience also found that, considering the target audience was 15-18 and to be used in schools, some of the language used (“fucking pikey!”) would cause school children to possibly react badly and distract from the seriousness of the film. Also the audience almost unanimously agreed that the language was inappropriate for the target audience and as an educational tool. The first draft of the film also didn’t include the voice over which was vital for guiding the audience through the narrative as it explains the story and narrates over the footage, which otherwise seemed irrelevant. The audience feedback shows me whether the film is successful in meeting the expectations of its target audience. I agree with the points made in the audience feedback and have made the appropriate changes.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stage?
Different techniques and technologies were used in the production of this coursework and the products of these techniques can be seen in all three of my media products. The use of different techniques can be seen in the research and planning that was posted onto a blog. The blog allowed me to document the production process of the coursework by scanning drafts for the film poster. I was also able to post screenshots and links to other sites in order to illustrate the points I was making. The Internet is an excellent resource and very simple to use when doing research into any aspect of my coursework.
During the production of our film I did the filming and used a digital DV camera which allowed me to have instant playback on what I had recorded, allowing me to make judgements on what changes needed to me made before the editing process began. Digital cameras can also be used to alter the brightness of the footage as you are filming, which helps when filming in dark conditions, before the footage is edited together into the finished product. This software also meant that I was able to develop and add ideas during the editing process
During the post-production of the film I used iMovie HD, a non-linear editing software, to edit the film by placing the footage in the correct order and adding the appropriate sound and visual effects. IMovie HD can be used to split footage up into smaller pieces of footage to a very precise time, which helps with mach on action and when applying sound in the exact position.
Using the Internet I was able to obtain copyright free pictures to be used on Photoshop; the software used to create the film poster, as well as use some images taken by members of my group. Using Photoshop different images can be layered over each other and the manipulated to change the complete loo of the image. Photoshop was a very useful technology because it allows you to create virtually an image you want. Understanding the capabilities of photoshop influenced our initial ideas and allowed us to be very creative. W had the initial idea to layer a union jack over iconic British symbols and then fade this new image into the image of a graffiti ridden wall. All of our initial ideas would have taken advantage of photoshop's capabilities, as can be seen in this post (click the link)
The software used to create the magazine article was Pages. Pages allows you to create written work in different forms, such as magazine articles, newspaper articles, leaflets etc. Using pages the magazine article was created and all the necessary forms and conventions could be achieved, such as headline, billing board and images.
The use of technology completely effected the decisions that were made because due to the wide variety of copyright free images on the Internet available, I knew that I could think of any image I wanted to have in the poster and find it easily. Also the editing software meant that problems with lighting and a huge amount of mistakes made during production could be fixed during the editing process.
During the evaluation stage I have found that being able to post video clips and pictures very helpful when illustrating a point as I have been able to upload the part of the film I'm talking about. The entire evaluation is uploaded onto a blog, which makes it very accessible to anyone who wants to see it and lets me link to other websites and pages.
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