Evaluation

1) In what way does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

During the production of our film, we were very aware of maintaining continuity throughout. We used the 180 degree rule to make sure that the audience would not become confused if the characters suddenly changed positions, and we also edited using match on action to make the end product appear smooth and natural. The shot/reverse shot technique is also something we used when shooting our film, because this is an efficient way of shooting conversations between characters. 

The 180 degree rule

Here are the different variety of shots that we used during filming. We wanted to follow the conventions of a drama film by using both cinematography and editing to make our film visually interesting to watch. Because if every shot was long and continuous, the film would be boring. By switching and changing the shots we used, the film had more of an appeal.

Eye-line match/pull focus shot/match on action

Below is a finished video we compiled after having practised some of our more difficult shots. We decided it would be beneficial to do this so that we would have some experience of how to frame and shoot these shots when it came to the day of production. I personally found this very helpful because it made me feel more confident about using difficult shots and executing them.

However, we challenged the convention of retaining continuity toward the end of our film when the truth behind the narrative is revealed. In order to convey to the audience that there is always more than one way of looking at a situation, we decided to repeat the sequence of film again, but use different angles to shoot it from. This meant crossing the 180 degree line, but because the idea behind the sequence was to look at the situation from a different perspective, we wanted to reflect this visually as well as morally. This inspiration derived from the Guardian advert that we found during the research stage of our project. During the editing process, we found that this looked very effective, and even decided to take it a little further by applying a ‘black and white’ filter to show that this is a replay of events which have already occurred (again, similar to the Guardian advert).

Our film subverts expectations of the genre we have chosen due to its morally driven narrative. We maintained all the standard iconography of the drama genre, including realistic settings (e.g. a house, a park, a street…), realistic characters, and every day objects for props (e.g. a pen, a notepad, folders, a phone…) to make it clear for the audience what kind of genre our film would be. Normally, a film in the drama genre will focus on the situation a character finds themselves in, and as a result may subconsciously make the audience reflect on their own principles or behaviour. In contrast, we wanted to deliberately subvert the conventions of the genre by making the audience question themselves directly. The plot is set up so that the audience judges the suspicious character on instinct, and by showing the other side of the situation, and then asking the direct question ‘did you jump to conclusions?’ 

we achieve this.

Question title at the end of our film to engage audience

Real locations and every day objects for props

There are no intertextual moments in our film which might link it to another film, though we did draw ideas from other films when playing around with initial ideas. The whole idea of the ‘theft’ or ‘mugging’ that we originally came up with stemmed from a similar situation in the film Knight and Day. In the opening scene of the film Cameron Diaz’s character bumps into Tom Cruise’s character at the airport, and the audience don’t think anything of it. Later on as the plot develops, the clip is played back to Diaz’s character via a security video taken from a different angle. That is when the audience and the character realise that he put something into her suitcase in order to get it through airport security. In our film, the suspicious character, Sam, is actually taking the phone back from the girl who stole it. Though the central idea for our film actually originated from a Guardian advert that focuses on judging people and situations from the angle you see them. Also, we liked the use of a black and white filter for this advert, which is what inspired us to use it in our own film, even if we did use it slightly differently. This is why we decided that our only intertextuality would be to use the narrative quotes from the Guardian advert, and apply them to our own film to help explain the idea of the film more clearly, as well as to acknowledge the inspiration for our film.

Knight and Day

Guardian advert

The chief purpose of our film is to target the audience by using stereotypical characters and appearances to bring out their natural reactions. In doing this we can highlight just how easily people can be prejudiced against someone or a situation. Even though our film does not contain a lot of action or excitement, we wanted to aim for a clever narrative that had a twist and surprised people. I believe that we have achieved this successfully. 

In relation to the Uses and Gratification Theory, we aimed to give the audience pleasure through both entertainment and providing them with a model situation of someone learning their lesson after acting prejudiced toward someone. In addition, if the audience goes away feeling as if they have learned something from our underlying moral message, then that is a bonus. Overall, I believe that we have achieved this.

Our film also follows 'Todorov's Theory of Narrative'. Todorov believed that most narratives have 5 stages to them which makes for an interesting piece of film. This is how our narrative is structured, as shown below. Syd Field's theory is also shown below, similar to Todorov's idea that every narrative has a similar structure. The only difference is that he believed every film has 3 main plot points.

As in most films, our narrative rises to a climax and then dips again to reach a new equilibrium. The 'equilibrium' at the start is that Millie and her mother's relationship is fine. They are out walking and there is nothing out of place. Then the climax arises when Sam steals Millie's phone, and the event is when Millie realises something is wrong and that there is a disruption in the park between Jodie and Sam. Her attempt to solve the problem at the end of the film is both the moment she thanks Sam for taking her phone back and again when she apologises to her mum. In some cases films finish with a return to the original equilibrium because everything goes back to the way it was before. However,  our film ends with a new equilibrium because Millie admits her mistake, and there is an unspoken implication that she will not jump to conclusions again.

Similarly to Todorov's Theory, our film has a 3 act plot structure like Syd Fields suggested. The beginning (the setup) is when Millie and her mum are coming back from a walk and Millie judges a stranger and comes to a disagreement over it with her mother. The middle (the confrontation) is when Sam 'steals' the phone from Jodie in the park, because this sets up the climactic point of the film. Finally, the end (the resolution) is when Millie thanks Sam for taking her phone back, and when she apologises to her mum over text at the very end of the film.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

Evaluation (2) from LauraWol

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

OTHER

I used iMovie to create a small teaser trailer for our film because I wanted to experiment with a different program as opposed to using FinalCut again. I found this program easy to use, and this is one of the reasons I prefer FinalCut because it allows you to do more with your footage.

I used paint quite a lot to edit my images quickly. I have a lot of experience using this program, so I found it easier and much faster to crop, resize and merge photos on this program. As opposed to Photoshop, this program does not require a lot of experience to be able to use it well.

I used MovieMaker to create another teaser trailer, but found this too simple to use. It did not offer me enough effects to use on our footage, so I was not happy with the end result. I was only able to use titles, credits, videos, images and sound. There were no filters.

I found Photoshop more efficient to use for creating my film posters. There were so many different effects for me to play around with, and in the end I think my finished poster looked more professional. I was able to add filters like 'black and white' and 'motion blur' to my images to give them a more authentic, detailed look. After using the program multiple times, I found that it became easier to use.

I used Powerpoint to present my theory notes in a way that made them more interesting visually to look at on the blog. I also used it to make brainstorms and mindmaps because the program allows you to use different colours and fonts to make the brainstorms more interesting.

Mostly, I used word to create shot lists, to write up the treatment for our film, and to create the analysis of my film posters.