First Draft of Final Evaluation {[Hollie]}

Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

1. in what ways does your media product use; develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Genre:

Our film was of the genre Social realism which is incorporated into many of today’s films such as Mike Leigh’s ‘Happy go Lucky’ however there are also cross overs in genre which create new hybrids such as Social realism and Comedy such as in the case of Helen Fielding’ ‘Bridget Jones Diary’.
Our film took inspiration from the short ‘Goodbye to the Normals’ which is a comedy. However, our film was strictly social realism and nothing else as we wanted to address the very serious issue of divorce an d its affect on young people. Also real life is not often comedic and full of whitty one liners that would never truly happen and so we wanted to keep it as true to life as possible.
Social Realism is a characterised by many different things, such as:
• Artistic movement.
• Expressed in film.
• Depicts social and racial injustice.
• Economic hardship.
• Unvarnished pictures of life's struggles.
• Often depicts working class activities as heroic and celebrates the mundane aspects of life.
The film ‘Chips' that we created conforms to this idea as the boy is very average and working class. He is trying to come to terms with the fact that his father has left and he must grow up without a father. His mother has also just had a new baby and so he feels very neglected and alone.
One good example of how the boy longs for a father and normal family is when he is playing his videogame at the bus stop and his inner monologue states that he hopes his father will come back soon. His voice is quiet and he almost sounds like he is about to cry. This shows to the viewer that he is refusing to believe that his father will not return and is very distraught at the prospect of giving up hope.
The film uses conventions of a typical social realist film much like other social realism films such as ‘Happy Go Lucky' which involve people just going about their daily business and trying to deal with obstacles in life. The camera work portrays this well as it uses a slow pace of cuts to make it look more natural. Much like Ken Loach's 'Looking for Eric' ( http://www.sbs.com.au/films/movie/3392/Looking-for-Eric) where the slow pace of cuts suggests the mundane and repetitive nature of life in a routine of work and home life that is not really going anywhere. Our film plays on this slow pace to create a sorrowful and melancholy atmosphere that the viewer can relate to in everyday life.





Narrative:

• Most films begin with equilibrium, a calm period.
• Then agents of disruption cause a period of unsettlement.
• This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end.
• This is the simplest form of narrative and is sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative.
• It uses Tordorov’s Theory as it has a simple and clear beginning, middle and end.

Our film does not really use this narrative, the period of equilibrium is present throughout as there is nothing to cause a disruption and the state of upset with his father has been continual throughout the film. This is done in many social realist films because a disruption to daily life doesn’t often occur in the same way that a feature thriller film would depict it and often in life things do not all get resolved in time for a happy ending. Our short film uses restricted narration for the entire film to help create tension and mystery. The viewers are only able to see what the character sees and so are unaware of the things that are happening outside of his thoughts and feelings. The restricted narration also helps the viewer to relate to the main character and empathize with him as it is clear that these events are very distressing. This worked really well as it enabled the viewer to connect with our character as well as the themes and issues surrounding our film. We decided not to use the classic narrative in our film as real life does not really have a clear cut beginning, middle and end. Many of life's problems do not resolved in a heroic and timely manner and struggles with the every day are often ongoing. In this respect we decided not to use Tordorov's narrative as it did not fit in with the social realism context of our film. We were trying to make it as true to real life as possible and I feel using a different narrative structure helped us to achieve this.

Representation:

.Our film piece, I believe, was very creative as we did not have much time to tell an entire story.
. The film is a certificate 12A, I feel this is a worthy certificate as its content is suitable for any age group apart from the use of one profanity. However i do feel that this film targets an older and more film literate audience as they will be know the genre and its conventions better.
.It kept to the structure of a social realist narrative very well and the story line of a young boy who has run away from a broken family is one that most people of many ages can relate to. people can relate to this as 50% of all marriages end in divorce today and therefore many people will have been affected by this issue. In this way many of the younger generation will understand how isolating it can feel to be separated from one parent especially if the other parent has become romantically involved with someone else and our film portrays this angst very well due to the use of a monologue.
.The mise en scene of the piece was fairly simple as the characters were in everyday dress; however, we managed to use this in a creative way. Such as, the untied shoe laces on the young boy which suggest immaturity and a sense of not being able to look after him even though he claims to be just fine by himself.
. the location was important as it is a typically British setting of Brighton beach. A location recognisable to many and it sets the viewer firmly in the action of an every day British seaside town.

Although, we have tried to be original in our work, it has taken on many of the qualities of the film ‘Eight’ which was unintentional. It is clear that this short gave inspiration to all of the group as well as drawing on our own experiences of ‘running away’ as a child. Even though I feel our theme was very creative as its theme is easily relatable and it brings the issue of the affects of divorce on young children to the attention of the viewer.
It could be argued that the film in not creative in its editing. This may be because of the social realist aspect to the film which meant that special effects could not be used. Therefore, in the context of social realism I think that the film is creative in its editing as the use of the voice over and titling are very creative and yet fit very well in the boundaries of a social realist narrative, this could be due to the amount of research and planning put in to the film.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Poster:

The poster of the piece works really well in a social realism genre; it is very similar to the poster of Andrea Arnold's 2009 film ‘Fish Tank’ which also falls into the same category.
The poster itself is immediately recognisable as social realism with its recognisable settings and fairly average character. Unlike thriller or other genres the character does not appear to have any supernatural heroism about him and the setting is rather ordinary.
• The boy is looking upwards in the poster; the low angle of the shot makes him look important and also gives the impression of a hero even if his victories are only over the mundane.
• The boy takes up most of the picture, showing that he is the main character.
• The setting in the background shows a little of the beach which tells the viewer that the film takes place at a seaside town. The location is easily recognisable and relatable to the viewer in this respect and gives the viewer a need to see what is going to happen.
• The rest of the space is clear skies giving ample room for the title and reviews.
• The colour scheme is not overly complex: blues, greens and greys are used for the text as they matched the colours on the boys costume and really tied the poster together.
• The font used for the title was a rather childlike scribble as they boy is young; it works well as he is the one whose thoughts the viewer hears and relate too.
• The rest of the fonts are plain so that the reader can see them from a distance and gauge whether to see the film or not.
• The reviews by the Guardian and the Independent news papers are of the category ABC1 and so will target most of our middle class target audience. The reviews by such people will make the viewers want to watch the film as they will respect the views of these sophisticated critics.

Over all the context of the poster reinforces the idea of social realism and works very well with the other aspects of our package.

Review:

The review for our film took inspiration from Little White lies magazine:
www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
This is a specialist magazine for people who are really fanatical about film.
- Each issue is themed around a particular film which is indicated through the front cover, this inspires the editorial content and design of the issue.
- The magazine reviews and writes about blockbuster films and smaller independent films. Also it discusses music, art, pop culture and politics and how they affect films.
- Mainly male audience, specialist magazine for film buffs. 20+ magazine.
- Key Aspects of the review: Picture in top right, screen shot from film, over 3 or 4 columns, Title 2 colours black on white or reverse, release date and director in boxes in 2 different colours (orange and yellow) Tripartite ranking evaluation system; enjoyment, anticipation and retrospect at the end of the article. First line is always in bold (bold first), author of the piece in bold, page number and little symbol that links to feature film.
- Language: film language and theory, references to film sources and language, evaluative comments, complex language, academic referencing, plot description

Our review sticks very well to this guideline as it uses:
• Seagull doodles much like the doodle in the ‘Where the Wild Things are’ issue. This ties into the film as the seagulls play an important role in representing the freedom which the young boy does not have.
• Blue, green and grey colour scheme throughout which the magazine does. This also works well with the poster as the colour scheme is similar on that.
• It uses sophisticated and emotive language which appeals to our target audience as we are targeting film buffs in their late teens and upwards. Mostly I believe this audience to be middle class as they often enjoy the artistic side of social realism films.
• It will appeal to our target audience in this way because the review is sophisticated and well written. The tripartite ranking system also offers a clue as to the film. This should entice the viewer as they will already have a love for social realist films and want to see ours due to its artistic and emotive nature.

Overall, the package works well as a whole as it reinforces the idea of social realism as well as enticing our target audience with well renowned critics with rave reviews and intelligent and well written reviews and comments. As our target audience is mainly a specialist film audience, the review written for little white lies magazine works exceedingly well and the screen shot from the film in the review, with its simple lines, characters, setting and natural lighting tell the viewer of the social realist nature and hopefully persuade them to watch the rest of the film.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the audience feedback I have learned that the social realism genre does not appeal to all people. It is generally targeted at a more mature and intellectual audience who like the artistic side of film. Our film is targeted at an 18+ audience who enjoy and appreciate the artistic side of film and narrative. This is because most people in thier late teens and onwards can enjoy film on a deeper and more emotional level that children. They can relate key themes to thier own lives and can often understand the subtle metaphors in such films without taking them just at face value.
In our peer reviews we had more positive feedback from fellow film and media related students as they understood the genre better and could make constructive comments about camera work, editing, sound and mise en scene.
Other students however who were not as media literate did not understand the concept of social realist films as they were more used to viewing high concept movies, which reinforces the idea that our film is for the specialist film market.
Most of the feedback that we got was on our social networking account at www.facebook.com
From this we have deduced the following strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
- Good use of mise en scene
- Costume was good, especially the untied shoes on the young boy.
- Good use of straight lines to break up shots.
- Good framing of shot with little empty space.
- Excellent match on action.
- Excellent shot reverse shot.
- Simple yet effective story line.
- Nice use on monologue to tie story line together.
- Good characterisation with believable plot and characters.
- Kept to 180 degree rule.
- Good use of naturalistic sound and lighting.

Weaknesses:
- Camera tilts at end shot.
- Continuity problem in SRS as people are walking past in one shot then never come back out the other side.
- Too slowly paced.
- Confusion over monologue.

Although all of the weaknesses could have been avoided in some way, we feel the film should be quite slowly paced as it is social realism and real life is not like a high concept action movie and so this could not really be helped.

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

Research and planning:

During the research and planning stages of the film, my role was crucial as although my fellow team members were very good, I organised the making of mind maps and drew sketches to explain ideas of my own. Without the input of all members the film would not be at the stage it currently is as we all had talents of our own that we put to good use. For example, Charlea was very good at the technical side of things such as Photoshop and the development of our animatic. Jess mainly wrote the script for the piece as she does English and theatre studies so she could easily take our ideas and turn them into dialogue and I was very good at organising people into their roles and organising the blog as well as drawing the story board for our piece. I think that our combined efforts made the piece a success as we could all adapt to the challenges we faced and coped well under pressure such as, when the traffic noise stopped the dialogue from being heard, we change the script for a monologue of the boys thoughts which worked even better I think as our peers and teachers enjoyed it more. we used Final Cut Pro for our piece as its technology was far more advanced than Imovie. Last year I mainly used Imovie for my piece and only briefly touched on Final Cut for titling. This year I have become more competent with the software and I find it a much more enjoyable piece of software than Imovie. It can also perform better and gives a more professional look to the piece.

Use of Equipment:

Since the foundation portfolio I have learned many new skills, especially in the use of digital technology such as camera equipment and editing software.
In our film piece we used a variety of equipment to achieve our desired effect, such as:
• Camera
• Tripod
• Torches
• Dolly

Each of these pieces of technology required learning how to operate them correctly as well as the health and safety aspects that go with the equipment. Some of the items were used previously in the foundation portfolio and so I could bring that experience forward and expand on it for my final piece.
For example, health and safety procedures that went with using this equipment were:
• Checking the electrical wires with the lighting.
• Saying ‘lights on’ before turning on the lighting, in order not to damage people’s eyes.
• Put up signs to warn other people that filming was happening in the area.
• Use of sandbags.
• Gloves.

Most of this was not new however, I feel as though I have expanded on my knowledge of lighting equipment as before it was shaky and obvious. The lighting in my final product was much smoother and naturalistic. Another key issue with lighting are that they are very hot and can burn very easily. We got around this by using sandbags on the light stands so that they would not tip over and also using gloves to protect ourselves.
Most of the other equipment’s health and safety precautions where all common sense and these where adhered to by all the members of the crew and the actors as well. This made the running of our filming go very smoothly with no safety issues occurring at all.

A better knowledge and understanding of the equipment through repeated use and trail and error helped the film to become a more artistic and believable piece overall. The skills used in the foundation portfolio have been vastly expanded upon and I have learned many new skills such as the use of editing software and the DVD writing software which I had never used before.

Editing:
Final Cut Pro...

• During our editing process we booked out our computer in advance to ensure that we would have access to the editing suite and have enough time to edit our piece the way we wanted and remembered to save work every five minutes.
• However, this was sometimes difficult as more people than last year wanted to use the Macs and so I had to be even more organised to get the editing time I needed.
• We decided to put our entire sequence into Final Cut Pro instead of I movie because we found our footage easier to manipulate.
• We also used final cut pro to lighten our images to give a more natural feel to the footage and to help build on the social realism genre.
• I feel that I have extended my knowledge of editing a great amount since last year and I am much more competent in using the software.
• The sound we used for Foley were gathered ourselves by recording the sounds of traffic and sea gulls, we also put some more ambient sounds such as wind and the sea using Garage Band.
• In the editing process there were a few things that could have been improved such as the seagulls scene which was a bit jolty as the tripod was on the beach and so it slipped in the pebbles, we had to use this shot as it was our only chance of getting the sea gulls where we wanted them and so we put in a fade to make it less noticeable.
• On the day of filming, however, filming time efficiently and produced all our rushes in one day.
• During editing we had to try to create continuity in the footage so that the viewer did not notice our cuts between shots.
• We had to keep to the 180 degree rule which we did very efficiently by always keeping the camera to the left side of the set. this is not necessarily always the case as the 180 degree rule can be broken but only if a camera is shown moving from one side of the shot to the other so that the change is clear in the mind of the viewer, we did not have to do this as none of our shots required this effect.
• We used fades effectively to show the passing of time. For example, during the sequence at the very beginning where there is the long shot of the sea and then a close up of the waves with a fade in between. This suggests to the viewer that a long time is passing for the character on the beach.

Post production:

During post production, we were trying to achieve the best we could to get a smooth pace of film with nearly unnoticeable cuts.
• Continuity was a big concern throughout the project as it is one of the most important aspects of any film. The match on action, for example, where the man takes his glasses out of his jacket and puts them on, is one of our favourite parts of our film where we demonstrated flawless continuity.
• We were also trying to create a film that would make the audience think about their own life experiences.
• During the planning and research I asked our media peer group if they had ever attempted to run away as a small child, nearly all of the class said that at one stage when they were very young they had attempted to do so for sometimes trivial reasons. The session was very interesting as the class reminisced about their experiences; it also gave me more inspiration for the piece which my group helped me to expand on. I believe that this group discussion helped the piece to be very entertaining for the viewer as well as making them think about the effects divorce can have on young children.
• Many of the people in our class have parents who are divorced and they thought it was a very difficult time for them.
• I think our film portrays this very well and means that many people can relate to the issues which I believe is what a social realism should intend to do.
• We tried to stick to our planning and research as well as the storyboard quite rigorously, we ended up being much more creative than we thought and we did not shy away from any ideas we had when filming our rushes. I feel this worked to our advantage as not only did we get all the footage we needed for the original story board we also filmed many other shots. For example, the seagull shot where Sam runs down the beach as they fly away was improvised on the day and worked really well. There was only one chance to do this shot and it worked very well and in the end we adapted our film to include it at the end. Even though we did not intend for this to happen, I found that being open minded with the storyboard really helped us to get as much usable rushes as possible as well as getting the best outcome possible.

Social Networking and Blogging:

I found blogging a very simple part of this task as we had used it before in the foundation portfolio. Although I do find it hard to write in such an informal style as I’m much more used to writing essays. I found I managed to make the most of this technology very well and usually posted at least one post a day to keep everything up to date and document what we had done that day. I found it very easy to upload pictures and videos to the blog as well as useful links to keep everything organised and in one place.

Here is the URL to our Blogger.com account:
http://advancedportfoliodunster.blogspot.com/

In order to gain viewer feedback on out piece as well as suggestions as to what to do with our poster and review we used the social networking site Facebook.

Here is the URL to our Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=276450286849&ref=ts

On the group there is both our animatic and final film as well as copies of both the ancillary tasks. This is where we received most of the peer review from which we then copied onto our blog.

As I had already got my own personal Facebook account, I did not feel as though I was under pressure to learn this new skill and I could utilise all the previous knowledge I had on the social networking site. Similarly our film can also be found at www.youtube.com which I found very easy to manipulate for what we were looking for.

Photoshop and Indesign:
As part of our work we had to produce a poster and film review using Adobe photoshop and Indesign.
Charlea has already learnt how to use this software as she does photography, however, I had never used it before now and so as practice we each had to copy a film magazine cover. I made a step by step guide which is viewable on the blog.

http://advancedportfoliodunster.blogspot.com/2010/03/using-photoshop-and-indesign-hollie.html

This demonstrated how I made a totalfilm magazine cover although in the real task I tried to produce a poster for our film. Collectively we judged each of our posters and decided that Charlea’s was the best. We used her poster for the final piece.

We also had to use Indesign to produce the review. Once again Charlea added the final touches to the review although we all decided on the colour scheme. I wrote the original review and then Jess and I tweaked it along with our teachers help to make it as good as possible.
I also drew cartoon seagulls to go in the background of the review, much like in Little White Lies ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ issue where childlike drawings of people and monsters were on every other page on average. Here is my original design for the review. >>> Here is the final review. <<<