Claire and Harrison's Blog!: 2013

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

These are some screen grabs from various short films I've analysed which inspired me to use some of the features I have used in 'Finley':

In relation to picture 1, 2 & 3.

Film: Rocket

Characterization

'Rocket' has the same sort of protagonist which I do in my film and through analysing the way they created this dog's smart and crafty character I managed to create Finley's character the way I wanted to, cheeky and mischievous. To name a few conventions used, close up on the dog's eyes at particular points so the audience feel like they are thinking something. For example at the start of 'Rocket' there is a close up on the dogs eyes to show the audience he is thinking up a plan.

camerawork - The camera work adds to any effect used, for example the close up shows the expression in his eyes in such detail that the audience will feel sympathy for the dog. Another aspect of camera work that helps the audience feel submerged in the animal's life is the use of a point of view shot. At points which were particularly important, for example when the dog sees the rocket for the first time, we are taken through to his eyes and we see it from his view which is not only less mundane, it also means the audience feel more included in the piece.

In relation to picture 4, 5 & 6.

Film: Little Larry.

Mise en scene

In image 4, the props plays a key role in creating a particular feel for the audience. The ironing board and iron are much bigger than the little boy, which creates a sense of sympathy for him because he looks out of depth compared to his surroundings. The frontal angle of the shot means that we see the height of the ironing board in front of him and it again captures the audience's attention because it is rare to see a boy of this size using something which is usually used by adults.

Image 5 shows a shot where Larry is looking up at an office block, possibly his office but it's not clear. The fact that the camera angle is extremely low makes the building look as though it is looming over him. Not only does the camera angle distort the image which makes the audience see that Larry feels intimidated by the building and his work place. His worried and daunted facial expression also gives us an insight into the way he feels daunted and overwhelmed by his job.

One of the final shots is shown in image 6 where we see Larry at his real age, rather than the little boy he was shown as previously. This immediantly makes the audience realise that he is no longer feeling out of his depth and like a child, he now feels comfortable in his body and surroundings. This isn't the only change to the mis en scene, the colour has changed from black and white to full colour which has increased saturation making the colours much more vibrant and the change from black and white to colour even more noticeable and surprising. The colour change reflects how he sees life now that he's met this girl, where as before his monotonous routine was reflected in the colourlessness of the shots now he is happier he sees everything in a new light.

In relation to picture 7, 8 & 9.

Film: The Black Hole

Image 7, this is one of the opening shots of the film and it sets the scene perfectly in terms of it being a dull office with a moody worker using a photocopier. The protagonist's body language reflects how he feels immediately, he is slouched, staring out at nothing looking very bored and we immediately assume he hates his job. The lighting is also interesting in the office as it's fairly dark apart from the three bright ceiling lights which give the office a clinical feel and adds to the dull atmosphere.

Image 8, again in this shot the lighting is very dark, only illuminating the protagonist and the vending machine, this makes us focus on the only parts of the shot which we need to see rather than getting distracted by anything in the background. The shot is a medium close up which means we see his facial expression as he steals from the vending machine.

The final shot is extremely powerful and ends the film on a cliff hanger successfully. The composition of the bank safe, placed right in the middle of the shot, makes it look isolated and detached from any thing which makes the audience think he's not going to be able free himself. Secondly the lighting is much more dark in this shot which adds to the tense atmosphere which is created by him locking himself in the safe.

Here are some screen grabs from my film which are some examples on how they conforms to features of the short film genre:

1. Narrative

My short film's narrative in some ways is similar to some of the short films I've analysed, the theories within 'Little Larry' can be applied to my film and it also has a linear narrative similar to 'Rocket'. As seen in the 9 frame sequence above, my narrative goes from frame 1- 9 without going back and forth in time at any points, proving it's a linear narrative.

The key reason I wanted a linear narrative was to reflect the naturalism of my film. Because none of it is non-naturalistic, in order to enhance the realism it was important for the audience to follow through the order of events as they are in real life.

However I felt the danger of having a straight linear narrative was that it could feel boring at points. To avoid this happening, when the protagonist goes to sleep we are submerged into his dream. This still keeps to the linear narrative however it is still clear that we are watching his dream, as i used the ripple effect on final cut and a 'dream like' sound effect to clearly show the transition.

Having a linear narrative was important for my film for the reasons that there is minimal dialogue to explain the story line, therefore the clarity of the narrative was essential.

Characterisation

Similarly to the film 'Rocket' the main character in my film is a dog, which means building a relatable character was more of a challenge. Although unlike rocket, in my film there's an actor, his face is never revealed there for the audience are always blocked from having an emotional connection to that character.

The reason I never revealed his face was because I wanted the audience to primarily have a connection towards the dog rather than the owner. A large part of the audience will be dog lovers and dog owners so I also wanted focus to be on the loyalty and love the dog has for his owner.

This 'mans best friend' tone is highlighted through out the film by using various camera techniques. For example, in the particular screen grab, we do a point of view shot through the owner's eyes and Finley looking directly at the camera, so the audience are placed in the owner's shoes and feel the love of the dog for themselves.

Camera work

This is used in our film to create tension, emotion, setting and the relations ship between the character to the audience. The hole uses....................In our short film we use different angles to show levels of hierarchy, for example we use a high angle to in this particular scene to make Finley seem smaller and less authoritative than his owner.

PICTURES OF THE RING IN JEWELRY SHOP AND WRAPPED UP RING

We also focus on the ring in as many ways as we can because it is our most significant prop and is what the dog owner is most worried about. Using a tracking shot when he is choosing the ring and stopping, then focusing on the ring he buys means the audience know that the ring is important. We also do various close ups through out the film when it is wrapped, which draw their attention back to the fact that the owner is going to propose.

Sound

for me was an extremely important part of my film, as it is in most short films. Non diegetic and diegetic are both important and help create feelings and emotion for a short film's target audience.

For example in...(example of non diejetic and diejetic sound in 3 films i analysed).

However it was especially important that i used sound in the most effective way possible because there is very minimal dialogue in the film. There fore using music and sound effects to create the correct feel for the audience has been essential.

Here's a clip where music creates a significant feel of setting for the audience – it's when the dog owner is browsing the jewellery shop for a ring, the music creates the typical quiet shop feel.

Mis en scene

Mis en scene is hugely important for my film.

I wanted the audience to feel submersed within the life of the dog and his owner, creating a homely setting was important. The christmassy living room created the perfect atmosphere and enhanced the closeness of the pair.

The ring box is the main focus of the film as through out it is the key in showing the mischievousness of Finley and it creates the tension through out. It also says a lot about the film as a whole because one of the key themes is love and loyalty, and engagement ring is a perfect symbol for these themes.

Costume remained consistent for the dog owner in order to maintain the clarity for the audience to understand who the character is because of the lack of dialogue. The costume as shown was a chequered shirt, trousers and brown shoes which clearly represented that the character was a man.

Themes and issues

The themes and issues explored in my short film are shown through various conventions and create the correct feel and emotions for the audience and leave them with a lasting impression, similar to those in the short films I've analysed:

For example, 'Rocket' shows the audience anything is possible, 'Little Larry' is centred around age, and 'The Hole's' key theme is greed.

As previously mentioned, the key theme is loyalty and relationships. There are constant reminders of this through out the film; the owner giving both him and the dog breakfast, the engagement ring, the affection between the man and dog.

Although my film is fundamentally a comedy, there are a few underlying themes with a deeper meaning. The fact that the loyalty and strength of a relationship is shown through an animal and a human and only echoed with a human to human relationship through the engagement, means that the audience will be less distracted by the romance of human love and will realise a loyal relationship can be between any living thing, whether it's animal, husband or family.

The Poster!

1 - Image of main characters - Nearly all film posters have an image with the protagonist(s) of the film with a relevant background or often actual setting of the film. It is often the case that the film producers draw attention to a particularly well known actor/actress in order to try and attract their target audience.

2 - Title - This must grab the audiences attention because that is typically what gets read first (followed by the image above), therefore it is usually larger than the rest of the text.

3 - Director's name - usually appearing separate from the credit block,

4 - Credit block - contains all the names of the people involved in making the film, typically at the bottom of the poster almost always in a very condensed barely visible font like sans serif or others.

5 - Ratings - Although ratings aren't the biggest feature on a poster they are arguably one of the most useful selling points which a distribution company will use. On the other hand the source of the rating must be interesting for the target audience of the film or the rating will be meaningless. Typically a rating will come from newspapers, film magazines. On my poster I've used the film magazine little white lies and The Daily Mail as I thought this would appeal to my target audience the most.

6 - References to award wins/film festival entries - another key part in selling the film, a prestigious award will give the audience instant reassurance in the quality and content of the film.

All in all my poster conforms to the conventions of a short film poster and gives the target audience a realistic yet inviting taste to the film itself.

The Review!

Here is my final review where it is clear that all the conventions of the little white lies reviews have been used.

Here is a Prezi I made, analysing 3 reviews made by little white lies, which was the template we used for our review!:

http://prezi.com/ozhy-xhvfdgc/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-ozhy-xhvfdgc&rc=ref-33385797

Some key language features i found which were recurring and which I incorporated in my review were:

adverbs
alliteration
rhetorical questions
metaphors
puns

2. How effective is the combination of your main product

and your ancillary tasks?

(transcript for voice recording) -

It was important to represent the genre of comedy in my poster, however it was important not to give away any of the story away

I originally had a picture of Finley in ruined christmassy living room but from feedback I realised this gave away part of the story.

So I had to think of another way to represent the genre without giving away a large part of the story. This was hard because the most comical part of the film was the part I couldn't give away, in the end after setting up and photographing various scenes of the film I realised simplicity is key and the perfect picture was on of Finley with his head cocked to one side with the engagement ring box next to him. I found that the puppy on his own with the confused expression created a comedic feel straight away with out needing anything else.

In researching more posters it was clear that the main selling point for many films is any famous actor or actress which features in their film. And often the names of these stars are printed in large letters, in stand out colours in order for the film distribution companies to attract as many of their fans as they can.

Obviously in my film there aren't any famous names, there fore there was minimal focus on the names of the actor.

However, part of my target audience are Dog Lovers, therefore focus on the cute puppy was important in order to attract this band of people. The picture shows this off perfectly, and the title on the dog collar will also grab their attention in particular.

In contrast to this the Little white lies style review wasn't aiming to attract the different kinds of target audience, it simply aimed to give an honest and truthful review which would give the readers of Little white lies a taste of the kind of film Finley is. Little white lies is also a very well respected magazine therefore being featured within the magazine in itself will promote the film. Any by having and all in all positive review it is a good way of marketing the film.

However they are both similar in that neither of them reveal anything about the film. The poster gives a tiny hint with the ring and the dog which shows it's genre and gives the audience an idea of the sort of film it'll be.

Reaching out to my target audience! -

It was important to understand who exactly my target audience was. Early on I predicted the people mainly interested in seeing a film in the 'Animal, comedy' genre, were young girls from the age of around 8 - 13 and the rest of the audience would predominantly be animal lovers of any age.

This meant that distribution would be far more varied than a film with mainly teenage viewers or mainly adult viewers. If a film was targeting teenagers social media websites would be the key for spreading the word, differently if the target audience was adults aged 40 and up, the focus for advertising might be in newspapers and magazines.

Iphones and android phones - Using applications on these devices means I could create an app where by people could freely download the trailer of my film and exclusive behind the scene footage. Iphones and androids are taking over in terms of communication and everyday use therefore creating a special way of reaching out to all the millions of smart phone users could create a solid base of people who will follow through and watch 'Finley.

Question 3

Twitter has been extremely helpful during this process in order to gain even more broad feed back from my film. I created a page for my film and posted pictures of props, clips of my film as it was being created my poster, review and my final film. I found twitter was useful in the way that it was more of constant update of the process where I could document everything I was doing. However I got less feedback on twitter as it is slightly less popular than facebook amongst my age group. On facebook I posted less content but

recieved a lot more feedback.

My twitter page @finleyshortfilm wasn't just helpful in the sense that I got some helpful feedback on a regular basis, it was also useful for myself as whenever I'd finish filming a scene, or editing some footage - I would post it on my twitter feed. This genuinely helped me keep track of where I was in the process, for example at one point I had filmed half of my footage, but I wanted to change my opening shots and I wrote down an exact list of all the shots left to do and posted it on twitter to keep track. Working on my own meant having to manage my time especially well as I didn't have anyone to fall back on or remind me of anything I'd have missed out, therefore organisation was key to making sure I kept on task and didn't fall behind, particularly during the filming period, and twitter in particular unlike Facebook was a live feed where I could post my progress.

Facebook was my main tool for audience feedback as it was the place where I could reach the largest base of people to respond to my film:

Facebook feedback was essential, unlike twitter i found myself using Facebook only when I was unsure of aspects of my film, not as a constant update. However, the feedback I received on Facebook was more detailed and I could reach out to a wider audience through Facebook. Another advantage was that because again unlike twitter, adults are also on Facebook so I managed to get the view point of a different age group which was useful.

Here are some comments I received about my film early on, which enabled me to edit it in order to make changes which people had commented on:

The first comment about the music being inappropriate during the jewellery shop was helpful as I was so wrapped up in editing and adding special effects that I became immune to realising that the soundtrack at points didn't fit in with the atmosphere the camera work was creating. Unfortunately I don't have the original sound track to the shop scene but it was originally the same acoustic type track which I have in the previous scene. I changed to this track which set the new sense of place much more effectively rather than having the acoustic sound.

The second comment 'I liked it, but the lack of dialogue meant it was unclear' - The lack of clarity was mentioned more than once in my feedback therefore I realised I had to do something in order for the audience to understand why he was going to the Jewelry shop and who the ring was for. Although at first my film was meant to have no dialogue in it whats so ever, I decided it was essential at some point for the dog owner to mention he was going to propose. It was at that point that I recorded incorporated the scene where the dog owner's friend calls, and the dog owner expresses his nerves about proposing.

The third comment