Media Conventions
Short Films
My short film was created in-keeping with the forms and conventions of short films.
I chose to specifically focus on the genre of melodrama as I decided I wanted to manipulate the emotions of my audience by heightening regular everyday emotions by introducing a sad occurrence which isn't far-fetched and is realistic. A big inspiration for my film was the melodrama short film 'About A Girl'.
http://www.gboyle.co.uk/aag%20qt.HTM
By focusing on what this short film's common conventions and difference to other short films I was able to see how they manipulate emotions, to create a desired reaction. I then used the common conventions to make sure my short film was in-keeping with other short films but also developed my own ideas and strategies to create my short film, making it dramatic and humorous at the same time.
In my short film I decided to stick to a lot of typical conventions that are associated with short films such as: I used a stereotypical relationship between my two characters, by doing this it was easy for the audience to understand and relate to their love for one another and thus enabling me to make the audience feel deeply saddened and empathise with Elyse when she lost her little sister. I used a common everyday fear of death and loss to make my movie relatable to the audience as is common with a melodrama.
I used two very emotive non-diagetic pieces of music for my soundtrack, by doing this it helped move my short film's plot along and helped the emotions and themes within the short film develop. However, I also challenged the use of diagetic sound by using a first person narrative in the form of a voice-over. I found this to improve the depth and quality of my film and to also give it a different aspect to be appreciated among other short films. Also, by adding in the voice-over afterwards I was able to edit and place the voice-over where I thought it would work the best, it isn't that simple to do the same with diagetic sound.
Because my film challenged the usual appeal to a wider audience and is in fact targeted towards a niche audience, I adapted my movie to suit the needs of my target audience. The main characters were women and sisters, I did this because my target audience is women and it's these characters that women will be able to relate to the easiest rather than if one of them was male.
I used a lot of symbolic referrals in my movie to instill ideas in the audience's mind without having to tell or explain them. For example, the letter was symbolic of the loss/passing away of her sister.
Magazine Cover
When creating my magazine cover, I decided to stay in-keeping with common conventions of a film magazine cover.
In general film magazine covers are very contrasting and bold with what they chose to place on the cover. It has to be eye-catching and yet in-keeping with the lead article film itself by portraying key characteristics of the film. I did this by using the gradient glow in the top left-hand corner, it is a key concept within my film that someone dies and so by using this it symbolises that death and also adds an extra eye-catching feature to my cover.
I also incorporated aspects such as the paper/sticky note style masthead, by adding this it both contributed to the lead article style and stuck to common conventions as it is the same size and font type as the regular Empire magazine mastheads.
I tried to also challenge the conventions within my magazine cover though such as the lead article font type, it isn't common to see a cursive script for the lead article and was a risk but it paid off because it's relevant to the lead article film itself and will also appeal to the niche audience of women who tend to notice cursive script more so than a block bold font type.
Poster
Posters vary a lot in style, some are very busy and some are very minimalist, some are bright and some are dull. It all depends on the film as to which style of poster you see. The poster was one of the hardest thing to create, not technically but because it's hard to appeal to all different kinds of people even in a niche audience and still keep it relevant to the film. I chose to maintain conventions such as composition, which is usually with the title just under halfway down the page and the pictures taking the space above it. However, I also challenged the convention of having a central image, I used two images as central images instead of just one by doing this it shows that both of these characters are of equal importance in the film.
By using drop-shadows on my text it makes them stand out well and this is of utmost importance on posters because people need to know what movie it is and when it will be coming out/released. On reflection now that I am more knowledgeable in media production I would have liked to incorporate the dark pink that was regularly used in my colour palettes on the poster to make it look a little more eye-catching, however I do feel that the darkness of the poster is a reflection of the context of the film.
Effectiveness of the main and ancillary texts in combination with one another
To be able to evaluate my three media products fairly I asked 10 women between the ages of 15 and 50 to watch my film and look at my ancillary texts, I only asked women because that is who my demographic are, they are my target audience. After they had watched the film and seen the two ancillary texts, I gave them each a questionnaire to fill in on each media product I had produced. I used women whom I didn't know personally to gain non-biased results.
Hayley Bassett’s Short Film Questionnaire
Short Films
My short film was created in-keeping with the forms and conventions of short films.
I chose to specifically focus on the genre of melodrama as I decided I wanted to manipulate the emotions of my audience by heightening regular everyday emotions by introducing a sad occurrence which isn't far-fetched and is realistic. A big inspiration for my film was the melodrama short film 'About A Girl'.
http://www.gboyle.co.uk/aag%20qt.HTM
In my short film I decided to stick to a lot of typical conventions that are associated with short films such as: I used a stereotypical relationship between my two characters, by doing this it was easy for the audience to understand and relate to their love for one another and thus enabling me to make the audience feel deeply saddened and empathise with Elyse when she lost her little sister. I used a common everyday fear of death and loss to make my movie relatable to the audience as is common with a melodrama.
I used two very emotive non-diagetic pieces of music for my soundtrack, by doing this it helped move my short film's plot along and helped the emotions and themes within the short film develop. However, I also challenged the use of diagetic sound by using a first person narrative in the form of a voice-over. I found this to improve the depth and quality of my film and to also give it a different aspect to be appreciated among other short films. Also, by adding in the voice-over afterwards I was able to edit and place the voice-over where I thought it would work the best, it isn't that simple to do the same with diagetic sound.
Because my film challenged the usual appeal to a wider audience and is in fact targeted towards a niche audience, I adapted my movie to suit the needs of my target audience. The main characters were women and sisters, I did this because my target audience is women and it's these characters that women will be able to relate to the easiest rather than if one of them was male.
I used a lot of symbolic referrals in my movie to instill ideas in the audience's mind without having to tell or explain them. For example, the letter was symbolic of the loss/passing away of her sister.
Magazine Cover
When creating my magazine cover, I decided to stay in-keeping with common conventions of a film magazine cover.
In general film magazine covers are very contrasting and bold with what they chose to place on the cover. It has to be eye-catching and yet in-keeping with the lead article film itself by portraying key characteristics of the film. I did this by using the gradient glow in the top left-hand corner, it is a key concept within my film that someone dies and so by using this it symbolises that death and also adds an extra eye-catching feature to my cover.
I also incorporated aspects such as the paper/sticky note style masthead, by adding this it both contributed to the lead article style and stuck to common conventions as it is the same size and font type as the regular Empire magazine mastheads.
I tried to also challenge the conventions within my magazine cover though such as the lead article font type, it isn't common to see a cursive script for the lead article and was a risk but it paid off because it's relevant to the lead article film itself and will also appeal to the niche audience of women who tend to notice cursive script more so than a block bold font type.
Poster
Posters vary a lot in style, some are very busy and some are very minimalist, some are bright and some are dull. It all depends on the film as to which style of poster you see. The poster was one of the hardest thing to create, not technically but because it's hard to appeal to all different kinds of people even in a niche audience and still keep it relevant to the film. I chose to maintain conventions such as composition, which is usually with the title just under halfway down the page and the pictures taking the space above it. However, I also challenged the convention of having a central image, I used two images as central images instead of just one by doing this it shows that both of these characters are of equal importance in the film.
By using drop-shadows on my text it makes them stand out well and this is of utmost importance on posters because people need to know what movie it is and when it will be coming out/released. On reflection now that I am more knowledgeable in media production I would have liked to incorporate the dark pink that was regularly used in my colour palettes on the poster to make it look a little more eye-catching, however I do feel that the darkness of the poster is a reflection of the context of the film.
Effectiveness of the main and ancillary texts in combination with one another
To be able to evaluate my three media products fairly I asked 10 women between the ages of 15 and 50 to watch my film and look at my ancillary texts, I only asked women because that is who my demographic are, they are my target audience. After they had watched the film and seen the two ancillary texts, I gave them each a questionnaire to fill in on each media product I had produced. I used women whom I didn't know personally to gain non-biased results.
Hayley Bassett’s Short Film Questionnaire
Name: _________________________
Age: _____
How often do you watch films?
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Which genre of films do you enjoy the most?
___________________________________________________
Do you think the short film you just watched fits into this genre?
Yes No
Did you enjoy the short film?
Yes No
Was the storyline interesting and easy to follow?
Yes No
Which aspects do you think particularly worked well?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Which aspects do you think could be improved upon and how?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Was the film predictable?
Yes No
Would you watch the short film again?
Yes No
Would you recommend it to a friend?
Yes No
How would you rate the short film? (1 being poor, 5 being excellent)
1 2 3 4 5
Analysis of my short film questionnaire data
By looking at the results from the short film questionnaire I was able to establish that 100% of the women said they only watched films sometimes and all enjoy 'Chick Flicks' or 'Girly' films the most. Now, from my research of my film demographic, I was able to tell that when women refer to films as being 'Chick flicks' or 'girly' then generally mean it is emotional and appeals only to a niche audience, such as my film does. From this I can tell that my questionnaire is going to be 100% reliable due to the fact that the people who are judging it will know what to look for and are familiar with melodrama conventions.
All of the women found my short film easy to follow, pleasant to watch and believed it fit into the correct genre. In general the women's favourite parts were the memories, this is understandable as these inflict happy emotions and that makes them memorable. There was no improvement comments, which is positive as it means none of them could find a fault within the short film. 100% of the women said they would tell a friend about the movie and would gladly watch it again themselves. For the ratings, 80% rated the film a 5 (excellent) and 20% rated it a 4, this is extremely good as nobody voted it into the lower end of the scale it was above with mostly excellent ratings.
Analysis of my short film questionnaire data
By looking at the results from the short film questionnaire I was able to establish that 100% of the women said they only watched films sometimes and all enjoy 'Chick Flicks' or 'Girly' films the most. Now, from my research of my film demographic, I was able to tell that when women refer to films as being 'Chick flicks' or 'girly' then generally mean it is emotional and appeals only to a niche audience, such as my film does. From this I can tell that my questionnaire is going to be 100% reliable due to the fact that the people who are judging it will know what to look for and are familiar with melodrama conventions.
All of the women found my short film easy to follow, pleasant to watch and believed it fit into the correct genre. In general the women's favourite parts were the memories, this is understandable as these inflict happy emotions and that makes them memorable. There was no improvement comments, which is positive as it means none of them could find a fault within the short film. 100% of the women said they would tell a friend about the movie and would gladly watch it again themselves. For the ratings, 80% rated the film a 5 (excellent) and 20% rated it a 4, this is extremely good as nobody voted it into the lower end of the scale it was above with mostly excellent ratings.
Hayley Bassett’s Film Magazine Cover Questionnaire
Name: _________________________
Age: _____
How often do you read film based magazines?
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Which film magazines do you enjoy the most?
Empire Total Film Premiere Other
Do you think this magazine cover looks professional?
Yes No
Does the cover make you want to read more about the film?
Yes No
Is the cover eye-catching enough?
Yes No
Which aspects do you think particularly work well/could be improved upon?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Does the cover represent the film well?
Yes No
How would you rate the cover? (1 being poor, 5 being excellent)
1 2 3 4 5
Analysis of my film magazine cover questionnaire data
From the data collected, it is clear that women don't generally read many film based magazines, as all 100% of the women surveyed answered rarely. However, they all also circled Empire as being their favourite should they ever want to read a film magazine and so this enables them to compare my own magazine interpretation to the professional standards and makes my questionnaire reliable. 100% of the women circled yes to the magazine being professional looking, eye-catching and making you want to read it, this confidently tells me that my magazine cover is of a high standard. None of the women gave me anything to be improved upon and some of the comments about what worked well included: "I like the way the white in the top corner makes it look like she's looking into heaven" Which tells me that my ideas of portraying the film on the cover where clear and well received. When asked to rate the magazine cover, 80% of the women rated it a 5 (excellent) with the remaining 20% rating it a 4, this extremely good reviews and shows that my magazine cover is upto professional standards.
Hayley Bassett’s Film Poster Questionnaire
Name: _________________________
Age: _____
How often do you take notice of film posters?
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Does the poster represent the film well?
Yes No
Does the poster make you want to watch the film?
Yes No
Is the poster eye-catching enough?
Yes No
Which aspects do you think particularly work well/could be improved upon?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Would the poster make you stop and want to read it?
Yes No
Do you think the poster looks professional?
Yes No
How would you rate the poster? (1 being poor, 5 being excellent)
1 2 3 4 5
From my data I can clearly see that film posters appeal to people more than film magazine covers do. As 70% of the women surveyed said they often take notice of film posters with the remaining 30% stating they took notice of the sometimes, from this I know that the questionnaire will be reliable because they take notice of film posters a lot and will be able to compare mine to others. All of the women said that they thought my film poster would make them want to watch the film and that it represented the film well. 80% said that the poster was eye-catching enough and the remaining 20% thought it could have been brighter. The most commonly liked part of the poster was the photograph of Annabel with decreased opacity. All of the women said they would want to stop and read the poster and all thought it looked professional. When asked to rate the film poster 60% of the women rated it a 5 (excellent) 30% rated it a 4 and 10% rated it a 3, which isn't bad because it didn't get into the lower end of the spectrum, however it shows that this was the least favourable of the 3 media products. This could have been because of the minimalist look of the poster which is what I wanted to achieve, however it could maybe have incorporated the same dark pink as the other two somehow to draw more attention.
From the data as a whole it is clear to me that my three media products were well received and would sell/advertise well if they were actually published in the industry.
From the feedback, I can tell that my film concepts, images and colour palette were the main attributes which drew people's attention. The fact that people clearly like my media products means that I have stuck to the key conventions of the three types of media products where necessary to receive such a good review. As I have already stated people suggested that my poster could have been slightly brighter, if I was to look into my poster in the future I would perhaps incorporate the dark pink from the colour palette to attract more attention and that being the only advise to have been received it obviously means that the others were at optimum level and quality.
I believe that by carrying out these questionnaires I have been enabled to reflect further on my three media products with the critical eye of a potential audience. I am very pleased with the results that I received and I agree with thee constructive criticism which was given to me to help me evaluate what, if in future I should revisit this, I could add to improve the quality further.
I can see clearly that the three media products work very well in combination with each other and have similarities that tie them all together so that they compliment one another. The poster is the least informative of the three, you gain basic knowledge of the film and then it progresses to a more detailed film magazine cover which really engrosses you and then onto the short film itself which captures your mind and your heart. Together they would be a hit I believe and would draw in a lot of potential audiences if they went into production in the industry.
The colour palettes, themes, imagery and connotations are all major factors which contribute to making the three products work in harmony with each other and contribute to the story as a whole by keeping the crucial elements a running thread throughout.
Development of Skills
When I had a go at producing a preliminary task, it was alright, of average ability and not very interesting. I didn't know how to use the camcorders, upload footage or edit it, nor was I as able to use Photoshop effectively. My understanding of the programs which we used has broadened a lot, I now feel confident and calm about using them, enabling me to produce optimum quality work. But not only that I also know a lot more about short films, their design processes, production and even the publication procedures compared to the basic understanding that I had before this course. I've learnt it's a lot harder than it looks to produce and direct a film even if it is only five minutes long, a lot of hard work goes into editing the films and even more goes into the behind the scenes, making of the films. My knowledge of melodramas specifically has broadened vastly, I didn't even know there was such a genre as melodrama before I researched the sub-categories of drama and now I know the crucial elements which go into making a melodrama short film and how to make it appeal to the correct target audience and make it successful.
The use of new media technologies
Because of technology researching for and creating my three media products was a lot easier a task. To research film magazines and posters, I was able to use www.google.com/images this enabled me to see and dissect all of the forms and conventions used in film magazines, helping me to produce my own.
I was also able to use www.youtube.com and short film websites such as http://www.filmsshort.com/ to research short films and then broaden my knowledge on short films conventions and the different genres available to work with.
Whilst researching target audiences, the history of short films and music that I could use as a soundtrack, I found: http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page this made information available to me that would have taken me days to find in books in a matter of minutes, it helped me to gain better understanding of what I was working with and how to better my projects.
Photoshop CS5 and Serif MoviePlus x5 are two forms of technology that were crucial in the making of my three media products, I wouldn't have been able to create them, if the technology wasn't available for me to use, media technology is growing and getting better every single day. Magazines used to have to be made on a print and press which was much hard work and not nearly as satisfying to look at, compared to today's amazing glossy covered magazines, technology is what makes media and I have learnt a lot about the incredible importance of technology in the media industry just from the need for it in the creation and research for my three media products.
From the data as a whole it is clear to me that my three media products were well received and would sell/advertise well if they were actually published in the industry.
From the feedback, I can tell that my film concepts, images and colour palette were the main attributes which drew people's attention. The fact that people clearly like my media products means that I have stuck to the key conventions of the three types of media products where necessary to receive such a good review. As I have already stated people suggested that my poster could have been slightly brighter, if I was to look into my poster in the future I would perhaps incorporate the dark pink from the colour palette to attract more attention and that being the only advise to have been received it obviously means that the others were at optimum level and quality.
I believe that by carrying out these questionnaires I have been enabled to reflect further on my three media products with the critical eye of a potential audience. I am very pleased with the results that I received and I agree with thee constructive criticism which was given to me to help me evaluate what, if in future I should revisit this, I could add to improve the quality further.
I can see clearly that the three media products work very well in combination with each other and have similarities that tie them all together so that they compliment one another. The poster is the least informative of the three, you gain basic knowledge of the film and then it progresses to a more detailed film magazine cover which really engrosses you and then onto the short film itself which captures your mind and your heart. Together they would be a hit I believe and would draw in a lot of potential audiences if they went into production in the industry.
The colour palettes, themes, imagery and connotations are all major factors which contribute to making the three products work in harmony with each other and contribute to the story as a whole by keeping the crucial elements a running thread throughout.
Development of Skills
When I had a go at producing a preliminary task, it was alright, of average ability and not very interesting. I didn't know how to use the camcorders, upload footage or edit it, nor was I as able to use Photoshop effectively. My understanding of the programs which we used has broadened a lot, I now feel confident and calm about using them, enabling me to produce optimum quality work. But not only that I also know a lot more about short films, their design processes, production and even the publication procedures compared to the basic understanding that I had before this course. I've learnt it's a lot harder than it looks to produce and direct a film even if it is only five minutes long, a lot of hard work goes into editing the films and even more goes into the behind the scenes, making of the films. My knowledge of melodramas specifically has broadened vastly, I didn't even know there was such a genre as melodrama before I researched the sub-categories of drama and now I know the crucial elements which go into making a melodrama short film and how to make it appeal to the correct target audience and make it successful.
The use of new media technologies
Because of technology researching for and creating my three media products was a lot easier a task. To research film magazines and posters, I was able to use www.google.com/images this enabled me to see and dissect all of the forms and conventions used in film magazines, helping me to produce my own.
I was also able to use www.youtube.com and short film websites such as http://www.filmsshort.com/ to research short films and then broaden my knowledge on short films conventions and the different genres available to work with.
Whilst researching target audiences, the history of short films and music that I could use as a soundtrack, I found: http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page this made information available to me that would have taken me days to find in books in a matter of minutes, it helped me to gain better understanding of what I was working with and how to better my projects.
Photoshop CS5 and Serif MoviePlus x5 are two forms of technology that were crucial in the making of my three media products, I wouldn't have been able to create them, if the technology wasn't available for me to use, media technology is growing and getting better every single day. Magazines used to have to be made on a print and press which was much hard work and not nearly as satisfying to look at, compared to today's amazing glossy covered magazines, technology is what makes media and I have learnt a lot about the incredible importance of technology in the media industry just from the need for it in the creation and research for my three media products.
No comments:
Post a Comment