I have put the flashbacks in a sepia tone, so they can be easily known from the rest of the clips.
By JAZZ FOX and FRANCESCA AIRD
Thursday 30 September 2010
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Group Work Vs Individual
Much of what we are doing is being graded as a group, but some as individuals. So Jazz and I have decided that any work that is published on a site without a name at the bottom, has been done by the blog owner, and any group work, that is on the others site, will be labeled at the bottom of the page, to make it easier to grade, and to avoid confusion.
Sunday 26 September 2010
Friday 24 September 2010
Poster Layout 01
I made the layouts for my poster today. I tried to take from what I had analysed but also make it my own, in adding aspects that I think will portray my film. The parts that were wrong with my last end product, last year, were that I kept changing my mind, and that I couldn’t stick with the codes and conventions. This time I still being creative but I am making sure that what I am creating is something that could be seen by the general public and accepted as a real product, without being mainstream.
Poster
Thursday 23 September 2010
Questionnaire data analysis
These are the questions, followed by the results and the analysis of our questionnaire for finding our target audience and researching what the codes and conventions of our chosen products are.
Gender
We tried to research an equal amount of each gender so we could have fair results.
How old are you?
We aimed most of our research towards the ages of 16 and 18, as due to our secondary research we already knew that this was the most likely age for our target audience, however we did research other age ranges, so we could have even results, and have a clear overview of as many ages as possible.
Do you watch short films?
As shown by this graph most of the people we research had seen short films, which show that short films are a wide source of entertainment.
How often do you watch short films?
Over 80% of the people we asked watch film once or more a month. Most of these were between the ages of 16 and 18, showing that they are a target audience for many short films.
What genre of short film appeals to you?
A large portion of the 12 to 18 year olds we researched were interested in teenaged dramas, horror, and surreal. A smaller portion of that age range enjoyed indie, while no one under the age of 18 that we researched was interested in historical short films, these seem to be more geared towards 19-24 year olds.
How long do you expect a short film to be?
The majority of people that we researched, as can be seen in this graph expected a short film to be between 5 and ten minutes. This is the duration we have chosen for our short film, and we believe that this is within the codes and conventions of short films.
What ranks the highest in importance in a short film for you?
After reviewing the research we discovered that what people believe to be the most important in a short film on average is the overall message from the film, closely followed by the concept. This has encouraged us to make sure that our film really gets across its message to the audience, and that our concept is strong. The least important was lighting and the costumes. This has resulted in the decision to focus less on the lighting and costumes; however we are still aware that these play a large part in the overall production quality, and so will be sure not to ignore or undervalue their use in our product.
What is one thing you expect from a short film?
Most of the replies to this question were met with similar answers. “A startling concept” or a “message that stays with you”. This complies with the results from the graphs, that a concept and a message are what people really look for from a short film. They want a concept that both interests and surprises them.
Which poster do you think is the most likely to be used for a teenaged drama short film?
66% of our audience chose option A. The reason given for this was the characters on the cover of the poster. “Misfits” features 5 young adults, who look between the age of 18 and 20. Our audience felt that not only could they relate to the characters, but that these characters sent the message that the short was for teenagers, but a more realistic or gritty take on young people. This is the exact message that we are hoping to portray in our poster, and so this has greatly influences our layouts and designs for the film poster.
What is most important in a film poster to you, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the highest, and one being the lowest?
The title and images rated the highest in importance for the film poster, while the slogan and layout scored lowest, yet still high on the scale. This shows that all the aspects of the poster are extremely important and each must be paid a proper amount of attention for the final product to look professional.
What do you think depicts a short film poster the most?
Overall the people we researched though that a poster full of pictures and fonts with special effects was what the conventions of a short film poster are. This has also influence our poster design, to keep our poster mainstream and like something people would expect to see on a poster block.
What are three things do you expect from a short film review?
Our research showed that the main aspects that are widely expected from a short film were, images from the short film, a large title, a critical look at the short film , a rating system for a quick skim of the article, quotations in large from the article itself, some behind the scenes information, and some behind the scenes pictures. We are going to try and include all of these aspects in our article in order to comply with the general public’s view of what a review should involve, and to stick to the codes and conventions of film magazines.
What is most important in a film review to you, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the highest, and one being the lowest?
Overall the images and picture scored the highest as the most important aspect of a film review, as they are eye catching and that is what convinces the buyer to read the review. This has influenced our layouts to use images to their full potential keeping them big and bright and eye catching.
Questionnaire Results
Today I went around the college, and the town, and had 50 people fill out my questionnaire as primary research for my media product. I tried to have equal amounts of people from either sex fill out my questionnaire, but as my secondary research already stated, my main target age is between 16 and 18, so I tried to ask more people from that age group.
Here is a sample of my questionnaire that has been filled out by one of my audience.
Now I need to count up my results and analyse the data to look for common trends so I can locate the codes and conventions.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Research Into similar products
I decided to research “Skins” as it is targeted towards a similar audience as, my short film as they are both meant to be “show that shows what being a teenager is really like” (IMDB User Review)
One of the objectives of my film is to give teenagers of both genders between the ages of 16 and 18, something to watch that they can actually relate to. However it is not only targeted towards that age gap. I hope to create something that will be interesting for any age, as it focuses on decisions in life, which is something everyone can relate to.
I read through the user reviews and “Skins” is very much in line with what I am aiming for, a top quality production, with low expectations, but with excellent acting, and relatable characters with a real message. I want it to be more then a “teen only drama”
“Skins has grown in popularity with more than 1.5 million people tuning in to the start of the recent fourth series. Although its target audience is teenagers, it has become something of a guilty pleasure for curious viewers far older.”
I do understand that as a show “Skins” has the assets of being able to hook their audience, as it is a series, however according to my research there is an audience for this type of show in a short film format.
Television ratings
The pilot episode of Skins averaged 1.5 million viewers. The ratings for the second series which launched peaked at 884,000 viewers, which gave it 5.9% audience share and taking 60% of the 16-24 demographic, however this was still more than 500,000 viewers down on its series one premiere. The series finale attracted an audience of 740,000 on E4, equating to a 4.65% share of the audience. The start of the third series drew in 877,000 viewers, proving popular with its key audience demographic of younger people — 56.2% of viewers were aged between 16 and 34. Series 4 premiered with 1.5 million viewers across E4 and E4+1, the highest rated episode since series 1.
This information proves that there is a large target audience for this type of show, this genre that some critics acclaim to be “tired” has been brought back for viewers of all ages.
The style of this show is very unlike American TV Teenaged drama’s , like 90210, or Gossip Girl. Like my short film “Skins” is more tailored for the UK audience, it is stylised in a more realistic and often gritty way, using de-saturated lighting and loud rock music to set the scenes as hard core and naturalistic.
Monday 20 September 2010
Proposal Final Draft
After consideration of our script, and due to our primary research done as a questionnaire , we decided that our short film needed more story, and needed a stronger message for its target audience. This is the changed version of the proposal of our short film, hopefully the new script will follow.
Friday 17 September 2010
Research into similar products short film 02
Sad Anxious, and Lonely.
Sad anxious and lonely
- The sound bridge that carries over from the black frame that fades into the diagonal close up suggests to the audience that the short film deals with issues within the protagonists mind, and this is the concept of this film , showing emotions above story.
- The costume throughout remains the same, in black, which connotes a darkness inside the character. It also show a carelessness about appearance, as the character is dealing with his inner opinion of himself.
- The extreme close up of the character’s eye exposes his tension, which matches the close up of the tapping of the cigarette against the table, which suggests his uneasiness and also the passing of time.
- Discontinuity is used as he plays with the cigarette after he is seen smoking it, to show that time is not important for him as he will always be the same; sad and lonely.
- The high angle of the bottle in focus as the protagonist is out of focus connotes that he feels that the bottle is more important to him then he is.
- The long shot of the character sitting at his table suggests to the audience how alone he is, and the endless nothingness that is his life.
- The close up of his profile connotes that he feels that he is only living “half” his life, and that he is incomplete.
- The zoom in pause frame, followed by the fade out suggests that time seems to have stopped for him as nothing has changes and nothing ever will.
- The film is shot in de-saturated colour, showing his life is lacking in excitement, colour and joy.
This film is shot more of a mood piece, and has little story line, but a strong concept, and connotes a great deal of emotion through the lighting, cinematography and mise-en-scene. This is the standard of emoting that we hope to accomplish in our film through these elements, and also with a silent dialogue, however our film is planned to be longer, and will a more conventional story line.
Questionnaire, research into our target audience.
This is our questionnaire. I am hoping to glean enough information from the results to finish our proposal, and make any changes to our script if need be. I am planning to have 50 people fill out the questionnaire, hopefully with an equal amount of men and women answering it.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
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