Q1
To follow the same continuity conventions in our film as other drama genre films, I researched into the types of shot most frequently used, temporal editing, and whether the music matched the rhythm of the editing. These things were particularly important to focus on because they can play important parts in building up the tension often found in dramas, and also these features are frequently not carried out in an expected way in drama films, which also creates key emotions and the effects of awe. The drama films I researched, contained a lot of point of view shots and close ups. ‘An Education’ was one I researched that had good point of view shots and we copied some of these shots, including a point of view shot looking at a train ticket and a point of view shot looking at a text message, both from Holly’s eyes. Similar to the shots from ‘An Education’ because all three are of shots of significant writing in the films that the main characters see.
We also included a lot of close up of Holly’s face, and some of Harley’s face, our main characters. We filmed these close up shots, when we needed to emphasise emotions and create the tension of our drama genre film. In these ways our film reflects the conventions of the drama genre. I believe our film does challenge the usual conventions of drama film too though. In most of the drama films I researched, the time scale of the story was always in the present. I think our film subverts expectations, because we don’t focus in the present, most of our scenes our in the past and we use a non-linear sequence of events. At the start of each different scene, we used an establishing shot to set the scene, which are also conventions of the drama genre. When Holly is stealing from Harley’s house, we used rhythmic editing to quicken the pace to match the on screen action. This built up the tension in this scene that led up to intensity between the two characters.
Seconds 4:32 to 4:50 show this fast paced editing and intensity.
We tried to maintain consistent continuity throughout our film and obey to continuity rules. We used shot reverse shot filming multiple times throughout Holly and Harleys meetings. This preserved good continuity during our film and broke up longer shots so our audience would not be as disinterested watching our film. Shot reverse shots in our film were also a good way to shows the feelings of both characters on one subject. For example in the scene where Holly breaks into Harley’s house, the shot reverse shots between them, show how angry then shocked and disappointed Harley was, when at the same time Holly was apologetic and disappointed. I wanted our film to provide pleasure to our audience by entertainment through intensity and transparency. I believe we were successful in creating both the intensity and transparency. In the scene where Harley discovers Holly stealing from his house, there is this intensity factor which provides entertainment. Transparency is shown in our film, right at the end when our main character Holly chooses to face up to her problems and not run away, learning morals. I also think, like in Laura Mulvey’s Theory of Visual Pleasure, our film provides a mirror image/role model for people to admire to in the character of Harley Edwards.
Q2
One of the initial things we did was to gather audience research. This would help us with who our most appropriate target audience was to be. We asked a variety of people 10 questions about the genre of our film and generic conventions that they would expect to see it etc. We also asked questions on distribution, so we knew what would be the best way to distribute our film to the largest possible audience.
In our main project, our five minute short film, we were aiming to entertain our audience through use of an element of Richard Dyers’ theory, Transparency. At the start of the film our main character ‘Holly’ is shown stealing and burgling, an insight into how she has been brought up. Towards the end of the film, after Holly has broken into ‘Harley’s’ house and been discovered by ‘Harley’ the looks of regret and disappointment in herself are eminent. The film then end’s with ‘Holly’ not running away and returning to be truthful about her problems and confront them. This provides moral to our film and shows truth and honesty in the end. We also hoped to achieve entertainment for our audience by use of a positive role model. ‘Harley’ in our film, is the rich kid. He could be a snob, but instead without knowing ‘Holly’s’ lifestyle and background he befriends her. In the end ‘Harley’ also proves to be an influential factor on ‘Holly’s’ positive decision to confront her problems, he triggers this. His kind behaviour throughout the duration of the film could provide as an inspirational role model to the audience. We also wanted to achieve an interesting storyline that would appeal to our audience. We tried to achieve this by creating a twist in the story, where the close relationship between ‘Holly’ and ‘Harley’ is contrasted by the discovery of her breaking into his house. This provides intensity in this scene. I think our radio trailer, reflects the intensity of this scene in our film. We recorded script of ‘Holly’ and ‘Harley’ from the film to include that told both the most important and dramatic lines from our film, so that the audience would be intrigued. I think in this sense our radio trailer is successful at pulling our audience in and making them want to see our film. I think our radio trailer is also successful as it is professional, because we included all the mandatory features about our film our audience needs to know. We included release dates, certificate, and where the film will be available to view. Using script from our film and a different voice to give narrative and film information provided a nice contrast to our radio trailer and kept it interesting. Music in the background of our radio trailer also kept it from being boring and added to the atmosphere we wanted to portray of our film. I researched exsisting radio trailers which helped us know the features that were necessities and would prove positive to promoting our film.
I think the film poster we made to promote our film, would also be quite successful at selling our product. It incorporates all the necessary information again, certificate, cast, crew and film title. In addition we included rating from well known trusted resources such as ‘The Sun’ and ‘Daily Mirror’. High rating are often how audiences establish an idea of the film and cam base their decision on whether or not to go see the film on these. I think the water stroke effect we have on our promotional poster depicts the atmosphere of our film, giving audiences an insight into the genre of our film. I think our film is similar to films such as, ‘An Education’ and ‘Welcome to the Rileys’ where all the storylines contain the same features to try and entertain. All events going smoothly and then a twist to shatter this presence, but then the main character learns from their mistakes. Each story has a moral it portrays to its audience.
Q3
One of the initial things we did was to gather audience research. This would help us with who our most appropriate target audience was to be. We asked a variety of people 10 questions about the genre of our film and generic conventions that they would expect to see it etc. We also asked questions on distribution, so we knew what would be the best way to distribute our film to the largest possible audience. One question we asked was “what kind of features would you expect to find in a film about a teenage runaway?” People answered with statements such as family problems, romance, background stories etc. We tried to include those things in our film, such as showing how Holly has grown up stealing. Through our audience research we also learnt that more people would prefer to buy the film when it was released on DVD instead of going to see it at the cinema. Knowing this we decided to release our film onto iTunes, available to buy. Releasing our film onto iTunes, this would also mean that we were giving our target audience the best available chance to buy our film, as iTunes has the same target audience as our film has. During and before filming we decided to record a narrative to be used over the top of our film throughout its duration. This would ensure understanding throughout switching between our flashbacks and present timing to our audience. Using audience feedback we also learnt that using an effect would make our the scenes that were flashbacks more obvious too, so in editing on final cut we added filters to transform our flashbacks into high contrast black and white scenes. Our audience made further comments that this made the storyline easier to follow, so we improved on that following our audience feedback.
I think we also creatively selected music in throughout our film that reflected both the genre of the film and the mood we wanted to emanate. We used sad and slightly dramatic music for our title sequence. This fitting with the gloomy rain scenes featured and also was the first insight into our film genre. We also used the same music in the scene Holly breaks into Harley’s house, and we edited the music to fit so that the most dramatic notes was with the quickest edited dramatic scenes. Once we had shown our audience our finale edit of our five minute short film ‘Interchange’, we received feedback such as “the title sequence was very well edited” and “the storyline and concept of the film was believable and taught a good moral”. We think our movie would be understandable to a variety of different people and we don’t think it is culturally bound because it would make sense to all cultures.
Q4New technologies enabled me to experiment with new forms of development that I would not have been able to do otherwise. Throughout the duration of this project I have used a variety of different new media technologies including Final Cut, Blogger, a H4 Zoom Recorder, Youtube, and a V1000 video camera. Using a V1000 camera and tripod, myself and my group filmed members from college of different ages answering questions.
This was our audience research which helped us make crucial decisions before filming; we used digital technology to then upload our filming footage, and edited it into a short video on final cut. We clipped our footage into sections, and used the text feature on Final Cut to add a question to the beginning of the corresponding answers. By being able to do this, Final Cut allowed us to be creative with the organisation of our audience research, and experiment with new and exciting digital technology techniques.
In addition to the audience research we did, to research generic conventions of the drama genre, I used the internet and Youtube. Watching clips of other drama films, I was able to note down some of the specialist features we should try to include in our film. Looking at drama films on Youtube, I was also able to take note on the shots they used the most. By using these new media technologies, I learnt point of view shots and close ups and long shots were most often used in drama films, so I knew I had to try and incorporate those into our film. We used Final Cut to edit our footage once we have finished filming. With this new media technology we were able to develop creatively and to our own desires and tastes. Our film contains a lot of flashback and swaps between different locations, which could have confused our audience. With Final Cut we were able to add filters and transitions to make our flashback scenes more obvious to our audience. Changing the saturation of our flashback footage to greyscale and then changing the composure and brightness would not have been possible without Final Cut. Deciding to change the flashbacks to greyscale was a creative choice made by me and my group, and Final Cut allowed us to be creative in that choice by offering the resources to do so. We could also be creative in our film because we were able to add music through a CD and the use of iTunes, another new media technology. We also added narration onto our film in Final Cut, which we recorded on a H4 Zoom Recorder. It used a basic push button to start recording and stop button to end the recording. There was also the option to playback our record to check we were loud enough etc.
Photoshop was another form of a new media technology I used during our project. I created a promotional poster using Photoshop, adding a filter, an effect, text and pictures. Photoshop defiantly allowed me to be creative, I could use an effect to achieve a sad dramatic feel I was aiming for, and I would rotate text to give it a canted angle appearance with an awkward feel.
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