In order to follow the conventions of a short drama film I researched into shots, music and editing of other similar dramas. I did most of my research on “Strangers” because it has a strong similarity to our film. The meaning behind the film is different but it evidences the conventions of a drama film such as dramatic music, quick shots when the tempo of film is heightened and some sort of conflict. We added these three conventions to our drama film. The location of Strangers is set on a train and our film has the same location so this helped me to analyse the shots from strangers and then use similar shots in our own film. One other element we tried to follow from stranger is the not having much speech in our film however we added a narration which isn’t common in drama. “About a boy” is one example of a film that uses narration however it has a subgenre of drama but would be classified as a comedy so using a narration could be viewed as challenging a convention of a drama film.
Flashbacks can be used in drama films and programs such as “doctor who” in places uses flashbacks and also “James Bond casino royale”.Flashbacks in dramas can often have less colour in order to show the audience the scene is from the past. We copied this method by removing the colour from the flashbacks. We attempted to keep continuity throughout our film. However we did slip up once or twice but did not have enough time to film again and felt these continuity errors had no major influence to the plot of the film. An example of one of these errors would be the two shot of the boxes when she shakes them and puts them into the bag. It’s very difficult to spot but the boxes are different but the shot is done very quickly and due to the shots been in black and white it is only noticeable if notified of the mistake before viewing the film.
We tried to create a film that would be satisfying to our target audience and create an interest throughout. We have done this using an interesting storyline and trying to portray this storyline using a Varity of shots that fit the criteria of a drama film and also using music to create an atmosphere and certain emotion in our audience. I think we achieved this by sticking to the convention of a drama film and also by creating a strong plot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHKtOSACV9A
In our project we wanted to achieve entertainment for our viewers through drama. We intended to do this using a dramatic storyline which captures the feelings of a girl trapped in a life of crime and to also show there is light for people in situation that seem out of control. Our film was hopefully made to portray a moral message to the audience and also entertain them at the same time. Our two advertising products were a radio trailer and a film poster.
I think the posters selling points are the simplicity of the poster. We decided to keep it simple and without a tagline just so it leaves the potential audience guessing. One of the main selling points of our poster is the title; we made it bold and large to stand out. The certificate is standard we decided to rate it a 12A because we feel the plot is more directed towards adults but there is no explicit scenes so a 15 to 18 rating was unnecessary. The starring actors names are on the poster this is a great advertising method if you have major starring actors because if an audience’s favourite actor is in the production then they usually are more encouraged to go see the film. We have put ratings from highly respected newspapers in order to influence more people to go view the film. This is a common method for low budget films as they lack in forms of expensive advertising. Finally the actual photograph on the poster, we used a watercolour effect to enhance the photo, which is not common in film posters, but I believe it helps our poster to stand out.
For our radio trailer we used the H4 zoom to record our narratives for the trailer and then used garage band to add music and enhance the sound of our trailer. The purpose of our radio trailer is to persuade and inform because we want to persuade the listeners to watch the film but also we have to inform them of release dates and the title so they know what there going to watch. We have taken lines from the film and put them on the trailer and added information about release dates to meet our two main purposes. Radio trailers are not the most popular selling points for films but are still often used as a form of advertisement. We have tried to stick to the main conventions of a radio trailer and developed in my opinion a successful radio trailer. This is the link to our final radio trailer. http://njjdproductions.blogspot.com/2011/04/interchange-radio-trailer.html
After creating our plot for the film we decided if we needed to include violence, bad language or criminal acts that were justified. This was to work out what in our opinion was the best potential target audience and after research into certificates and gaining the required information off http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ we decided to certificate our film around a 12. However the storyline is progressively complex at certain points which required us to aim at an older target audience. We then began getting other opinions from fellow students we did this by writing up a few basic questions about their interest in film and also their preferred genres. We recorded these interviews and then took on board their opinions. The interview can be found our blog. The sort of reaction we got from these interview were that our potential target audience would be interested in a drama film that has a 12A certificate but would prefer a 15 rated film due to the increase of explicit scenes which can often create more satisfaction to the audience.
In our filming we used various shots that would ensure the point we were trying to put across to the audience but the challenge was through the editing of our film. When we watched our film back before adding the current narration we found that our audience would find it a challenge to grasp the storyline which would lead to confusion and a lack of interest. This is when we recorded our narration to correspond with parts of our film. Throughout our film we have various flashbacks from our main characters life. We felt that the narration alone wasn’t enough to make it clear that these scenes were flashbacks from our characters past, so we removed the colour from each flashback. We added music at certain points of the film to illustrate that a key part of the film was about to take place.
After we had finished our editing and the whole construction of our film we asked for our audience’s opinion again. This time we used internet sites such as Facebook and YouTube to get feedback. These are a couple of comment we received from them which include praise and some healthy criticism.
We took these we comments into consideration and tried to correct any of the issues mentioned. However due to time of the hand in deadline we were unable to film again and dispose of the continuity errors but we need attempt to improve the sound. Finally we produced a recording of audience feedback which can be found at this link. http://njjdproductions.blogspot.com/ 2011/04/audience-feedback-recording.html
In our media project we used a digital camera to capture all of our action shots which enabled us to create a photographic story board to represent our film. We also in our research took photographs of the locations we planned to film at. We then used some of the photographs from our story board to create individual and group posters. Using Photoshop which the majority of our group are strongly familiar with we edited our own posters and then together created the final poster.
The video camera we used is called a V1000 which in my opinion was a very impressive piece of equipment which extremely helped add to the quality of our film. However we did have a couple of small issues with the camera, the first problem was the weight of the camera and its lack of flexibility but after a few hours of practice it became much easier. The only other problem was the sound recording. We dint have much dialog in our filming only in the form of voice over’s which we recorded using a voice recorder, but the problem we had was the little dialog we had sounded quiet on so to get around this problem we had to try reposition the camera and talk at a moderate volume. I was overall impressed more with the V1000 than the much smaller and less quality JVC-DV camera we used for our project last year but for some of our shots I think we should have used the JVC-DV due to the lack of space. When we filmed on the train we were limited to time and because of the size of the camera we struggled to position it in time for the correct shots that we required. This limited us to what type of shots we could use for this particular part of the film but we still got the shots we needed.
The third piece of equipment we used was a tripod. The tripod was used to help stabilize our shots but personally I believe it can at times limit shot types but for this project this dint effect us. Apart from that it is a light piece of equipment which is easy to set up. The two final stages were to record the narration to our film and edit it. We edited it using final cut pro which in honestly is one of my weakest categories the reason for this is I was not very knowledgeable about using it but after help from my group and tutor I played a much larger role in the editing on the project in comparison to past projects.
Finally we recorded our narratives using a H4 Zoom recorder which was mostly jasmines recording but after we recorded voice over’s for our radio trailer that involved most of our group recording parts. The H4 Zoom is rather simple to use in comparison to V100 cameras. It has a record and stop then a play back button which are clearly marked so we had no problems on this section of our project.
In the development of our poster we used photo shop to add effects and change elements of the photography.
Flashbacks can be used in drama films and programs such as “doctor who” in places uses flashbacks and also “James Bond casino royale”.Flashbacks in dramas can often have less colour in order to show the audience the scene is from the past. We copied this method by removing the colour from the flashbacks. We attempted to keep continuity throughout our film. However we did slip up once or twice but did not have enough time to film again and felt these continuity errors had no major influence to the plot of the film. An example of one of these errors would be the two shot of the boxes when she shakes them and puts them into the bag. It’s very difficult to spot but the boxes are different but the shot is done very quickly and due to the shots been in black and white it is only noticeable if notified of the mistake before viewing the film.
We tried to create a film that would be satisfying to our target audience and create an interest throughout. We have done this using an interesting storyline and trying to portray this storyline using a Varity of shots that fit the criteria of a drama film and also using music to create an atmosphere and certain emotion in our audience. I think we achieved this by sticking to the convention of a drama film and also by creating a strong plot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHKtOSACV9A
In our project we wanted to achieve entertainment for our viewers through drama. We intended to do this using a dramatic storyline which captures the feelings of a girl trapped in a life of crime and to also show there is light for people in situation that seem out of control. Our film was hopefully made to portray a moral message to the audience and also entertain them at the same time. Our two advertising products were a radio trailer and a film poster.
I think the posters selling points are the simplicity of the poster. We decided to keep it simple and without a tagline just so it leaves the potential audience guessing. One of the main selling points of our poster is the title; we made it bold and large to stand out. The certificate is standard we decided to rate it a 12A because we feel the plot is more directed towards adults but there is no explicit scenes so a 15 to 18 rating was unnecessary. The starring actors names are on the poster this is a great advertising method if you have major starring actors because if an audience’s favourite actor is in the production then they usually are more encouraged to go see the film. We have put ratings from highly respected newspapers in order to influence more people to go view the film. This is a common method for low budget films as they lack in forms of expensive advertising. Finally the actual photograph on the poster, we used a watercolour effect to enhance the photo, which is not common in film posters, but I believe it helps our poster to stand out.
For our radio trailer we used the H4 zoom to record our narratives for the trailer and then used garage band to add music and enhance the sound of our trailer. The purpose of our radio trailer is to persuade and inform because we want to persuade the listeners to watch the film but also we have to inform them of release dates and the title so they know what there going to watch. We have taken lines from the film and put them on the trailer and added information about release dates to meet our two main purposes. Radio trailers are not the most popular selling points for films but are still often used as a form of advertisement. We have tried to stick to the main conventions of a radio trailer and developed in my opinion a successful radio trailer. This is the link to our final radio trailer. http://njjdproductions.blogspot.com/2011/04/interchange-radio-trailer.html
After creating our plot for the film we decided if we needed to include violence, bad language or criminal acts that were justified. This was to work out what in our opinion was the best potential target audience and after research into certificates and gaining the required information off http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ we decided to certificate our film around a 12. However the storyline is progressively complex at certain points which required us to aim at an older target audience. We then began getting other opinions from fellow students we did this by writing up a few basic questions about their interest in film and also their preferred genres. We recorded these interviews and then took on board their opinions. The interview can be found our blog. The sort of reaction we got from these interview were that our potential target audience would be interested in a drama film that has a 12A certificate but would prefer a 15 rated film due to the increase of explicit scenes which can often create more satisfaction to the audience.
In our filming we used various shots that would ensure the point we were trying to put across to the audience but the challenge was through the editing of our film. When we watched our film back before adding the current narration we found that our audience would find it a challenge to grasp the storyline which would lead to confusion and a lack of interest. This is when we recorded our narration to correspond with parts of our film. Throughout our film we have various flashbacks from our main characters life. We felt that the narration alone wasn’t enough to make it clear that these scenes were flashbacks from our characters past, so we removed the colour from each flashback. We added music at certain points of the film to illustrate that a key part of the film was about to take place.
After we had finished our editing and the whole construction of our film we asked for our audience’s opinion again. This time we used internet sites such as Facebook and YouTube to get feedback. These are a couple of comment we received from them which include praise and some healthy criticism.
We took these we comments into consideration and tried to correct any of the issues mentioned. However due to time of the hand in deadline we were unable to film again and dispose of the continuity errors but we need attempt to improve the sound. Finally we produced a recording of audience feedback which can be found at this link. http://njjdproductions.blogspot.com/ 2011/04/audience-feedback-recording.html
In our media project we used a digital camera to capture all of our action shots which enabled us to create a photographic story board to represent our film. We also in our research took photographs of the locations we planned to film at. We then used some of the photographs from our story board to create individual and group posters. Using Photoshop which the majority of our group are strongly familiar with we edited our own posters and then together created the final poster.
The video camera we used is called a V1000 which in my opinion was a very impressive piece of equipment which extremely helped add to the quality of our film. However we did have a couple of small issues with the camera, the first problem was the weight of the camera and its lack of flexibility but after a few hours of practice it became much easier. The only other problem was the sound recording. We dint have much dialog in our filming only in the form of voice over’s which we recorded using a voice recorder, but the problem we had was the little dialog we had sounded quiet on so to get around this problem we had to try reposition the camera and talk at a moderate volume. I was overall impressed more with the V1000 than the much smaller and less quality JVC-DV camera we used for our project last year but for some of our shots I think we should have used the JVC-DV due to the lack of space. When we filmed on the train we were limited to time and because of the size of the camera we struggled to position it in time for the correct shots that we required. This limited us to what type of shots we could use for this particular part of the film but we still got the shots we needed.
The third piece of equipment we used was a tripod. The tripod was used to help stabilize our shots but personally I believe it can at times limit shot types but for this project this dint effect us. Apart from that it is a light piece of equipment which is easy to set up. The two final stages were to record the narration to our film and edit it. We edited it using final cut pro which in honestly is one of my weakest categories the reason for this is I was not very knowledgeable about using it but after help from my group and tutor I played a much larger role in the editing on the project in comparison to past projects.
Finally we recorded our narratives using a H4 Zoom recorder which was mostly jasmines recording but after we recorded voice over’s for our radio trailer that involved most of our group recording parts. The H4 Zoom is rather simple to use in comparison to V100 cameras. It has a record and stop then a play back button which are clearly marked so we had no problems on this section of our project.
In the development of our poster we used photo shop to add effects and change elements of the photography.
