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Tuesday 5 January 2010
Ancillary Tasks Posters
Here are our three final posters which we created alongside our film as ancillary tasks.
Monday 4 January 2010
A2 Short Film January 2010
Welcome to my blog in which will log all the work which i have completed in A2 Media. Last year i made a AS short title sequence called daisy, which can be viewed on my blog along with my A2 short film genie. We did various tasks and reasearch to find inspiration, we also did a preliminary tasks workshops and masterclassess to learn how to use all the equipment available. For each tasks i worked in a group and in for my A2 project we decided to base our film around the colour gold. We had fun making the film and feel that we created as good a product as we could have given the time and utilities given
Monday 14 December 2009
Evaluation Final
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film is of the genres fantasy, children, and romance. Our target audience for this film was children and teenagers, though we feel that it can now be considered as a family film as it is appropriate for all types of people and older people won’t get bored by the themes considered. Our film uses the mood of a film like ‘Toy Story’ which we feel everyone can love and have interest in. Media products which we feel relate to our film are films such as ‘Matilda’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Jumanji’, ‘Harry Potter’ and other children films. They all capture the innocents we were looking for and most of which have typical predictable happy ending, which we tried to challenge this by making our ending less expected by building up the character Luke to approach the girl he likes but he then realises that she is not the one he likes, it is the character Genie he likes.
The film would attract an audience interested in fantasy films; it uses the codes of conventions of a fantasy film and is essentially a fairy tale. The magical element in our film is seen in the form of the character genie that has the ability to grant wishes seen in films such as ‘Aladdin’. We could have used her powers more of a plot device which is typical to these types of films but we choose not to as our film was already looking as if it would be too lengthy. Instead we decided not to play on our characters ability too much and used the characters’ abilities similarly to how the Genie is used in the film ‘Aladdin’, which moves away from the predictability of other children’s films. We showed how the character Genie longs to be human through her actions and expressions and her wish is granted by our other character Luke. A comparison could be made between our character genie and the ‘little mermaid’ in the way that she helps the prince and saves his life in the way that the Genie helps Luke and she wishes to be a human so that she could be with the prince. There is also a faint romance element which we used seen in films such as ‘Cinderella’ we developed the way she is rescued from the wickedness of her sisters by the prince returning the slipper and we had Luke in our story to remove her from life as a Genie by wishing for it. It could also be said that our film is like ‘Shrek’ in the way that the two characters Luke and Genie have a very cheeky, funny relationship which we had to show this carefully and I think we accurately captured this in the bedroom scene of our film. In this we used the codes and conversions of the film ‘Jack’ in a scene where he and his teacher are speaking in the class room, the type of relationship they had was shown in this scene and this is what we tried to reconstruct. There can also be comparisons called with this film and ‘Jumanji’ as in that film a board game is found which has powers such as those of Genies in our film.
Making a character pop out of nowhere is popular in animated fantasy films. To recreate this we had the idea of making sparkles in editing but as we were making a relatively small production we tried to keep most of our special effects to a minimum therefore due to the restrictions of our technology and budget we decided to use fast chopping cutaway shots to show the character genie popping out of nowhere seemingly in a couple of shots in our film such as when the Genie first appears on the stairs. We also used suggestive music which normally occurs in fantasy’s to give the audience and idea that something mystical is about to occur because of its mystical, twinkling sound. This happens in ‘Matilda’ as she is approached by the scary teacher and she is ostensibly cornered.
We also wanted to make our film accessible to different types of people and so we created three characters with very different backgrounds and dispositions and so that we can relate to more people. Our characters are distinctive to a film of the genre fantasy such as ‘Harry Potter’ in the way that harry has two distinctively different friends Ron and Hermione. The Genie with the ability to grant wishes, we also tried to give her traditional genie style attire to make her look extraordinary similar to the genie in ‘Aladdin’ and genies in other films. We also created through Luke a typical normal boy who the audience can relate to. He is in need of wishes but does not end up using them much at all which goes away from the codes and conventions of fantasy film. Instead we focused on the relationship of the two characters as we felt this was more important to the message we were trying to create. Olivia is a loud, demanding, popular character who typifies this type of character which we have all seen whether it be in the actual world, children’s films such as the mean sisters in ‘Cinderella’ and everyone can relate to have knowing or seeing someone like her.
As our film was created for a younger audience initially we decided that it was most appropriate to use vibrant colours for our characters costume, especially Genie, because we felt this would keep the young audiences interested as that’s what interests them. Bright lighting for the cinematography of our film was used, which was to make our film seem more magical, attractive and again keep the audiences interest. This is similar to a lot of animated films such as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Snow White’ but these are bright as they are animated. We could not use this but instead tried to challenge this by in effect bringing the animated feel of the film to life with our use of colours.
One of the settings of our film was in a school as we felt this was both convenient for us and our story as everyone at a time in their life has most likely attended a school and can relate to the environment. It is also popularly used in sitcoms such as ‘That’s so Raven’ and ‘Sabrina the teenage witch’ which people who watch these films also watch. This is not typical of a fantasy as most mystical films are based in more distant, isolated places such as in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Based in a small, restricted Kansas town. So in that sense we challenged that story. Another setting we used is The Luke’s Bedroom where the two characters interacted socially and gave Luke a makeover.
Our film uses different methods to be effective. Our opening builds a tense magical atmosphere before the film starts this is effective as it makes the audience engage with the film and prepare for the story. This is similar to the music at the start of the film ‘Toy Story’ which builds a particular calm mood which leads into our making us feel a certain way. The music we used first for our title sequence was quite upbeat and it was said to make our film seem too epic, but the music we chose the end suited the romance genre and was more effective with our film. We also used various tracks in the course of are film which we think are memorable for the audience and we ended in the last scene with a shot of the characters holding hands and used a soft sound track to lead into our credits which parades the happiness and softness of our ending and a lot of endings in the fairy tale fantasy genre such as Peter pan. The story of our film is effective as we have used characters which various types of people can relate too and the progressiveness of the film is easily follow and showed. The story is not too complicated and can be understood by most if not all types of people. Scenes in our film such as the start when the genie appears, when Olivia first appears and when the makeover occurs, grab the audience’s attention and push the story forward while. I think this makes the audience want to watch the film and the film is highly likeable due to the subtle romance in the film which all people can relate to.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We created three posters which aim to advertise the film and entice people to watch it. All the posters have bright colours which we decided to use as they reflect the vibrant mood we were trying to create in our film. Our titles in our posters have a very cultural feel which along with the lamp and the great mass of sparkles illustrate the mystical magical feel of the film. The first poster has the genie title in the centre of the poster with the character Genie at the side holding it in her hand. Luke is at the bottom of the poster looking up at genie and the colours of the background are pink and orange. Wishes can come true is the tagline we choose to go with and it is positioned at the top of the poster which gives the audience a slight hint as to the nature of the story I think this structure shows the importance of the genie in our film but it may underrepresented the importance of Luke in our film as he is small and placed towards the bottom in the poster and the credits come over him, making him seen insignificant to our film when he is in fact wholly important to our story. This Poster correctly captures the magic in the film and projects the Genie as an important part of our film. I think we have used colours which are true to our film but the structure could be improved.
We took this poster and created another poster the second poster, we fixed the structure argument which we had with the first poster and used a slightly less vibrant, softer blue; I think this indicates the romance of the film more along with the picture which shows the characters together. The attire of Luke in this photo makes him look neutral and so it hard to tell whether he is nerdy or normal meaning that it gives away less of the story. The audience liked this poster and though it was just as good if not better than the original one
The third poster was inspired by the ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ poster and the home alone poster which are each unique posters which use different techniques for a posters than usual. The ‘Home Alone’ Poster has a picture of the main character in the middle and in the four corners surrounding different images of both the two other characters and items in their hand which are significant to the story. The ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ poster has a similar structure which has a table in the middle surrounded by the characters in the film. We tried to illustrate the theme of recollection of parts of the story and so we have focused this poster on Luke and have done the background differently and put pictures of the two characters in the background on the wall as it was, this echoes the time in the film Luke and the Genie spend together. This Poster is another good poster in association with the other posters and from all the posters you can see a house style which relates to the feel and colour of the film.
The review for our film also has the pun from our poster ‘wishes can come true’ which is very important message in our film. The review also creates its own tag line for the film to show the audience what it is about which is.... It could be said that although it’s a children film, children will not read this review as these film magazines such as empire are targeted at older people and some of the language and terms used in the review will not suit a child. Therefore our review was based at mature people such as parents for example who might look to take their family out to watch a film and it suggested Genie as an ideal film to watch. The review presents the film genie in a positive way and hypes the characters in the film. It gives an exciting opinion which should keep people reading and wanting to know more about the film. It picks out the most interesting facts about the film and tells the audience more about them. Our review is also quite humorous without going over the top and this shows the accessibility of our film as it is a less serious review. It has images of the film on a film strip which gives the audience a preview of the film. This is also similar to the final poster in that it uses pictures to show parts of the film. The structure of our review looks professional and makes our film seem professional. Reviews also get more people to see a film and so if our film gets a good review it is possible that more people will go to watch the film. The film and the two ancillary tasks work together in the promotion of our film. There is a house style seen and you in each similar images and words are used. The each of the posters illustrates an important moment in the actual film and entices people to watch the film. The review gets people to want to watch the film using positive approval.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
At each section of the production of our film we received feedback. This enabled us to go back and change what was wrong in relation to what the audience told us was right or wrong. The first piece of feedback we received was for our first pitch. We were told that we did not have name for our characters, which was true at the tie and we then decided to call our characters Luke, Genie and Olivia. We were told there was also no name for our story, we started with Luke and the genie but felt this was too long and boring, therefore we went with just genie and found that this was enough for our film. We were told that the way the lamp appears out of nowhere was random and so we decided that Luke was going to find the lamp at first, in his bag after coming into contact with it in a drama lesson. Also we were told by our audience that in our first pitch the way the wishes turned from bad to good was slightly random. We then decided that in our next story idea we would have to make the character genies character more obvious to the audience as it shows her as a pleasant person who hates doing things wrong and working hard to be a better genie which leads to her becoming better at granting wishes. We were queried as to how we were going to make the genie appear and told that we would have to do this properly if it was to be effective. This is a very important piece of feedback from the audience as we had not come up with a solution yet. We thought we could give the impression that the Genie was not there by telling the other characters to ignore her and using cuts which show nothing one moment and then her appearing out of nowhere the next. Another suggestion given by the audience was to use glitter to show magic. We decided against this as we felt that it would be messy and hard to create. It was also suggested that we play on the idea that the genie was not there, we decided to incorporate this into our new story more without making it too lengthy. The audience said that we should use younger actors as a younger character as an older character would not be so quick to believe there was a genie there. At first we were not keen on this and felt out film suited older cast but decide d to go with the audiences’ feelings instead of our own. We were asked why the boy in our story got bullied, this shows that it was not very clear that Luke was not a normal boy and we had to make this clear in the next pitch. Also we were told continuity would be affected as younger children would not have exams. We felt this was not too important and it would not confuse the audience too much. We were told the ending of our film has pleasure of predictability. This meant that we tried to make our next pitch less predictable and more of a shook as we did not plan on making our film too predictable. We were also told that gold relates to the story a lot, we tried to incorporate as much gold in the film as possible. The Film was said to have a Fairytale, Cinderella feel to it. Are film became a fairytale as we were making it but we would like it to be less of a strict fairytale and make the film have more of a message. The audience said that the story had a lot students which could cause cast problems, we tried to get as many people as possible to fill the roles but in the end decided to reduce the amount of characters. Again we were told that certain elements of our film we to random, we tried to resolve this as best as possible. Our film was also said to be too long and there were too many settings and so we tried to cut down the amount of scenes and leave in the most important themes and also reduce the amount of settings used. We were going to change the lamp into something else but we felt that any other item would be even more random and so we decided against it and left it a lamp. The end of our film was said to be illogical and so we decided to show the genies character better in our next pitch. We were told to add more obvious triggers as wishes were too random. We were told to add something more into the middle of our story and so we decided to completely revamp everything so far.
Our final pitch feedback was as such; people said it our story was more effective than before, it was shorter and more to the point. This means that the improvements we made from our first pitch worked for us. Also we were told there was now the logical causality in everything which was missing before, narrative development which enables us to understand the story better and character development which enables us to learn more about the characters personalities. The initial reaction once we finished pitching was ‘awww’ which meant that the audience was emotionally engaged with the story and we had their attention. We were also told the story had to be handled carefully in filming. The locations aren’t as complicated as the other story which makes it simpler for us to make.
Our first poster was completed and we received feedback for it. The audience said they liked the bright colours we used in the poster. We decided that as this was very popular we were going to continue to use bright colours in our other two posters we were to create but we decided to change one of them to illustrate a calmer more romantic feel in the second poster. The audience also liked the glitter and sparkles which were added in to give a magical feel which also matches the opening of our film and so we used as much and as many sparkles as we felt appropriate and necessary to make our poster look better. We were told though that in the first poster the title and the lamp were too small in proportion to the other features in our poster and so we made the title and the lamp slightly larger. We were also told to give genie a blue headband instead of a black one to match her attire with the rest of the poster. We tried to do this a number of ways on adobe but eventually decided against this as it did not look aesthetically pleasing; it looked very unnatural and unprofessional. By this time it was almost impossible to do another photo shoot and therefore we decided it would be much better to just give her a black headband. The audience liked the tagline of the film ‘Wishes can come true’ and they thought it was simple and effective and it represented our film well. The credits of our poster came over Luke which was something which we could not do too much about to keep the writing in our poster legible and so we kept the structure and made the credits as small as possible. Finally we were told that the poster greatly captures the magic in the film and illustrate the character of Genie. The feedback from our second poster was in general good. We were told that the pattern in the background was good and the picture used shows the two characters relationship. Luke is much bigger in this picture and this makes the two characters seem more equal. The colour differentiation from the other two posters was accepted as it shows a calmer more romantic feel to the film. Most of the feedback received for the third poster is positive we were told that they liked the idea and it balanced the posters as Genie is not in this one, just like Luke is quite small in the first one.
We received feedback on our film while we were making it and when it was finished. We were told it was not effective without music as we did not have any music when we were assembling the film simply. So we spent some time looking for appropriate music and we continued to exchange and experiment while putting the film together. We first had a very upbeat song in our opening credits, our audience did not like this and so we took it out and put in a softer track. Our film was also over 10 minutes when we finished editing all the scenes and so the feedback we got was to reduce it and we had to go back and take out all of the long scenes and unimportant shots to make the film shorter and more interesting as we were told it dragged. At th start of the film we were also told to add more cutaway shots to Olivia as the shot of Luke walking through the corridor was quite boring. We accomplished this and found that it made our film much better than before as it kept the audiences attention far better than the simple shot of Luke walking down the corridor. When our film was complete we received feedback. The audience said that there were a few problems with continuity which we tried to solve in editing and we did improve as much as possible. The audience liked the music they heard and felt we used very appropriate tracks at parts of the film such ads the makeover scene and the end scene. Our opening titles and ending credits were extraordinary the audience said. The audience said some of the sound levels in the film were a bit up and down but this was not too distracting. When we first see Olivia and the Genie in the same environment the shot selection could have been much better. We were told Luke’s Acting was very good and the ending scene and make up scene were fantastic.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and Evaluation stages?
During planning of our film we used the internet and went on various video sites such as ‘Youtube’ to watch videos of films and independent films. We also kept track of all the research we made and updated our blog on a regular basis which we used to log all the work we did and share work with other people in our class and also give and receive feedback. Also the blog connect us to the school blog which gave us work daily and allowed us to keep up with work and do any work which we may have missed. We were also provided with master classes on the different areas of filming such as directing, filming and sound. This enabled us to be adequate and better at the role we were given. We also had lessons on editing in which we learnt how to use the new software to edit. We formally used ‘Avid’ to edit our films and now we are using ‘Adobe Premiere’. We Uploaded photos onto the internet for our blog onto image sites such as ‘Tinypic’ and ‘Photobucket’ and also found images on the internet to use our pieces of research. We used scanners to scan in all the work we did on paper such as storyboards sketches etc. In Adobe Photoshop we created our posters and this enabled us to make more professional industry quality posters rather than having to do our posters on similar less professional software such as ‘Microsoft paint’. Also we could have been using old media technologies such as digital or film cameras. We typed up all our work into ‘Microsoft word’, which we could then upload onto either Google docs or slide share or any other site for the purpose uploading documents. This made it easy to do our work and removed the hassles of carrying around a book. We also used things such as USBs and emails to get work to other members of our group or also carry larger documents such as pictures around. We had to film everything to little tapes which we had to then connect to a computer and use the capture tool to get our rushes onto the software and begin editing. We also had creative conversations over programs such as MSN messenger and social networking sites such as Facebook.
All of these technologies made the process of creating our film much easier as back in the day when there were film cameras it was not possible for the average person to make a film but now with all this technology everything is digital and anyone can make a film and upload it effortlessly. It Is Now easy to watch clips of videos otherwise have to watch Videos and DVDs which are lengthy and would take up a large amount of time when we could just watch the parts which we are interested in and are relevant. The technology now is also much more portable and available meaning that most things we could think of are now available to us. Our work is also more accessible making it easier to work in a group and communicate things fast and efficiently.
Most of the programmes we used in the making of our film are made by the same companies such as Microsoft and adobe which means that some of the tools could be convergent making it only easier for us.
Familiarity with such software and tools makes us better at using them.
Having this entire technology means we can be more creative as we have more tools at our disposal.
Our film is of the genres fantasy, children, and romance. Our target audience for this film was children and teenagers, though we feel that it can now be considered as a family film as it is appropriate for all types of people and older people won’t get bored by the themes considered. Our film uses the mood of a film like ‘Toy Story’ which we feel everyone can love and have interest in. Media products which we feel relate to our film are films such as ‘Matilda’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Jumanji’, ‘Harry Potter’ and other children films. They all capture the innocents we were looking for and most of which have typical predictable happy ending, which we tried to challenge this by making our ending less expected by building up the character Luke to approach the girl he likes but he then realises that she is not the one he likes, it is the character Genie he likes.
The film would attract an audience interested in fantasy films; it uses the codes of conventions of a fantasy film and is essentially a fairy tale. The magical element in our film is seen in the form of the character genie that has the ability to grant wishes seen in films such as ‘Aladdin’. We could have used her powers more of a plot device which is typical to these types of films but we choose not to as our film was already looking as if it would be too lengthy. Instead we decided not to play on our characters ability too much and used the characters’ abilities similarly to how the Genie is used in the film ‘Aladdin’, which moves away from the predictability of other children’s films. We showed how the character Genie longs to be human through her actions and expressions and her wish is granted by our other character Luke. A comparison could be made between our character genie and the ‘little mermaid’ in the way that she helps the prince and saves his life in the way that the Genie helps Luke and she wishes to be a human so that she could be with the prince. There is also a faint romance element which we used seen in films such as ‘Cinderella’ we developed the way she is rescued from the wickedness of her sisters by the prince returning the slipper and we had Luke in our story to remove her from life as a Genie by wishing for it. It could also be said that our film is like ‘Shrek’ in the way that the two characters Luke and Genie have a very cheeky, funny relationship which we had to show this carefully and I think we accurately captured this in the bedroom scene of our film. In this we used the codes and conversions of the film ‘Jack’ in a scene where he and his teacher are speaking in the class room, the type of relationship they had was shown in this scene and this is what we tried to reconstruct. There can also be comparisons called with this film and ‘Jumanji’ as in that film a board game is found which has powers such as those of Genies in our film.
Making a character pop out of nowhere is popular in animated fantasy films. To recreate this we had the idea of making sparkles in editing but as we were making a relatively small production we tried to keep most of our special effects to a minimum therefore due to the restrictions of our technology and budget we decided to use fast chopping cutaway shots to show the character genie popping out of nowhere seemingly in a couple of shots in our film such as when the Genie first appears on the stairs. We also used suggestive music which normally occurs in fantasy’s to give the audience and idea that something mystical is about to occur because of its mystical, twinkling sound. This happens in ‘Matilda’ as she is approached by the scary teacher and she is ostensibly cornered.
We also wanted to make our film accessible to different types of people and so we created three characters with very different backgrounds and dispositions and so that we can relate to more people. Our characters are distinctive to a film of the genre fantasy such as ‘Harry Potter’ in the way that harry has two distinctively different friends Ron and Hermione. The Genie with the ability to grant wishes, we also tried to give her traditional genie style attire to make her look extraordinary similar to the genie in ‘Aladdin’ and genies in other films. We also created through Luke a typical normal boy who the audience can relate to. He is in need of wishes but does not end up using them much at all which goes away from the codes and conventions of fantasy film. Instead we focused on the relationship of the two characters as we felt this was more important to the message we were trying to create. Olivia is a loud, demanding, popular character who typifies this type of character which we have all seen whether it be in the actual world, children’s films such as the mean sisters in ‘Cinderella’ and everyone can relate to have knowing or seeing someone like her.
As our film was created for a younger audience initially we decided that it was most appropriate to use vibrant colours for our characters costume, especially Genie, because we felt this would keep the young audiences interested as that’s what interests them. Bright lighting for the cinematography of our film was used, which was to make our film seem more magical, attractive and again keep the audiences interest. This is similar to a lot of animated films such as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Snow White’ but these are bright as they are animated. We could not use this but instead tried to challenge this by in effect bringing the animated feel of the film to life with our use of colours.
One of the settings of our film was in a school as we felt this was both convenient for us and our story as everyone at a time in their life has most likely attended a school and can relate to the environment. It is also popularly used in sitcoms such as ‘That’s so Raven’ and ‘Sabrina the teenage witch’ which people who watch these films also watch. This is not typical of a fantasy as most mystical films are based in more distant, isolated places such as in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Based in a small, restricted Kansas town. So in that sense we challenged that story. Another setting we used is The Luke’s Bedroom where the two characters interacted socially and gave Luke a makeover.
Our film uses different methods to be effective. Our opening builds a tense magical atmosphere before the film starts this is effective as it makes the audience engage with the film and prepare for the story. This is similar to the music at the start of the film ‘Toy Story’ which builds a particular calm mood which leads into our making us feel a certain way. The music we used first for our title sequence was quite upbeat and it was said to make our film seem too epic, but the music we chose the end suited the romance genre and was more effective with our film. We also used various tracks in the course of are film which we think are memorable for the audience and we ended in the last scene with a shot of the characters holding hands and used a soft sound track to lead into our credits which parades the happiness and softness of our ending and a lot of endings in the fairy tale fantasy genre such as Peter pan. The story of our film is effective as we have used characters which various types of people can relate too and the progressiveness of the film is easily follow and showed. The story is not too complicated and can be understood by most if not all types of people. Scenes in our film such as the start when the genie appears, when Olivia first appears and when the makeover occurs, grab the audience’s attention and push the story forward while. I think this makes the audience want to watch the film and the film is highly likeable due to the subtle romance in the film which all people can relate to.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We created three posters which aim to advertise the film and entice people to watch it. All the posters have bright colours which we decided to use as they reflect the vibrant mood we were trying to create in our film. Our titles in our posters have a very cultural feel which along with the lamp and the great mass of sparkles illustrate the mystical magical feel of the film. The first poster has the genie title in the centre of the poster with the character Genie at the side holding it in her hand. Luke is at the bottom of the poster looking up at genie and the colours of the background are pink and orange. Wishes can come true is the tagline we choose to go with and it is positioned at the top of the poster which gives the audience a slight hint as to the nature of the story I think this structure shows the importance of the genie in our film but it may underrepresented the importance of Luke in our film as he is small and placed towards the bottom in the poster and the credits come over him, making him seen insignificant to our film when he is in fact wholly important to our story. This Poster correctly captures the magic in the film and projects the Genie as an important part of our film. I think we have used colours which are true to our film but the structure could be improved.
We took this poster and created another poster the second poster, we fixed the structure argument which we had with the first poster and used a slightly less vibrant, softer blue; I think this indicates the romance of the film more along with the picture which shows the characters together. The attire of Luke in this photo makes him look neutral and so it hard to tell whether he is nerdy or normal meaning that it gives away less of the story. The audience liked this poster and though it was just as good if not better than the original one
The third poster was inspired by the ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ poster and the home alone poster which are each unique posters which use different techniques for a posters than usual. The ‘Home Alone’ Poster has a picture of the main character in the middle and in the four corners surrounding different images of both the two other characters and items in their hand which are significant to the story. The ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ poster has a similar structure which has a table in the middle surrounded by the characters in the film. We tried to illustrate the theme of recollection of parts of the story and so we have focused this poster on Luke and have done the background differently and put pictures of the two characters in the background on the wall as it was, this echoes the time in the film Luke and the Genie spend together. This Poster is another good poster in association with the other posters and from all the posters you can see a house style which relates to the feel and colour of the film.
The review for our film also has the pun from our poster ‘wishes can come true’ which is very important message in our film. The review also creates its own tag line for the film to show the audience what it is about which is.... It could be said that although it’s a children film, children will not read this review as these film magazines such as empire are targeted at older people and some of the language and terms used in the review will not suit a child. Therefore our review was based at mature people such as parents for example who might look to take their family out to watch a film and it suggested Genie as an ideal film to watch. The review presents the film genie in a positive way and hypes the characters in the film. It gives an exciting opinion which should keep people reading and wanting to know more about the film. It picks out the most interesting facts about the film and tells the audience more about them. Our review is also quite humorous without going over the top and this shows the accessibility of our film as it is a less serious review. It has images of the film on a film strip which gives the audience a preview of the film. This is also similar to the final poster in that it uses pictures to show parts of the film. The structure of our review looks professional and makes our film seem professional. Reviews also get more people to see a film and so if our film gets a good review it is possible that more people will go to watch the film. The film and the two ancillary tasks work together in the promotion of our film. There is a house style seen and you in each similar images and words are used. The each of the posters illustrates an important moment in the actual film and entices people to watch the film. The review gets people to want to watch the film using positive approval.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
At each section of the production of our film we received feedback. This enabled us to go back and change what was wrong in relation to what the audience told us was right or wrong. The first piece of feedback we received was for our first pitch. We were told that we did not have name for our characters, which was true at the tie and we then decided to call our characters Luke, Genie and Olivia. We were told there was also no name for our story, we started with Luke and the genie but felt this was too long and boring, therefore we went with just genie and found that this was enough for our film. We were told that the way the lamp appears out of nowhere was random and so we decided that Luke was going to find the lamp at first, in his bag after coming into contact with it in a drama lesson. Also we were told by our audience that in our first pitch the way the wishes turned from bad to good was slightly random. We then decided that in our next story idea we would have to make the character genies character more obvious to the audience as it shows her as a pleasant person who hates doing things wrong and working hard to be a better genie which leads to her becoming better at granting wishes. We were queried as to how we were going to make the genie appear and told that we would have to do this properly if it was to be effective. This is a very important piece of feedback from the audience as we had not come up with a solution yet. We thought we could give the impression that the Genie was not there by telling the other characters to ignore her and using cuts which show nothing one moment and then her appearing out of nowhere the next. Another suggestion given by the audience was to use glitter to show magic. We decided against this as we felt that it would be messy and hard to create. It was also suggested that we play on the idea that the genie was not there, we decided to incorporate this into our new story more without making it too lengthy. The audience said that we should use younger actors as a younger character as an older character would not be so quick to believe there was a genie there. At first we were not keen on this and felt out film suited older cast but decide d to go with the audiences’ feelings instead of our own. We were asked why the boy in our story got bullied, this shows that it was not very clear that Luke was not a normal boy and we had to make this clear in the next pitch. Also we were told continuity would be affected as younger children would not have exams. We felt this was not too important and it would not confuse the audience too much. We were told the ending of our film has pleasure of predictability. This meant that we tried to make our next pitch less predictable and more of a shook as we did not plan on making our film too predictable. We were also told that gold relates to the story a lot, we tried to incorporate as much gold in the film as possible. The Film was said to have a Fairytale, Cinderella feel to it. Are film became a fairytale as we were making it but we would like it to be less of a strict fairytale and make the film have more of a message. The audience said that the story had a lot students which could cause cast problems, we tried to get as many people as possible to fill the roles but in the end decided to reduce the amount of characters. Again we were told that certain elements of our film we to random, we tried to resolve this as best as possible. Our film was also said to be too long and there were too many settings and so we tried to cut down the amount of scenes and leave in the most important themes and also reduce the amount of settings used. We were going to change the lamp into something else but we felt that any other item would be even more random and so we decided against it and left it a lamp. The end of our film was said to be illogical and so we decided to show the genies character better in our next pitch. We were told to add more obvious triggers as wishes were too random. We were told to add something more into the middle of our story and so we decided to completely revamp everything so far.
Our final pitch feedback was as such; people said it our story was more effective than before, it was shorter and more to the point. This means that the improvements we made from our first pitch worked for us. Also we were told there was now the logical causality in everything which was missing before, narrative development which enables us to understand the story better and character development which enables us to learn more about the characters personalities. The initial reaction once we finished pitching was ‘awww’ which meant that the audience was emotionally engaged with the story and we had their attention. We were also told the story had to be handled carefully in filming. The locations aren’t as complicated as the other story which makes it simpler for us to make.
Our first poster was completed and we received feedback for it. The audience said they liked the bright colours we used in the poster. We decided that as this was very popular we were going to continue to use bright colours in our other two posters we were to create but we decided to change one of them to illustrate a calmer more romantic feel in the second poster. The audience also liked the glitter and sparkles which were added in to give a magical feel which also matches the opening of our film and so we used as much and as many sparkles as we felt appropriate and necessary to make our poster look better. We were told though that in the first poster the title and the lamp were too small in proportion to the other features in our poster and so we made the title and the lamp slightly larger. We were also told to give genie a blue headband instead of a black one to match her attire with the rest of the poster. We tried to do this a number of ways on adobe but eventually decided against this as it did not look aesthetically pleasing; it looked very unnatural and unprofessional. By this time it was almost impossible to do another photo shoot and therefore we decided it would be much better to just give her a black headband. The audience liked the tagline of the film ‘Wishes can come true’ and they thought it was simple and effective and it represented our film well. The credits of our poster came over Luke which was something which we could not do too much about to keep the writing in our poster legible and so we kept the structure and made the credits as small as possible. Finally we were told that the poster greatly captures the magic in the film and illustrate the character of Genie. The feedback from our second poster was in general good. We were told that the pattern in the background was good and the picture used shows the two characters relationship. Luke is much bigger in this picture and this makes the two characters seem more equal. The colour differentiation from the other two posters was accepted as it shows a calmer more romantic feel to the film. Most of the feedback received for the third poster is positive we were told that they liked the idea and it balanced the posters as Genie is not in this one, just like Luke is quite small in the first one.
We received feedback on our film while we were making it and when it was finished. We were told it was not effective without music as we did not have any music when we were assembling the film simply. So we spent some time looking for appropriate music and we continued to exchange and experiment while putting the film together. We first had a very upbeat song in our opening credits, our audience did not like this and so we took it out and put in a softer track. Our film was also over 10 minutes when we finished editing all the scenes and so the feedback we got was to reduce it and we had to go back and take out all of the long scenes and unimportant shots to make the film shorter and more interesting as we were told it dragged. At th start of the film we were also told to add more cutaway shots to Olivia as the shot of Luke walking through the corridor was quite boring. We accomplished this and found that it made our film much better than before as it kept the audiences attention far better than the simple shot of Luke walking down the corridor. When our film was complete we received feedback. The audience said that there were a few problems with continuity which we tried to solve in editing and we did improve as much as possible. The audience liked the music they heard and felt we used very appropriate tracks at parts of the film such ads the makeover scene and the end scene. Our opening titles and ending credits were extraordinary the audience said. The audience said some of the sound levels in the film were a bit up and down but this was not too distracting. When we first see Olivia and the Genie in the same environment the shot selection could have been much better. We were told Luke’s Acting was very good and the ending scene and make up scene were fantastic.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and Evaluation stages?
During planning of our film we used the internet and went on various video sites such as ‘Youtube’ to watch videos of films and independent films. We also kept track of all the research we made and updated our blog on a regular basis which we used to log all the work we did and share work with other people in our class and also give and receive feedback. Also the blog connect us to the school blog which gave us work daily and allowed us to keep up with work and do any work which we may have missed. We were also provided with master classes on the different areas of filming such as directing, filming and sound. This enabled us to be adequate and better at the role we were given. We also had lessons on editing in which we learnt how to use the new software to edit. We formally used ‘Avid’ to edit our films and now we are using ‘Adobe Premiere’. We Uploaded photos onto the internet for our blog onto image sites such as ‘Tinypic’ and ‘Photobucket’ and also found images on the internet to use our pieces of research. We used scanners to scan in all the work we did on paper such as storyboards sketches etc. In Adobe Photoshop we created our posters and this enabled us to make more professional industry quality posters rather than having to do our posters on similar less professional software such as ‘Microsoft paint’. Also we could have been using old media technologies such as digital or film cameras. We typed up all our work into ‘Microsoft word’, which we could then upload onto either Google docs or slide share or any other site for the purpose uploading documents. This made it easy to do our work and removed the hassles of carrying around a book. We also used things such as USBs and emails to get work to other members of our group or also carry larger documents such as pictures around. We had to film everything to little tapes which we had to then connect to a computer and use the capture tool to get our rushes onto the software and begin editing. We also had creative conversations over programs such as MSN messenger and social networking sites such as Facebook.
All of these technologies made the process of creating our film much easier as back in the day when there were film cameras it was not possible for the average person to make a film but now with all this technology everything is digital and anyone can make a film and upload it effortlessly. It Is Now easy to watch clips of videos otherwise have to watch Videos and DVDs which are lengthy and would take up a large amount of time when we could just watch the parts which we are interested in and are relevant. The technology now is also much more portable and available meaning that most things we could think of are now available to us. Our work is also more accessible making it easier to work in a group and communicate things fast and efficiently.
Most of the programmes we used in the making of our film are made by the same companies such as Microsoft and adobe which means that some of the tools could be convergent making it only easier for us.
Familiarity with such software and tools makes us better at using them.
Having this entire technology means we can be more creative as we have more tools at our disposal.
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Monday 7 December 2009
Evaluation First Draft
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film is of the genres fantasy, children, and romance. Our target audience for this film was children and teenagers, though I feel that it can now be considered as a family film as it is appropriate for all types of people and older people won’t get bored by the themes considered. Media products which we feel relate to ours are films such as Aladdin, Matilda, Peter Pan, jumanji and other children films. As they capture the innocents we were looking for and all have typical happy ending.
It uses the codes of conventions of a fantasy film as it is essentially a fairy tale and uses a magical element in the form of the character genie that has the ability to grant wishes. We could have made this more of a plot device but choose not to as our film was already looking as if it would be too lengthy. Instead we decided not to play on our characters ability too much and used the characters abilities similarly to how the genies is used in the film Aladdin which moves away from the predictability of other children’s films. We showed how the character Genie longs to be human and this wish is granted as it was by Luke.
Also as we were making a relatively small production we tried to keep most of our special effects to a minimum therefore due to the restrictions of the technologies. Making a character pop out of nowhere is popular in animated fantasy films. To recreate this we used fast chopping shots to show the character genie popping out of nowhere seemingly in a couple of shots in our film. We also used suggestive music which normally occurs in fantasy’s to give the audience and idea that something mystical is about to occur. This happens in Matilda as she is approached by the scary teacher and she is ostensibly cornered.
Our characters are distinctive to a film of the genre fantasy such as the genie with the ability to grant wishes. We also tried to give her traditional genie style attire to make her look extraordinary similar to the genie in Aladdin and genies in other films. We also created through Luke a typical normal boy who the audience can relate to. He is in need of wishes but does not end up using them much at all which goes away from the codes and conventions of fantasy film. Instead we focused on the relationship of the two characters as we felt this was more important to the message we were trying to create. Olivia is a loud demanding popular character who is typifies this type of character which we have all seen whether it be in the actual world, children’s films or TV sitcoms and everyone can relate to have knowing or seeing someone like her.
As our film was created for a younger audience initially we decided that it was most appropriate to use vibrant colours for our characters costume, especially the genie. Also bright lighting for the cinematography of our film, which would make our film seem more magical, attractive and keep the audiences interest. This is similar to Peter Pan as it is also bright due to it being animated. We tried to reproduce an animated film feel with our use of colours.
The setting of our film was in a school as we felt this was both convenient for us and our story as everyone at a time in their life has most likely attended a school and can relate to the environment. This is not typical of a fantasy as most mystical films are based in a more distant place. Though there can be comparisons to this film and jumanji as in that film a board game is found which has powers such as those of Genies in our film.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our film uses different methods to be effective. Our opening builds a tense magical atmosphere before the film starts this is effective as it makes the audience engage with the film and prepare for the story. The music we used first for our title sequence was quite upbeat and it was said to make our film seem too epic, but the music we chose the end suited the romance genre and was more effective with our film. We also used various tracks in the course of are film which we think are memorable for the audience and we ended in the last scene with a shot of the characters holding hands and used a soft sound track to lead into our credits which parades the happiness and softness of our ending The story of our film is effective as we have used characters which various types of people can relate too and the progressiveness of the film is easily follow and showed. The story is not too complicated and can be understood by most if not all types of people. Scenes in our film such as the start when the genie appears, when Olivia first appears and when the makeover occurs, grab the audience’s attention and push the story forward while. I think this makes the audience want to watch the film and the film is highly likeable due to the subtle romance in the film which all people can relate to.
We created three posters which aim to advertise the film and entice people to watch it. All the posters have bright colours which we decided to use as they reflect the vibrant mood we were trying to create in our film. Our titles in our posters have a very cultural feel which along with the lamp and the great mass of sparkles illustrate the mystical magical feel of the film. The first poster has the genie title in the centre of the poster with the character Genie at the side holding it in her hand. Luke is at the bottom of the poster looking up at genie and the colours of the background are pink and orange. Wishes can come true is at the top of the poster which gives the audience a slight hint as to the nature of the story I think this structure shows the importance of the genie in our film but it may underrepresented the importance of Luke in our film as he is small and placed towards the bottom in the poster. The credits also come over him which makes him seem more insignificant. This Poster correctly captures the magic in the film and projects the Genie as an important part of our film. I think we have used colours which are true to our film but the structure could be improved. The second poster we created fixes the structure argument with the first poster and uses a slightly less vibrant blue; I think this indicates the romance of the film more along with the picture which shows the characters together. The attire of Luke in this photo makes him look neutral and so it hard to tell whether he is nerdy or normal meaning that it gives away less of the story. The third poster was inspired by the ocean’s eleven poster and the home alone poster which are each unique posters which use different techniques for a posters than usual. We have focused this poster on Luke and have done the background differently and put pictures of the two characters on the wall this is echoes the time in the film Luke and the Genie spend together.
The review for our film also has the pun from our poster ‘wishes can come true’ which is very important message in our film. The review presents the film genie in a positive way and hypes the characters in the film. It has images of the film on a film strip. This looks professional and makes our film seem professional. Reviews also get more people to see a film and so if our film gets a good review it is possible that more people will go to watch the film. The film and the two ancillary tasks work together in the promotion of our film. There is a house style seen and you in each similar images and words are used. The each of the posters illustrates an important moment in the actual film and entices people to watch the film. The review gets people to want to watch the film using positive approval.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
At each section of the production of our film we received feedback. This enabled us to go back and change what was wrong in relation to what the audience told us was right or wrong. The first piece of feedback we received was for our first pitch. We were told that we did not have name for our characters, which was true at the tie and we then decided to call our characters Luke, Genie and Olivia. We were told there was also no name for our story, we started with Luke and the genie but felt this was too long and boring, therefore we went with just genie and found that this was enough for our film. We were told that the way the lamp appears out of nowhere was random and so we decided that Luke was going to find the lamp at first, in his bag after coming into contact with it in a drama lesson. Also we were told by our audience that in our first pitch the way the wishes turned from bad to good was slightly random. We then decided that in our next story idea we would have to make the character genies character more obvious to the audience as it shows her as a pleasant person who hates doing things wrong and working hard to be a better genie which leads to her becoming better at granting wishes. We were queried as to how we were going to make the genie appear and told that we would have to do this properly if it was to be effective. This is a very important piece of feedback from the audience as we had not come up with a solution yet. We thought we could give the impression that the Genie was not there by telling the other characters to ignore her and using cuts which show nothing one moment and then her appearing out of nowhere the next. Another suggestion given by the audience was to use glitter to show magic. We decided against this as we felt that it would be messy and hard to create. It was also suggested that we play on the idea that the genie was not there, we decided to incorporate this into our new story more without making it too lengthy. The audience said that we should use younger actors as a younger character as an older character would not be so quick to believe there was a genie there. At first we were not keen on this and felt out film suited older cast but decide d to go with the audiences’ feelings instead of our own. We were asked why the boy in our story got bullied, this shows that it was not very clear that Luke was not a normal boy and we had to make this clear in the next pitch. Also we were told continuity would be affected as younger children would not have exams. We felt this was not too important and it would not confuse the audience too much. We were told the ending of our film has pleasure of predictability. This meant that we tried to make our next pitch less predictable and more of a shook as we did not plan on making our film too predictable. We were also told that gold relates to the story a lot, we tried to incorporate as much gold in the film as possible. The Film was said to have a Fairytale, Cinderella feel to it. Are film became a fairytale as we were making it but we would like it to be less of a strict fairytale and make the film have more of a message. The audience said that the story had a lot students which could cause cast problems, we tried to get as many people as possible to fill the roles but in the end decided to reduce the amount of characters. Again we were told that certain elements of our film we to random, we tried to resolve this as best as possible. Our film was also said to be too long and there were too many settings and so we tried to cut down the amount of scenes and leave in the most important themes and also reduce the amount of settings used. We were going to change the lamp into something else but we felt that any other item would be even more random and so we decided against it and left it a lamp. The end of our film was said to be illogical and so we decided to show the genies character better in our next pitch. We were told to add more obvious triggers as wishes were too random. We were told to add something more into the middle of our story and so we decided to completely revamp everything so far.
Our final pitch feedback was as such; people said it our story was more effective than before, it was shorter and more to the point. This means that the improvements we made from our first pitch worked for us. Also we were told there was now the logical causality in everything which was missing before, narrative development which enables us to understand the story better and character development which enables us to learn more about the characters personalities. The initial reaction once we finished pitching was ‘awww’ which meant that the audience was emotionally engaged with the story and we had their attention. We were also told the story had to be handled carefully in filming. The locations aren’t as complicated as the other story which makes it simpler for us to make.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
During planning of our film we used the internet and went on various video sites such as Youtube to watch videos of films and independent films. We also kept track of all the research we made and updated our blog on a regular basis which we used to log all the work we did and share work with other people in our class and also give and receive feedback. Also the blog connect us to the school blog which gave us work daily and allowed us to keep up with work and do any work which we may have missed. We were also provided with master classes on the different areas of filming such as directing, filming and sound. This enabled us to be adequate and better at the role we were given. We also had lessons on editing in whichh we learnt how to use a new software to edit. We formally used avid to edit our films and now we are using adobe premiere. oploaded photos onto the internet for our blog and also found images on the internet to use our pieces of reasearch. We used scanners to scan in all te work we did on paper.
Our film is of the genres fantasy, children, and romance. Our target audience for this film was children and teenagers, though I feel that it can now be considered as a family film as it is appropriate for all types of people and older people won’t get bored by the themes considered. Media products which we feel relate to ours are films such as Aladdin, Matilda, Peter Pan, jumanji and other children films. As they capture the innocents we were looking for and all have typical happy ending.
It uses the codes of conventions of a fantasy film as it is essentially a fairy tale and uses a magical element in the form of the character genie that has the ability to grant wishes. We could have made this more of a plot device but choose not to as our film was already looking as if it would be too lengthy. Instead we decided not to play on our characters ability too much and used the characters abilities similarly to how the genies is used in the film Aladdin which moves away from the predictability of other children’s films. We showed how the character Genie longs to be human and this wish is granted as it was by Luke.
Also as we were making a relatively small production we tried to keep most of our special effects to a minimum therefore due to the restrictions of the technologies. Making a character pop out of nowhere is popular in animated fantasy films. To recreate this we used fast chopping shots to show the character genie popping out of nowhere seemingly in a couple of shots in our film. We also used suggestive music which normally occurs in fantasy’s to give the audience and idea that something mystical is about to occur. This happens in Matilda as she is approached by the scary teacher and she is ostensibly cornered.
Our characters are distinctive to a film of the genre fantasy such as the genie with the ability to grant wishes. We also tried to give her traditional genie style attire to make her look extraordinary similar to the genie in Aladdin and genies in other films. We also created through Luke a typical normal boy who the audience can relate to. He is in need of wishes but does not end up using them much at all which goes away from the codes and conventions of fantasy film. Instead we focused on the relationship of the two characters as we felt this was more important to the message we were trying to create. Olivia is a loud demanding popular character who is typifies this type of character which we have all seen whether it be in the actual world, children’s films or TV sitcoms and everyone can relate to have knowing or seeing someone like her.
As our film was created for a younger audience initially we decided that it was most appropriate to use vibrant colours for our characters costume, especially the genie. Also bright lighting for the cinematography of our film, which would make our film seem more magical, attractive and keep the audiences interest. This is similar to Peter Pan as it is also bright due to it being animated. We tried to reproduce an animated film feel with our use of colours.
The setting of our film was in a school as we felt this was both convenient for us and our story as everyone at a time in their life has most likely attended a school and can relate to the environment. This is not typical of a fantasy as most mystical films are based in a more distant place. Though there can be comparisons to this film and jumanji as in that film a board game is found which has powers such as those of Genies in our film.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our film uses different methods to be effective. Our opening builds a tense magical atmosphere before the film starts this is effective as it makes the audience engage with the film and prepare for the story. The music we used first for our title sequence was quite upbeat and it was said to make our film seem too epic, but the music we chose the end suited the romance genre and was more effective with our film. We also used various tracks in the course of are film which we think are memorable for the audience and we ended in the last scene with a shot of the characters holding hands and used a soft sound track to lead into our credits which parades the happiness and softness of our ending The story of our film is effective as we have used characters which various types of people can relate too and the progressiveness of the film is easily follow and showed. The story is not too complicated and can be understood by most if not all types of people. Scenes in our film such as the start when the genie appears, when Olivia first appears and when the makeover occurs, grab the audience’s attention and push the story forward while. I think this makes the audience want to watch the film and the film is highly likeable due to the subtle romance in the film which all people can relate to.
We created three posters which aim to advertise the film and entice people to watch it. All the posters have bright colours which we decided to use as they reflect the vibrant mood we were trying to create in our film. Our titles in our posters have a very cultural feel which along with the lamp and the great mass of sparkles illustrate the mystical magical feel of the film. The first poster has the genie title in the centre of the poster with the character Genie at the side holding it in her hand. Luke is at the bottom of the poster looking up at genie and the colours of the background are pink and orange. Wishes can come true is at the top of the poster which gives the audience a slight hint as to the nature of the story I think this structure shows the importance of the genie in our film but it may underrepresented the importance of Luke in our film as he is small and placed towards the bottom in the poster. The credits also come over him which makes him seem more insignificant. This Poster correctly captures the magic in the film and projects the Genie as an important part of our film. I think we have used colours which are true to our film but the structure could be improved. The second poster we created fixes the structure argument with the first poster and uses a slightly less vibrant blue; I think this indicates the romance of the film more along with the picture which shows the characters together. The attire of Luke in this photo makes him look neutral and so it hard to tell whether he is nerdy or normal meaning that it gives away less of the story. The third poster was inspired by the ocean’s eleven poster and the home alone poster which are each unique posters which use different techniques for a posters than usual. We have focused this poster on Luke and have done the background differently and put pictures of the two characters on the wall this is echoes the time in the film Luke and the Genie spend together.
The review for our film also has the pun from our poster ‘wishes can come true’ which is very important message in our film. The review presents the film genie in a positive way and hypes the characters in the film. It has images of the film on a film strip. This looks professional and makes our film seem professional. Reviews also get more people to see a film and so if our film gets a good review it is possible that more people will go to watch the film. The film and the two ancillary tasks work together in the promotion of our film. There is a house style seen and you in each similar images and words are used. The each of the posters illustrates an important moment in the actual film and entices people to watch the film. The review gets people to want to watch the film using positive approval.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
At each section of the production of our film we received feedback. This enabled us to go back and change what was wrong in relation to what the audience told us was right or wrong. The first piece of feedback we received was for our first pitch. We were told that we did not have name for our characters, which was true at the tie and we then decided to call our characters Luke, Genie and Olivia. We were told there was also no name for our story, we started with Luke and the genie but felt this was too long and boring, therefore we went with just genie and found that this was enough for our film. We were told that the way the lamp appears out of nowhere was random and so we decided that Luke was going to find the lamp at first, in his bag after coming into contact with it in a drama lesson. Also we were told by our audience that in our first pitch the way the wishes turned from bad to good was slightly random. We then decided that in our next story idea we would have to make the character genies character more obvious to the audience as it shows her as a pleasant person who hates doing things wrong and working hard to be a better genie which leads to her becoming better at granting wishes. We were queried as to how we were going to make the genie appear and told that we would have to do this properly if it was to be effective. This is a very important piece of feedback from the audience as we had not come up with a solution yet. We thought we could give the impression that the Genie was not there by telling the other characters to ignore her and using cuts which show nothing one moment and then her appearing out of nowhere the next. Another suggestion given by the audience was to use glitter to show magic. We decided against this as we felt that it would be messy and hard to create. It was also suggested that we play on the idea that the genie was not there, we decided to incorporate this into our new story more without making it too lengthy. The audience said that we should use younger actors as a younger character as an older character would not be so quick to believe there was a genie there. At first we were not keen on this and felt out film suited older cast but decide d to go with the audiences’ feelings instead of our own. We were asked why the boy in our story got bullied, this shows that it was not very clear that Luke was not a normal boy and we had to make this clear in the next pitch. Also we were told continuity would be affected as younger children would not have exams. We felt this was not too important and it would not confuse the audience too much. We were told the ending of our film has pleasure of predictability. This meant that we tried to make our next pitch less predictable and more of a shook as we did not plan on making our film too predictable. We were also told that gold relates to the story a lot, we tried to incorporate as much gold in the film as possible. The Film was said to have a Fairytale, Cinderella feel to it. Are film became a fairytale as we were making it but we would like it to be less of a strict fairytale and make the film have more of a message. The audience said that the story had a lot students which could cause cast problems, we tried to get as many people as possible to fill the roles but in the end decided to reduce the amount of characters. Again we were told that certain elements of our film we to random, we tried to resolve this as best as possible. Our film was also said to be too long and there were too many settings and so we tried to cut down the amount of scenes and leave in the most important themes and also reduce the amount of settings used. We were going to change the lamp into something else but we felt that any other item would be even more random and so we decided against it and left it a lamp. The end of our film was said to be illogical and so we decided to show the genies character better in our next pitch. We were told to add more obvious triggers as wishes were too random. We were told to add something more into the middle of our story and so we decided to completely revamp everything so far.
Our final pitch feedback was as such; people said it our story was more effective than before, it was shorter and more to the point. This means that the improvements we made from our first pitch worked for us. Also we were told there was now the logical causality in everything which was missing before, narrative development which enables us to understand the story better and character development which enables us to learn more about the characters personalities. The initial reaction once we finished pitching was ‘awww’ which meant that the audience was emotionally engaged with the story and we had their attention. We were also told the story had to be handled carefully in filming. The locations aren’t as complicated as the other story which makes it simpler for us to make.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
During planning of our film we used the internet and went on various video sites such as Youtube to watch videos of films and independent films. We also kept track of all the research we made and updated our blog on a regular basis which we used to log all the work we did and share work with other people in our class and also give and receive feedback. Also the blog connect us to the school blog which gave us work daily and allowed us to keep up with work and do any work which we may have missed. We were also provided with master classes on the different areas of filming such as directing, filming and sound. This enabled us to be adequate and better at the role we were given. We also had lessons on editing in whichh we learnt how to use a new software to edit. We formally used avid to edit our films and now we are using adobe premiere. oploaded photos onto the internet for our blog and also found images on the internet to use our pieces of reasearch. We used scanners to scan in all te work we did on paper.
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