Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s2JK3ZX72HLlAEpJaOOVvFIDIrd4qvo-0_8Q9YM2mQk/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4- A2 Media Studies from joehmedia

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Final film

Final Poster

This is our decision for our final poster.

Radio trailer

Evaluation question four

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Evaluation question three

What have we learned from our audience feedback? 

Whilst creating our film we collected audience feedback on two occasions, first we made an editors cut and then when we had finished our film we got feedback on the final cut.

 

We created our editors cut and understood that the audience of our film may not have the same views as we have as they haven't been through all the production and therefore are less likely than we are to be biased towards the film. This made it necessary for us to do some audience feedback to see what we needed to do to improve our film. To do this we got ten people to view our film and then answer questionnaires designed to give us feedback that we could react to in order to improve our film.  In this sense the editors cut works like a prototype for our film, we created what we thought was the perfect finished film and then got feedback from our audience and acted on it to improve our film. One important result that we found was that 60% of the audience felt that they didn’t understand out film. This told us that we needed to make our film more understandable as 60% of our audience not being able to understand our film is likely to cause most of our audience to not enjoy it. This showed us that we needed to change an area of our film to make it more understandable and therefore we added a scene to our film.

We added a shot of our main character hitting the I button on his keyboard while stuttering "I, I, I" in the other scene that we were cross cutting with. This makes it more obvious that maybe the second scene is set in his head and also that maybe he has writers block. We felt that this gives a relieving feeling to the audience and helps them to understand the film.  

We also found that 40% of the audience felt the film was too long and the other 60% felt the film was about right, although the majority felt the film was about right we agreed with the 40% as we felt the film was too long and also felt that the other 60% would still feel the film was about right if it had been cut down a bit. We managed to cut the film down around 20 seconds with out actually removing anything from the film and just by sharpening up the editing. This ensures that the people who felt the film was about right will still feel it is about right as nothing has been removed but on the other hand the film wont appear to drag for the other 40%. By doing this we were able to please all of our audience. These were the two major aspects that we improved by creating an editors cut of the film. From this we were able to create our final cut. After we finished and were happy with our final cut we decided to get more audience feedback but didn’t plan on acting on this feedback unless we felt it was really necessary. Instead we decided this would just be used for quotes on our ancillary texts, and also for personal knowledge so we could know how to improve on our new film. This time most of the feedback was positive for example one viewer commented "well edited immersive plot" and another said "very clever storyline, when you get your head around it, it impresses you". These are just two of many positive comments that we got about our film, a large majority of the comments were positive and the only real negative feedback was about the confusing storyline.  

With our audience feedback in mind we included certain things in our film to ensure the meaning was apparent to them. One thing we did was use a shot reverse shot technique between the main character and the clock to show the passing of time. The clock says its 12:18 it then cuts back to the close up of the main character looking back across to his computer. Finally it then cuts back to the clock which is now at the time 1:49. This breaks continuity purposely which contrasts with other films because most films try to keep continuity. It breaks continuity because it becomes obvious it is a film with the passing of time being so quick. This helps us to give the audience the message that something abnormal is happening and also that the main character has been sat at his desk for a large amount of time.

 Another thing we did was had the main character answer the phone and put it in a jug of water when he doesn’t get a response.  Their is diagetic sound of bubbles that are visible coming from the phones ear piece. This is confusing because instead of just simply putting the phone down he decides to hang up a different way, this also further implies that he has anxiety problems. There is then another eye line match as the character looks towards a clock on the wall. The shot matches to a close up of the clock, and then cuts to an extreme close up of the phone in the jug with more bubbles coming from it. This relates the effect of time on the phone call, maybe who ever has called them has given them a set time to do something.

 We also linked our cross-cut scenes, as the outdoor roof scene is meant to be something going on in his head linked to his writers block we decided to link things that happen in reality to this to make it obvious what is happening one example of this is what was earlier spoke about where he is hitting I on his keyboard he is saying "I, I, I" on the roof. Another example is when he cuts his hand outside and then on the roof on the other scene he looks down to see his hand is cut in the exact same place. By linking the two scenes in these ways helps the audience to understand what's going on this reveals the overall meaning of the film and helps the audience to understand that maybe the character has writers block and it has caused him some kind of psychological issues. Although we created the film with the idea that the scene of him on the roof was caused by the issues the character has by having the hooded figure in both scenes and having surreal elements in both allows the audience to create their own interpretations of what is real in the film. There are many different theory's and interpretations and none of them get confirmed at the end of the film this allows the audience to take what they want from the film.

Evaluation question two

Evaluation question one

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Our film begins and thirty seconds in to the film the main character is sat at a desk. It cuts from a close up of the main character to a point of view shot of the clock. The clock says its 12:18 it then cuts back to the close up of the main character looking back across to his computer. Finally it then cuts back to the clock which is now at the time 1:49. This breaks continuity purposely which contrasts with other films because most films try to keep continuity. It breaks continuity because it becomes obvious it is a film with the passing of time being so quick. This is an example of shot-reverse-shot, this is a film technique where one character or object is shown looking at another character or object then the other character or object is shown looking back at the first character. This is a very popular technique and is used in most films multiple times as it shows the connection between two objects or character. It is typically used for conversations between two characters as it typically provides continuity in conversation with characters filmed at eye level. A classic example of shot reverse shot is in Paul Thomas Anderson's feature debut Hard Eight.

However our film also contrasts this because we have not used the convention typically, we have used this to show the passing of time, and we felt that this was a good use of the technique because it focuses attention to the passing of time. As well as linking our main character to this passing of time so that our audience can see that he isn't getting anywhere with his work it saved time as our film is only a short that could have been used to improve on other scenes. Also as this technique is used in many successful films it will be easy for our audience to understand as they will have seen it before many times. Later in the film, about one minute fifth teen seconds in there is a collage of shots of the main character sat at the desk and objects on the desk such as the phone when it rings. In this collage of shots we have followed the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the onscreen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object onscreen. It is typically used for conversations similar to the shot-reverse-shot technique. It is also used when someone is focusing on an object or travelling for example a car chase and finally used to record sporting events such as football. It is necessary because if it is broken the whole scene would appear to be flipped. If people are having a conversation they would appear to switch places, car chase scenes would appear to be going the opposite direction to before the cut and it would be difficult to tell which way football teams are shooting. If we didn’t use it for this scene things would appear to have moved on the main characters desk, this would confuse the audience and break continuity. However sometimes it can be effective to break the rule, it can be used for dramatic purposes or to give the audience the impression that the character is disorientated or confused. We decided it wasn’t a good idea to break the rule because our character is not confused yet and also we wanted our audience to feel that the character is sane and “normal” at this point in the film. 

Our film is a psychological thriller, we have shown this by the overall storyline of the film as he is going mad and see’s things and can’t finish his work but we have also used mise en scene to show this as well. We used a weird shot that fades from outside a computer to inside it that has non-diagetic sounds and diagetic sounds of a fan, this gives the audience the impression he is mentally stuck in the computer which links to the psychological element of our film. Also we have used a cross-cutting technique to give a weird affect as our main character it in both cuts of the film, this confuses the audience as the main character can’t be in two locations at the same time. This shows the audience that one of the locations isn’t really happening and must be something that is going on in his head. Finally we have used a collage of shots towards the end of our film that includes repeats of sound such as the phone ringing and jump cuts to show the main character breaking down, this shows that the main character has some kind of psychological problem.  To show that our film is a thriller we have used lots of build-up music, also our film is Noir which many older thriller films are. Finally we have used blood in our film which is often a large factor in thriller films. One thing we have done related to the psychological thriller genre’s history is the fact that we have made our film Noir, this is an old fashioned style of filming that is filmed in black and white and uses shadows and a set style of music. Many successful old Noir style films are thriller genre, this shows that the Noir style of filming is effective in the genre we have chosen. Whilst creating our film we used other films and shorts for inspiration.

One short film that gave us a lot of inspiration was a short film called Doodlebug. This is a short film about a man trying to kill a bug on his hands and knees, when he finally corners the thing you can see that it is a smaller version of himself. The short film is also filmed in a noir style and has a similar psychological surreal genre and many David Lynch such as The Elephant Man. This makes the short similar to ours and we used it for inspiration, our characters are similar they are both middle aged, and similar class. This type of character suits the noir style of film as it is quite old fashioned and many old fashioned films would star a lead male. By giving our film a normal effect helps keep continuity and stops the audience realising it’s a film. One thing we have replicated in a similar way is the scene from the film where the phone rings, he answers the film and puts it in a glass of water. We thought this was a good effect to use because it shows the confusion and anxiety in the character.  This is because it is a weird and confusing thing to do and shows he doesn’t trust anyone trying to contact him because he doesn’t even listen to who it is.  

One thing we kept in mind whilst creating our film was Richard dyers pleasures of entertainment theory. He says that people will respond to the message a piece of media offers if it offers them compensation for their inadequacies in their own lives. Examples of this are used in TV adverts for example anti-smoking campaign adverts focus on the clear motives and benefits for example gaining money, and improving health as motives to gain compensation from the advert. My audience may have their own psychological problems or confusions so may be looking for some kind of clarity from our film. They may feel they live mundane lives and therefore may be looking for some kind of excitement or adventure. They may feel they are in poverty and may be looking for abundance in our film. We have provided these things by explaining the psychological aspect of our film as it is clear by the end that he suffers from writers block, this provides our audience with clarity. By having the character go through his own personal adventure and using an antagonist and a protagonist creates excitement. Finally by having a long storyline in a short film provides a lot in a short time which may make up for abundance in our film. 

Research into similar films

Before we created our film I looked online for some other short films with similar genres or storylines. We thought this could give us some inspiration or tips to help ensure our film worked correctly or show us what mistakes not to make.


The baby monitor
This is a short film about a mother who puts her baby to bed and then has some kind of psychological break down. This short is similar to ours in the sense that she seems very isolated, it has a very overall confusing message and there is no final explanation the audience gets to interpret for themselves what they think is happening.

Darkened room

This short film similar to ours creates a confusing and un nerving atmosphere that makes you feel psychologically uncomfortable. It uses long takes in a single isolated location to create this atmosphere and also has no final explanation. The film is made uncomfortable by its unnatural use of constant and repetitive sounds.

Doodlebug

This is a noir styled surreal film with a simple story line, however the scenario doesn't make sense which creates the weird mysterious atmosphere. The use of a good actor has created a nervous and thrilling story as you feel the characters discomforts as he tries to squash a smaller version of himself. Yet again this film has no final explanation.

Overall we feel these films are very effective and are good examples of some of the criteria we would like to use in our film. Also we can see what element we feel aren't effective or that could be improved on to help achieve similar moods and atmospheres.

Analysis of a similar short film

The short film I have chosen is called doodlebug. This film is a noir styled surreal film.

The film starts with the title, it says "doodlebug" in an old style type writer font and instead of using letter o's there is a pair of eyes. This starts the film with a weird and confusing effect. The text is on a black background which then circles out from the eyes to show the main character and it becomes clear the eyes in the title were the main characters eyes.

It shows a middle age man in suit trousers and a vest holding his shoe crouched towards the ground looking stressed. The character looks very normal of the time it is set so confuses the audience because there is no way to understand why the character is so on edge. The shot then zooms out from a medium shot to a long shot. The character then runs towards the camera and then it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of him jumping and hitting the ground with his shoe.

There is tense confusing build up music in the back ground. This gets the audience thinking about what might be happening further in the film.The character looks round and then there is an eye line match to a POV shot of a clock on the side, this gives you the impression he has been doing this for a long time or that he needs to catch what ever he's trying to catch by a certain time.

It then cuts back to a medium shot of the main character and then there is diagetic sound of a phone ringing. This further supports the idea that maybe he has a certain time to catch something or that there is some kind of external pressures on what he is doing.

 The character then rushes to answer the phone and puts it straight down on the side. As he does this there is match on action as it cuts to a medium close up of the character. There is then a POV shot of the phone he has just put on the side but this shot only lasts for a second. This gives the audience the impression that the character is scared but also certain he doesn't want to answer it. In the back ground you can hear diagetic sounds of speech coming from the phone but it is unclear what they are saying.

The charter then grabs the phone and puts it into a jug of water. Their is diagetic sound of bubbles that are visible coming from the phones ear piece. This is confusing because instead of just simply putting the phone down he decides to hang up a different way, this also further implies that he has anxiety problems. There is then another eye line match as the character looks towards a clock on the wall. The shot matches to a close up of the clock, and then cuts to an extreme close up of the phone in the jug with more bubbles coming from it. This relates the effect of time on the phone call, maybe who ever has called them has given them a set time to do something.

 Next there is a medium shot of the character jumping over the chair to try and catch whatever he is after. The shot is hand held and follows the character. It then uses a high angle medium shot looking down to the character cuddling his shoe and looking sad, this makes the character look small and weak, giving the impression he will not catch the thing he is chasing.

 He then gets up and runs to hit the ground at the other side of the room with his shoe. The camera pans across the floor following an item of clothing that is moving across the floor. There is then an over the shoulder shot of the character crawling along the floor after the item of clothing. He then picks up the clothing to see a smaller version of himself crawling along the floor, this is very confusing and surreal.

He then misses the smaller version of himself with the shoe. It then uses a low angle shot looking up to the main character of him jumping from side to side this makes him look bigger and dominant over the smaller version of himself which contrasts with what we have been shown previously because he has looked less dominant and unable to do what he wanted. This is then repeated with a high angle shot looking down on the smaller version of himself that is also jumping from side to side, this makes the smaller version look smaller and weaker.

 The smaller version of himself then jumps to the ground and hits the ground with its shoe. There is then a close up of the main character raising his hand and hitting the smaller version of himself with his shoe. Then from the background a much larger version of himself appears and a shoe crushes him. The clip then fades to black and the credit scene appears. Overall I thought this was a good short film even though it had a simple storyline.

Film Poster Ideas

Media poster analysis

Film poster (first draft)

Audience questionaire and results

After we filmed our short film we made the editors cut of the film. This was like a prototype, we put the film together and edited it to get this. Now that we have this we can improve on it by removing things we don't like or adding things that could make it better, this will allow us to get the best finished version of our film. One way of finding out what to add and what to remove is to show the editors cut to people and question them for feedback, this is our results:

1. Do you understand the storyline of our film? 

• No 
• No 
• Yes 
• Yes 
• Yes 
• No 
• No 
• No 
• No 
• Yes

This shows us that only 40% of the audience understood the storyline of the film compared to 60% who claimed they didn't. This tells us that we need to make our storyline more understandable so that most if not all of our audience can understand the film, this will make them more likely to enjoy it. If 60% of people cant understand our film then 60% are likely to not enjoy it.

2. What do you think our film is too long, too short or about right? 

• About right 
• About right 
• About right 
• About right  
• Too long 
• Too long 
• Too long
• Too long
• About right
• About right

This shows us that 60% of the audience felt the film was about the right length, 40% felt it was too long and none of them thought it was too short. This shows us that we shouldn't add much to our film unless it was replacing something in our film. Although 60% thought the film was about the right length, 40% feeling it is too long is still enough for us to think it may need cutting down but only by a small amount.

3. Did you notice any mistakes in our film? 

• Fuzzy in places 
• You wouldn’t cut your hand on a plant pot 
• Poor lighting in places 
• You wouldn’t cut your hand on a plant pot 
• You wouldn’t cut your hand on a plant pot 
• No 
• No  
• No  
• No 
• No 

50% of the audience didn't notice any mistakes in our film, this shows us that most people feel we haven't done anything that breaks continuity. 30% said that they didn't think you could cut your hand on a plant pot and 20% said something else. Because only 30% said this we don't feel that it is enough to go back and re-film with a different prop but we may add some diegetic sound effects to give the audience the impression that he has hit the plant pot harder.

4. What certificate do you think this film should get 

• 15 
• Universal 
• 15
• PG
• PG
• 15
• PG
• 12
• 15
• 15

This question got very mixed results 10% said Universal, 30% said PG, 10% said 12 and 50% said 15. Although the results were mixed overall 15 was the most popularly picked one and was also the certificate we felt was correct for our film. These results have helped us to reinsure our decision and we can guess that people who chose lower ratings may not have noticed the use of blood or may not have media knowledge.

5. What do you like/dislike about the film? 

• Like continuity 
• The suspense  
• Like the meaning 
• Intense cinematography 
• Difficult to understand 
• Difficult to understand in places 
• Links in together well 
• Would've preferred it in colour
• good use of confusion
• Good filming

Although the responses are very mixed, 70% of the responses are positive and only 30% are negative. This shows us that overall the majority of our audience thing positively about our film. However 20% of people feel the film is difficult to understand in places. This makes us feel that we should make the film more understandable.

6. Where would you watch the film? 

• Computer 
• Youtube
• Youtube
• Youtube
• Computer
• Cinema
• Online
• Cinema
• Cinema
• DVD

60% of the audience said they would watch the film online or on youtube, 30% said the cinema and 10% said on DVD. We are already planning to upload the film to youtube and may also be showing the film at a festival at cinie world. This meets the preferences of 90% of the audience. By meeting the preferences of the audience makes them more likely to come and watch our film.

7. Who do you think would be the audience of this film? 

• People who like horrors and mystery’s 
• Students  
• English students 
• Writers 
• Writers 
• Adults 
• Teenagers 
• Horror fans 
• Adult 
• Thriller fans 

Overall the audience suggested that the audience for our film would be adults and teenagers, horror and thriller fans and people who are interested in English/writing. We feel this is positive because it shows our film will interest a large varied target audience. By having a large audience will increase the success of our film.

8. Is there anything you would change about our film? 

• Add dialogue 
• Easier to understand 
• Actor 
• Actor 
• Actor 
• Actor
• Easier to understand 
• Easier to understand 
• Make it colour 
• Sound 

 40% said they would change the actor, 30% said they would make the film easier to understand and 30% said other responses. Although our actor isn't the best actor in the world, he is the best we could get with our budget and still does an effective job. However we could add something to our film to make it easier to understand.

9. Who do you feel will enjoy the film more, boys, girls or both? 

• Both 
• Girls 
• Girls 
• Boys 
• Girls 
• Both 
• Boys 
• Girls 
• Girls 
• boys 

20% of the audience said both, 50% of the audience said girls and 30% of the audience said boys. Although the results sway slightly towards girls they are very even, and we have not targeted our film at boys or girls as we feel this would be limiting our target audience. By keeping our target audience as large as it can be will increase the success of our film.

10. Can you sum up our film in a sentence? 

• A black and white abnormal night 
• A confusing thriller 
• Difficult to understand 
• Great survey 
• Battle of the senses 
• A thrilling mind battle 
• Rancid writers block 
• Insane 
• Textbook horror 
• Civil war of the mind 

This question as used to see  if we an find any good tag lines/slogans to use on our film. Although there are some that we like such as "civil war of the mind" there are none that we are definitely going to use, however we may put some on our posters that we will be using a advertisement.