Evaluation

Evaluation

My overall work with filming has been great. I have never before worked with a video camera in such depth or edited a film for that matter. I have learnt a number of things which can help and improve any kind of filming, such as the right lighting, a good setting and also a good quality microphone so that you don't get a fuzzing sound over the actors voices. I have previously worked with Photoshop and Indesign which has enabled me to create my ancillary texts efficiently and with good quality.

For the work I have created I worked with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Indesign and Movie Serif.

I wanted to follow the conventions of a romance, things such as a leading girl and boy. Through extensive research I found that there were many conventions that were followed through each individual film. Things like the end credits and title sequence, these were used in the majority of long and short films so I ensured that I used them so that I would stick to the genre conventions. Also simple things like familiar and similar settings, such as their homes, for me I used the school as this was something that was familiar to them both. A variety of shots was also a main requirement throughout the film. I had learnt a lot about getting the right shots in my preliminary task so I used my skills to ensure that the shots had a variety for example, longs shots, over the shoulder shots, medium shots and close ups. (sources at the bottom of the page) The site I found to learn about codes and conventions explains how simple everyday props such as mobiles and computers work for romance which is why I opted for something simple, a post it note. Which is a metaphor for relationships as it is something which is nice to have but easy to throw away.

To follow the conventions of romance movies, I looked at 500 days of summer and the notebook I wanted to be able to keep the audience up to date on where they were, which is why I added little animations in certain sections. I added a subtitle/annimation for the 'detention' scene and intended on doing this for each different day, but I did not have room to fit this into my film which is a slight down fall. However, you can see the obvious change in their clothes each day. I challenged the conventions of my short film by using a cliff hanger ending. The two main characters were swapping notes and I wanted them to meet in detention. The last shot is of the boy - Curtis looking at the girl - Beka and seeing the post it notes in her hand and their eyes meet and the filming cuts to the end credits. This is something that would catch companies attention as you can't beat a happy ending or a cliff hanger. 

My opening credits
As you can see from the picture at the top (time line) my opening sequence is an animation, it goes from black to Audette Productions logo and the Post it note is written out. I wanted to ensure that my title sequence and any other animation sequence  I did looked as professional as possible, and I think I have done that well with these.

My end credits

These are my end credits for my short film and also my 'detention' title. I  wanted to name one of the scenes so that it didn't get lost within the other lessons. The idea was simple enough to have them flick from one title to another. As the name 'Jessica Stones' is used on the majority of the credits, it appeared as if the 'Produced by' or 'Directed by' was just vanishing and 'Jessica Stones' didn't move. I displayed each by line individually but kept the name'Jessica Stones' in the exact same place for each clip.

Effectiveness

After creating and editing my film I looked into my target audience and genre. My target audience was young teenagers and adults up to about age 40. My genre was of course romance. As I wanted to stick to the conventions in all three texts. I based both ancillary texts around the same genre type, romance. To do this on my magazine I used relatively romantic films for the featured articles, vibrant colour schemes and a variety of romantic featured articles that would link back to romance. My featured articles on my magazine cover are all linked to romance and the growth of love/romance, I wanted to have 5 main films featured on the cover. One film called "Crazy Stupid Love" to show that love has good points and bad points. The second, "Coriolanus" linking back to the writer, Shakespeare the true romance artist. "The sitter", as children usually follow through the path of love. "Puss in Boots" also relating to children and how you have to adapt. And of course "Post it", where it all starts. There is also "The vow" in a flash by the ears of the magazine, I added this as I wanted to fit in as many love films as possible. I wanted to stick to the original conventions of Empire, but challenge it by having a variety of love films and not just a variety of box office hits. My poster is completely opposite to my magazine, I wanted to do this to add a twist. I wanted the texts to fit but I didn't want them to look identicle as they are different advertisements and one could interest a person and the other could put them off, so I wanted to ensure that the interest was there.

After creating and finishing my media products I needed to get audience feedback to see if the conventions and the overall theme of romance was incorporated. I wrote three questionnaires all looking into key areas. The first four questions are exactly the same, gender, age and favourite genre I wanted to ensure that each text persuaded them in some way and it did as the majority of the answers were Romance or Other, and other was usually romantic comedy. When I collected in my questionnaires, the overall feedback was positive. When I handed out pictures of my ancillary texts I gave them posters and magazines to compare them to, I had a number of different comments about my magazine and how professional it looks. Quite a lot of the comments were about how similar it looks, but at the same time how different it is. I think that's due to the white background as Empire rarely use white backgrounds and one person on the cover. 

When creating my media product I had to use many digital technologies. I attained my skills when practicing in the preliminary task. When doing the preliminary task I ensured that I used as many different techniques as possible and I think that this has been demonstrated in my short film. I knew that when using the zoom tool on the digtial camera you have to be extremely still and try to hold the shot. However, I have said before that I personally do not like the zoom tool. It blurs the picture and I don't think it was entirely possible to make a smooth zoom on these cameras, as in my opinion they are not of high quality. Another digital technology I had to use was the lighting. In my preliminary task I got the the lighting quite wrong. I didn't use any additional lighting in the scene.  After filming and viewing the scene on the computer, I discovered the scene was too dark. I could however edit this in Adobe Premiere Elements, it wasn't great but it helped with the problem. I knew that I didn't want to have to change much in my film other than transitions such as cuts and fades. I wanted my filming to be seemless.

When shooting my short film I also wanted to ensure that the dialogue was loud enough. In one particular scene in my short film I had to do a voice over as the background noise in the classroom (from the computers) was too loud. You can only hear slight mumbles. Things like sticking to simple rules and pointers has allowed me to improve massively from my preliminary task and I was able to develop and improve my skills with a camera and also the editing programmes.

Sources:http://www.slideshare.net/2593Thomas/forms-and-conventions-of-genres-presentation-9159374
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM