Evaluation: Question four - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

New Media Technologies

"New media: New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the later part of the 20th century to encompass the amalgamation of traditional media such as film, images, music, spoken and written word, with the interactive power of computer and communications technology, computer enabled consumer devices and most importantly the Internet." - wikipedia

New media is presented in many forms - however most technologies described as "new media" are digital, networkable, dense, compressible and/or interactive: An example of this would be all Internet-based technologies such as digital mediums e.g. DVD'S, CD-ROMs or websites. The opposite of this is old media otherwise known as 'traditional media', an example of this would be television, film or paper-based products.

New media benefits the public in many ways - it has enabled the increase of many forms of communication through social networking e.g. facebook - a website that allows communication world wide on a global level, another example of this would be other forms global communication such as Xbox live, this is a mulitplayer online gaming service, it incorporates online gaming and digital media and is operated by microsoft corporation - this service allows users to play video games whilst communicating with people world wide. The development of new media has had large effects of the film industry - the development of new media such as Youtube has also essentially enabled the audience to become the producer with hundreds of short films having  been posted on Youtube. the first forms of motion picture created was done so with the use of a kinetoscope, otherwise known as telerecording is a recording created by filming the picture from a video monitor - in order to do this a series of pictures are used, a handle was turned and as the images went round each detail in each photo essentially created a motion picture. Below is an example of a kinetiscope film.

In order to present all of the new media technology I used within the creation of my media product I used a montage of images paired with annotations to illustrate the new media technologies I have used.

1) Adobe Premier Pro - This new media technology was the software provided by the school that we used to edit both our AS and our A2 coursework projects, we used it to capture, rough cut and edit both the visual and audio elements of our projects - the simplicity and effectiveness of the layout of the programme and of the tools themselves made Adobe Premier Pro the ideal programme for us.

Without Adobe Premier Pro the editing process involved in our project would have been significantly harder - the dvanced workings of Adobe Premier Pro are of a higher quality than many of editing softwares therefore the quality of our finished films would have been lower without it therefore lowering our grades. However, without the use of any digital editing programme the process would have differed greatly. Digital editing came hand in hand with the development of digital cameras - before digital editing became the main source of editing linear editing was the process that occurred.The process of linear video editing differs highly from digital or non-linear editing. It involved selecting, arranging and modifying images and sound recorded on videotape. Back even further than this the process I would have had to have endured would have been film splicing, otherwise known as film joining, this is editing in which a film splicer is used to physically join together lengths of photographic film.

2) Blogger - This new media technology is an online website publicly open in which you sign up and post blogs on any desired topic - from media work to travelling blogs. Blogger is the most effective new media technology I have used on this course, working as an online portfolio working in conjunction with 'Youtube' as a digital platform used to showcase our media work. Blogger allows you to edit, add to and delete elements of your work with much more ease. With the use of design your own background, create your own profile, the ability to link you work, add photos, videos, sound clips, spell check your work, draft your work before posting and even edit the HTML coding within your blog yourself. All of the necessary work has been placed on my blog as well as notes acting as revision tool for the exam part of the course - Blogger is an accessible and easy to use blogging website.

After discovering this website through my media studies course I have since started other blogs using it - without the use of blogger the process of completing my media AS and A2 coursework would have been a significant amount harder and have taken a lot more time. The ability to be able to submit coursework online is a massive bonus and saves many complications. However, when using Blogger the risks are greater than say writing out coursework due to the fact that whenever using a computer or the there is always a small risk that something might go wrong. Unfortunately this happened a lot on Blogger, if it crashed and if the autosave process had not happened in time work was often lost.  

3) Canon 550D - This new media technology was crucial to the practical element of the course, without the use of the school and my teacher's personal camera (Cannon 550D) my coursework could gave suffered as I used this camera in several parts - I used it to take the photos for the designs of my postcards, to document the progress me made while filming, to produce evidence of the preparation for filming e.g. setting lighting up and also similarly to YouTube I used to camera successfully to add to the visual element on my blog in my production, pre-production and post-production posts as well as creating vital elements within all stages of production e.g. location recces (within pre-production). The camera overall has been a vital piece of equipment,  the shots the camera took were of a high quality due to the manual/automatic focus settings, the stabilising settings and the digital and optical zooms.

Without the Cannon 550D it would have been difficult to take photos for my postcard designs to the quality I wanted, digital stills would have been of a lower quality as well as having been difficult to deal with within school due to the fact that all of the class would have been using different cameras, needed different cameras and would have all had different qualities of photos. Without the use of any digital cameras I would have had to have used an SLR camera otherwise referred to as a single- lens relfex camera that works on the principle of a semi-automatic moving mirror system that permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film. I would then have had to have gone down the route of processing the film negatives, a film negative is a long narrow strips of chemical-coated cellulose acetate or plastic on which photos are captured onto. This option would have affected two main things: the first being the lack of ability I would have had to manipulate the images taken and then second beign that the postcard I have created would have had to have been done through the print process. 

4) Flip camera - This is another piece of new Media technology provided by the school in which we are working - the flip cameras are 'minature video cameras', although miniature they include external wireless microphones, the software needed to play the videos back (no use of external CD-Roms) and a cable that enables the user to connect the camera to TV and watch the product on that, these minature video cameras allowed me to venture into different presentation styles within my blog. I used in several times within the filming of my media product, yet again to track the progress made while filming in terms of setting up lighting etc. I also used to flip camera to analyse certain things throughout my blog, this was useful due to the fact that I was able to provide a lot more information without having to necessarily type it - this also enabled me to apply my blog to a higher section of the marking criteria. Also, due to the fact that the cameras are small and not intimidating the reactions I gathered from people during my audience feedback was more likely to be genuine as they would have felt no pressure and there was no room for manipulation within the footage.


Without the use of the flip cameras I would not have been able to evidence any elements of the pre-production, production or post-production due to the fact that the the larger cameras would have been useless for filming what I filmed on the flip camera - it would have taken more time to set the PD150 up than to film what I needed to film.

5) Unsigned band web - This new media technology although only briefly used within the post-production stage of production it was used a significant amount more withinthe pre-production stage, my search of Unsigned band web during the pre-production stage of production in order to plan my soundtrack - Unsigned band web was one of the most vital pieces within the A2 course, due to the fact that we cannot legally use copyrighted music, this website was used by our school to find uncopyrighted music of a high quality and most importantly from a reliable source. The website consists of uncopyrighted music from unsigned artists of many genres. Unsigned band web also widened my search for music over seas, it enabled contact between me and artists on a global level.
Without the use of this website finding uncopyrighted music would have been highly problematic and could have left our groups with the only possibility to be to buy and pay for music from our own money due to not having the funding for it or having to create our own music or find our own music sources or more detrimentally having to sacrifice the use of music - this affecting quality and therefore the grade of our work.

6) YouTube - YouTube is a widely recognised and highly used website that aided me in several way during the course of my media studies in both AS and A2 - the first way in which it came into used was when researching for the course in terms of coursework, through YouTube I was able to watch short film as the main way to distribute short films is online, this essentially allows the audience to become the producer. Youtube has helped me grasp an understanding of the codes and conventions of short films as well as understanding the distribution process that follows the creation. YouTube also helped me in the process of making my blog visually pleasing to a viewer of it, therefore helping me to hit certain marking criterion. - Linked to the boosting of the marking criterion YouTube has also helped me by enabling me to create an account and upload my own videos, I was then able to add these videos to my blog.

Without YouTube, the new media technology as a resource my coursework and equally as importantly my research and therefore my understanding would have suffered. The lack of YouTube would have made the course more difficult as without the website I could not have completed by blog to the same standard not would I have been able to carry out appropriate research that is crucial to both coursework and exam understanding. Therefore in order to carry our the necessary research into short film I would have had to have attended short film festivals such as the schweppes festival in order to obtain knowledge of short films.

7) Wikipedia - This website acts as a preferred search engine for people world wide with it reaching countries such as France, Italy and Spain - this new media technology enabled me to carry out research from a well acknowledged and highly trusted source into every subject I needed. It provided me information throughout the course from information of certain films, certain media technologies and even rules within filming e.g. the 108 degree rule. Wikipedia is used regularly throughout my blog and is referenced or linked with every use.

Although the use of Wikipedia was useful it would not have been disastrous without it due to the amount of search engines available, however because Wikipedia is one website and is a trusted resource I probably would have had to have cross referenced a lot of information I found on other search engine such as Yahoo due to the fact that the information is not on the actual website but are from links - other websites and not directly from google. Without the use of any of these websites I would have had to have either visited libraries  in order to pick out the relevant information needed.

8) PD150 Camera -

This new media technology is a High definition, high quality camera that we used in our A2 practical to shoot our short films - the quality of the camera is noticeable within our films in terms of both visual and audio.

Without the availability we would still be using the cameras from last years Sony Mini DV camera's, which would not have produced the same quality material which we have produced from this camera. Without the use of any digital cameras I would have had to have used a film negative camera, this would not have been as affective due to the cost of hiring and running the camera as well as developing the film. There are also several more processes involved when using a film negative camera, however, some people argue that film has a better quality and is still used today in the film industry and some people claim that HD is unrealistic.

9) Adobe Photoshop CS3 - (The image on the diagram is different from the programme I am writing about due to the fact that I changed the programme I decided to use) - Photoshop is the programme with which I edited all of the necessary images that I needed to within my A2 coursework, the software itself is complex but comes with a book in which every process that the software is capable of is explained, although the programme took a lot of time to understand and become fluent at using I consider it to be more effective than using other programmes such as photo plus therefore it was more than worth the effort. I used the programme when creating my film review, my postcard designs front and back and also when needing to edit photos that I have placed on my blog.

Although there are many other options available in terms of editing software, without Adobe photoshop CS3 I believe that I would have struggled to achieve the quality of editing that I desired within my work. - this new media technology has been effective and highly useful in the process of creating my A2 coursework. Without the availability of any digital (non-linear) editing programmes I would have had to have gone down the printing process route as well as this I would have had to have done any manipulation of images that I wished to at the processing stage.

10) Sennheiser headphones:

As a piece of new media technology these headphones were used throughout our post-production editing stage in both our AS and A2 projects - the headphones allowed me as an individual to concentrate directly on my the sound within my own work, enabling me to change and edit any issues that needed to be addressed.  

Without these headphones it would have been a struggle to focus completely on my own work due to all of our computer editing suites being in quite close proximity and them being occupied a lot of the time - there was a lot of noise to battle with. If the headphones were not available we would have had to have used our own headphones that would most probably have been of a lower quality, this could have resulted in missing vital mistakes in the audio of our projects.

11) HP scanner:
I am aware that the scanner that I used could technically not be classed as a new media technology and would probably more closely fit into older technology however due to the fact that it uses digital signals to work and played a key part within my blog I chose to write about it. The scanner enabled me to transfer my written work and notes from class onto my blog, this was vital to my postcard designs and my pre-production work blogs. As well as being able to present my work in different ways within my blog I have also in scanning my work essentially saved myself a copy of my work incase the originals get lost, which when working within a group is quite possible.

Without the scanner my blog work would have decreased in quality and would have been a lot more boring to look at due to the lack of images I could have put onto my blog.

12) Computer Editing Suite:
The new media editing suites that our school provided us with consisted of a keyboard, speakers, a computer tower, a mouse and two computer screens. The editing suites differ from the rest of the computers we have access to in terms of the programmes they have installed - the suites contain all of the vital programmes to edit, convert, create projects and burn CD's.

Without the availability of these editing suites we would have been unable to complete any of our practical tasks within the course thus affecting our practical skills as well as grades - I would have had to have attempted to use my home computer.

Other things used include...

IPhone 4: In order to communicate successfully between out group, cast and teacher we considered the most effective form of communication to be communication via phone calls and text message - as a form of communication this was most effective due to the fact that we all had mobile telephones and it was a fast, easy and precise way of communicating. If this new media technology was not available the process of creating our short film would have been majorly more difficult due to the fact that organisation would have suffered as well as the dynamics within the group due to the fact that the communication brought the group closer together and made working together a more enjoyable experience - without this the we would have had to have used emails to contact each other.

USB: The use of USB sticks was vital due to all of the documentation that we had to do in the process of creating our short films - acting as a simple, fast, portable and user friendly way of sending work. USB's also allowed us to begin work in school and complete it at home or vice versa as well as enabling us to back work up incase computer systems failed. If this particular media technology wasn't available the majority of our work would have had to have been done on one computer system making the documenting process a significant amount more difficult and a significant amount longer.

Evaluation: Question three - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Following the completion of my media products, the short film 'Bruises', the Postcard for the marketing strategy and the Film Review written in the style of empire I then set about figuring out how to receive audience feedback - I first established how I was going to present the feedback. I chose the present the feedback in video format due to the fact that I then cannot manipulate the comments made and the feedback will be 100% genuine. The next step I made was the establish who to ask - I chose to ask the adult generation due to the fact that our target audience is parents, thirdly I established what equipment I would use to gather the information. 


SHORT FILM FEEDBACK:

The first set of feedback I decided to gather was from teachers - feedback video #2 is one of our media studies teachers, ten years of teaching media studies thus giving her a professional edge and opinion on the short film, as well as this my teacher has been involved within the Bafta voting process for many years - this leading to her knowing what audiences want and what elements are needed to make a film successful. 

The second being a pastoral leader from my school whom is closely involved with all of the students within sixth form and is therefore trusted to give a truthful opinion. In order to get a grip of how to gather the feedback we spent a lesson working within our groups, watching each other's films and commenting on both the positives, negatives, message within each other's films, areas we didn't understand and areas we generally had suggestions on how to improve. This task having given us an understanding of what type of commentaries we wanted on our short films and what type of questions we would need to ask we then went to film the selected people's opinions on our short films.

When filming the individuals opinions we asked all of them an identical set of questions from which their answers provided our feedback - within the evaluation stage of the task it was highly important that we received critical and honest opinions so that any improvements could plausibly be changed. The feedback we received was extremely helpful as we found that the teachers commented on the same problems - these problems were previously highlighted and are mentioned within my post-production post. The negative issues were mainly revolving around the editing of the short film and some confusion created within the audience about the ending of the film. Along with the critical opinions there was a lot of positive feedback - people in particular highlighted the contrast in atmosphere between 'Grace's' home and school life, thus meaning the extra time spent setting up the use of blue gels and the 85 filter were worth it as the atmospheres we wanted to convey were read by the audience. Another area that was intentional and worked as a positive was the identity of 'Grace's father', with the use of framing as well as dramatic lighting we kept the identity of 'Grace's father' mainly hidden from the audience, this was noticed and commented on it a positive manner.

If I were to participate in this project for a second time I would do several things differently -
1) I would attempt to make sure all parts within the film are clear e.g. the ending of my short film: although there is meant to be some confusion surrounding the circumstances of 'Grace's' death I would make all possible reasons for her death more clear.
2) I would also attempt to develop the central protagonists character so the audience hold a larger understanding of the character, their motives as well as their emotions.
3) I would have a larger range of camera angles: Although there are a reasonable amount of different shots within my short film I would have liked to have attempted more difficult and abstract shots.
4) I would have worked more on the audio: I would have liked to have looked into more detail into the atmosphere within the film and the effects certain genres of music and certain audio clips could have on the film.

Miss Wright - feedback #1


Mrs Rolfe - feedback #2

POSTCARD FEEDBACK:
When in the process of gathering feedback on my postcard I decided to gather my feedback in a similar way to the way in which I gathered feedback for my finished short film - with the use of a flip video and the individuals I planned on getting my feedback from I set about gathering my feedback. Also similarly to before when filming my feedback I asked both individuals identical question - the questions were carefully thought out and were not leading questions in any way, this was important due to the fact that we wanted honest and critical feedback - The feedback I received in terms of my postcard was extremely helpful as it allowed me to realise where I had made mistakes and although too late to change them this feedback will be critical during my next creation.

If I were to participate in this project for a second time I would do several things differently -
1) I would attempt to carry out more audience feedback at several different stages of production in order to create a postcard that fits best to what a viewer wants to see.
2) I would also attempt to take into consideration other people's preferences as well as my own - regardless of whether I enjoy the creation I have made or not if the audience doesn't like it it will not fill it's requirements.
3) I would create more options for my postcard designs therefore giving myself more options for my final design.

The first person I collected feedback from was a member of my family, having been a part of the film industry for many years working as make-up artist I believe that her experiences and knowledge make her the perfect candidate to gather feedback from.

DUE TO A PROBLEM WITH THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE FLIP VIDEOS AND YOUTUBE I WAS NOT ABLE TO UPLOAD THIS VIDEO.

 

FILM REVIEW FEEDBACK:

When For gathering feedback from my second ancillary task - my film review I yet again set about using the same process, within my other posts I have attempted to vary the way in which I present my work however, in terms of audience feedback I believe that this was the simplest and most effective way of gathering feedback, alas I stuck to this method - I found the feedback given on the film review was the hardest to interpret, however once analysed I once again found the feedback extremely useful as it enabled my to notice faults in my work that I had not before seen as well as receiving suggestions as to how I could have improved the quality of it.

If I were to participate in this project for a second time I would do several things differently -

1) Carry our more research into more magazines and other ways of publishing film reviews as to have a wider understanding of the different conventions used.
2) I would similarly to the postcard attempt to carry out more audience feedback at several different stages of production in order to create a film review that best fits the readers wants.
3) I would have carried out audience feedback from people I didn't know who read that magazine that my film review is based upon in order to get a real perception of how accurate my film review is in terms of convention use.

The first person I collected feedback from was a member of my family, having been a part of the film industry for many years working as make-up artist I believe that her experiences and knowledge make her the perfect candidate to gather feedback from. From this feedback I have gathered several things - the first being that my film review was effective in both it's layout and language in fitting into Empire magazine. However, the main thing that let my film review down was the lack of a crease down the middle of the double spread page, I did consider this during the creation however, due to the fact that I could not create an effective crease I chose not to put one in at all.

Evaluation: Question two - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

SHORT FILM

POSTCARD

Regarding my ancillary task of creating a postcard as a marketing strategy for the media product I had created I began by creating 5 designs (viewable in post 16); I then followed through with all 5 of my designs and took the needed photos for them as well as editing them before deciding of my final design due to the fact that I wanted to follow the conventions of real media products and have an image promoting the film on the front of my postcard. 4/5 of my postcard designs are relatively easily connected to my short film however the remaining one was not as simple but was based around themes within the film such as entrapment and the idea of children having to grow up too fast in today's society - I then proceeded to make any necessary changes to my final design. Through my final design I wanted to convey to the viewer the main theme of my short film as well as create a sense of intrigue as to what the films central storyline was.

Within my final design I have broken several conventions of real media products - in taking a minimalist approach to the design of my postcard the shaping of my postcard differs from that of a usual postcard, it doesn't employ the title on the front and employs only the necessary image on the back - I don't personally view the convention breaks I have made as negative due to the fact that they were done intentionally, I did this to give my products an original style as I believe that this increases the effectiveness of my postcard due to the fact that in breaking conventions I have made my postcard memorable and different from other postcard, therefore making my postcard stand out from the rest therefore making it memorable and an effective marketing strategy for my short film 'Bruises'.

However, I believe that I have also stuck to the necessary conventions to make my postcard as effective as possible - One convention I used was to list contact information for the short film on the back of the postcard, this allows audiences to pose questions to us about the film as well as more importantly give people who work within the market who may wish to sponsor the film or our production company as a whole to contact us - within this information I included an email address specific to the short film, the production company's website, the cast and crew names as well as our production company logo and whom the postcard was designed by.

Another way in which my postcard is effective is in creating the reaction I aimed to get from the viewer - in giving my postcard a minimalist approach I have not given too much about my film away, after looking at the front image the viewer's initial reaction was to turn over - this then led to a link between the title and the front image thus leading to an element of intrigue as to what the film is about, therefore hopefully making the viewer want to watch the film. As well as the front of my postcard being effective the back is also just as effective - in developing a convention and not supplying the viewer with a synopsis of the film on the back of the postcard I have carried on with the intrigue I wanted to stir within the viewer by yet again not giving too much away.

I chose to present how my postcard was effective in two ways the first being through annotated versions of both the front and back of my postcard, highlighting the conventions I used and broke and how this effected the effectiveness of my postcard.

The second approach I took was to get audience feedback on the effectiveness of the combination of my main product and ancillary texts - I did this with the use of a voice recorder, the first person I asked was a student at school, I chose this student due to the fact that I know that they have an interest in short films as well as doing a photography and an English A-level, I believe that this gave her the correct skills to analyse my postcard in detail - therefore giving me a high quality feedback: Within the feedback this individual gave on my finalised postcard design there were several positives mentioned - these included the fact that both the front and back design fitted and broke some conventions of real media products in a positive and effective way, they also commented on the effect the minimalist design has - the lack of hints at what the film is about makes the viewer want to read it. The negatives included the fact that the bruises on the girl's face on the front of my postcard could potentially need to be clearer as it was not noticed the first time she looked at the front. This individual stated that as a whole my postcard was generally effective in what I aimed to achieve with it as well as a marketing strategy for my short film 'Bruises'.

The second individual I received audience feedback from was a teacher whom works closely with all of the sixth forms students and whom I trusted for an honest opinion; similarly to my previous set of feedback there were both positives and negatives in the feedback she gave. As previously mentioned the lack of clarity of the bruising on the face of the girl in the central image of the front of the postcard was highlighted as a negative, another negative was that there was a lack of information listed on the postcard. The positives remained the same as previously mentioned - a sense of intrigue was created by the image positioned on the front as well as the unique shape of the postcard being a positive and effective development of the conventions of a postcard. Below are the audio clips gathered from both of the above audience feed backs.

Jenna postcard feedback 1 by MrsShipp100

Jenna postcard feedback 2 by MrsShipp100

FILM REVIEW

Within my film review I wanted to provide the reader with a detailed understanding of several elements of the film - the plot, the camera work as well as my ideas and messages I wanted to portray through the film as the director. I spoke about myself as the director, Rachael as the camera crew, the cast involved within the film, the lighting, the soundtrack as well as several other elements of the film including some of the equiptment used, I included a balanced amount of positives and negatives about the film within the review - this was effective due to the fact that after research into articles within 'Empire' magazine all of the reviews had a mixture of positive and negative comments and were not one sided or biased in the slightest. The reviews I read also spoke about a range of elements of the films, as I have done. Successfully basing my magazine around an 'Empire' article leads the the effectiveness of this ancillary text in combination with my main product being high.

Whilst considering the effectiveness of my film review I chose the follow the same strategy as I followed to establish the effectiveness of my postcard: I presented an annotated image of my film review highlighting the effectiveness of it as well as audience feedback, but this time in video form. Whilst creating gathering this feedback I also decided to ask the participants what they thought of the effectiveness of both of my ancillary texts together in conjunction with my real media product - I did this by showing the individuals my final main product and then asking them. Below is the audience feedback I recieved on the effectiveness of my main product in combination with my film review.

Generally as a whole I would say that with reference to all feedback gathered as well as personal opinion that both of my ancillary tasks in conjunction with my short film itself are an effective combination in creating the correct 'buzz' for my film as well as creating the correct style and representation of the style of the film itself.

Evaluation: Question one - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

"Codes and conventions: the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used by the media to communicate certain ideas or to convey a desired impression. Technical codes include camera angles, sound, and lighting. Symbolic codes include the language, dress, and actions of characters." - www.saskschool.co.uk


Short Film:
In order to show the ways in which my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products I chose to show the typical and expected conventions of a short film through using and acknowledging certain aspects of a short film that is similar to our short film in several ways. The film I chose to use was 'About A girl', directed by Brian Percival and winner of the bafta for best short film this film is similar in both style and message to our short film. In doing so I allowed myself practice screen grabbing and annotating in terms of codes and conventions - this gave me a better understanding and a better grasp whilst doing the same task for my own short film.



'About A Girl'

1) I chose this particular screen shot of the opening titles due to the fact that it conveys to the audience an idea of what the film is about as well as a theme throughout the film - the 'text' type font and the audio of someone 'texting' connotes a childish/teenage implication within the film. As well as the visual connotation the title of the film itself implying the same thing. This could be seen as sticking the conventions of short film due to the fact that the title of the film relates to the theme and message of the film itself, this is also applicable to my short film 'Bruises'. 

2) I chose screen shot two as I feel it shows a good representation of all it's characters, the main character in the front as a 'forgotten youth' with her mobile phone out. Whilst you get an idea of her family in the back with her nagging sister and her mum scratching away at a scratch card. By having the girl in front it connotes that she is the main protagonist.

3) I chose this screen shot as direction clearly shows the girls isolation - her hands on her lap, slightly hidden in her sleeves and her face looking down sorrowfully. I also chose this shot because it when I first started becoming curious of what was in the carrier bag, as the girls thought trail becomes darker and darker, you become more aware of the carrier bag and what form of morbidity it may contain.

4) I chose this screen shot as it wraps up the whole story. Like every short film I have seen, there has been some form of shot or scene that wraps up any questions on confusion throughout the film. Like Home, which has a shot of a Donkey to clear up any confusion of what the man could be hiding in his flat. Again, I feel the use of an underwater shot also adds to the personal creative style, it shows how brutal things really can get for such an innocent young girl

5) My final screen shot is of the final credits of the film. They are simple black and white credits rolling up from bottom to top. The font is a sans serif font which connotes the youth of the girl as it is a curly and childish looking font.

After having showed the typical and expected conventions of a short film through the use of 'About A Girl' I chose use the same process to do a more in depth version for my media product - I used the same method in taking screen grabs and then analysing them.

My short film: Bruises.

1) This is a screen grab of our title screen - within this shot we are being subversive and challenging the conventions due to the fact that our title does not appear at the beginning of our film but appears after a shot roughly 35 seconds of film footage. However we also met the conventions of a real media product through the use of the simple style in which our titles our presented - white writing on a black background

2) This screen grab is essentially the first shot and opening of the film itself - as mentioned in screen grab one and within my post-production post we decided to begin our short film by entering straight into the footage - this challenges forms and conventions due to the fact that the norm is for short films to open with a title and plausibly other information e.g. key cast names and crew names.

3) This shot appears after the title shot, the dialogue within this shot is purposely distorted, the muffling effect used connotes Grace's daydream and conveys to the audience Grace's lack of focus within her class - In doing this we are challenging the conventions due to a lack of dialogue within the entirety of the film up until this point. However we are still participating in following the forms and conventions of a short film by majorly focusing on the central protagonist within the film due to the lack of introduction of any other characters so far.

4) Similarly to screen grab three I would say that this shot meets conventions of a real media product due to the fact that the focus is on the central protagonist and the only main character introduced to the audience at this point - as well as this similarly to screen seven it also conveys the desired message to the audience as they question why she is holding her arm paired with why is she so distracted.

5) This shot of 'Grace' sat in her classroom surrounded by her classmates whilst a teacher is stood at the front uses forms and conventions of real media products due to the fact that the shot establishes information to the audience about 'Grace' - it shows her age group, the fact that she is currently in school as well as the fact that she is currently being told off but that she is relatively quiet. The mise-en-scene employed within this shot as well as the recognisable school surrounding follows the conventions of a short film.

6) Screen grab number six could be considered to follow the forms and conventions and even develop them due to the creative camera angle used within the shot - the fact that the camera is positioned marginally higher than 'Grace' herself connotes the vulnerability of 'Grace' as well as the childish image she is drawing within the shot.

7) This shot follows forms and conventions and connotes a message we wished to convey in our film through the placing of props within the shot - the tablets loosely hanging out of a pocket of 'Grace's' bag puts a spin on her death later on in the film, it hints at mental illness/suicide rather than the obvious of her father killing her, however the fact that her father is still positioned in the doorway makes the audience question what happened therefore creating their own reading and taking their own message from the film -by doing this within this shot I would say that we are developing However, I think the different shot angle however develops these forms and conventions similarly to screen grab sixteen by exploring creative camera angles.

8) In this shot other than the fact that similarly to screen grab five a school environment and 'school-girl' character is created I believe that this particular shot I believe challenges and subverts the forms and conventions of real media products due to the fact that as a specifically placed extra walks directly past the camera elements of the shot change - the speed and clarity of the shot are distorted, done in the post-production editing phase this slow motion and blur edit is not a typical edit seen within short films therefore breaking the conventions of real media products.

9) Screen grab number nine challenges the conventions of real media products due to the fact that both character's identities are hidden within the shot - it is the first shot in which we meet 'Grace's' father and his identity remains basically this level of hidden throughout the whole film, with the audience never clearly seeing his face. In employing a hidden indentity for the father we have reinforced and connoted 'Grace's' fear of her father as well as his looming and intimidating presence within the film - creating this identity for the father could arguably being using conventions of real media products due to the fact that we are founding the 'evil' character within the film.

10) Within this shot I believe that we have met This shot uses forms and conventions as it establishes Grace's life, the the conventions due to the fact that this shot informs the audience of the location at which the next scene is taking place and in doing so creating an establishing shot of 'Grace's' home. As well as establishing 'Grace's' home it also establishes elements of her life - the loneliness within her life is reflected through the darkness surrounding her house and connoted by the fact that her bedroom light is the only light on within the house.

11) Screen grab number eleven develops forms and conventions within real media products the mirror into which the camera is shooting emphasises Grace's vulnerability and fear as well as making the audience debatably on edge and sympathetic towards 'Grace' due to the fact that the audience can see more than 'Grace' can, we are aware of her father entering the room before 'Grace' herself is - this element of the audience knowing more than the characters is not explored a great deal within short film, this is due to the fact that establishing this within a short film could present itself as difficult.

12) I chose this particular shot due to the fact that aids in the development of codes and conventions within our short film - it depicts the fear 'Grace' experiences when entering her own her, her rushed actions and panic whilst leaving the door open connote her anxiousness. The shot size; a long shot helps to  accentuate the emptiness of her house and enables the audience to relate and debatably empathise with 'Grace', therefore using and developing the conventions of real media products.

13) Screen grab thirteen similarly to screen grab fourteen uses forms and conventions by setting 'Grace' up as a vulnerable character - yet again it is her clothing and body language that connote vulnerability, the exposure of skin and the closed position she is sitting in.

14) This screen grab uses codes and conventions of real media products due to the fact that similarly to screen grab eleven 'Grace's' vulnerability is set up by the elements within the shot - the clothing she is wearing is typical of a young girl and the fact that she is showing flesh makes me seem more vulnerable. She is also presented as vulnerable due to the framing of the shot - the hidden identity of the father continues and almost implies to the reader that as he has no identity he can get away with what he is doing. Another factor that uses forms and conventions of real media products is the fact that we had to make use of a reflector, although additional lighting  was used within the majority of our shots the use of the reflector within this shot highlighted 'Grace's' father grabbing her arm - following this conventions allowed us to create a better quality film.

15) This shot both subverts and conforms to codes and conventions of real media products - the red lighting of the shot, created by the TV suggests an 'evil' undertone to both the scenario within shot and the character within shot, 'Grace's' father. However the subversive elements within the shot stem from the fact that the central character within this shot still has their identity hidden hides a lot from the audience e.g. what happened after his fight with 'Grace'? Did he kill her?

16) This shot being one of the final shots in the ending sequence of the short film challenges codes and conventions of real media products due to the fact that it is an extreme close up - this closeness of this shot means that the audience are not fully aware of what the shot is actually of, the shots piece together what the eventual outcome of the film is. In creating this ending I believe that we have developed conventions that are used within media products by using creating angles within our shots - we have used basic shots but mixed with these the shots could arguably be an interesting combination to watch.

Postcard:

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In terms of designing my postcard I attempted to follow the codes and conventions of and the general design of the professional postcard designs seen to the right (img.1). When considering the front design of my postcard I have attempted to follow strictly the codes and conventions of real media products, as described in post sixteen which consisted of the research I carried out into already existing examples of postcards for short films, once I had gathered the examples I analysed them; I looked at the layout, the images used, the production logos, the additional information and the tag lines.

I then set about creating my own designs with the codes and conventions in mind to enable me to create a postcard to a professional standard, in order to achieve this I used a high quality camera digital SLR camera (provided by the school), I also used appropriate editing software - photoshop as it was the best option and employs a large range of editing options available. As made clear from my above postcard design I have attempted to create a professional postcard in both physical appearance and in textual referencing - I have chosen to break certain conventions for tactical reasons, the shaping of my postcard is not that of a normal 10x15 postcard, the width of my postcard is much larger than it's height, this leading to my postcard being more rectangular than a normal relatively square postcard. Not only does this design allow for my central front image to look more effective but also creates an individual and creative style to my postcard, thus making it memorable and eye catching to the viewer and in doing this ticking all of the boxes for what a postcard as a marketing strategy should do.


In terms of the back of my postcard apart from the previously mentioned convention break in terms of the shape of my postcard I believe I have both used and developed forms and conventions - yet again after carrying out research several vital elements to include became clear: relevant film production information, cast information, the title (if not employed on the front), space for a stamp as well as the production company logo - I proceeded to follow all of these conventions, I developed the convention of the title being on the back by linking it to film - the brush effect on the title links to the central protagonist's artistic side portrayed throughout the film. 

Film Review:

After my research into film reviews in post seventeen I decided that within my film review I would write in the style of and stick to the conventions of 'Empire' magazine - however, due to the fact that neither 'Empire' monthly magazines or 'Empire' online have a short film section I decided to merge the conventions of the 'TV' section within the magazine and the 'Cinema' section within the magazine to create my own conventions for the 'Short Film' section within empire. In doing this I feel that I have used conventions and have reflected real media products within my own film review. I chose to use a double page spread for my review due to the fact that after reading many reviews from months worth of 'Empire' magazines I believed that a double page would both present itself as a challenge as well as displaying more conventions presented within a film review than a single page spread out - I chose to scan a double page layout from a copy of 'Empire', in doing this I allowed myself to follow more strictly the conventions used within the article as well as giving my review a realistic finish.


Despite as previously mentioned there being no set conventions for short film articles within 'Empire' I have used conventions of other articles within - the first being noting certain facts about the film at the beginning of such as; certificate, cast, running time and a synopsis. As well as fitting my film review tightly within the physical structure conventions as well as the writing style conventions of 'Empire' I also added in a tag line where appropriate and kept the adverts, in this case advertising new DVD releases from the original scan I made from 'Empire' to give the article a realistic edge. Debatably  unconventionally in terms of 'Empire' magazine I added a verdict to the end of my article. Also within this I chose to add an advertisment for a shor tiflm festival, this is unconvetnional but as previously mentioned, this adds to the conventions I am creating for a short film section within 'Empire' magazine. Overall I feel that I have used, developed and created conventions for an article that does not generally exists within 'Empire' magazine.