Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our product is very similar to existing media products because we researched and planned out what we were inspired by and what we wanted to show our audience.

Short Film 

During the brainstorm and development of our short film, I specifically looked at 'Knock' which is a short film by Deric Nunez. He adds a cold hue to the screen which makes the short film more dark and mysterious as if something bad is going to happen. He also uses sound effects like the phone ringing and the door creaking to add and build tension and adds in the stereotypical blonde character is the main character and victim. She is portrayed as an easy target with her bright yellow top. In relation to our short film 'Delusional,' it is very similar to this existing media product because we've focused on using sound to create and build up tension as it is part of the thriller genre. Knock has helped us generate ideas and has influenced us by thinking about the audience and making sure that they understood the plot even if there was limited dialogue within the short film. We wanted to add that "show, don't tell" vibe so that we could leave the audience guessing and decoding our short film.

On the other hand, I also looked at 'Human Form' by Doyeon Noh. Although this is a horror based short film I feel that it's more of a thriller that has a controversial meaning behind it. The director made it seem like plastic surgery was something that everyone needed but when the main character Inhyng Chung was denied it she was forced to go through whatever it takes, even if it meant that it was an experiment. I feel that the constant dinner table scenes add to the plot. The dimly lit room suggests that something is lurking through the shadows and that there may be danger ahead. Moreover, by having more characters in this short film I felt that each and everyone of them has influenced Inhyung's decision in the end which lead to her undoing. In relation to our short film 'Delusional,' I was influenced by 'Human Form' because it spoke out to the audience without actually having to tell them whats so wrong with whats happening. Doyeon Noh uses creepy characters, limited lighting, piano music and frequent cuts, however in our short film we could only use natural light and one song which could build up tension.This short film only helped me generate ideas and possible plots which we could then produce and develop.

By looking at the thriller and horror genre it has helped us think about what conventions make a short film successful. Not only has it influenced our ideas and what we could add to our short film but it has also helped us understand what the audience wants to see and what they expect as these conventions help make that overall genre. Representation was also key to the making of our short film because just like the other short films I have looked at, there are many symbolic codes and meanings which could also influence the actions of the main character. For example, in 'Human Form' if Inhyung didn't see that research participants needed poster, she probably would've gone to a proper clinic which she could afford and her face probably wouldn't have ended up looking that way in the end. Therefore, in our short film if we didn't add in a figure of his younger brother Eric, the plot could not move on and it definitely wont tell the audience how he died in the end. Eric is just Derek's imagination and he couldn't move on or come to terms with what has happened because death is a scaring thing that can happen at any moment. Eric represents that last bit of hope.

Poster

For one of the ancillary tasks, our group was inspired by a couple of film posters created within the thriller genre. For example, I looked at 'The Woman in Black 2' and the 'Altered Perception' poster. Posters within the thriller genre focus on close ups of the main character's face or the villain of the film. Just like the film, they use dark lighting but in posters they also have the power to manipulate and distort the face more. This allows the audience to quickly tell that it may be a thriller/ horror film. 'The Woman in Black' poster has influenced the making of our one because the shadow represents mystery and possible danger. In relation to 'Delusional' we added a black figure behind the main character which also creates mystery. On the other hand, in the 'Altered Perception' poster because it had a needle pointed/ stuck in an eye we wanted to make our poster have that same feeling where the audience would feel a little uncomfortable. Therefore, we wanted to almost tell the audience that the colour of his eye links in with the representation of him being delusional.

Usually the trailer of the film is what helps the audience decide whether or not to see the film, but the poster is what helps generate hype and market the film. In the posters we've looked at, some have a hashtag which relates to the film which could then be re-tweeted or posted on social media. We chose #Reality because it clearly links in with our delusional main character. We wanted to focus on raising awareness on mental health and how death can be a catalyst on that subject. This hashtag will not only generate hype around the film but also gather a community of people who may be experiencing the same thing.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The type of audience who would watch our short film would be the younger generation and short film fanatics. They are people who are into thriller and are interested in the plot.

When we first asked our teacher to look at our film, the type of feedback he gave us was mainly about the sound editing as it wasn't our strongest point. He helped us understand sound bridging and create cleaner cuts on some shots. This improved the continuity and audio of our short film. With this improved version, we then uploaded the draft onto YouTube. I then created a Facebook post which included links to the short film and the survey I created. The results are on this slide share below:



After looking at these responses I have learned that the majority have watched short films before therefore they may have compared our short film to others. Most of my responses were females aged 12-18 and because our short film was about the death of a loved one, their views on it may vary from experience. However, they all said that the title described the short film very well. I think these positive responses to Q4 made me realise how much a word can create impact and it can also make the audience remember the name because it is just one word. After looking at the cinematography responses for Q6. I have found that some liked the shakiness of the camera but others didn't. This links in with Stuart Hall's encoding theory. I think that the third and fourth answer had a negotiated reading response because they had different views on what the director's purpose of it was. Originally, we wanted to have that shaky camera effect to show that Derek's on edge, or that he doesn't know what's going on and that he is basically delusional. However the fourth answer to Q6 suggests that we should've focused on him more so that we could see him and all our attention goes to Derek. What I have learned from this response is that people have different opinions and that it can be difficult to clearly show the purpose of why we added that shot or that sound effect etc.

On the other hand for Q7, the responses varied from good and bad. This question focused on the audio of our short film and the bit that affected people's opinions were the bird sound effect. One said it didn't make sense for it to be included and the other person said that the overall soundtrack was okay. Looking at these responses, I have learnt that we may need to improve the sound editing in the dialogue scene and make sure that the sound is kept at the same volume at all times so that there's no confusion and better continuity. In addition, I have also learned that this may be a skill that needs to improve and to better understand the effectiveness of sound.

For Q9, I had many different approaches to the ending. Some said it was good, and others gave me points on how it could've ended. What I have learned from this is that many people wanted it to end differently. For example answer number 5 said that the brother could've faded away whilst Harry's character Derek smiled as he came to terms with his brother's death. In my opinion, the ending could've finished with a shot like that but that wasn't our purpose. When we were producing the film, Harry came up with the idea that once he looked up he finds that he disappeared so suddenly. This then suggests that he was never physically there and that he had been following a fragment of his memory instead. However, if Eric were to fade away and Harry smiles it would've made sense and it would have had a positive ending but we wanted to leave the audience confused and we wanted them to question what actually happened. Answer number 3 supports this.

In relation to the Narrative theory, Roland Barthes' enigma code links in with this. From the beginning we wanted the audience to question what was happening and ask questions like why does he look pale/ out of character/ a little bit dazed. This was shown throughout the bathroom and dialogue scene when he didn't know what was going on. He wasn't ready to be part of the society again because he's still in mourning. We added these scenes so that it made the audience want to keep watching and to understand why he's following a ghost and be part of that journey as to where he ends up. If we didn't add these enigma codes the audience would've felt like the plot's not progressing and that it's a little boring to watch. We also included symbolic codes to let the audience instantly think that this is what it represents e.g. flowers and in memory of poster suggests that there was an accident. To sum it up, these responses vary depending on how well the audience caught on and I have also learned that these opinions could have only been generated through influence (e.g. things that they have seen before) and personal experience.

Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

There are many different media technologies that I used during the production of my short film. For the research and planning stage, I mainly used websites to look up information which I could then analyse and link it to the development of my short film. An example of this would be the blogger site. This website contains blog posts relevant to the production of my short film. The first couple of posts were about the preliminary task, but then it slowly moved on to thinking about what our short film could be about. It included a mind map of topics and themes which we could focus on. After deciding that we wanted to create a short film using the thriller genre, I wrote down character traits which could link in with our actual audience and created audience profiles using an avatar website.

Although we wanted to stick with the thriller genre we had to make sure what the audience wanted to see was part of our short film. We used survey monkey to ask them questions like what would you like the main character to be? and what do you want to feel after watching the short film? Looking at my results I found that people wanted a male role and to feel intrigued at the end. Surprisingly, no one thought that we should make a short film in the thriller genre.

Moreover, during the research and planning stage I went on to look at thriller short films on YouTube. This helped me analyse certain codes and conventions which would fit into our film. E.g. ominous music and creepy characters. YouTube also allowed me to upload my own videos which I could then link onto my blog posts. This was very helpful because a normal MOV. file video would take twice as long to post onto blogger but on YouTube anyone can easily go on the site and look up the video if it didn't work. Specifically on our construction page, YouTube allowed me to upload our preliminary task and draft to our short film. On the other hand, YouTube wasn't the only site that helped me gather research; IMDb and google helped me look at posters for the thriller genre which I could then analyse and link in certain traits for the production of our poster.

The types of media technologies that I used in my research and planning was a software called Paint. I thought it would've been a good idea to use this software to draw out the storyboards but after realising that it would take a lot of time and effort I only managed to draw the first two shots. What I liked about this software is that it was easy to use and it wasn't so technical. Not only did it benefit me but it also helped me explore the artistic side of me again. You can easily hook up a tablet and pen to the computer and start drawing just like that. In addition, you can also paste images, crop them and edit the pixel size which could then be included in a blog post.

Lastly, Prezi was one of the sites I used instead of creating a power point. I used this site because it looked more glamorous than a simple PowerPoint. Moreover, I can easily log on and access it from any computer. I can edit any time I want and I can also use it to add pictures/ videos. Apart from Prezi, I also used slide share to show my results on my blog which I got from Survey Monkey. This is a site which can turn your power points into public ones which could be then embedded into a blog post. Just like Prezi its easy and simple to use and it displays your research in a more professional way.

However, after listing all the site I've used to help me with my research and planning, I couldn't have made the film without the hardware stuff. E.g. Camera, Tripod, Microphone. If I didn't have these things which the school nicely provided for us, we wouldn't have been able to create a high quality looking - short film. Moreover, we used Final cut pro on the Macs which allowed us to edit our film. This helped us cut videos and put them together and add in sound effects to create impact. We could also add in music which created tension and the feeling of mystery which is one of the thriller genre conventions.When our teacher helped us on certain parts to help improve our short film, I learned
new techniques like sound bridging. It also helped me develop my editing skills because I now know what looks good and sounds good.For example, the birds in the background sound effect helps add life and atmosphere to the shot. Another technology which helped produce the magazine article for our short film is Photoshop. This was very useful because you can layer images and add text. You can also cut out a person from the original image to make sure that the reader focuses on him (As you can see in the screenshot above.) Because I do A level Photography I'm used to playing around with Photoshop so I already knew how the tools work. My knowledge of Photoshop benefited me because it allowed me to create these two pages. However, the only reason I think this kind of format looks good is because I did my research on magazine articles and followed the codes and conventions. E.g. Include images from the film, director/ producer quotes and columns.

 Overall, I think that the internet had a huge impact on the progress of my short film therefore, without blogger the website, I wouldn't have been able to collect and analyse information and put together all the ideas that relates to our short film. This includes using it for the construction and evaluation stages of my coursework.

Preliminary Evaluation

For our Preliminary task, we were given the theme of Happiness. This them could've been about anything but we decided to focus on the topic of food. We were originally thinking about filming at McDonald's but because we were given only 2 hours, we felt like we wouldn't be able to film every shot as it is quite far from the school. So instead, we decided to film at a near by cafe. However, on the day when we got there it was closed so we had to be resilient and think of a place we could film quickly. Because our short film was about food we decided to film next door to the cafe which is called Budgens. This is just a local store but all we needed was a place where we could get food. In my opinion, I feel like we handled the problem well and we still managed to film 14 shots in 2 hours. Throughout this short film I was hoping to include a wide variety of shots so whilst we were story boarding we all discussed how we can portray a story through great cinematography. We spread out responsibilities in our group which then contributed to the production of this short film. Harry acted and edited; Eddy acted and helped with the camera shots; Connie mainly did the camera work and I focused on using the microphone to record ambience sound and sound effects.

Even though our first shot began with our main character, Harry, sitting on a bench this particular shot looked well because of the way the fence and the bench somehow contrast with each other. What I mean by this is that the bars on the fence is vertical whilst the bench is horizontal. They are also two different type of green which makes them a little different from each other. Another thing that went well in this shot was the framing. Even though we were just following vague notes on our storyboards, Connie used the camera very well to make this shot look good. The bench was in the centre of the frame and Harry was sitting on the right side of the bench whilst his bag was on the left side. Although the audience doesn't know where this short film was going, by being placed on the right side of the bench it could suggest that the story is going to move forward or that our main character is going to move from frame to frame. If Harry was placed on the left side of the bench if would make a slight difference because it'll look like he could be dwelling in the past. It was good to place him on the right side of the frame because the audience will start to feel the flow of it once they keep watching.
As Connie, Eddy and I are photography students I feel like this was a good chance to use our camera skills for this short film along with Harry who knows what works in a good film as he is a film enthusiast. Moreover, another reason why this shot looked good was because of the contrasting colours of nature and his clothes. His costume isn't too bright or too dark, it keeps it neutral and goes well with the green background. The reason why it worked so well is because its like the sky and nature coming together, making it represents harmony.

We wanted our story to flow so the next shot is of him standing up then rubbing his stomach. This simple action automatically tells the audience that he is hungry. We used a mid-close up and a tilt for this shot. What went well about this shot is that the background helps the audience focus on his face and his actions. The vertical bars don't distract the audience from what is happening what also went well was the brightness of this shot. Even though it was quite cloudy when we were filming, it looked okay when we re-watched the footage. We had to use natural lighting but it wasn't too dark or too bright and this was good because you can still clearly see his facial expression. To improve, we could add a grumbling effect to give it a slight comedic effect.

We then used a motivated cut to move onto our next shot which shows the audience that he's going somewhere. We used a shallow focus for the background for this over the shoulder shot because it helps the audience focus on him and not his surroundings. It helps the audience have a slight perspective and an attachment to the main character because they want to find out more of the story. This shot could be improved by being a little less shaky but even if the camera was on the tripod, it'd be hard because both actor and camera guy are different heights.

 Even though we used a shallow focus, we still see the lamp post that he's about to past which is placed on the right side of the frame. It helped the audience move on to the next shot which was also a great transition.This is an establishing shot and what went well was that the hedge was the right height. It separates nature from the sky/ clouds and it also separates his head from his body. In my opinion, I like how these two shots just flow and by walking from the left side of the frame to the right, it added to that flow.

The fifth shot, is just another  establishing shot that helps the audience follow the story. Because there are pictures of food on the windows of this shop and shelves of food inside, we know as the audience that this is a supermarket. In my opinion, I like how this shot links in with the previous shots. Although we couldn't film in a cafe like we originally planned, this location was better. I say better because the colour of the shop has a green theme which could link to the park where it was full of nature and the colour of green. By having Harry enter the shop, it helps us move the story forward. He buys food then leave the shop and we show the audience this by using a quick cut to a close up and a pan of him walking out. In the seventh shot, we use another close up to show the audience what he got which was a pain du chocolat and a bottle of oasis.

The eight shot focuses on his facial expressions and to portray this we made him walk towards the camera whilst looking at it. This shot begins with his neutral expression which then transitions to a smile. Although it was cloudy earlier in the film, in this shot its nice and sunny. Both sun and smile are elements of representing happiness. The warm rays from the sunlight and the sharp focus on the smile suggests that food is what makes him happy. I think this shot went well because it was well lit and shows detail through the extreme close up. After this the next shot shows him walking from the right side of the frame to the left. This helps show the audience that he's going back. This shot could be improved by making it look more horizontal and straight. The next five shots helps the story come to an end. In the tenth shot we are introduced to the side character.

In this shot, Eddy is harmlessly sitting behind Harry. Originally, we were planning to have a strong fan behind Harry to blow his hair so that it can give off a comedic effect and it suggests how holy his food is. However, the fan that we had was not strong enough. Apart from that, what went well with this shot is the symmetry between the windows and the three tables. As Harry is the main character, we placed him at the centre of the frame and we moved the middle table forward so that the audience can focus on him. However, this shot didn't look right because of the lighting used. Harry is dark and you can't clearly see him where as Eddy is visible and allows the audience to put all their attention on him. After putting down his stuff, it jump cuts to the next shot which is where he's taking out the food out of the bag.What went well with this shot is that the table and the floor are contrasting colours. This then allows the audience to focus on the food and not the block colours.

The next shot uses a pull focus. Its a close up and and two shot. In this bit of the short film, Eddy is mockingly singing behind him just to annoy him. But because Harry has prioritised his food, he asks Eddy to leave so that he can peacefully start eating. However, in this shot i feel like we had an issue with lighting as it was too dark again. It moves onto showing the audience a side profile. His body is placed on the left side of the frame whilst the food is on the right. Just like at the beginning of the film, he's looking forward or like into the next frame. The last shot is just a close up of the bite he had just taken with the title 'Happiness' coming up on the screen.

Overall, because food makes people happy, I feel that this relatable topic helped us establish a quick and easy story that can be portrayed in many different camera shots. What I've learnt with this overall experience is that there are certain framing techniques that can help the shots flow.