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

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

CONSTRUCTION:
For the actual filming of my production, I used a Panasonic SDR-H85  HDD camera, which I borrowed from school. Although it doesn't capture the highest quality footage, I had a sound knowledge of this particular equipment thanks to the fact that I used to complete my AS opening film sequence last year. Once I had everything filmed, I uploaded my footage onto the Macs at school, converting the clips into a DV format so that they could be imported into Imovie. I could then order them, but as I only had a very simple version of the editing software at my disposal I was quite limited with the transition and effects I could actually use, meaning I often had to slightly alter my original ideas along the way. Concerning the sound for the short film, I recorded the guitar tracks and voiceover using my Samson Go Mic, recording it using the free software Audacity. Once it was recorded, I added  slight reverb to make it sound more realistic and simply exported it as an MP3 file and imported it into Imovie. 
When it came to my print products, I used the 'create still frame' function on Imovie to create stills, which I then copied and pasted into Microsoft Word and printed off in black and white (deliberately to achieve a vintage inspired look). Once I had created my collage, I scanned it into my computer, saved it as a Jpeg image and imported it into Corel Paint Shop Pro. Here I added the additional images and text to complete my poster. I found it rewarding to, in this part of the process, mix using new media technology and working simply by hand. For the film review, I made a basic template for the page, again using Corel Paint Shop Pro, saved it as a Jpeg, and opened it in Adobe Photoshop, where I inserted the still from the film at the top and added the actual text itself. Using the two different editing softwares allowed me to play to the strengths of each and create an overall, more convincing final product. 


RESEARCH:
Research is much easier in the modern age due to the fact that we have the internet, and therefore essentially an unthinkable amount of information at our fingertips whenever we so choose. As short film was something completely new to me, I started with Youtube, where I watched short films from a variety of genres and got used to the (lack of) conventions. I also found a lot of information through reading a variety of articles from media publications on the internet about short film. Once I had gathered all this information, I used Microsoft Powerpoint to collate it all, and SlideShare to publish it on the web and therefore be able to upload it to my blog, which I updated throughout the research process. 


PLANNING:
I have to admit that throughout the planning stage I didn't actually use many new media technologies, and instead used the old fashioned paper and pen method instead. For example, brainstorming ideas, writing the script for the voiceover, and creating a storyboard to help me  with filming. I did however use the video camera to hone my camera skills and also produce a short practise documentary, to get used to filming and editing in a documentary format. I editing using Imovie, and used a simple soundtrack, created with Garage Band to complete the short film: 'If You Could Make One Thing Happen...'. I also uploaded this to Youtube in order to upload it to my blog. 


EVALUATION:
To complete question one of my evaluation, I recorded a directors commentary using a Samson Go Mic and Aucdacity, exported it as an MP3 and simply imported it into Imovie and placed it over the original soundtrack for my short film. For question two, I created a Powerpoint and again uploaded it onto SlideShare and onto my blog. In order to receive feedback for question three, I uploaded my completed short film onto Youtube and used social networking such as Twitter and Tumblr to promote it. 

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I uploaded my final short film to Youtube and these are the comments that were left:

I was also contacted through Facebook by someone who had seen my film:

I posted my video on tumblr and received this message in response:

Finally, I posted a link on Twitter and received these comments:

In order to get some specific feedback, I devised a simple three question survey:

Overall, I have received a lot of positive feedback about my short film, and quite a few people have told me that it genuinely affected them when they watched it. With making people step back and think as one of my main intentions, it made me extremely happy to hear that I had done this successfully. 


From my research, it was very clear that any film with romance as a sub genre, would have a target audience of females, and you can see on Youtube, that these are the dominant part of my audience:

The male who completed my survey says that my film 'made them feel slightly uncomfortable', which perhaps suggests that although I wanted my film to appeal to people of any age and sex, the focus on love does infact alienate my male viewers. To improve therefore, maybe I could try and get a less biased point of view across, to make my film more appealing to a wider audience. 

Another thing that was suggested to improve my film was the camera work, and I have to admit, this was something I was quite concerned with at the editing stages. Because when conducting the interviews, I was constantly moving around a busy city centre, I ended up not using a tripod as it seemed like too big an inconvenience. I was therefore relying solely on my steady hand, but I do feel there are parts in the film, where the camera work could visibly be improved. This is proven by the fact it was picked up on in my audience feedback survey. Therefore, if I was to do this project again, I would definitely use a tripod for ALL my filming. 

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

Question 2

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Final Product

Locations

I plan to film the shots of the girl getting ready for her date in my house. As my bedroom is very small, I think I will use my living room as there is more space to capture movement and set up the camera properly to get a good shot. To fit in with my retro theme, I will need to remove the electrical equipment for the actual filming. I already have a record player which I will place somewhere appropiate. 

For the middle section of the film, I will need to go a public place so that I can hopefully interview some strangers. I am thinking maybe a city centre such as Leeds:

I will need to think carefully about where exactly in Leeds, because obviously it has to be somewhere where someone can actually stop and talk, and there can't be too much background noise. 

Storyboard

Script

Once I had my test footage, I decided it was probably time to start thinking about the script. I do feel slightly pressured because the narration is such a key part of the opening sequence - It needs to link all the different clips in the montage together and introduces the viewer to what the film is actually about. Here is what I have come up with:

I'm Rachel, and I fell in love with the idea of falling in love a long time ago. I think it was something to do with princesses, and love songs, and not a lot to do with real life.

I think that love is something that intrigues me more than anything else. I find it so fascinating that no one seems to have a clue why or how it happens.. We just, go along with it I guess. 

I often think of it like lightning in a jar. It takes something everyday and lifeless, and turns it into something worth having. It gives it a purpose, just like love does. 

Now I'll be the first to admit that I have a tendency to fall in love way too easily. But how do you know when you have? For me, it's when you feel like it's completely out of your control. You don't even want to feel that way anymore, but you just can't help it. There's something there that can't be put away or forgotten about.. No matter how hard you try. For me that's love. Uncontrollable, undefined, undeniable love. 

I plan on recording this with a USB microphone onto the free software Audacity and simply exporting it as an MP3, then into imovie. I can't yet write the narration for the end sequence of my film, as I have decided to leave it open, until I have completed the beginning and middle section.

Print Products

To begin with I drew out a rough draught of the original idea for my film poster: 

I knew straight away that I wanted the poster to have a kind of artsy and unconventional feel to it. The way I first saw it in my head, was some kind of either black and white or sepia collage in the background, then a bold coloured shape on top, on which the title of the film would be written. As the theme of my short film is love, I though a heart would be appropriate, and would instantly let the audience know what the film is about. 


DEVELOPMENT
This is my second draft and style model:

While writing the voice over narration for my film, I came up with the title 'Jar of Lightning' (this is my personal interpretation of love). I felt like with this now the title, it would make more sense to have a jar as the main feature on the poster, rather than a heart. Since my original idea, I also decided that the collage in the background will be stills from the film. To  give it the scrapbook look I envisage in my head, I printed the pictures off, ripped them out and glued them down. I am still undecided as to whether they will be black and white or sepia on the final product. I think that I would like to incorporate more colour into my final design, maybe in the title, or around the jar. 

If You Could Make One Thing Happen By the End of the Day...

As documentary is so new to me, I thought it would be wise to have a go at filming and editing a set of interviews before my final short film. So, armed with my question and a camera I set about finding people around college willing to give me a minute of their time. Here is my finished product:

I learned a lot of things that I can take on board when completing my real film from doing this exercise:

• Firstly, it was quite surprising to me, how many people were actually unwilling to be filmed. This could obviously heavily impact my main product, because I am relying solely on the responses of other people to make my film a success. If I don't get any good interviews, even with the best editing in the world, the whole interview section of the film will feel like it is lacking in something
• Lighting is very important for when it comes to editing between film clips - There is just something very unprofessional looking when the lighting noticeably changes, even though it isn't a continuity sequence 
• The location of the interviews is key, as for this video I had to heavily edit the audio to try and eliminate as much background noise as possible
• I got a comment that somebody liked the 'raw' kind of feel to the video, however in the storyboard for my final product, the interviews are more staged. This has made me consider whether or not I should change this and try to capture the mood created in this practise piece instead
• As I was just filming this as a test and to practise my editing skills, I didn't actually use a tripod, resulting in some rather questionable shaky camera work. Obviously for my final product I need to ensure that all the camera work is steady and professional

Opening Sequence Planning

For my opening sequence, I know that I want a part of the montage to portray my own interpretation of love, which for me is kind of a 1950's Hollywood approach. I envisage a girl getting ready for a date, in a pretty fifties dress, and maybe listening to a record player or something. In order to portray this theme, I have made a mood board which I can look back on when actually making my film to help me.

I know that I want my opening montage sequence to have a fifties/sixties feel to it, so to see how successfully I would be able to achieve this, I shot some test footage and edited it to make two possible sequences. I originally wanted to add a 'sepia' effect, but I couldn't get this to work, so I ended up just manually adjusting the colours of the video. I actually quite like the effect this gives, and may end up using it in my final product.

Steadicam

On Monday, our Media class was introduced to the Steadicam by a member of staff. He taught us how to set it up and shoot footage, so the next lesson, me and Natalie Tracey tried it out. We took the camera around school and each took turns filming and being filmed. To start with, we did walking, then as we got more confident, running. At first it was quite difficult as I found the steadicam quite heavy and difficult to control, but I feel like this was a worthwhile exercise as I have definitely improved my camera skills, which is essential if I want to create a decent final film. Here is our footage:

Initial Idea

After completing my research, my initial idea is to create a documentary exploring love and what it means to people of a variety of ages. At the beginning of the year I originally chose the short film task because it meant more creative freedom and the chance to be really expressive. I plan to have three parts in my short film: An introduction with montage style editing and a voice over; The main section with the interviews, and an ending, which I am yet to decide what it will feature. I am leaving the ending open until I have conducted all my interviews, because obviously until I have done them, I don't know what my conclusion is going to be. I imagine that it will take the same format as the beginning section with a montage sequence with a voice over.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an American film maker, most famous for his documentaries. You may wonder why I chose to research this particular director, when his work is all politically based (and my idea is clearly not) but I have two main reasons: 


1) He is the director and producer of the highest grossing documentary of all time, 'Fahrenheit 11', so he is pretty much about as successful as  you can get
2) Although his documentaries are all politically themed, this is clearly what he is passionate about, which is perhaps why he makes such good documentaries about it. He has lots of questions that he wants answering, and lots of ideas that he wants to portray, about a subject he really cares about. While researching him, I read on IMDB that 'Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.' Reading this definitely made me think that he was a good person to draw inspiration from.


TRADEMARKS

• Often uses classic film clips and music for juxtaposition
• Narrates all of his documentaries in the first person
• Often mentions or shows his home town in his films
• Being tremendously outspoken about anything he believes to be a 'social wrong'

Conventions of Documentaries

To commence my research on the documentary genre, I have looked into and made a list of the typical conventions:

1) VOICEOVER - Aids in informing the audience and can also help to make a documentary feel more personal, as the person could be sharing their point of view on a subject
2)'REAL' FOOTAGE OF EVENTS - All events presented to the audience are to be seen as 'real'. Documentarians often go to great lengths to convince us that the footage is real and unaltered in any way, although editing and voiceover can affect what we as viewers see
3) TECHNICALITY OF REALISM - Uses 'natural' sound and lighting, so nothing appears artificial. Has to be 'real' at all times.
4) ARCHIVE FOOTAGE/STILLS - To aid authenticity and to add further information which the film maker may be unable to obtain themselves. 
5) INTERVIEWS WITH EXPERTS - Used to authenticate the views expressed in the documentary. However, they may sometimes disagree with the tendencies of the documentary, but if this is the case, it is likely that their points will be fought against.
6) USE OF TEXT AND TITLES - Words on screen can help to further inform the audience and provide extra information, and they also often show the passing of time by stating the date or general time. It is a very quick and easy way of providing information
7) SOUND - Music is a very effective way of creating a mood or an atmosphere - this is often non-diegetic . It can also be used as a bridge between scenes, or even in some cases help to further inform the audience
8) VISUAL CODING - Much like in a fictional piece, mise en scene can also be used in documentary. It could possibly be used to make things more clear to the audience and portray information as simply as possible. For example, if you see a man in a white coat and with a stethoscope, most people will automatically recognise that he is a doctor.

Breakthrough (And a Slight Change in Direction..)

From my short film research and analysis I have realised that the films about romance I have the most preference for are ones which take a documentary approach. I like the fact that they are easily relatable and I love the simplicity and honesty of listening to someone elses experiences and ideas about a theme, rather than creating a fictional story around it. I believe that a lot of people have a lot of interesting stories to tell, and I would like to make it my mission in this project to find these people and make their stories into a short film exploring love and what it means to people of a variety of ages.
Obviously now I am taking more of a documentary approach, I need to do some research into this genre to ensure that my film stays true to the conventions and as a finished project is authentic.

My First Crush

This short film is called 'My First Crush', and is again a reminiscence, except this time about people's first crush, with animations of animals as the visual.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004r6q8

Again this short film can't be uploaded, but this is the link

The visual of this film is a series of cartoon animals on pretty simple backgrounds, and the audio is a variety of people talking about their first encounters with love. This means that the people retain anonymity, and all the audience know of their personal details is their first name. This ability to remain anonymous, could mean that the people were more willing to share their stories, and the fact they don't actually have to be on camera, could have persuaded them to do it in the first place. The animation also relates to the overall 'childlike' and 'innocent' feel of the film, and adds an interesting dimension I feel, to the standard interview style of most documentary style short films. 

I Expect Joan Feels The Same

To further understand the short film conventions I have decided to analyse some of my favourite examples. This particular short film is called 'I Expect Joan Feels The Same', and is about two women reminiscing about their husbands who they lost in the war.

I Expect Joan Feels The Same
(Unfortunately, the video cannot be uploaded to my blog, but this is the link)

CAMERA WORK: In documentaries, a variety of camera shots can be used to portray people in a number of different ways. In this short film, the camera is positioned next to the women, not directly infront of them, which somehow makes it feel a lot less informal, and more like a 'chat with friends'. It also defies convention in that it doesn't use a close up shot of the women, even once. The maintenance of the mid shot makes this short film seem a lot more dignified and less intrusive. It's like they're not just playing on the audience's emotions, they are genuinely just trying to inform you of the two women's stories. Also, for the most part, the women are kept in a two shot, making it clear to the audience that this a shared reminiscence, and also helps to convey the fact that this is not just one person's experience - this situation actually happened to a large amount of people at the time.  


MISE EN SCENE: Just as the camera is often deliberately positioned to convey a certain idea or mood, the actual elements in the shot are often deliberately chosen. The location of the interviews is a typical 'home', making the situation instantly relatable to the audience. One of the women is also wearing red, which connotes love, one of the major themes of the film. The other main theme is war, which is also connoted through the use of red, with it being the colour of poppies. 


EDITING:  Montage sequences are often used in documentary film making, most of the time to help tell the story, or show something that has happened in the past. In this short films, the inserts of photographs of the husbands work poignantly in contrast to the present day interview. The clear age of the photographs (they are in sepia) reiterate to the audience how much time has passed since they were even alive. Being a still image, it also represents the fact that all they are to their wives now is a photograph and a memory. This helps to convey the emotion to the audience. Between the photographs and the interview there is also a dissolve edit, which symbolises time passing. 


SOUND: The first sound you hear in the short film is the interviewer asking a question, with no music at all. This is rather unconventional and implies straight away the importance of the women's conversation, over any other sound. We also hear their voices, before we actually see their faces, which again suggests the importance of what they are actually saying. This is reiterated by the fact there is no music used in the entirety of the short film.

Initial Short Film Research

I started my research by reviewing the history of short film, and reading a variety of articles about them. I condensed this information into a short power point presentation, which is here below:

Short film

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Introducing Myself To Short Film

So after researching genre, it is apparent that I obviously need to look into the form of the media product that I am actually going to be creating - in this case, short film. I have to admit I was rather apprehensive to start on this bit, because in all honesty I had no idea where to start. Short film is something that I've never explored before and I genuinely struggle to think of times when I have even been exposed to it. Then I remembered, yes! Pixar! At the beginning of all their full length feature films, there is an animated short. I specifically remember one called 'Partly Cloudy' that I absolutely loved about a cloud and a stork:

Although this is obviously an animation, I feel by revisiting it, I have found a good start to my research. I have realised that in spite of the fact it is so different from the kind of short film I will be making, all short films have the basic principle of getting either a story, or a point across in a fairly limited amount of time.