My partner and I went through various blogs and found a few of them very useful. There was
this one blog that has really inspired me and I think could be of immense help
to me throughout my A2 media project.
In the blog the student had mentioned everything in a very detailed manner, i.e., from her group members and their strengths and weaknesses, down to every single shot they were supposed to shoot for their project.
Conventions of locations have been followed in almost every aspect:
In the blog the student had mentioned everything in a very detailed manner, i.e., from her group members and their strengths and weaknesses, down to every single shot they were supposed to shoot for their project.
The team
chose to work on Short film with mixed genres; Psychological thriller and
Romance.
The team’s research
was very thorough and I feel it covered almost everything. They had started by
giving out examples of short films-the ones that had inspired them, followed by
brief description of each group member’s ideas and the reason why they chose not
to work on that particular idea. Pros and cons of each idea were highlighted and
this is one strategy that I picked out to do for myself as well; to jot down all
the ideas of my partner and then analyze each, hers and mine, with their
strengths and weaknesses- I am of the opinion that this way we will be able to
select the right option.
Moreover, the blogger has made comparison between these influential videos and the general pattern of short films.
The research
was then preceded with the exploration of the chosen genre and how they would
follow or challenge the conventions of it. The blogger had done a very detailed
statistical research on the target audience which seems like a good idea
because it can, according to me, give a very accurate idea of what age group
will be watching our video, and in relevance to that specific age group, how we can present our
project.
Analysis of the viewers
The team had then linked the conventions of the genre to their own project and had mentioned how they would follow or challenge them. For e.g. the team has mentioned how they would be challenging the happy-ever-after convention of the genre 'Romance'- the female character in their film dies. Though the team has said that they used an element of romance in their film, being a viewer I did not feel so. I did not see or feel any romantic element in the film.
Further, the team had given a Film treatment, an Audio treatment which
recorded the team narrating their story and the idea to the entire class and
asking for their feedback, and later a question and answer feedback session with their
peers was carried out. This is also another useful idea to go for; taking the
feedback on every single step would help us in correcting problems with our project
that neither my partner nor I would have thought about.
After making
changes to the original treatment, the team worked on the script and started
off with the Research and Planning part which included the pictures of their chosen locations and costume ideas inspired
by some of the films they had watched.
The blogger has associated emotions with the location e.g.(in their own film) there is a scene where the main character, Dave, is standing in the graveyard and is arrested-symbolically graveyard is a sad place, hence, graveyard is linked with the character receiving bad news.
Conventions of locations have been followed in almost every aspect:
Screen shot of their chosen locations
Influential scenes and locations from various films
Next, the team researched into film titles and their representation in association with the film genre and story. Here as well they have talked about symbolism of colours and font to use for the title of the film. Though the team has done a thorough research on film titles, they, however, have not used one in their final project. Hence challenging the convention maybe.
Proceeding the
research, the team planned out the whole story board of their film using the
Storyboard Quick Software, followed by creating an Animatic of their film, which
included all the sound effects and music that they planned to use in their
final project, to get a clearer and basic idea of how their final film would
look and sound like.
Next in the
creation of the final film was the creation of the detailed shooting schedule
which comprised of all the locations, shooting dates and the shots.
Construction
of the film included first, the Rough cut, which showed the whole film when put
together the first time. Later, analysis was carried out regarding
the improvement of the project. Once the film was done being edited, the
blogger showed it to some friends and family again, to gain feedback. Hence,
changes were brought about the film accordingly. In construction part the team has mentioned that the actors and the team itself had the entire shooting schedule so that everything was co-ordinated and well organised. Moreover, they have mentioned the problems that they faced during the shooting like weather problems due to which they had to delay or postpone the shoots.
On
completion of the film, the team looked up on brand identity and worked on its Magazine review. I think, however, that the brand identity research have forcefully been put into the project, it does not really go with their conventions or anything. The Love Actually brand identity does not really say much but the Shrek's example is, however, stronger and also self explanatory to some extent.
Brand identity research and example
Film's movie review(magazine page)
Next, the team
looked up for different film posters to create one of their own-to which they
had to make changes a few times to make it look better and appealing.
Team's initial Film poster
Edited and changed final version of the poster
In evaluation questions, the blogger has mentioned every tiny detail of the problems they faced, how helpful different softwares were etc. Everything is there. In the first question the answer contains the names and details of every piece of technology that was used to help them create their final project along with the reasons of why they found them so helpful and in what way they have used them. The second question is basically highlighting the significance of audience feedback which I can see through out this blog as well. the team has used feedback on almost every single step which has, as they have also mentioned, helped them to rectify mistakes that others pointed out and of which the four team members did not even think about. In the second last question the team has pointed out the similarities between their work and some of the work that they had been inspired from. For e.g the team has taken some idea for their film poster from the film 'Shawshank Redemption' poster and as for their magazine review page, they have taken idea from another magazine's Movie review of 'New Moon-the Twilight saga'
Softwares used
The blog has
inspired me because the team throughout, I have noticed, has used audience’s feedback
for the improvement of their project. The research had also been carried out in
such depth; everything was planned and well organized, and most of the things decided
were according to what actual Hollywood film makers have used for similar
scenes, costumes and locations.
