Rearch: Blog Analysis

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. 

http://mjmgwpahsa2media.blogspot.com/

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.