Evaluation- Candice Tyson

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

For my advanced portfolio I have done a lot of research into short films, exploring the conventions of these and how I could implement these into my own work. Many short films range from about 2-3 minutes. However, not all short films keep to this with some of which I have watched being 7 minutes long. Not only the length but also the conventions of these films vary creating a number of genre's and most often hybrids.

In addition to short films, I have also explored and analysed film poster's and reviews so that I could cover these aspects in my own. In this part of my evaluation I will go over the number of thought processes and developments I have used for the creation of my portfolio.

Narrative organisation and short film format

• The narrative of a short film is very different to any normal film because of the time length. As short films are generally up to ten minutes long this means only one main issue is normally covered within the narrative rather than a series of issues. Many of these short films are straightforward and uncomplicated. Reasons for this is because fitting a very complex story line into a five minute short film would be very difficult. Through my research of short films it was a regular occurrence that the short films were often simple and many without any dialogue and only non-diegetic soundtrack.  

Screen grabs from 'Exposure' and 'The Ellington Kid' 

• Many short films I had researched had very minimal dialogue, for example 'Exposure' shown above. 'Exposure' like many films, consists of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout, without any use of dialogue. This allows the audience to work the story out themselves, and also creates enigma for those watching, keeping them on the edge of their seats and asking questions to what is going on and what is going to happen next? 

• 'The Ellington Kid' has a very similar format to our film 'False Witness' as the film switches between reality and flashbacks from the past. The film also consists of dialogue which gives the audience a bigger insight to the story and explains the goings on of the flashbacks.

Screen grabs from 'Attack' and own film 'False Witness'

• The narrative of our own film 'False Witness' is quite different to any of the short films I have researched as it consists of both a circular and multi-strand plot line. A film called 'Attack' has a non-linear narrative. The beginning of the film shows a police officer talking to a victim of a crime. As the film moves on we see flashbacks of the real events that took place and how they give a lot more to the story than we have heard from the victim. As the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the events featured, this makes it non-linear. 

• Although the narrative between 'False Witness' and 'Attack' are slightly different. There are also similarities between the two. In 'False Witness' the flashback reveals the truth behind the lies Rebecca is telling in the interview room. Similarly, in 'Attack' the flashbacks reveal the real sequence of events behind the story being told to the police officer. 

• The flashbacks in 'Attack' fade into black, while in 'False Witness' we chose to use the fade into white effect. We felt this worked better as our scenes were all taken in daylight making the fade into white more relevant. Whilst 'Attack' was filmed in dark conditions where using a 'fade to black' made more sense. 

• 'False Witness' uses a multi-strand element in the plot- the two scenes of the flashbacks of the friendship of the two girls, against the interview room. We made the flashbacks work parallel to the interview scenes as we felt this would show how their true relationship was presented in real life and how Rebecca's lies contradicted this. 

• The audience remain omniscient throughout 'False Witness' giving the film an unrestricted narrative- as us as the audience know more than the characters in the film (the interviewer believing the lies while we as the audience are unveiled to the real events). 

• We used a circular plot in our film so that in the final scene we could reveal more of what was unseen in the opening scene. It also makes the audience aware that the graveyard shots are in the present time whilst the following shots are all the past leading to the the event at the graveyard. 

The two shots shown to the left show the circular plot. The first image at the beginning of the film, and the second shot showing the ending of the film.

Bordwell & Thomson's Theory- Plot vs Story

• The story of 'False Witness' was about the antagonist Rebecca being accused of the death of her friend Louise after being accused by Louise's mother. This results in Rebecca being held for something she persists she never did. 

• The plot shows the interview resulting in Rebecca's release. Not only that but the bullying leading up to the murder, the murder itself and Rebecca leaving the police station after her release. 

Todorov's Theory 

• Todorov's theory can be applied to the story of my own film 'False Witness', but not the plot as the plot is non-linear and circular . Although the theory is shown as slightly disorganised in my film with the confrontation stage occurring before the disruption. Also, the resolution in the film is to the character Rebecca, although it wasn't justice deserved and this resulted in the criminal (Rebecca) being freed- this could be interpreted as a further disruption.

Equilibrium- Louise's grieving mother at the graveyard

Confrontation- Rebecca being questioned/interviewed on the events leading up to Louise's death

Disruption- Rebecca being shown as the cause of Louise's death

New Equilibrium- The mother is joined at the graveyard by antagonist Rebecca as if she may be out to kill again

Levi Strauss' Theory

• Strauss' theory works in our thriller 'False Witness' as in terms of binary oppositions. Good vs evil  is the most obvious in our film with Louise being the good and Rebecca the evil. The relationship between these two characters is unveiled throughout the film showing Rebecca as the dominant character and Louise as submissive (another binary opposite) resulting in an unexplained murder. 
• The consistent lies that Rebecca tells while being interviewed gives the solicitor the idea that Rebecca is good. However, us as the audience who are omniscient are revealed to Rebecca's real characteristics showing us she is evil.

Mise en scene

The genre we chose for our film was a thriller/crime and in order to do this we had to consider many conventions and aspects of mis en scene to make this genre clear to our audience. I looked at many different short films to gain ideas from these to create a successful crime/thriller. The number of aspects we considered were:

• Lighting
• Costume
• Make-up
• Props 
• Facial Expressions & Body Language

Lighting

Screen grabs from 'Exposure' and own film 'False Witness'

• One of the first short films I looked at was 'Exposure' that I found on Virgin Shorts. One of the most prominent aspects of this film was the low-key lighting  used throughout. Lighting in any film is a well thought-out aspect as it sets an atmosphere and mood for those watching. Low-key lighting in particular sets a dark and downcast ambiance, which is the effect we wanted for our film.
• The top set of screen-grabs shown in the image above is from 'Exposure' and the bottom set of screen-grabs are from 'False Witness'. I compared the two as I wanted to show the similarity in mood and atmosphere in addition to the shadow created through the lighting. 
• The overall theme of 'False Witness' is dark and evil as the film presents a real life issue of bullying taken too far. It was important that we used the dark low-key lighting to portray this real life issue in a serious way. 
• Low-key lighting was used particularly for the interview shots as we wanted to reflect the darkness of Rebecca's lies and deception. 

 Costume & Make-up

The Solicitor

We needed our solicitor to look like an adult and make it believable to our audience that she was a solicitor. Our first challenge was finding someone to act this part of our film as we needed someone old enough. However, in the end we decided to use an A level Drama student to act the part. Her costume was carefully chosen so that she would fit the part of a middle-aged solicitor. We chose a smart blouse with a broach, a knee length skirt, a black blazer, skin colored tights and smart black heels. We also carefully considered her make-up. To fit her sophisticated look we gave the solicitor red lipstick and the rest of her make-up subtle. Glasses added  to the age of our actress.

Rebecca 

We placed Rebecca in a number of different outfits throughout the film, each thought carefully about making sure they were fitting her characteristics. As the role of the antagonist we placed Rebecca in dark clothes to mirror her personality. 

We felt by putting Rebecca in a hooded jumper at the end of the film adds the feeling of danger and reapplies a stereotype that many people have of people that where 'hoodies'. The stereotype being that all people that wear 'hoodies' are criminals and trouble-make.

We gave Rebecca a more masculine look without make-up and dark un-feminine clothes. 

  

Rebecca

Louise

The costume we chose for Louise (the protagonist) was also carefully thought about as we wanted to portray her innocence. We did this by placing Louise in light colours and also in very feminine clothing, for example the cardigan and flowery dress as shown in the screen grab on the right.

In addition to this we gave Louise subtle but pretty make-up to add to the femininity and innocence of the character.

Louise's Mum

The actress we had chosen to act the part of Louise's mum was a mum-to-be, so we asked her to wear something that she felt was suitable and fits the part of a grieving mother.

Sound

• We chose a piano non-diegetic soundtrack to support our film. It begins loud at the start of the film and quietens down over the dialogue, changing slightly. We felt it was important to use the piano soundtrack as this sets the sad and somber mood that Louise's mum is feels as she enters the graveyard and stands at her daughters grave. 
• Before the transition from the graveyard scene to the interview room there is a sound bridge to give the audience a clue that there may be some connection between who the person is at the graveyard and the goings on in the interview room.
• When the interview sequence begins the non-diegetic sound changes into a more negative tone with clashing notes creating suspense and symbolising danger. This non-diegetic sound continues throughout the sequence of the film, quiet when there is dialogue.  
• At the end of our film we wanted to create an added tension and suspense as it is revealed that Louise's mum is not alone as she stands at her daughters grave. The non-diegetic sound becomes loud and more prominent, making the audience feel on edge.  
• Sound is used in film to portray a certain feel or emotion to the audience. In false witness our non-diegetic sound is parallel to the goings on in the film for example at the beginning at the graveyard.  Different genre's of film will use non-diegetic sound differently. In horror films the non-diegetic soundtrack will often be high in pitch and fast to create suspense and tension. Whereas in a romantic film, the soundtrack will often be made up of piano and string instruments, which is soft and peaceful without creating and suspense or tension. 
• We chose to use off-screen diegetic sound (dialogue) over a number of our flashbacks as we felt this was a successful way of showing the lies that Rebecca was telling the solicitor over the truth and reality to what had really happened.

Facial Expressions & Body Language

Screen grab from 'Olive' and 'False Witness'

• Similarly to the short film 'Olive', the use of close-ups reveal the emotion on the characters faces.  In these two screen grabs there is a lack of emotion in each of these characters faces. Showing their hardhearted and emotionless characteristics. 
• Facial expression is important as it gives the audience an insight into the characteristics and feelings of each character.We wanted Rebecca portrayed as the cold character in 'False Witness', and much of this was shown through her reactions and facial expressions throughout the film in addition to the dialogue. While Rebecca was portrayed as cold, we wanted Louise portrayed as submissive and innocent- also much of which was shown through her facial reactions and expressions.

Screen grab from 'False Witness' of Louise

• This screen grab shows a medium close-up of Louise and her reaction after trying alcohol. Her hand wiping her mouth and the frown on her face shows the upset after giving into peer pressure- the result of her submissive nature.

Female paramedic from 'More Than You Can Chew' and Louise from 'False Witness'

• Body language was another thought through process when it came to the filming of 'False Witness'. I compared body language of Louise to the female paramedic in 'More Than You Can Chew' as they are both presented as the more submissive and innocent characters in each film. Their submissive and innocent characteristics were presented through body language. In the first screen grab from 'More Than You Can Chew' the female paramedic is in a crouched position with her arm protecting her face. In the second screen grab we see Louise with her arms crossing over her body almost like she is hiding and uncomfortable. Both of their body language show the audience they are the smaller character and have the potential to be walked-over by the other characters in each of the films.

Male paramedic from 'More Than You Can Chew' and Rebecca from 'False Witness'

• In the next pair of screen grabs we see the male paramedic from 'More Than You Can Chew' and Rebecca from 'False Witness'. These two characters are both portrayed as the more dominant and powerful character in each of the films. This is again is presented through body language and also camera work. In both shots the characters are shown from a low angle making the characters seem bigger and more powerful. The male paramedic is leaning against the doorway in a relaxed manor, however the way the camera is positioned makes him appear more dominant than the female paramedic who is on the floor.
• Rebecca's body language doesn't show us much but what is shocking is the way she stands after pushing her best friend down the stairs. She shows a complete lack of emotion, showing her cold and heartless nature. The way the camera is positioned shows Rebecca as powerful and dominant. 

Characterisation

The way characters are perceived and represented is very important in any film and this is done through characterisation. It enables viewers to build up an opinion or feeling towards a character right from the beginning of the narrative.  

Screen grabs from 'Olive' and own film 'False Witness'

• When comparing 'False Witness' to the other short films I have studied I felt the characters were most similar to those in the film 'Olive'. 
• Both films consist of a cold, heartless character and also an unknowing, innocent character. 
• The difference between the two films is the way our opinion of Rebecca is made-up so quickly at the beginning of 'False Witness', as the narrative jumps straight into the flashbacks revealing Rebecca's lies. What we see of Rebecca makes us hold a grudge against her and take the side of Louise as the innocent character.
• Our opinions of the characters in 'Olive' takes a little longer to develop as the depth of each character is revealed later in the film. At the end of 'Olive' we have been made aware of Olive's evil and heartless ways and decide to take sides with her husband who she then goes and leaves. 

Screen grab from 'False Witness'

• The relationship of the characters in our film 'False Witness' is not presented as the typical 'best friend' relationship you'd expect to see. Rebecca is presented as powerful and dominant while Louise is the complete opposite- weak and submissive. This supports Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites. The relationship consists of a lot of jealousy resulting in an extreme measure. The jealousy and hate we see coming from Rebecca causes us as the audience to feel sympathetic towards Louise as she seems oblivious to the real side of Rebecca. The opinions and hate for Rebecca grow particularly at the end when Rebecca gets released from the police station.

• Our film shows an aspect of social realism as bullying is unfortunately something that is more common in today's society, even more so because of new technology which has introduced cyber bullying. Jealousy is often the big issue and the cause of bullying among teens. We felt by using teen actors we could portray an accurate representation.

Screen grabs of Louise

Characterisation is also made up of aspects of mis en scene such as costume. We wanted Louise to represent innocence and we felt by adjusting the costume in a particular way we could portray this innocence to the audience. The two screen grabs shown on the left are of Louise, and notice how her top button is done up. This is a very subtle technique but it represents her innocence as she isn't presented as a sexual object as females often are in film but instead she is covered up and appears respectful and proud of her appearance.

In addition to costume the lighting of the character was also important. We chose to light Louise often in quite bright lighting as light can often portray goodness and innocence.

 Rebecca on the other hand we wanted to portray as the antagonist and present the opposite to innocent and portray Rebecca as guilty. In comparison to Louise, we made sure Rebecca was more scruffy looking and went against the female stereotype of femininity, as femininity can often present a character as innocent and we didn't want this stereotype for our character Rebecca.

Screen grabs of Rebecca

In a number of shots Rebecca's costume consists of a hoodie as we felt this could symbolise a guilty character, as if she has something to hide. As hoodie's are often stereotyped to be worn by people who cause trouble we felt this would be the perfect costume to characterise Rebecca.

In addition, many shots we used of Rebecca we made sure to use low-key lighting as this reflected the darkness of Rebecca's character.

Camera work 

In any sort of film camera work is a very important aspect as it can express and represent a character in a way you want the audience to see them. This can be done to make the audience aware of a character that is the protagonist and the character that is the antagonist.

Screen grabs from 'Olive' and 'False Witness'

• An example of this is in 'Olive' we are introduced to the antagonist through a big close up. We instantly see her facial expression, age and gender. We then see a number of other close-ups that focus on her doing her make-up. This allow us to get an insight on her emotion as well as her actions.
• Our use of close-ups are frequent throughout our film as we felt by doing this it would give our audience a strong insight on the characters personality and feelings. Our consistent use of dialogue in addition to this enables the audience to gain a strong opinion on the characters in the film. Not only does it allow the audience to gain these opinions but it also enables the viewers to see how the plot is developing. 
• A lot of short films use very minimal dialogue. However, in our short film we chose to use a fair amount of dialogue as our plot was too complicated to do without. What we found was the dialogue worked nicely, in particular the voice-overs as they contradict what we see on the screen as well as the sort of person Rebecca makes out to be. With the frequent use of close-ups, the emotion in the dialogue was made stronger and us as the audience got a bigger insight to the characteristics of both Rebecca and Louise.

Screen grabs from 'False Witness'

• The screen grab shown above is from our film 'False Witness'. The camera work here was thought about in detail as we wanted to portray Rebecca as powerful and Louise as weak. After Rebecca pushing Louise down the stairs we presented Rebecca from a very low angle, portraying here as authoritative and forceful. We then see Louise from a high birds-eye view angle where she appears small and weak. These types of angles are common in a lot of films to show the representation of each character. 

Screen grabs from 'False Witness' and 'Olive'

• In all types of genre films establishing shots are a commonly used when it comes to camera work. An extreme long shot is used to establish the setting and inform the audience where the following shots are taking place.
•  For example, the first screen grab I have chosen above shows the graveyard in our own film. This establishing shot is used right at the beginning of the film making the audience aware that the following shots are taking place in the graveyard.
• The second screen grab is taken from the short film 'Olive'. The establishing shot shows a mansion suggesting the people we see in the following scenes are middle/upper class. Establishing shots are often used to do this as it allows the audience to start building an opinion on the characters and gain information just from a simple shot that is establishing a setting. 

Screen grab from 'About A Girl'

• The screen grab shown above I felt was a good example of a shot similar to an establishing shot as we see more of the setting around rather than the focus being on the characters. This enables us to see the sort of place the characters live in allowing us to build opinions. For example, in this screen grab we can see the small unloved houses with the big block of flats in the background suggesting council housing. This gives the audience an insight to the characters and that they are working class people.

Use of Genre Conventions

• Short films often create sub-genres which are categories within a wider genre of film. For example in 'False Witness' our main genre is thriller and our sub-genre is crime. These short films are called cross-genre films and will often turn down being put into one certain genre category like a standard film would. Another word for a cross-genre film is a hybrid- 'a genre in fiction that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres'. Another example of a hybrid 'The Ellington Kid' as it explores conventions of a thriller, comedy and crime genre. 

• Although I wouldn't fit 'False Witness' into a particular genre it fits many conventions of a thriller. For example the use of low-key lighting, mirrors and flashbacks. As well as fitting the conventions of a thriller 'False Witness' also fits into the sub-genres of a crime and drama, making it a hybrid. With the film being a hybrid, fitting a genre theory to our film has been proven difficult. However, I feel that Steve Neale's theory could in some context be applied. Neale's theory is 'genre are instances of repetition and difference' he also adds 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre' suggesting repetition does not attract an audience. 'False Witness' applies this theory in the sense that the repetition are the conventions of the thriller with the flashbacks, low-key lighting, mirrors and music. While the difference is the plot and how a crime is committed by a so called 'best friend' and after all the lies Rebecca is released without any charges. In addition to this the antagonist is a female- going against the stereotypical view of an antagonist being a male.

'The Ellington Kid' Short Film

Film Poster

Film posters are used to attract an audience and to advertise a film. It is important that these are eye-catching and engaging for an audience as this is an aspect of advertising that will either draw them towards or away from a film. I have researched and explored a number of film posters to look at common conventions that are used. Although film posters share similar conventions they are all designed differently to fit the particular film.
The common conventions found in a film poster are:

• A title
• Actors names
• A key image or images
• Film website
• Critical acclaims 
• Sponsors
• Billing block
• Tagline

A number of film posters I have researched (shown above)

Our Film Poster

To make our film poster as professional as possible we tried using as many of  the conventions we could shown above. We didn't use actors names as our actors aren't well known so it wasn't necessary to add them into the poster. 

The Title

Our poster title

• After doing the research on film posters it was clear that the title needed to be the largest text on our poster. We downloaded a font called 'Old Press' which we felt fitted the theme and genre of our film. We made sure it was bold and white so that it was clear to read and stood out on the page against the black background. It was important that the title stood out as it also gives the audience a hint of what the film could be about.  

Actors names

'Abduction' film poster

• When it came to actors names we chose not to add this to our film poster as we felt it was unnecessary as our actors are not well known. Also with our film being low budget we could not afford to hire well known actors so this was not an option for us. However for films like 'Abduction' as shown above, actors names will often appear on the film poster as it is an aspect of the poster that is likely to attract a particular audience
• For example, I have highlighted in red on the poster above 'Taylor Lautner' as his name is presented in a fairly large font, centered, bold, and at the top of the poster. Taylor Lautner is a well known actor particularly favored by teen girls after his role in a number of other teen movies. This has generated already an audience for this film as teen girls will see he is in this movie and they will want to watch it.

Key image

Key image circled in red

• The key image I have circled in red above. We made this the largest image as we felt the eye contact was striking and eye-catching. In posters I had research the key image was often the main character and in this case Rebecca is the main character so we made sure to make her the largest image on our poster. The image in film posters will also sometimes include a setting or location, however we felt the characters presented on a black background was the most effective, as we also didn't want to give away too much of the film- this also gives more attention to the characters.

'Juno' Film poster

• We took a similar idea from Juno. The characters are taken and edited onto a striped background. Other film posters will do this too- editing the characters onto a blank or patterned background to make the characters the main focus rather than the setting that could distract attention. 
• We tried out a number of techniques for displaying our images, however in the end we felt the most effective was to edit our main characters onto a blank black background fitting the theme of our film.

Critical Acclaims 

Critical acclaims taken from our film poster

• Critical acclaims are always quoted onto film posters. They often give a small hint to what the film may be about or what to expect from the film. It's important these critical acclaims are chosen from the right people as these determine an audience for the film and also communicate to people that read these magazine's or newspapers that it is a film they want to see. 
• Above I have  cropped the part of our poster that has our critical acclaims. We chose two magazines, 'Little White Lies' and 'Touch'. The Little White Lies critical acclaim in particular was important as it links in with our review. Although this is only a small part of our poster its these small quotes that will attract an audience to our film.

Billing Block

Billing block taken from our poster 

•  Billing blocks are found on all film posters. They are usually found at the bottom of a film poster in a small and often hard to notice font. The section legally has to be printed and credits the right people involved in the film. The billing block we used in our poster is shown above. We used a white font as it was easiest to read against our background images. Below is an example of another billing block from a real film poster:

Billing block taken from '44 Inch Chest' film poster

Film Review

We wrote a film review in the style of the magazine 'Little White Lies'. We researched and studied the magazine to find aspects and conventions we needed to follow in order to make the review look as realistic as possible. We made sure to follow the same layout and structure of the magazine and did this by constantly referring back to the 'Little White Lie' reviews we had studied at college. Not only was the layout important but so was the use of language. The research into the layout and conventions can be read about here. 

My Final Review

'Little White Lies' Review

• Red box- This is the key image, most often taken from the film. To follow this convention we took a screen grab from our film of Rebecca, our main character.
• Pink box- This is the title. Each beginning letter of a new word is a capital. The title is centre alignment in a large bold sans serif font. It is the largest text on the page.
• Green box- This is the 3 point rating system. Each review in the magazine has this, rating the film on 'Anticipation', 'Enjoyment' and 'In Retrospect'. Each of these are rated out of 5. For our film review we gathered audience feedback and got the average of 4 for 'Anticipation', 3 of 'Enjoyment' and 4 for 'In Retrospect'. 
• Purple box- This shows the paragraphs. Each paragraph are indented to show a new paragraph. The 'Little White Lie' reviews each tend to be roughly 7 paragraphs and around 500 words long. We made sure in our review to keep to this word limit.
• Grey box- This shows the page number. Each number is shown with three digits and it is centre aligned in a small font. 
• Black box- this shows 'Reviews' printed in capitals, centred on the left hand side of the review. In our review we chose the right hand-side in the same layout and following the same convention.
• Yellow box- This shows who the film is directed by, who the films stars and the release date. 
• Blue box- This shows the first letter in a bold, large, drop capital, sans serif font. This convention is used in every 'Little White Lie' review. It tends to be 5 letters wide and 3 letters in depth.

'Little White Lies' language techniques

One of the LWL reviews I looked at was this one shown below for the movie '44 Inch Chest'. I analysed the text so that I had a good understanding of the language used for the magazine 'Little White Lies', and so I could take this knowledge to help me write my own review for this magazine.

LWL '44 Inch Chest' film review analysis

• For my magazine review that I am writing for our film 'False Witness' it is the house style of LWL that I am following. The target audience of LWL is for a very different target audience to my own as LWL's target audience is more male, older, affluent and a well educated audience. My product, as part of branding, doesn't really work. However, it is part of the marketing side and this magazine will review what I've done and would hopefully give a good rating. Not only this, but indicate that this is a suitable film for my target audience.

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

Transcript:

In a real commercial context, I feel my advanced portfolio works well. My poster was well thought through and I made sure to use the same styled font as that used in the title sequence of our film. Through the research I had done on film products, I found that film companies normally use the same font for their titling and for all commercial products as by doing this it enables them to build a brand.  Not only this, but it also makes it more noticeable and recognisable to an audience.

For example, here is a Shrek film poster. Notice the font here, is the same as the title font shown at the beginning of the film. Over time, because of the consistent use of the same font we start to relate this font with only this film. For my advanced portfolio to be as successful as possible I need the aspects of this need to work in sync with each other, not only this but also complement each other. By using the technique used by other film companies, I hope that my title will also become a recognisable brand as well and prove as successful.

We chose to place both Rebecca and Louise on the front of our poster as we felt this was important at communicating to the audience who the main characters are in our film.  Through my research of film posters, a common aspect I found was the main character having the largest role on the film poster. For example, we made Rebecca larger than the image of Louise, as Rebecca has a leading role in the film. Another example of this technique is shown in the real film poster for Casino Royale and Sherlock Holmes.

Deciding what images we wanted to use in our film poster was a challenge and took time. As many film posters take an image from the actual film, we felt this would be a good technique to use in our own. We looked at a number of shots we felt were framed nicely and screen grabbed them to start working with for our poster. As our film was all taken through a good quality camera the quality of our actual images was not a problem. After feedback from our evaluator we decided on the two final images for our film poster.

Here are a number of our poster drafts, as you can see we played around with a number of different images to see which was the most effective. This draft in particular we felt gave too much of the plot away as we didn’t want the audience knowing about the death of Louise before they had started watching the film. In this poster draft we felt the two actors had very similar body language, we also wanted to hint to the audience who the antagonist is in the film, so we felt the images in our final poster did this successfully. We felt by using the record symbol it linked nicely with our crime/thriller theme and makes the audience question what this has in relation to the film, it also subtly links in with the film title, ‘False Witness’.

The review we created works well together with our poster and final film. This is because the target audience overlaps and links together with the poster and ‘Little White Lies’ magazine review. The target audience for our film and poster was roughly between the ages of 15 and 25, while the target audience for ‘Little White Lies’ is around 25-35. Although there is a slight difference in the age of target audience here it wasn't too dramatic. We styled our review in a way a younger audience may not be attracted to. However, as we wanted our review to match a real ‘Little White Lies’ review it was important we did this. We tried to create a recognisable link between our poster and a ‘Little White Lies’ review by using a similar image to that used in our poster of the antagonist Rebecca. This image was an extreme close up of Rebecca revealing the intensity and dark look in her eyes. I felt this image is engaging to our audience as it makes them question the thought process of Rebecca and how she links in with the title of the film.

In a real commercial context, I feel my film would works well. My reasons for this are because I plan to show my final film on sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Not only this, but also present our final film at film festivals such as the London Short Film Festival. As we are a low budget film company, these are the most realistic ways of showing our film. This sort of film festival will not only enable us to show our film but also our film poster.  

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?


For the creation of my advanced portfolio it was important I gained audience feedback from a range of ages and genders to get feedback on my film, poster and review. The audience feedback was a useful tool for making decisions about my work as I was able to listen to other peoples opinions on how to improve.

These are the number of ways I gained feedback:

• Teachers
• Social Networking
• Email
• YouTube

Final Film and Poster Feedback

Facebook

I used 'Facebook' as a source of collecting audience feedback as it was a perfect way to collect audience feedback from our target audience for the film. The most common users of Facebook are between the ages of 15 and 25, which was the audience we were targeting for our final film.

Below are the two messages I sent through instant message on 'Facebook'. The helpful part of using an instant messenger is that the message would go straight through to their phone or electrical device.

Above are two screen grabs to show the messages I sent to two of my friends to get audience feedback on both my final film and film poster

Jessica's feedback to the poster

Through Jess's feedback on the poster I can see we've successfully made our audience feel tension. Another aspect that has been successful is our use of colour as Jessica says ' the boldness of the title that is white and blends into the black makes me think that someone's innocence/happy childhood is about to be ruined due to the black merging in with the white', this comment suggests the colours in our poster are sending out the right message and feeling for our target audience. Jessica says to improve we could have 'made the title more central to make it a bigger statement because its the first impression of the film and then the actors behind the titles because the acting reveals the meaning to the title'. I feel this is quite a good idea as the meaning behind the title is the main actor so it could have been a good idea to have the image of the antagonist Rebecca behind the title. This would send a bolder message to our audience about what the film is about.

Jessica's feedback for final film

Again the camera work and music in the film has been complimented. 'The music built up the tension more and more making me feel angry that Rebecca did what she did', this comment shows us we've been successful at portraying the tension building and thrilling atmosphere. We've also been successful through the use of our shots showing our characters facial expressions, making Jessica feel 'attached to the characters'.

The improvements Jessica suggested were that the 'acting could've been a bit more dramatic and realistic and also their voices were quite quiet', this is something that will be taken into account if I were to do the task again. However, with only being a low budget film group our choice of actors wasn't huge, but improvements on the acting could quite easily be made.

Jessica says 'the title does fit into the film however, it doesn't make it too obvious about what will be in the film which keeps the viewer off the edge of their seats' - exactly the reaction we wanted from our audience.

Chloe's feedback for final film

Chloe's feedback was again positive about our film. Something Chloe said we could have improved on were the sound effects and making them match-up with the action. This was something us directors were aware of when we were editing our film and did our best to try make the sound match up with the action however we couldn't make it perfect. We eventually ran out of time to re-film the shot so this could not be helped.
Chloe also said ' the title made me think the film was going to be about a witness who shouldn't have been there rather than the murderer being the friend', this suggest Chloe completely got the wrong idea from the title. However, if the poster had been viewed before viewing the film this may have made it clearer to Chloe what the film was about.  

Chloe's feedback for poster

Chloe criticized the poster and said it could have been more successful if 'the images of the girls was in one shot rather than it being edited together'. Taking this comment into account, to improve in the future, instead of using an image from the film we could hold a photo shoot that is purposely held to get a picture for our poster. This way we wouldn't have to use two separate photo's, although this hasn't been criticized by anyone else that has seen the poster. 

Email

The next way I gained audience feedback was through email. This was also a useful way of gaining audience feedback as I was able to target an older audience that use email and check it regularly. Using email was also an instant method as now days email is connected to your mobile or electrical device, so I didn't have to wait long for feedback. 

The screen grab above shows the email I sent to Kerry

The screen grab above shows the reply I got from Kerry with feedback

• I had sent an email to Kerry asking her to answer a few questions about the film and poster. Her response was very positive about the film. She said 'the storyline was excellent' and 'the music perfect'. Improvements Kerry suggested were that 'the interviewer could have been more convincing and the push down the stairs could also have been more convincing'. When it came to finding someone to act the part of the interviewer in our film it was difficult, so it resulted in using a 17 year old A level drama student which wasn't ideal. From this feedback, to improve in future to make a more convincing interviewer we could spend longer trying to find an older actor to act this part. To make the push down the stairs more convincing we could have filmed more shots of this so we could choose the most convincing. We also could have added in a diegetic sound of a scream to show Louise's reaction to the push.

• The overall camerawork and editing Kerry said she 'couldn't fault it' and she also says the title does fit the film. So in conclusion to what Kerry has said there are only two improvements we could have made to our final film in order to make it more successful.

Screen grab of email I sent to David for feedback on the final poster and film

The screen grab above shows the reply I received from David

• David's feedback was both positive with a few criticisms that could be constructive in the making of another short film. David said the tension was 'very effectively created'. The feeling of tension was a huge part of our short film as this was the general mood we wanted to give out. He then goes on to say 'focusing on her eyes/face made her looking threatening', we did this through our use of close-up shots which was purposely done to give the audience an insight into the emotions of Rebecca.

• The main idea that we had for our film when creating it was to use reality and flashbacks to show the contradiction of Rebecca's answers in the interview room. David says 'the contradiction between her answers given and the flashback to the past was done very successfully', this was some very positive feedback as this was the biggest part of our plot and story.

• David says 'there were a few inconsistencies e.g. the gravestone is not new'- this is one of the issues we had when it came to the filming of this scene as we didn't feel comfortable filming at a new gravestone as people may still be coming to visit. Our solution was to find a fairly clean looking gravestone and only show this from certain angles so that the front of the gravestone wasn't showing.

• The comment above was a part of our short film that we had thought long and hard about as adding in the record affect we felt would tie in nicely with our poster. However, we were aware that maybe this effect wasn't use frequently enough and this was supported by David's comment. To improve next time a good idea would have been to receive more feedback before adding in the effect to finalise our decision.

• The relationship between the two friends in our short film is very obvious. We wanted to show this difference in power through our film poster before watching the film, which was done successfully as supported through David's comment. I feel David understood the reason for the record button as it is linked in with the video clip in the film.

YouTube

Youtube enables people to leave comments or to 'like' or 'dislike' a video. The screen grab below shows how many views our film has got. It also shows two people have given our film a thumbs up. We have 0 thumbs down. We have not yet received any comments on our film on YouTube.

Screen grab of final film on YouTube

All the feedback we had received was for our finished product. What would have improved our product would have been to get feedback on our work in progress, illustrating how we made alterations due to our target audience feedback. For more professional films they sometimes do something called a test screening which is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. This method of gaining audience feedback while our film was a work in progress would have been a perfect way of gauging what people thought about our film and how we could improve to receive a better response once our film was complete.

The audience feedback we had received was helpful. However, if we had gained this feedback earlier in the process we would have been able to make changes that now we don't have the chance to. After gaining this audience feedback I now know for the future what I would do differently and how this could benefit the film greatly. 

Review Feedback

The review feedback we received was from our teacher. We sent a number of drafts to our teacher to receive feedback. Below are a number of screen grabs to show the drafts and feedback we received from our teacher.

1st draft feedback

2nd Draft Feedback

3rd Draft Feedback

Final Finished Review

A link to the readable version of our final review can be found here.



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