EVALUATION

 

Creative Critical Reflection Questions

 

Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

(Created using 'Keynote')

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Notes:

My short film, 'WIDE EYED' surrounds themes and confronts the issue of drugs abuse. I decided to explore the dangers of drug taking by including an overdose scene along with a hallucination of dark figure to store fear into the audience. The dark figure is a representation of "the balance of life and death” as its head is a deer skull which is commonly associated with such.  In horror, the main focus is on creating a feeling of fear, I used typical conventions of a horror, such as including supernatural elements. I aimed to create suspense and excitement for the audience by using conventional sound in my film, such as an overwhelming and claustrophobic sound. A swarm of bees buzzing and a sharp ringing sound. This creates a sense of an uneasy and scary environment, for both the characters and  the audience. During sound design I wanted to have a sudden change of mood, I achieved this by introducing the film with a gentle cover of the song ‘take a walk on the wild side’ by Lou Reed over a montage sequence of the girls. I then cut to black and a sharp ringing sound is introduced.

 

During the character development stages of writing and editing WIDE EYED I wanted to portray the girls as normal individuals to suggest to the audience that this could happen to anyone. I included a montage sequence at the beginning of the film of the girls tripping and exploring their surroundings. While filming I followed the girls around while they explored, I used ‘The Fly on the Wall’ technique to capture the girls being genuine, without the camera intruding. I wanted to represent the social group of troubled teenagers, who are experimenting with drugs in a way that avoids patronisation and unrealistic characters but warns the audience and explores the negative side effects of drugs. 

 

I also considered Mise-en-scene during the location scouting for my short film as it is conventional to place your characters somewhere isolated such as a beach house in the countryside. This technique adds tension to the situation as there is now a limited amount of help available to the girls. My aim during filming  as to create a very real atmosphere to make it more relatable to my audience. I achieved this by using natural lighting and the consideration of the weather as I wanted to add realism in the aspect of British weather and to avoid glamourising the theme of drugs.

By using Establishing/ wide shots in my film I incorporate common conventions used in horror films to give the impression of helplessness and isolation. Close-ups are used to put emphasise on the character,  to show their reactions and emotions. Creating suspense as the audience isn't shown the surroundings. By using Handheld camera it gives a jerky, ragged effect and adds realism to the shot. 

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Question 2: How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of 'branding'?

(Created using 'Powtoon')

 

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Notes:

My short film, 'WIDE EYED' posses a sense of branding in the way that it has a clear colour pallet, using cool tones along with the occasional colour break, for an example, during the trip scene I manipulated the colours in post-production to make the shot a purple colour. The location i used plays a key part in the colour palette of my film as I shaped the girls’ wardrobe around the location’s cool tones and striking scenery. I created a world lost in time, by using clothes traditional to the 60s/ 70s and avoided any use of propped technology being present. I did this to foreshadow that this kind of drug abuse has been present throughout history.

 

The location of the film creates a sense of branding as it is unique and memorable. I decided to take advantage of the striking sunrises and dead sunflower field to create a world surrounding nature, life and death within the camera. In the opening montage the girls run around a dead sunflower field, they are having fun and enjoying themselves, however the dead sunflower field is a symbolic foreshadowing for Lili’s Death. During the process of overlapping the music to the video footage I wanted to incorporate lyric correlation with the montage of videos, I did this to subconsciously perform the song to the audience through the montage of the girls. 

 

A theme of nature is evident throughout the whole sequence, using shots of insects as well as using the sound of insects buzzing as part of one of the scenes to build tension. I wanted to visually stun the audience with the natural surroundings as well as make them fear it by the end of the film. At the begging of the film I wanted to portray nature as a gentle force that the girls love and admire. During the middle half of the production I decided to darken the tone and turn nature, something the girls once considered beautiful and give it sirenesc features, such as luring Lili out to sea where she drowns. I believe my production works together to create a sense of branding as every shot I have incorporated has a deeper meaning and adds to tell a bigger story in itself. My techniques during filming works together to create a sense of branding as I like to use experimental shots such as filming reflections to askew the audiences perception of the location and girls. I also use establishing shots to create a sense of isolation. The song overlapping the sequence, 'Take a Walk on The Wild Side' covered by Molly Payton is very "countryesk". This adds a sense of atmosphere to the world of ‘Wide Eyed’. This creates a sense of branding because I developed a piece with clear themes of nature, a unique colour pallet and a stunning location to contrast with the horrific events that take place.

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Question 3: How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?

(Published via Wix.com)

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My final piece is aimed towards an audience that prefer genres such as Arthouse, Horror and Drama's. As the actresses in the production are ages 17 an audience of teenage girls could be considerable as they are more likely to relate to the characters. I engaged the audience by using a number of techniques. Firstly, I began by telling a story, of two girls who escape for the weekend to experiment with drugs at one of their beach houses. I put a lot of focus on the visual aspect of my short film. I decided to locate the production on a British countryside beach, knowing that the sunsets and sunrises are breath taking and would be an impressive visual aspect for the film. I also incorporated an element of surprise during the 'Trip Scene' by creating a dark figure with the skull of a deer, which appears in Lili's dream. 

 

I also used repetition, by cutting the piece in which the first shot is the same as the last shot, I did this to foreshadow Lili's death by editing a shot of a cross made out of two sticks amongst a sunflower field to be the first and last shot of the film. When you say something again, it’s unusual so people take notice. I used an array of very different sounds to add a sense of autership to my production. I wanted to have a sudden tone of mood to my film as I wanted to give the audience a similar perspective to the girls. I did this by using music, I had Molly Payton cover 'Walk On the Wild Side' by Lou Reed which is a very gentle song, I also used Mise-en-scene and a warm colour palette. After the sequence it cuts to black and a sharp ringing noise is introduced, I then layer the sound of swarming bees and a deep humming noise to make the audience feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable. I would aim my final product to feature in a Indie production company such as 'Soda Pictures' or 'Revolver' rather than a major production company because it is a small budget project. I would also distribute it amongst schools as it could be considered an anti drug campaign as it is very striking and shows the dangers of drug taking.

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Question 4: How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online- in this project?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Notes:

During this project I used a wide range of technologies from start to finish. I began the project by doing research into a variation of films that fell under the same genre as mine and possessed the same feel/ mood. I watched, ‘Into the woods’ which inspired the character of ‘The Dark Figure’, I also took inspiration from ‘Buffalo 66’ Christina Ricci’s character when designing Lili’s outfit, hair and makeup. I did this all on websites such as Youtube, Netflix and another online sources. I then took this research and adapted it into my Wix blog, where I began to construct my idea into a short film. I did research on conventions used in my chosen genres, such as Drama and Horror, where I learnt how to shape my production in a way that would successfully fit into my chosen genres. I also did in-depth research on Narrative, Mise-en-scene, Sound,  Camera angles, shots and movements. I did this for both Horror and Drama. I pursued this research by using search engines such as google. I progressively learnt more about the Wix blog platform and was soon able to add youtube links of videos that inspired my production. I also learnt how to create a strip of images across the page, I used this technique when creating mood boards for the location, character’s, Costume and the development of the Script. After filming on a 5D Cannon I went onto edit my footage on Premier Pro, I used Youtube to learn how to add effects such as colour grading and editing techniques

 

I then went back to my Wix blog to create a ‘Post-production’ page. I uploaded my final piece onto my Youtube Account and then embedded the link to the video onto my Wix account. I then went on to discuss my chosen editing techniques in my short film, featuring, ‘L Cut & J Cut’, ‘Montages’, ‘cross cuts’, ect. The next task in the project was to create a film poster for your final product. I pursued research into different styles and conventions of movie posters and put it onto my Wix blog, along with images and analysis. Once I had done enough research to confidently peruse the project, I wrote up a list of movie poster conventions and correlated them to Wide Eyed, for an example, ‘Tagline: The opponent to a puzzle is disorder’. I then began developing Ideas for my movie poster design. I made rough ideas on Pages and then went onto Adobe Photoshop to professionally create the poster. I used Youtube to guide me through techniques and effects such as fading an image and layering. 

 

I then went on to research production companies, I pursued research in more indie film promotional websites such as, Boyhood, Black Swan, The Favourite and Fight Club. For each of the films, I researched their websites and took screenshots of each web banner page. I uploaded these images onto my Wix Blog and then went on to analyse the use of conventional elements in each website. After the research process, I began to design my own Film Promotional website. I used my original production company name, Fly Amarillo Productions. I explored website templates on Wix and took screen shots of my choices to add to my Blog.I decided on the ‘News Blog’ template because it was bold, eye catching and informative. I then progressed onto creating the website itself, incorporating all conventions of a website, such as Web banner, Multimedia features, Web links.

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