Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Evaluation
When deciding what genre my film should be, I had to take into consideration the various types of equipment available to me. Considering the obstacles and limitations of production equipment, I felt it would be unlikely that I would be able to achieve success in a big budget genre such as action adventure. For example, the opening of swordfish contains a complex pyrotechnic sequence dependant on large scale stunt setups in production and high end CGI work in post production to achieve the money shots that are an audience expectation of the genre. The facilities I had access to, were far more limited. As I already had the location of a school, the significance of this brought me to the Social Realism Genre. Social Realism is a very appropriate genre to choose as it often addresses key social issues that are given regular attention in our mainstream media. Social realism films are sometimes made with relatively low budgets compared to the budgets of other genres such as horror or action. The power and integrity of a social realism film will often reside in its verisimilitude. This precludes a need for special effects and costly “money shots”. As the social realism genre was uncommon to many individuals around me, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce them to this genre as they may be able to relate to many of the issues found there, such as neglect and alcoholism. My media product uses forms and conventions used in similar media texts in the professional domain. These technical codes and conventions are used to communicate with, engage and manipulate the audience and to lead them to understand/think/feel/expect certain things.
A film institution that may distribute my film would be one such as Film Four. The reason for this is because they are famous for their British social realism films such as; this is England and TrainspottingAbout a Boy. Film Four would be a good media institution to promote my film because not only does it show Realism films, but it also shows commercially successful films such as The Terminator and Harry Potter. They are able to exert a pull on many different audiences with the type of films they demonstrate. One social realism film that I particularly enjoyed is an American film directed by Catherine Hardwicke called Thirteen. The movie is based on the life of a teenage girl capsulated in her own domestic problems and not being able to fit in at school. This leads her to cause self-harm to herself and become involved in various types of drugs. The dark and gritty narrative blends well with the story that I have chosen as they both involve the domestic issues of teenage girls and the consequences of this. The production company behind this film is called Michael London Productions and would also be a suitable film institution to consider when thinking about the distribution of my film. Another film that I particularly enjoyed Sweet Sixteen as it has the same tone and feel as my film. Both films deal with issues of neglect and alcoholism leading the main characters to make money or have a good life the only way they can, and this is not always a good way. It uses non diegetic music, handheld shots and low-key lighting which are the same technical elements used in my film. For example, the low-key lighting used at the beginning of the film whilst Elaine is getting out of bed is similar to the way the lighting is used in Sweet sixteen showing a concealment of their personal lives. One of many production companies behind this film is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC has done many different things to help young filmmakers with very low budgets thrive in the major film industry.
I analyzed the film Sweet Sixteen as part of my intro breakdown. I focused on the director’s rationale, this lead me to pick out all of the key issues present in the film such as the excessive poverty in Glasgow. I then considered the technical elements that helped to encode these key issues. For example, the low key lighting gives good exposure to part of a face while casting another part into dark shadow suggesting a two sidedness of the characters, therefore showing the true intentions of their money making schemes. The low naturalistic lighting and the glowing background lights also creates a relaxed and settling mood in contrast to the vulgar reputation that Glasgow has. This links to the protagonists presenting these kids with a rare inspiring experience in an otherwise fairly dower existence. Low key lighting is sometimes used to create a chiaroscuro effect similar to that found in a painting, imitating the way that daylight falls into an interior via a roof or window, lighting one side of the elements in the mise-en-scene while casting the other into shadow. On the one hand this evokes a sense of naturalism (daylight entering an interior space but it can also be used to suggest double sidedness. In Sweet Sixteen it is doing both. Each technical element is used to convey a particular aspect of the characters, the setting and the mood around them. This helped me a lot when deciding how to shoot my film because I managed to incorporate the same realistic style, as in Sweet Sixteen, into my film. The reason for this is because I wanted to make sure my film could fit into the genre of Social Realism. I was also able to use various conventions to express a certain sentiment of my character. For example, the close up shots take the audience right into the character’s emotional landscape and enable us to empathise with the character as she is feeling distraught and full of emotion.
In the film Half Nelson, an American social realism film, the art direction has formed together to create an untidy feel to Dan Dunne’s room. This Mise-en-scene element is used to reflect Dan’s own dishevelled appearance. I carefully chose props in my film to create the same feel. For example, the art direction in the living room has produced the same untidy feel and also replicates the neglect that Elaine’s father has on the house and his own daughter. His consistent neglect shown towards all of his personal belongings show the need that Elaine has for her father’s attention.
The particular social group present in my media product would be neglected teenagers. They have been well represented as I haven’t portrayed them in an over exaggerated way. I did further research into the situation and found out that “Almost one-third of younger children in the care of social services in Britain have been taken into care because of neglect, new research has revealed”. Also, the “neglect amongst children under the age of seven is also particularly associated with a family history of alcohol abuse and domestic violence”. Moreover, “children with a background of neglect are most likely to live in deprived areas”. This is why I chose a deprived area as my location. The neglect of the household and the un-kept kitchen emphasises the deprived area. I didn’t want to give away too much information in only the introduction. As the introduction could only be two minutes long, I had to choose which key issue to include out of two. The two issues were the death of Elaine’s mother or the addiction to the internet. I decided to use her mother’s death as a key issue as putting internet scenes intro my introduction straight away would give away too much information and the audience would have nothing to look forward to. The issues that I have chosen are key current social issues. I researched this issue and found out that “every day a child becomes a victim of cyber grooming”. “One in seven parents have no idea what their children are viewing on the internet and three out of four children, in the UK, who have used the internet have encountered material that has made them feel uncomfortable”. “Paedophiles are known to use the Internet as a way of luring children into a false sense of security in order to facilitate sexual assaults. This so-called grooming period can last for months with children being entirely unaware of the deception”. Cyber-grooming can link to several key representational issues such as gender, age, sexuality and class & status.
The audience of my media product would be people who are interested in current social issues. Also, People who appreciate social realism as a genre and for whom verisimilitude is a key criteria. However, my film is directed to all audiences and to all age groups, although, teenagers may be more inclined to watch it as it features a teenager facing issues that are more common in that particular age group. When thinking about attracting my target audience, I had to take into consideration the issues that were included in my film. I collected feedback from different people by handing out three questionnaires. The first was a questionnaire with 20 questions investigating the public’s knowledge about the social realism genre. My results showed me that it was an unknown genre. For example, I asked a number of people what they thought Social Realism meant and none of the answers described the real definition of the second questionnaire I carried out consisted of 10 questions, asking the participants what they thought of my script. This helped me cancel out all the negative factors, such as a slow editorial pace which they felt made the film drag on, and helped me keep all the positive factors.
I looked at the Sweet Sixteen website and found comments left by people who loved the film. They stated that they “loved the realism of the issue” and “the morals that the main character had”. The feedback from my audience showed me that my script also has the same realistic quality. Another site where I found feedback was Lovefilm, the UK’s No.1 DVD lender. A forum sight called Wikio released feedback from customers from Lovefilm. One comment stated “the guys at Lovefilm.com provide a great service (I have been a member of 2 other DVD online rental providers, and Lovefilm is the company I went back to for a second time)”. Feedback is always a reliable source of information when dealing with the target audience.
My audience was estimated from looking at audience figures for similar media texts. One screening of the film Last Resort was shown at the London Film School and was organized by Screen South. The screening was a springboard for discussion focusing on the role and remit of BBC films. One interesting comment that was found on the Screen South website was "This is the best class of poetic realism, the kind you can believe in without a trace of hesitation." Screen south worked to find creative was of developing opportunities for audiences of film by promoting and guiding innovative programming at regional film festivals and film societies as well as promoting access to local and regional film archives through more regional screenings.
Lastly, the third questionnaire that I carried out consisted of approximately 8 questions. I first showed the participants three different introductions to three different movies. I then asked them which one they preferred and why. This helped me determine the engaging (the realistic issues) and tedious (the lack of special effects) aspects of the social realism genre so that I knew how to appeal to my target audience. The majority of people that I interviewed and questioned when carrying out my audience research were between the ages of 14 – 17 however a small amount were above the age of 17. This caused me to consider a narrative that would reflect the issues of the people I was able to collect my audience research from. This age group gave me a specific insight into the expectations of their age as they were more interested in the commercially successful social realism films. My target audience have questioned how engaging the film was going to be and how the narrative would grab the audience. This caused me to add an appropriate soundtrack to the film which would entice the audience and create a calm ambience complimenting Elaine’s emotional disposition. My soundtrack functioned as a technical code; the music was very slow and sad complimenting the sometimes depressing ambience that the social realism genre holds. This technique was also used in Sweet Sixteen at the end of the film when he finds out that his mother betrays him. All diegetic sound, apart from the noise of a TV, was taken out as non-diegetic sound would capture the audience and make the scene more appealing to watch. Lastly, the audience enjoyed the most commercially successful film, Trainspotting. This could have been because Ewan McGregor was one of the main characters. This made me try to incorporate more editing effects into my film such as sound and image transitions. For example, when I shot a different location, I used an image transition to blend the two shots together to create a smooth editorial pace. However, it also made me realise that I had to have a very strong narrative as I do not have any famous actors or actresses in my film.
At the end of filming my media product, I felt very comfortable with all the different technical aspects of camera from the process of constructing it. For example, I learned how to use the white balance control which removed unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in the photo. It can also be used in certain lighting conditions to avoid an image becoming too bluish and cold or pinkish and overly warm. I was shown how to use the Zebra control which is used to get good exposure on a character’s face by making sure the face is neither under or over exposed. I could adjust the audio level so that the sound wasn’t too loud or too quiet and finally, I am now able to use a boom swing enabling me to have a crystal clear sound if I were to include dialogue. Learning about all of these technical aspects improved the entire outcome of my film. Using the tri-pod allowed me to have a smooth and stable picture making the entire project look more professional. The tri-pod also helped me control the different shots that I had to take. For example, pan and dolly shots were much easier to incorporate into my film therefore creating proficient film. When using the camera, I learned how to keep the camera as steady as possible when making a handheld shot. This followed the natural rhythms of the human body and made the scene more naturalistic and intimate. I used white balance to reference white so that other colours would subsequently be recorded as accurately as possible. These techniques became technical codes as they all contribute to the representational areas of realism in the social realism genre.
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel as though I have learnt a lot when dealing with editing and filming. When I started to film my preliminary exercise, I felt very nervous and unprofessional when dealing with framing shots and changing all of the camera elements to suite my surroundings. As the film was digitized, it made me realize how unprofessional everything looked. I hadn’t used different angles to create a more effective shot and cut too soon when filming and in the edit action ended too abruptly and shots weren’t able to breathe resulting in a jumpy rhythm. I was very disappointed with my preliminary exercise because I knew that I could have done better. This provoked me to use the technical elements as fully as I could to represent my rationale.
The preliminary task was a continuity task to show knowledge and understanding of match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule and to demonstrate an ability to apply these principles to filming, where as the main task required me to make aesthetic choices so as to create affective links between my micro elements and the key macro issues of my narrative. The preliminary task was filmed in the existing mise-en-scene of the classroom only prompting me to move around a few props that the characters would be using. However for my intro, the direction was much more of a factor as I set decorated the living room very carefully. I had to build the surroundings making sure that no object was out of place otherwise the film would look unrealistic and unprofessional. I placed beer cans and a half eaten pizza on the floor and left the TV running to create a neglected look representing the overall neglect that Elaine’s father has over his life. I closely followed my story board and carefully chose suitable lighting to give an effect of the carefully trying to stick to the Social Realism genre. The lighting in my preliminary task was fairly high key and didn’t vary where as in my film, I had to consider the time of day to choose what type of lighting to use in order for my film to become more realistic. When I finally digitized my final product, I had learnt how to cut and trim, but I hadn’t learned how to edit it and create sound transitions and fading effects. When I finally figured out how to accomplish them, it blended my film together and gave it more of a continuous flow. By creating a smooth continuous editorial pace, I have enabled to lengthen the cuts which in tern, represent the long and ongoing problems that Elaine has had to face during her life. The sound transitions and the blurred effects are the main difference between my preliminary exercise and my final two minute introduction. This gives the film a more professional feel and also represents the confusion and alienation that Elaine is feeling throughout the film. The slow acoustic soundtrack set the tone of the film and connected to the cheerlessness and loneliness that Elaine was feeling. All of these key technical elements were encoded into my film to communicate the misfortune that Elaine has to behold in her life.
A film institution that may distribute my film would be one such as Film Four. The reason for this is because they are famous for their British social realism films such as; this is England and TrainspottingAbout a Boy. Film Four would be a good media institution to promote my film because not only does it show Realism films, but it also shows commercially successful films such as The Terminator and Harry Potter. They are able to exert a pull on many different audiences with the type of films they demonstrate. One social realism film that I particularly enjoyed is an American film directed by Catherine Hardwicke called Thirteen. The movie is based on the life of a teenage girl capsulated in her own domestic problems and not being able to fit in at school. This leads her to cause self-harm to herself and become involved in various types of drugs. The dark and gritty narrative blends well with the story that I have chosen as they both involve the domestic issues of teenage girls and the consequences of this. The production company behind this film is called Michael London Productions and would also be a suitable film institution to consider when thinking about the distribution of my film. Another film that I particularly enjoyed Sweet Sixteen as it has the same tone and feel as my film. Both films deal with issues of neglect and alcoholism leading the main characters to make money or have a good life the only way they can, and this is not always a good way. It uses non diegetic music, handheld shots and low-key lighting which are the same technical elements used in my film. For example, the low-key lighting used at the beginning of the film whilst Elaine is getting out of bed is similar to the way the lighting is used in Sweet sixteen showing a concealment of their personal lives. One of many production companies behind this film is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC has done many different things to help young filmmakers with very low budgets thrive in the major film industry.
I analyzed the film Sweet Sixteen as part of my intro breakdown. I focused on the director’s rationale, this lead me to pick out all of the key issues present in the film such as the excessive poverty in Glasgow. I then considered the technical elements that helped to encode these key issues. For example, the low key lighting gives good exposure to part of a face while casting another part into dark shadow suggesting a two sidedness of the characters, therefore showing the true intentions of their money making schemes. The low naturalistic lighting and the glowing background lights also creates a relaxed and settling mood in contrast to the vulgar reputation that Glasgow has. This links to the protagonists presenting these kids with a rare inspiring experience in an otherwise fairly dower existence. Low key lighting is sometimes used to create a chiaroscuro effect similar to that found in a painting, imitating the way that daylight falls into an interior via a roof or window, lighting one side of the elements in the mise-en-scene while casting the other into shadow. On the one hand this evokes a sense of naturalism (daylight entering an interior space but it can also be used to suggest double sidedness. In Sweet Sixteen it is doing both. Each technical element is used to convey a particular aspect of the characters, the setting and the mood around them. This helped me a lot when deciding how to shoot my film because I managed to incorporate the same realistic style, as in Sweet Sixteen, into my film. The reason for this is because I wanted to make sure my film could fit into the genre of Social Realism. I was also able to use various conventions to express a certain sentiment of my character. For example, the close up shots take the audience right into the character’s emotional landscape and enable us to empathise with the character as she is feeling distraught and full of emotion.
In the film Half Nelson, an American social realism film, the art direction has formed together to create an untidy feel to Dan Dunne’s room. This Mise-en-scene element is used to reflect Dan’s own dishevelled appearance. I carefully chose props in my film to create the same feel. For example, the art direction in the living room has produced the same untidy feel and also replicates the neglect that Elaine’s father has on the house and his own daughter. His consistent neglect shown towards all of his personal belongings show the need that Elaine has for her father’s attention.
The particular social group present in my media product would be neglected teenagers. They have been well represented as I haven’t portrayed them in an over exaggerated way. I did further research into the situation and found out that “Almost one-third of younger children in the care of social services in Britain have been taken into care because of neglect, new research has revealed”. Also, the “neglect amongst children under the age of seven is also particularly associated with a family history of alcohol abuse and domestic violence”. Moreover, “children with a background of neglect are most likely to live in deprived areas”. This is why I chose a deprived area as my location. The neglect of the household and the un-kept kitchen emphasises the deprived area. I didn’t want to give away too much information in only the introduction. As the introduction could only be two minutes long, I had to choose which key issue to include out of two. The two issues were the death of Elaine’s mother or the addiction to the internet. I decided to use her mother’s death as a key issue as putting internet scenes intro my introduction straight away would give away too much information and the audience would have nothing to look forward to. The issues that I have chosen are key current social issues. I researched this issue and found out that “every day a child becomes a victim of cyber grooming”. “One in seven parents have no idea what their children are viewing on the internet and three out of four children, in the UK, who have used the internet have encountered material that has made them feel uncomfortable”. “Paedophiles are known to use the Internet as a way of luring children into a false sense of security in order to facilitate sexual assaults. This so-called grooming period can last for months with children being entirely unaware of the deception”. Cyber-grooming can link to several key representational issues such as gender, age, sexuality and class & status.
The audience of my media product would be people who are interested in current social issues. Also, People who appreciate social realism as a genre and for whom verisimilitude is a key criteria. However, my film is directed to all audiences and to all age groups, although, teenagers may be more inclined to watch it as it features a teenager facing issues that are more common in that particular age group. When thinking about attracting my target audience, I had to take into consideration the issues that were included in my film. I collected feedback from different people by handing out three questionnaires. The first was a questionnaire with 20 questions investigating the public’s knowledge about the social realism genre. My results showed me that it was an unknown genre. For example, I asked a number of people what they thought Social Realism meant and none of the answers described the real definition of the second questionnaire I carried out consisted of 10 questions, asking the participants what they thought of my script. This helped me cancel out all the negative factors, such as a slow editorial pace which they felt made the film drag on, and helped me keep all the positive factors.
I looked at the Sweet Sixteen website and found comments left by people who loved the film. They stated that they “loved the realism of the issue” and “the morals that the main character had”. The feedback from my audience showed me that my script also has the same realistic quality. Another site where I found feedback was Lovefilm, the UK’s No.1 DVD lender. A forum sight called Wikio released feedback from customers from Lovefilm. One comment stated “the guys at Lovefilm.com provide a great service (I have been a member of 2 other DVD online rental providers, and Lovefilm is the company I went back to for a second time)”. Feedback is always a reliable source of information when dealing with the target audience.
My audience was estimated from looking at audience figures for similar media texts. One screening of the film Last Resort was shown at the London Film School and was organized by Screen South. The screening was a springboard for discussion focusing on the role and remit of BBC films. One interesting comment that was found on the Screen South website was "This is the best class of poetic realism, the kind you can believe in without a trace of hesitation." Screen south worked to find creative was of developing opportunities for audiences of film by promoting and guiding innovative programming at regional film festivals and film societies as well as promoting access to local and regional film archives through more regional screenings.
Lastly, the third questionnaire that I carried out consisted of approximately 8 questions. I first showed the participants three different introductions to three different movies. I then asked them which one they preferred and why. This helped me determine the engaging (the realistic issues) and tedious (the lack of special effects) aspects of the social realism genre so that I knew how to appeal to my target audience. The majority of people that I interviewed and questioned when carrying out my audience research were between the ages of 14 – 17 however a small amount were above the age of 17. This caused me to consider a narrative that would reflect the issues of the people I was able to collect my audience research from. This age group gave me a specific insight into the expectations of their age as they were more interested in the commercially successful social realism films. My target audience have questioned how engaging the film was going to be and how the narrative would grab the audience. This caused me to add an appropriate soundtrack to the film which would entice the audience and create a calm ambience complimenting Elaine’s emotional disposition. My soundtrack functioned as a technical code; the music was very slow and sad complimenting the sometimes depressing ambience that the social realism genre holds. This technique was also used in Sweet Sixteen at the end of the film when he finds out that his mother betrays him. All diegetic sound, apart from the noise of a TV, was taken out as non-diegetic sound would capture the audience and make the scene more appealing to watch. Lastly, the audience enjoyed the most commercially successful film, Trainspotting. This could have been because Ewan McGregor was one of the main characters. This made me try to incorporate more editing effects into my film such as sound and image transitions. For example, when I shot a different location, I used an image transition to blend the two shots together to create a smooth editorial pace. However, it also made me realise that I had to have a very strong narrative as I do not have any famous actors or actresses in my film.
At the end of filming my media product, I felt very comfortable with all the different technical aspects of camera from the process of constructing it. For example, I learned how to use the white balance control which removed unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in the photo. It can also be used in certain lighting conditions to avoid an image becoming too bluish and cold or pinkish and overly warm. I was shown how to use the Zebra control which is used to get good exposure on a character’s face by making sure the face is neither under or over exposed. I could adjust the audio level so that the sound wasn’t too loud or too quiet and finally, I am now able to use a boom swing enabling me to have a crystal clear sound if I were to include dialogue. Learning about all of these technical aspects improved the entire outcome of my film. Using the tri-pod allowed me to have a smooth and stable picture making the entire project look more professional. The tri-pod also helped me control the different shots that I had to take. For example, pan and dolly shots were much easier to incorporate into my film therefore creating proficient film. When using the camera, I learned how to keep the camera as steady as possible when making a handheld shot. This followed the natural rhythms of the human body and made the scene more naturalistic and intimate. I used white balance to reference white so that other colours would subsequently be recorded as accurately as possible. These techniques became technical codes as they all contribute to the representational areas of realism in the social realism genre.
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel as though I have learnt a lot when dealing with editing and filming. When I started to film my preliminary exercise, I felt very nervous and unprofessional when dealing with framing shots and changing all of the camera elements to suite my surroundings. As the film was digitized, it made me realize how unprofessional everything looked. I hadn’t used different angles to create a more effective shot and cut too soon when filming and in the edit action ended too abruptly and shots weren’t able to breathe resulting in a jumpy rhythm. I was very disappointed with my preliminary exercise because I knew that I could have done better. This provoked me to use the technical elements as fully as I could to represent my rationale.
The preliminary task was a continuity task to show knowledge and understanding of match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule and to demonstrate an ability to apply these principles to filming, where as the main task required me to make aesthetic choices so as to create affective links between my micro elements and the key macro issues of my narrative. The preliminary task was filmed in the existing mise-en-scene of the classroom only prompting me to move around a few props that the characters would be using. However for my intro, the direction was much more of a factor as I set decorated the living room very carefully. I had to build the surroundings making sure that no object was out of place otherwise the film would look unrealistic and unprofessional. I placed beer cans and a half eaten pizza on the floor and left the TV running to create a neglected look representing the overall neglect that Elaine’s father has over his life. I closely followed my story board and carefully chose suitable lighting to give an effect of the carefully trying to stick to the Social Realism genre. The lighting in my preliminary task was fairly high key and didn’t vary where as in my film, I had to consider the time of day to choose what type of lighting to use in order for my film to become more realistic. When I finally digitized my final product, I had learnt how to cut and trim, but I hadn’t learned how to edit it and create sound transitions and fading effects. When I finally figured out how to accomplish them, it blended my film together and gave it more of a continuous flow. By creating a smooth continuous editorial pace, I have enabled to lengthen the cuts which in tern, represent the long and ongoing problems that Elaine has had to face during her life. The sound transitions and the blurred effects are the main difference between my preliminary exercise and my final two minute introduction. This gives the film a more professional feel and also represents the confusion and alienation that Elaine is feeling throughout the film. The slow acoustic soundtrack set the tone of the film and connected to the cheerlessness and loneliness that Elaine was feeling. All of these key technical elements were encoded into my film to communicate the misfortune that Elaine has to behold in her life.
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