Right, we’ve finally come to the evaluation, it only seems like a few weeks back when we started this whole project and days when we were out in the freezing cold filming this, thankfully, it is much warmer now, and it’s time to look back on the project as a whole.
How our product challenges, use, and develop forms and conventions of real media products
In the film itself, there are multiple twists, throughout various places, and the different shots help to show this, through news report style in the first section, which is very highly constructed, with the edits, and how it flows pretty much like a normal documentary, and gives the feel still of whether there is mass editing or not, with clearly arranged sections, like the part in the car, and also when the actress comes out of the car. Whereas, the second section is pretty much a static camera, and is very clearly staged, followed directly by what appears to be a documentary, which can be shown to be slightly more real, due to the fact that the camera is constantly behind the action throughout the shot, there is also swearing, and also, that whole section was done in 1 shot. Due to the considerable number of twists, the shots appear to be very quirky due to the number of handheld shots and regular shot sizes combined together. This is fairly unusual for a short film, as they usually consist of one or the other, not both. The irony is, the whole thing is heavily constructed! And this returns to one of the themes, is anything real? With film, can anything be not constructed? The answer is no, no matter how random a piece of film is, there is always some way to construct the footage, with shot sizes and types, editing, and so forth.
However, likewise with a short film, main characters are kept to a minimum, and only 4 can be identified, the two ‘actors’ and the two main members of the ‘production team’. The characters used are massively stereotypical of what they should be, and in real life, are not known, as are most actors in short films, and most of the ones that are known only appear in short films before they were major Hollywood actors or actresses. Short films are used as a stepping stone for actors and directors to reach the big time. Representation is what is pretty much expected from the characters, the ‘Hollywood star’ is very annoying, and arrogant. The couple are shown to be what appears to be a standard family household, with the woman very dominant and fed up with her husband, whom she feels, is pretty much useless and too commanding. As a whole, females are shown as the dominant gender throughout the majority of the film. No specific age is particularly shown to be dominant, but the very young and the old are not shown at all in the product. Middle-class dominates the film, with working class appearing to be non-existent and upper class characters acting arrogant and also not getting what they want solely through money. White people and heterosexuality also dominates the film massively with anything else being non-existent.
Soundtracks were used throughout the film, with a voiceover used early on, which usually occurs in a documentary, but rarely in a short film, and with classical music used at the very beginning of the film as well. Mis-en-scene was also used regarding costumes massively; the whole costume drama section was costumed to make it feel as if it was back in that period. The whole film is quite light, and as much lighting was used as possible in some areas, and in the case of the interview we decided to switch on all of the lights in the room to give the setting much more brightness. Short films usually consist of a lot of soundtrack and lighting varies from film to film. The credits consist of sounds used from the outtakes on top of this.
Multiple settings were used, and the cheapest ones possible were used, hence why a lot of the filming took place outside. As the vast majority of short films are very low budget, like this one, filming outside is not unusual for a short, the only issue is making sure that the weather is perfect for filming, thankfully for us, the day arranged turned out to be as we wanted (except for being very cold!)
Theme-wise, we used the questions, ‘What is reality?’ and ‘What is love?’ Asking ‘What if..?’ and ‘What is..?’ questions is not unusual for a short film, and we portrayed these by changing what was happening on screen multiple times throughout. We followed the idea of ‘What is love?’ from the Shakespeare play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ which portrayed different stages of love through deception, and at times show it as a play within a play. We have deceived the viewers by changing the plot every two or three minutes, and making it seem as if it was a film within a film, but through a cross between modern day life as well as the Jane Austen set era of the Regency period. Our ancillary texts follow a similar format of trying to confuse the viewer, but not too much.
Effectiveness of ancillary texts when combined with the main product
The ancillary texts assist in making the film seem like it is something it is not, by giving away very little through the posters and not too much detail is expressed through the film reviews. They help to ‘anchor’ each other, joining the film and the ancillary texts together, and therefore restricting how the audience can respond just by looking at the poster or review. Each of the posters goes with the film, highly subtly, and once the film has been viewed, the poster would make sense, it almost seems as if, the poster gives the response, ‘What is this film? I’m so unsure I’d have to go and see it just to see what it is.’ Not too much is given away so that they can work out the whole film without viewing it, but just enough so that by viewing the posters and reviews, it helps to give some sort of idea of what the film is about. The marketing factor also plays a part in this, by making people aware of the film as people will look at posters, and read film reviews, for people to go and see a film, they have to hear about it somewhere, and unless we produce a 5 minute trailer for a 6 minute film, which is pointless, we are restricted to film reviews and posters, but it still does the same job.
The main purpose of a film poster is to promote a film, to help make people aware that it exists while at the same time hoping to attract them enough to go and view it in the cinema. And the only aspects portrayed are positive ones regarding the film, biased? Perhaps, but it’s all in how films make money, by stretching the truth in some areas by using marketing ideas. Film reviews are slightly different, as they are not written by the film company, they will not be 100% positive, and at times can be highly negative, a poor review from a respected critic can completely destroy a film, and an excellent review from one can make a film from a relatively unknown director, featuring unknown actors sell millions, just look at Slumdog Millionaire. Film reviews are completely independent, and they are not biased at all. Film reviews for a film like ours would be placed in specific film magazines like ‘Film Review’, ‘Film Magazine’, and also perhaps in some broadsheets.
There are issues with film posters and reviews, as to where to advertise the film? Posters could be placed in the middle of nowhere, where it is very cheap to advertise, but nobody will view the poster, or in the middle of a major city which is highly expensive, but everybody could view it. Advertising can cost a lot of money, depending on how much advertising is intended.
The quality of all of the posters is very high, and can be blown up and used on a billboard or on the side of a bus shelter if chosen to. The poster attracts the audience correctly, by giving away very little about the film, and in my own poster, all that is given away is that there is a woman, in a regency period, and the film itself is about a film about a woman in a regency period, and perhaps the loose framing helps to show this.
Audience feedback and what was learnt from it
Thankfully, there is a small theatre down at the bottom of my road, which can hold around 100 people, and the whole road and a select few others were invited to a screening of our film. This was done anonymously, they had no idea this was done for an A-Level project or that I had any contribution towards it. The reception was mixed; however, the diversity of people there was highly varied as well. Lisa, 35, gave the opinion that ‘It appeared to be quite Pride and Prejudice-like in places, and had a behind-the-scenes like feel towards it.’ Nick, 37, felt that ‘It was a film about making a film, and the final section just lost me completely, a film about making a film about making a film possibly?’ Finally, David, 56, exclaimed that it was ‘An insight into the troubles surrounding making a film’. All of these people are residents of the road. Out of the 40-something people that were there, more than half said that they enjoyed the film. The residents of this road are mainly white, British and middle-aged, all representations which are shown as strong in the film.
How new media technologies were used during all stages of the production.
Of course, the internet has contributed massively towards completing all stages of this project. The research stages was done mainly through YouTube, where simply searching ‘Short Films’ gives millions of results, and this contributed massively as to what a short film is, and provided a major stepping stone regarding how to structure the film. Even the blog requires modern day technology! Without modern day technology, reading this would be impossible as there would be no internet. Images for the film posters research were also taken from the internet. The storyboard, along with the film posters was produced using Adobe Photoshop, and the posters were developed and finalised using Microsoft Office Word. Finally, the cameras used were upon the very latest in digital camera technology, including direct links from the camera to the computer using USB 2.0 built in to the camera. In addition, we have been introduced to the world of High Definition by using a camera with a built in HD lens to make the quality of the film higher than ever before.
