Lisa Dunham: Final Evaluation

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

• Social Realism is a typical British genre. It is a form of fictional realism, which aims to represent the lives of ordinary people in ways that appear very 'true to life'. Some famous socialist directors include Mike Leigh, who directed Happy Go Lucky, Andrea Arnold, who directed Fish Tank and Ken Loach, who directed Kes. The directors aim to represent the lives of ordinary people, either using stereotypes or well rounded characters. The issues they use are usually about the working class and may challenge dominant ideologies such as Feminism.


• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGYh_re8C6I=xGYh_re8C6I This video shows an interview with Mike Leigh. He talks about how he uses improvisation within his actors and how he works with them. He says that he builds up the characters by using the actors and thinks about juxtaposition when he is creating his films.


• Some directors may also use positive representations of minority groups to make them more visible and understood, for example homosexuality.


• One of the first social realist directors was David Lean. His most famous British film is Brief Encounter. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037558/ (This is the IMDB page on Brief Encounter). The world created by Lean shows a perfect, carefree Britain with morals and standards. The film represents a mother who is trapped in a mundane life. To try and change this she has an affair with a Doctor.



• Her relationship with her husband can be seen as a metaphor for what was happening at the time, as it was set before World War II. The fact that she is trying to escape from her married life shows her response to oppression and the fact that she is inhibited by the ideologies of her period.


• This film represents women of that era who struggled to have excitement in their married lives.


• As this is a full length film it is harder to compare to the short social realist films we are using as research. However, one of the short films i have researched is Eight (Stephen Daldry). This film represents a small minority of children whose parent/s have died. It appeals to a lot of people as it pulls at heart strings. It is hard to relate to for a lot of people but you can feel sorry for the little boy.


• The narrative begins with the little boy, Johnathon, revealing his age and who he is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4p2Y8qx-bk Its only a small part of his life that he shares with the audience. He then makes up jobs that his Dad did and it is not until the end of the film, when you feel you have become closer to the character, that he reveals that his Dad died in a football match.


• I think that we followed the same narrative structure as Eight. It followed Todorovs narrative structure of the set up, which is followed by the disruption and is then solved by the resolution. It began with him revealing part of his life and as the narrative went on, the story became much deeper and the audience feel like they know a lot more about the character. There isn't a climax or a gripping point in our film, but the shot where he reveals the doll makes the audience wonder who he really is.
  
• Todorovs structure can be applied to our short film as the set up is the shot with the bruise. The monologue then begins and tells us a little bit about his life. His crush is revealed and you can see how much he likes her, this would be the disruption as he cant be with her. The resolution is when we see the doll and you can see how much it means to him.


• We chose to represent a minority group but at the same time, a well known topic of bullying. However, as we began to film, we realised that it wasnt following a bullying storyline as he didnt really get picked on. This could be why the audience found it hard to connect, as our narrative became slightly unknown.


• We tried to make the costume look like what a poor, teenage boy would wear. He had unfashionable trainers which had been regularly worn and a Nike hoody. The hoody represents a part of the character that had tried to fit inbut it didnt work.


• We also used a typical social realist location of a housing estate. As many social realist films try to show the 'real world', we decided that a block of flats would work well for our character. The kitchen was very working class although it was hard to shoot as it had inappropriate props, such as an industrial water heater. This was very difficult to cut out but we used shots that disguised it well.




• The characters make-up was very natural and the bruise looked real. This added to the social realist feel as in the short film 'Wasp' (Andrea Arnold), the hair and make up was very natural and fits the role of the characters.


• The monologue was non diegetic sound because there was only one character in it. We took the idea from the film Eight as we thought that it was an effective social realist technique. It made the audience listen more and it gives the audience a sense of the characters life without seeing it. We used a non diegetic backing track to complement the monologue and the tone of the film.
  
• As our character is very distant from society, we used long and
  mid shots to show this. One of the close ups we used was when he was spinning the doll. When we were filming our rushes, we used a lot of lengthy, zoomed in shots. However, when we were editing, we realised that the shots were really boring and would take away the audiences concentration. We then cut the shots to make them choppier and we cut out the zooms. This, in turn, made our film look more social realist.
  
  

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary tasks?

The Poster

• Film distributors such as Warner and Momentum Pictures - who distriubted Happy Go Lucky. Film distribution is the highly competitive business of launching and sustaining films in the market. Distributors develop a release strategy and takes the delivery of a master print of the final film.
  
• They have to think about who/what/where/when is it going to be advertised. They then decide strategies to motivate audiences awarness/interest film by film. They then think of the methods to do this such as a poster or reviews and interviews.
  
• The poster should distill the appeal of the film by the themes it uses, the credits and the tagline. The poster should tell the audience what genre it is and what the demographic is.
  










• I think that the poster works really. It looks very social realist and portrays some of the characters life. The fact that the main character is a teenager and is the subject of the poster tells the audience who it is aimed at.


• It also reveals some of the storyline because he is pictured with the doll. This creates an enigma code for the audience as they wonder what the connection is between the main character and the doll. The tagline 'One small friend, one large friendship' also makes a connection to the doll. The way that the doll is shown in the film draws the audience in as they wait to see what the relationship is and why he is alone.
  
• The grey background reflects the main characters anonymity from the rest of society. It confirms to the audience that he doesnt really do anything in his life as the background isnt a picture of him with lots of other people. We could have a picture of him in a park but this would mean that he had a social life, which retracts from the original meaning of the film.
  
• The quotes also reveal different aspects of the film and the production. We decided to do this so that the quotes arent all biased towards the film and reveal a small part towards the making of the film. They also connect with the target audience as they should be sources that they would read or be familiar with.


• The framing of the main character relates to the title and the tagline. The fact that his head is out of shot, relates to the 'Anonymous' title. The audience may wonder what he looks like or why he isnt showing her face.
  
• However, i feel that the framing works well with the rest of the film. The fact that all of the doll is in the shot shows us that she has a part in his life. The way he is holding her shows affection and that he wants to be with her. In the film he uses her as a replacement for the crush he cant have. I feel that this picture tells the audience that the toy is more than just a doll to him.


• The repition of the word 'one'in the tagline, emphasises the fact that he is alone. This adds to the narrative of the film.
  

The Review

• A film review is another example of a marketing plan. The reviewers are given a press pack by the distributors which has background information, photos and information about the actors inside.
  
• The film magazine 'in house' journalist will then produce copy for the magazine. There are consideration that effect the writing of the copy such as:
  
• Loyalities to bigger brands
• the use of language and whether it fits the context
• whether the audience of the magazine will enjoy the film
  
• We had to create a film review for Little White Lies magazine http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/, which is an independant specialist film magazine. It is released every two months, uses graffiti or hand drawn images for the cover and reviews all genres.
  
  
• The entire magazine is inspired by the cover of the film, with each page relating to the lead actor. It uses editorial icons, chapter headings and custom typefaces to make it more unique.
  
• The style of the magazine is the same in each issue. It has to have:


• 4 columns
• 3 point rating system of Anticipation, Enjoyment and In Retrospect. This sums up the reviews and is given a score out of 5 on each comment.
• The first line begins with the name of the actor/director and is in bold
  
• Although i was absent for the making of the review, i helped to alter the text and to make slight alterations. I found this very difficult as the lexis used has to be very field specific and very challenging as the article is for an older reader.
  
• It was hard to substitute some words for another phrase as it had to be in the right context.
  
• Overall, i feel that the article was the best that we could have produced, with the time that we had and we the range of vocabulary that we were using.
  

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• The target demographic for our film is 12-18. Wehave set it at this because we feel that our film has a storyline that will effect that age group. I think that our audience understood our film but found certain scenes slightly confusing, not because of the demographic but because we didnt make the connections to some of the shots.
  
  
• A lot of audience commented on the running scene at the beggining. They didnt understand why it had happened. "The scene at the beginning where the boy was running. What was that about?" This tells me that there wasnt a clear connection between the bruise and the running. If we showed a group of people shouting his name it would have made it a lot clearer.
  
  
• If i could change this now, i would have organised the filming stage better. Although we held open auditions for the main character, we did not audition for a gang of people. This would have been wise, but we didnt get a lot of interest in the audition for the main character, so it might have been a waste of time. I think that we should have got a group of friends together to film that scene. It would have made the film make more sense and create some enigma.


• Some commented on the music, saying that it was too repetitive. We chose this music to symbolise his boring, mundaine lifestyle and i feel that we did that well. However, someone said that we should have played happier music when he was playing with the doll. It would have made more sense if we did that because when he is with the doll he is happy.


• However, a lot of people commented on the voiceover saying that it was good. This tells us that by not using our actors voice worked in our favour. I think the person that we chose, fitted the voice we were trying to achieve, but it also matched the actor.


• We didnt use any foley sound effects as they weren't needed. However, watching the film back, i feel that we could have used heavy breathing or footsteps when he is running, as i dont think it works well. However, looking back at the audience feedback, they didnt have any complaints and some even said that the silence kept them on the edge of there seats.
  

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

• The main new technology i used more than last year is the blog. I was more familiar with it this time which helped me to upload pictures and save my work more easily. It was also helpful to see comments from the teacher as it was clear what part you needed to change and to see what there views were on different stages of production.



• This year, we made use of social networking sites. We found it easier to communicate with our target audience as we could upload the film and see the comments. This worked out to be easier then having a group viewing session, as people might not have turned up. The fact that the majority of our demographic are on facebook made it easier to see what they would like in a film.


• We also made use of the cameras. However, on one of the cameras we used we didnt know how to do the white balance, which may of made our rushes slightly yellow. We also had trouble with tripods because we didnt see if they worked before we took them away. So one of the tripods was broken which resulted in us having wonky framing.


• One technology that i didnt change from last year was IMovie. As the main editor of the film, i didnt feel confident in learning how to use final cut pro, as it would have wasted valuable editing time. Next time, i would have learnt how to use it before we started filming as it would have been a lot easier. However, i feel that as a social realist film, the gritty quality that we got from IMovie fitted in with the genre.
  
• We also used a voice recorder, which was very simple and easy to use. It worked out better than recording someones voice on a camera as you dont hear the background echo.


• Again, this year we used Garageband. We could have recorded a band but we found it easier to select a song from garageband as you can pick exactly what you want.