Evaluation

My Evaluation Prezi

I had tried to get it embedded, however according to prezi 'This prezi does not exists'(great spelling by prezi.com) ...hmmm. Anyways! The link works and within my prezzi I have evaluated my production and post production. Enjoy!

Reaping what Lauren Showed

Here is the audience feedback from Laurens Focus group (Alternatively Lauren has also posted them on her blog ). All in all, again really positive responses with all enjoying the film whilst the same key critisms popped up (hard to understand plot, Bad acting). That said the main feedback was that the lawyers that sue advert was brilliant, which was really good to see.

(Will be posting full analysis very soon in the form of the prezi link)

Audience feedback

So far for post production Lauren and I have sent out various feedback requests to certain avenues. Firstly Youtube.com - where our film is hosted. In this instance we didn't get back any feedback that was credible, which is a shame but understandable considering how large a site it is.
Considering that we couldnt rely on youtube for comments and feedback lauren and I took seperate routes about how to gather feedback, so that we could combine the findings in the end. I asked several people on MSN, a social networking site about the film in an informal interview style approach. Heres the feedback I got:













For informal feedback, they raised some really credible points such as Problems with sound, Colours and the acting. I am planning to ask more people (Ive sent out similar requests on facebook but so far have no replies so will push the boat out on them).



Laurens Post production feedback work is also going really well. She sent out a request on yahoo answers for feedback and got a brilliant reply:

''I did find amusing if a bit disjointed. I loved the ambulance chasing lawyer skit, and was laughing at the 'gag reel'. A nice touch that.'' - Mr_ R_ Swipes




Additionally she is holding a focus group for media producers, around our age (the target age group) and will be posting the questionaires up soon. To do my part for it, I asked two people that were slightly outside the target audience age.

Questionnaire


Did you enjoy the film?
YES

Which areas influenced your decision?

. . . It was different

What improvements could be made?

. . . .acting skills and dialogue, (storyline maybe?)

Did you understand the plot?

NO


Could you tell that it was a parody?

Of what?

Where could you see this being shown?

On a laptop, you tube?

If this was a series, would you watch the next episode?

YES
Might help me understand it

Thanks for your time.
Your welcome.

(Age: 22)

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Questionnaire



Did you enjoy the film?
YES NO



Which areas influenced your decision?
The fact it was a comedy parody made it interesting and funny to watch.




What improvements could be made?
Clearer speaking from the actors


Did you understand the plot?

YES NO



Could you tell that it was a parody?
Yes


Where could you see this being shown?
In a film festival or on a television programme


If this was a series, would you watch the next episode?

YES NO Maybe

Depends on the quirky lines and plot story.


Thanks for your time.

(Age 15)
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With these two, there was a vast difference between the responses. The 15 year old had rather positive responses, saying that while it lacked 'clever lines' it was still enjoyable. The 22 year old was less positive. There was no understanding of the parody and the acting was highlighted as the key problem in the peice. The positive was that if it was a series, the next episode would be watched - but to help understand the storyline. All in all it was mixed when it came to the questionaires, which was interesting. It will be great to be able to look over Laurens findings and summerising it in my Exciting 'prezi' Evaluation. Will be posting the link very soon

We've hit the tube ...no not literally!

Hey heys! After much waiting by Lauren (3 hours to upload! O.o), shes managed to get our film on youtube. Its quite good quality, I would say though that our visual editing has maybe degraded the films overall visual quality so blowing it up to full screen will probably be a bit painful (anyone say pixelation?).

I've got a handle on the review page after looking at some examples in the empire magazine. Using the template as the basis, I created the fictional 'Shorts review' section of an empire mag. Heres a screenshot of what it looks like

Obviously some of this is difficult to see because of the quality of picture but I took key elements of the empire layout (Look Closer - Using actual film facts from our film , Caption on the image that has a thinnly veiled joke, large quotation from the review, star rating, and some of the smaller graphics I attempted to recreate (red/ orange bar , small circle with arrow in it at the start and end of the review ). I put my own spin on the overview mast head (In Cinemas) and changed it to On Line as our film is intended to be a low budget internet based film. I also included the website and page numbers on the base of the page.

Initially my draft was critised due to the uneven textbox sizes and the fact the default size (A4) isnt actually the size of normal magazines as they are normally wider and slightly shorter. After a quick refresher of publishers features (my year 11 gcse ict teacher must be weeping!) i remembered most of the key tools at would rectify the criticism originally got. After all this it looked much improved. I would say that I learnt from my feedback and maybe next time i should do more research on magazines before making my first draft to adhere more to conventions.

Writing Block Appeared!

I have hit a bit of a writers block with the Film review. I have tryed to mix positives with negatives to not create too much of a scathing review. Here's what I have so far:


With Lost finally retiring into cult obscurity with the arrival of the final series, short film directors Lauren Edwards and Kyle Bamford have attempted to construct the same levels of confusion and obscure events— In 4 minutes. Waking up in the middle of nowhere, Jack (Jonny Ellis – Pirates, Ninjas and the Stone) soon finds 2 equally clueless teens in the form of the overly melodramatic John (Tom Bircham) and Matt (Darren Stapleton – Pirates, Ninjas and the Stone). Little known to them, while they stumble helplessly around looking for a way out, a much sinister evil has awakened…
Like its characters, the style of this film wanders aimlessly but bashfully through each scene. Happily this is a refreshing break from the oddly perfume advert smoothness of Lost, but in places the amateur nature is rudely thrust upon its audience with slightly off camera cuts slicing through that low budget charm. It might be that the directors have intended this to be a rebellion against the aesthetic focused cult television productions of today. Yet they have done so in such a vague way, to anyone looking for escapism, this will be taken at face value.
That would be a shame because Edwards and Bamford have made intelligent veiled jokes at the expense of various aspects in modern media that bloat our television screens. One such is the inclusion of the advert ‘Lawyersthatsueforgold’, which pokes fun at the plague of identikit daytime advertisements that circulate for months on end. But in the end the unfortunate thing is these jokes often are better than the more narrative driven parts of the film.

So far it isnt quite right so im going to think about it for a while

Its the Final Poster .. TBC

This is the roughly finished Poster. I looked at other posters including 300 to get a rough idea of the poster to credits ratio. Key ideas I picked up from the poster was the size difference between the Names of cast and crew with their job titles (Names are larger, meaning I made a seperate layer for some areas of text, halved the size and ran it on two lines to match the size of names.

Another feature I added were the Production company logos. They are pretty basic but i think they work well. Because we are parodying Lost, Lauren and I decided to parody their production company names (ABC Studios - CBA Studios (aka Cant Be A(censored)ed) and Bad Robot - Bad Reboot) so I based my designs around simple indicators of each thing. The lazy guy as if he cannot be bothered for CBA Studios and the computer on fire for a bad reboot. I also included the Lawyersthatsueforgold website as most films include their websites in posters and this is the closest to our film website.

I'm Going to speak to Lauren today to make sure that she agrees with my decision for film poster.

Freedom! and No we dont have to edit another 5 series!

We have finished editing our film!! We may make changes but to be honest this is a definate final template if any changes need to be done. Considering the Heroes link, we changed some of the colours to make them seem much more vivid, like a comic. This is what took most of the time as we were often staring at the slow red imovie editing bar to find that it was too bright or vibrant. However in the end it turned out really well. We included some outtakes at the end for the credits as this is twisting a conventional way a parody/comedy series presents its credits. In the film Airplane! and the serie's Allo' Allo' and Dads army they have a 'you have been watching .. ' title followed by clips of the different actors with their names. We incorperated the outtakes instead of serious clips for a comedic effect as other series have done similar. For instance the sitcom 'My Wife and kids' plays some outtakes from the episode as the credits play.



All in all, there has been an obvious improvement through the editing phase of production. The adding of music and sound effects in particular really created tension , and in the case of the advert, a silly but dated feel. Some of the effects and transitions work well to highlight points that weren't so well pointed out in the film (such as Darrens 'talk to plushie' power). We used letterbox and QT margin subtitles to convey the mental conversation between Darren and the plushie. Other special effects we included were the circular highlighting around the hello Kitty after Jonny says 'Oh No!' (Much like a poor japanese dub - not to say this is a bad thing!) to add to the whole comic book feel . Personally i think the editing has been of big importance to the success of our film, however if i had one criticism it would be that perhaps changing the colour values and contrast might make larger playback screens really pixelated.

Attention Duelists! My blog gives me the power to post about Parodies

One parody I know of is the Brilliant Yugioh: The Abridged Series. The maker of this series, Little Kuriboh, has taken original Yugioh Raws (Japanese episodes with no subtitles) removed the sound and recorded the sound for each character. He clearly knows the series well as he often redicules characters for their key traits (ie: one character constantly saying 'Attention duelist' in the actual series)and has worked hard to make sure the voices are similar to the actual characters english voices.
At times he also parodies various aspects of real life. A good example of this is Episode 17:




At 5: 15 LittleKuriboh parodies Mastercard Adverts in the context of the series using Kaibacorp as the basis. As a series he has also parodied various songs (This is My United States of America - Bandit Keiths catchphrase in the Abridged is 'In America , Brooklyn Rage - Copying Poker Face and Im on a Blimp - Lonely Islands Im on a Boat). Additionally he has created 2 Christmas Specials (1 parodying Charles Dickens Christmas Carol and the other parodying Dr Seuss's Grinch).
The Series is an interesting insight into how anime or cartoons are not free from the possiblity of being parodied (within themselves). It is also a testiment to how We- Media can generate popularity and whole new markets for user made videos, as Yugioh The Abridged Series has caused several others to create their own abridged series (Such as 'Team Fourstar'S ' Dragonball Z abridged and Naruto Abridged (Interestingly both of these have been referenced to in Yugioh the Abridged series, with Little Kuriboh making his own parody of the Naruto Parody and referencing Team Fourstar in later episodes of YOTAS)).

Mass Effect of Reviewing Practice

(Image URL Source:http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/masseffect2_mar27_01.jpg )

Given that one of our subsiduary peices is going to be a review, It was helpful when a project for an interview turned out to be 'Write a review on a game of your choice' which has now given me some practice of writng an review:


MASS EFFECT 2
Console: XBOX 360/ PC


Mass Effect 2 is the much anticipated sequel to Mass Effect and it certainly delivers on several fronts. Continuing the rolling story from the first game, you once again step into the shoes of Commander Sheppard, who now must assemble a universe beating squad to deal with the new threat of the mysterious Collectors. Bioware have done a complete overhaul of the combat system from the previous Mass Effect, taking pointers from Gears of War, in that transitions to and from areas of cover are fluent. The shooting and weaponry are much more potent, with the ‘overheating’ system replaced with traditional magazines and Heavy weapons are now included in Sheppard’s arsenal.
The Graphical style remains largely the same, providing substantial and awe inspiring scenery. From the pristine skywalk of Illium, to the much more dark and seedy underbelly of Omega, it is likely to be the finest sci-fi universe to be created in a game. It is this, however that proves a slight disappointment for those looking for a similarly expansive experience to the first game when it comes to the large cities. The cities are slightly more downscaled in Mass Effect 2, with emphasis being placed on action segments of the game. These may seem very conventional at the beginning ; kill dozens of enemies before dealing with a ‘boss’ type character. The inclusion of heavy weapons at points make these battles seem too easy. That said, there are moments where it pays to use your head over your gun. These are in the form of the Interruption conversation feature. At points it will allow you to interrupt dialogue in either a renegade way (often involving blunt force trauma) or in a paragon way. This is an interesting feature that can save you trouble at points, much like persuasion. However it is done in such a way that is almost like twisting a scene from a movie, but for your own benefit.
For fans of the first game, there are a few surprises in store, especially if characters are imported from Mass Effect 1. Key decisions that were made make their ripples known in your travels. It is at points like this that the game becomes something unique. Using intertextuality from characters own exploits is something that is rarely done in games, but has been executed finely in Mass Effect 2. It is also a feature that is likely to continue into the 3rd game. In doing this, Bioware has ensured that players will become hooked in a gripping story that they are continually shaping. Not only that, but because of the potency of your decisions, and deepness of character back stories, it will be a game that will continually be revisited to explore various outcomes. With a good 20 hours in a singular play through, it ensures that Mass Effect 2 will become a classic piece of storytelling for RPG and action/adventure fans alike. Mass Effect wasn’t broken, but somehow Bioware and EA have fixed it.


9.1/ 10


Image URL sourced from:http://mycheats.1up.com/view/imageraw/67082/mass_effect_2_wall1.jpg

Poster Update!

i havent posted much about my work with Posters so heres an update. When we filmed the main section of the film I took several shots on the site to convert into a suitable poster. Of the ones I took, these two were the best.

Originally I had intended to mimic the Lost promotions, but with a few twists (like having a random person in the background ) The more zoomed out shot several problems that I needed to sort out. Firstly the sky and backdrop werent dramatic enough. This proved to be a major issue as in importing a darker sky the trees looked out of place as did the people due to the lighting. I increased the contrast, whilst repeatedly working over highlights with the burn / dodge tool to make the characters stand out. Initially I was concerned that the lighting on their faces was too dark but after looking at lost promo's, they lit faces in a similar manner

This is the second template for a possible poster. In this I went for a completely different look that focused more on the characters and used rigid division to increase this empathsis. In this poster, like the last I used the Burn and dodge tools to increase the contrast levels.

I also trialed some ideas for credits but as i havent looked at any posters, it doesnt look quite right yet. However what im going to do is look at some posters to get some ideas before i finish and pick which is the right template.

When Viral Marketing goes too far! (and general look at viral marketing)

Given our briliiant lawyersthatsue website, I have started to look up about viral advertising and I found another interesting article about when it can be taken too far. The article goes on about how the TV program True Blood has used viral marketing. It made use of postal avenues, posting fake blood to several office buildings and comic books to specific bloggers first before making several websites for subtle promotion. The long list includes bloodcopy(A mockumentary blog of sorts depicting what life is like for a normal vampire), The American Vampire league (A site that tries to intergrate vampires with society) and even a Vampire/ Human dating site (*one raised eyebrow*). It has even reached wikipedia with a trueblood branch of the popular We Media site.

I think in the modern era where user generated content can be accessed so freely and where various memes can influence and inticise people, viral marketing has become a large part of companies advertising campaigns.

Laurens Awesome Filming and Genius Website

Recently we have only had 1 scene to film which was the flashback advert. Lauren has sorted out organising and filming the scene. From what ive seen it looks really good and hopefully next period we can sink our teeths into editing that with what we have so far. What was a really brilliant touch was the website that Lauren made for our fake lawyer company 'Lawyersthatsueforgold.com'. Its a bit bare at the moment however if we get time we'll add some more padding to it, but yeah, REALLY impressed with how that all turned out!



For more information on how the filming went heres Laurens thoughts on the Filming

El Nombré style statistics crunching!

Another intresting Article I found online was on :http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/teens-learn-about-new-tv-shows-from-tv-not-internet-1620/otx-tv-teens-how-find-out-about-new-showsjpg/. It stated some intresting facts about how marketing is received by an audience. (below statistics sourced from http://www.marketingcharts.com/)

Although this is about TV shows the principle is roughly the same as our product - especially if it was aired on a TV shorts show or even channel. Outdoor adverts (Posters) and Radio Shows seem to both be below 15% meaning that as an advertisment for a television show, it wouldn't be the best option. Adverts on TV seem to be the highest effecting form of advertising (Compare the Market also is a testimony that it isnt just effective for television shows), while Word of mouth and Magazine ads are also in the 20% + range. Maybe our poster would be best placed in a magazine for maximum exposure. The radio advert might not be as effective however it is something we are going to continue to work on. Considering the power of magazine adverts, a review might have similar advertising power.

Other information on the site included statistics on how teens watch their Tv shows:

Unsuprisingly On the Scheduled Time comes top with 70%, while Online streaming (Be it free or using a Video on demand service) only take up 16% combined. Should our production be shown on a television channel it would have to be shown several times, judging by how little other methods of viewing it are used. Personally I think our production would be shown on a website like BBCFilmnetwork or channel 4 shorts, while our Advertising might be limited to magazine adverts, radio or even viral (on websites).

Compare the Meerkat Marketing

One thing Me and Lauren will have to start thinking about soon is the importance of good marketing, as all three of the subsiduary peices are marketing based. Recently a program was shown that listed the 100 best adverts on tv. One advert that was featured on this show was Comparethemarket.com's infamous Comparethemeerkat advert.


(sourced from http://www.playgroup.com)

Now this seemingly innocent advert had a drastic effect on the website, increasing visits of the site by 80 percent. This is but one of the many stories that simply highlight why marketing is one of the most profitable job paths. It also serves to show how much thought we should put into the Radio and Poster. And with the poster being my priority, I'd better start cracking on researching posters!

Meta Analysis

The first question that comes up when you analyse something is what do you aim to gain from your analysis. So far in our project we have looked at 2 key areas before our filming; At short Films and at Director's behind what we're parodying. The reason we have looked at short films is that it is integral to delve into the information behind our medium. What makes it a short film, in terms of conventions, constraits and differences from other mediums, aswell as the way other directors have used the medium all are key pieces of information that as a group we need to know should our film be a success. Not because we should follow the information but rather as the information is a guideline in a way. With this guideline we can push boundries or stay conventional. It is all about having the information. In a similar way, looking at our parodied is key because we can gain invaluable knowledge into all of the key areas of the series, be it conventions, lighting, sound, editing and even the way the credits are presented.

Note: This may seem an odd placement of this post however I think it puts a formal 'Lid' on what we had researched for our film and why.

Hoping this post will get a good Reception .... Theory

Recently in the theory section of our lessons, we have covered the way post modernism has been incorperated into Film, Tv and even used by characters in the media spotlight. What effect has it had on us, as an audience? Well that was my most recent essay - but rather than quote from that, which includes things that dont relate to our production, I'm gonna go over the key way a Parody changes the Audience. Now how does a Parody change the Audience? Simple. Intertextuality - a word so long it must hold some power!
When an audience merely accepts what they see and dont really think much with a film, they are considered a Hyperdermic Needle Audience. This is effectly because the film or media is 'injected' directly into them and as an audience there is no kind of response or thinking. Intertextuality however changes this completely. Intertextuality draws directly from other mediums, items or people and uses them for an effect. Surely this cant make much of a difference? Well, in actuality intertextuality can split an entire audience, into two groups. Those that know of the reference's origins and those who dont. The group of the audience that aknowledge the intertextuality become a 'Receptive' audience. This is the basis behind Reception Theory.
Reception theory is centred around the concept that an audience can gain a greater experience from one 'text' than others. Why intertextuality is the key tool in Reception theory is that in using intertextual references, a director is relying on the audience to have some form of understanding of what is being refered to. And if they do, a heirarchy of understanding is created within an audience in some way.

Stop, Camera, helping out editing!

These are the paintball videos that my brother filmed awhile back. After working out that there was an editing software on my laptop, he enlisted my help to edit them. Most of it is basic cuts and simple use of 'titles' as subtitles where my brother inputted various things that have happened thoughout the films.
As each film goes on more features have been added as we got to grips with them (ie: freeze shots, ect)

The music in each film is copyright (Jamie T - Man's Machine, Gorillaz - Kids with guns (audio currently blocked) and Kasabian - shoot the runner), however each peice of music has been referenced on Youtube (and i just referenced them for here) and since the videos arent being used for profit i think it sticks to all copyright rules.

A few behind the scenes pictures (a few purely because my camera CF card was almost full at the start =/ )

These are a few of the shots that I took whilst the filming was taking place. The first 3 shots were for perspective Poster shots.The next two shots were taken by Dom while I was overseeing Laurens filming and the final 2 shots I took as:

We all struggled with the setting up of the tripod

and as Dom helped Tom with the script (i think) while Lauren led Jonny off for his scene at the start.

There would have been more shots had it been for the fact I ran out of CF Memory =[

One leg was harmed in the making of this film ...

Finally filmed! After much planning and some massive improvisations we have filmed all but 1 scene. Originally when me and lauren met up, both with sets of actors in tow, we had discovered that we had forgotten our plushie toy that was going to play 'antagonist' of the film. Additionally we had one scene that hadn't been storyboarded and upon reaching our first location - the big clearing - there were some council workers burning some wood. Initally it was a bit of a panic but in the end it actually worked to our advantage as the smoke worked really well to create a sense of drama in our 'poster shots'. Also the way we were forced to film ended up creating a clear route through the forest that followed with our storyline.

In terms of analysing the filming done, most of it was filmed by lauren, since she had only until lunch and it was originally planned that it would take much longer than it actually did - however laurens filming was really good, and she took two shots for each scene for the proof editing and in general had more confidence on camera. That said, I am relatively happy with the scenes i filmed and will hopefully take most of the riegns for the subsiduary peices.
The stuff filmed was also brilliant. There was alot of mess ups, some funny and on camera, a lot off (if we do a blooper reel all we can say is yes kicking that branch was painful for tom!). On a serious note though, the script was quickly distributed and Tom, Jonny and Darren all learnt their lines before each scene was shot and it was a really quick process. My favourite bit of the filming came from an idea me and lauren had whilst filming the scene where Tom and Darren are explaining why they are there,but due to Dom standing out of shot Jonny wasnt looking at them but at Dom. This lead to Doms cameo role in our film as someone in the distance (he was also sitting in a tree at one point (a deliberate placement) but that is less noticable). It was very Scrubs-esq.
The way we solved the polar bear error was when Ella, my friend who had come to watch the filming like Dom, had offered her Hello Kitty keyring plushie to be the 'evil plushie'. This makes for some pretty surreal scenes such as when darren gets attacked by it. It, I think, will be really funny because it completely works against the stereotypes of a creature feature esq antagonist, but for a comedic effect (another good reason why it's good to know of semiotics when filming!).

I think when our film is done it will look really melodramic in a fake and cheap way, BUT this i think will be the neice market that our film was originally intended for. And on that Bombshell im off as its nearly break.

(misc filming fact: Over 30 'That's what she said' jokes were used in the production of this film )

J~ I Need a Heroes Analysis ~J

These were my notes for the presentation. In the end because i was ill i couldnt present them, so ill do it now! Effectively I watched the first episode of heroes whilst having the directors commentary on to get a brief insight into how heroes is filmed

Sound: The sound is mainly score to fit in with the action. Most sound is diegetic in the diologue but in general the non diegetic sound is a music score and not main stream music. In the first titles they have composed music from batman to fit in with the comic book feel.

Lighting: Much of the lighting is conventional with homes and streets but on occasion outside lighting had been used to illuminate areas around a house to make it seem as if it is day when it is night.

Mise-en- scene: Alot of this has been constructed to fit the characters or location theyre trying to film. For example in one scene instead of it being odassa, texas, it is actually a house in los angleas. Sets have been entirely built in some cases to tailor with the needs of one shot (ie: a house set was built with no roof for a 'dollhouse style shot'). The mise- en - scene is vital for heroes to work as a program and suspend the disbelief of the audience.

Editing: Special effects, green screening, cutting between stunt actors and real actors. Each interwoven story is like a slot. They have to be manuovered to see which ones fit best.

Narrative. Many storys that are cut in between each other. Some that llink, ect.