In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Part A - Main Task - The Short Film
Before even thinking up ideas for our short film I researched multiple short films in order to gain inspiration as well as see various camera, editing and sound affects which I could possibly implement and improve on in my own film. In order to do this I used various websites such as YouTube, thesmalls.com and shortoftheweek.com. Doing this gave me an opportunity to see how different film organisations went about to create short films. For example in the top 10 short films on a website I found, there were three or four that were made from low budgets and had been executed in a way in which you wouldn't realise was done with not nearly as much money as some other high end professional movie makers.
The most affective short films I watched were the ones which actually were short, under 6 minutes. Doing this means that what ever goes into the film has to be constantly interesting and engaging. Which makes films such as a short film called Perfectly Normal, which like our film is a love story with a twist. Below is a picture of the opening title, the title reflects on it self how simple it is being a standard font and standard background to say as it the titling is also 'perfectly normal' however it is in yellow which isn't that conventional which could again be mirroring what later happens in the story.
In this film I believe that the usual kind of stereotype has been challenged and changed within this film. When I first watched it I believed that the main male character who is the Psychiatrist was going to be attracted to the female client and try to engage and create an external relationship with her. However he is the one acting extremely professionally and strictly treats her as a client however we quickly find out that it is in fact her that wants to have more than just a Psychiatrist.
We first see the women infatuation with the man through her body language and through her picturing him naked when he asks her what she's thinking about right now. There are several moments throughout the short film where an editing technique is put in place to let us know that she is day dreaming or fantasising about the man but it isn't really happening. An obvious colour filter and change is added as well as music to show this.
This technique is similar to one used in our short film where in order to make our flashback obvious we create change the video to black and white as well as fading to black as you can see below. A flashback is a good narrative convention because its a good and easy way of showing the audience to much for too long.
Changing the affects of the images helps the audience know whats occurring as without it, people may become confused. In the room which is one of the beginning means in Perfectly Normal there is a shot reverse shot sequence where the two main characters are talking and some shots are from a point of view shot such as the one pictured below as then man is sitting in the chair.
This is again similar to one of our shots in our film where we have a point of view shot from the waiter to the main female character so the audience feel as if they are that person in the film, this is a very good camera angle because it makes the audience feel more engaged and gets their attention. Our point go view shot is pictured below.
In addition to this some of the themes are similar as well as Mise En Scene, for example the two main characters in Perfectly Normal appear to be upper middle class people who are very well spoken and dress very well as we can see pictured below. Things like the way people dress make a big difference in short films like this because it immediately gives the audience a sense of what the person is like as it is very easy to judge somebody by what their wearing and by there general appearance. From what we can see they come from an affluent background which is what we aimed for in our short film. Ofcourse this is highly stereotypical and there are always exceptions of different people but for the purpose of comparing short films that is what my conclusion is.
As well as this, in mise en scene we can see that the main female character cares a great deal about her appearance for example she is wearing red lipstick which could be suggested as being seductive, her makeup is also done very well and her hair looks as if she's just been to the beauty salon, her teeth are very white and looked after as well as the rest of her. All of this combined gives her a very attractive appearance which is what the film maker wanted to do as she is trying her best to impress the man she desires.
Our film uses some similar techniques and communicates a vaguely similar meaning as
Perfectly Normal. The people are roughly of the same age range and social class as well as the genre of the film itself. Perfectly Normal came in a category of love with comedic themes. It is like ours in the fact that it is a hybrid genre. It is important that short films like these include different genres because it makes the plot and story more exciting and does not foreshadow in such an obvious way.
Another short film I researched was called Never Forget.
The short film is consisted of 35 cuts and jump cuts. When getting ideas for our film we based and improved upon some of them in this film, for example this opening shot is similar to the one we made where the main male character is doing up his tie (instead of bow tie) but is roughly from the same angle. We liked how the film maker had done this scene for Never Forget and it also had a surprising love story twist with flashbacks similar to ours. I feel this short film was most helpful and influential out of all the ones I looked at. We decided to go with a shot from the reflection of the mirror instead of the front on shot that was used in Never Forget.
Steve Neales theory of Repetition and Variation is a good example for application it to Never Forget, this is because despite the women (protagonist) cheating on her husband we still feel sorry for her when he kills himself. This of course being a very drastic measure to take for somebody having an affair but I feel that thats the point the film maker was trying to get across. It was so sudden and unexpected that everybody who watched it including myself did not suspect it at all. this is because the storyline miss leads you into thinking something else which throws you completely off course.
Never Forget and our film Drop are alike in the theory of Repetition and Variation because we have some typical love and romantic scenes within the film for example the couple going out to drinks/dinner as well as taking about future plans and holidays together. Little do you know that there is an affair going on in Drop. We tried to make it a surprise in the film because in Never Forget we see straight off the bat when the Protagonist goes out with her friends and cheats on her husband but what was so clever is the fact that in the flash back in that story we see how the man knew. Which makes it very significant.
We also tried to replicate they way in which the phone is shown. It is highly debated the best way to show on screen text messages or emails in general due to the fact that it can become easily boring as well as hard to see for the audience especially if they have to read of a phone screen from a low angle. What we decided to do was in our short film at the part where we used a phone we had an on screen text which moved with the phone in order for the viewers to keep their interest.
Todorovs theory can be applied in multiple ways to the plot in Drop because we didn't follow a strict narrative theory. The Equilibrium - Due to the characters appearing simply getting ready for a night out there is nothing out of the ordinary. The disruption - This could be at the point that we find out the women is having an affair. Finally the confrontation which is when the waiter kills the main male character and the women realises in a way she is responsible for her boyfriends death. Omniscient narration could be applied hear due to the fact that there is dramatic irony with the fact that the main male character is obvious to the fact he is being cheated on unlike the case with Never Forget where he knew the whole time.
Within our short film we used a variety of locations as you can see below.
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| The Royal Automobile Club |
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| Car Park |
The Car Park was filmed at the same place, the RAC in the members golf car park, this is because the continuity had to be matched as to where the car drove from the beginning scene when the car was driven into the carpark and we couldn't use somewhere else because the surroundings did not match. We had to film it all in one go because of the placement of the cars.
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| In Car |
Inside the car, I thought it would be a good idea to get dialogue from inside the car in addition to the shots of the car driving down the Captains Drive driveway to make it less boring and more engaging. We used my iPhone attached to a mount and swapped it over to create a shot reverse sequence.
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| Bedroom 1 |
Bedroom 1 was filmed inside a friends house, this was because the dressing table was what we were looking for to match a more mature type of women and relate to the social class and status.
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| Lounge |
The lounge was in my house as well as the bedroom 2. It was easy to find time to film because we did not need anybody's permission. Also the space in the lounge with the light allowed us to create shots we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.
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| Bedroom 2 |
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| The Cock Inn |
The Cock Inn was used due to an error on behalf of our sound recordist. We were due to film the inside drinks/meal part of the short film also at the RAC but due to this error and the distance from the RAC we decided to used the Cock Inn pub.
Sound work in Drop
Within Drop, the first piece of music heard is a non-diegetic song from incompetech.com which is a royalty free music website, we used this because it is illegal to use well known big songs due to copyright. The song we picked was sure to the fact that it was calm and just suited the pattern of our film and the actions that were taking place such as spraying aftershave or brushing hair. Short films usually use parallel sound which fitted the conventions of ours.
In order to get good quality dialogue we used lapel microphones in every scene with dialogue apart from the phone calls and the in car dialogue. This is because the camera microphone in a small room where we did the phone calls could pick it up well however when outside there was too much background noise and we were unable to hear the dialogue. We did experiment with the boom microphone but found the lapel mics to work best. When inside the car, although there was engine noise, we could still hear the dialogue very well through the iPhone.
Part B - Ancillary Task One - The Film Poster
Traditional things you'd find on a high end media film poster would be things such as...
- The main title - The biggest thing that appears on the poster to grab the attention and make it stick in the audiences mind. Usually written in a fancy special font.
- The billing board - This is situated at the bottom of the poster usually in very small writing, it is a legal requirement containing copyright information.
- Main back ground picture - The picture that grabs the attention of the audience, usually a separate still taken, an image not from the actual film.
- Any other external pictures - Separate images added either onto of the main image or blended in with the main image.
- Slogan - Something to give a little insight into the film, often a catchy little fraise you'll see in the advert however not used all the time.
- Release date - Simply the day and date the film will first come out, sometimes showing local cinemas.
- Certificate - This is the age range the film is given. They vary on the themes, violence, language and scenes in the film. It can be U, PG, 12A, 15 OR 18
- Reviews/quotes - Most film posters will show a few quotes or mini reviews in the film, usually a very short sentence of a few words that sum up what they think of the film.
- Star rating - Usually newspapers or separate review companies will give a star rating out of 5.
- Actors/directors - Actors names can be a big part of the poster as if there is a big star in the film they will want to sell them as much as they can.
- Social networks - Social networks can he a big help when trying to advertise a film, so putting for example the films Facebook page on the poster allows people to find it and then share it to friends and family therefore growing the audience.
- Justification - This is how professional film posters are made perfectly, the writing, pictures and text are all completely centred and in line with no overlay making it look the best.
A film poster I have studied and looked at in depth is Layer Cake
Layer Cake is an English film starring Daniel Craig and Sienna Miller.
In this version of the poster we see Sienna Miller half naked wearing an outfit which she wears during a scene in the film however it isn't taken from the film it is a different still photo taken specifically for the poster. The yellow/gold background resembles what I think to be luxury and money, in the film one of the main characters owns a bright yellow Range Rover which i feel has some relevance I also think this because the title itself uses two numbers in them to make it look like letters which I believe to resemble a private numberplate on the Range Rover.
The poster design is actually quite simple, one big title, one attracting picture. One quote and one five star rating. Even though the film stars Daniel Craig and multiple other very famous and successful actors, none of them are mentioned on the poster. I think this is due to the fact that they wanted a simplistic but serious look.
The next film poster I looked at is Johnny English Reborn
This is a very high budget film however from the poster doesn't look like it was made at an extreme cost. The photoshop has been done well with the fire in the background and Rowan Atkinson has been made to appear younger and fitter than he actually is. this poster does follow some normal conventions in the fact that the main character has a smart but almost cocky facial expression. He is dressed very formally. His body position and setting both back this up as well as having the gun for a prop which lets you know he's meant to be a James Bond type character. The title itself isn't massive, it takes up less than a quarter of the screen and isn't centred at all. The poster however does have a slogan. This version of the poster was released before the film was announced so it simply says the year in which it will be coming out but not the month or day.
Rick Altman Semantic Codes
- Colour (background, text, pictures)
- Costumes
- Body Position
- Facial Expressions
- Setting
Another film poster I looked at was Jack Reacher, again this has a big main star in the film and in the case of this poster they have taken advantage of this and written his name above the main title which is situated at the bottom half of the page in a pretty bland font and isn't that big but it gets the point across. The poster also has a slogan as well as a large billing blog, this shows that it follows some regular conventions but for example does not have any ratings of a certificate. As we can see from the image, he is a tough guy holding a gun and wearing a leather jacket and has a cut on his face which are all stereotypical for someone like that. His facial expression is also very serious and intimidating.
If we now look at our poster for the film Drop, which was made as a combination of all three of our ideas, we tried to include as many conventions as we could so we have a billing board, a big main title, a great photo still which we took many versions off and came to the conclusion this was the best due to things such as the facial expression this can allow us to compare it to Altmans theories. The main female character looking away shows how she could be bored with the relationship and is looking for other things which is true considering she's having an affair. The main male character however looks happy as ever and completely oblivious as to whats going on behind his back.
We edited the poster in such a way that it would look dark and gloomy to create a pathetic fallacy. Due to the title being so short we spaced the wording far apart and and put a motion blur like affect on the letters. Also we decided to put all the actors names underneath the title with very good justification, this makes it look like as if the writing is an underlining but it isn't. We have a 4 star rating and quote from the Little White Lies review in order to let people see that if LWL think its good then they will aswell. We made subtle but big changed such as the font being black. But it gave the poster a more eery feel like it was a horror.
Little White Lies is a high end magazine in which movies are reviewed, members of the public subscribe either monthly or annually to get a subscription copy of the box/magazine. It is very well made and exquisitely finished.
The format of little white lies reviews are always the same the layout conventions are things such as the image is always at the top in its own specific measurements, this is to keep it always the same and keep it organised. The page number is always three digits and the three main columns are always justified. Another important thing about the little white lies style is that at the start of the first paragraph there is a drop capital three lines down. The title is centred at the bottom of the page and is in bold. The language conventions used are unique because it is meant for mature readers and is extremely descriptive and detailed.
The kind of people that subscribe to little white lies are big movie and poster fans who want to see specific types of new films that they wouldn't usually see on tv or hear about on the radio. This is because a lot of unique one off films are made and reviewed by little white lies. Especially ones done on a small budget like ours. Also they tend to be aged mainly between 25-35 with exceptions of course. A lot of people who work in the media world and especially university students taking film or media or even photography would be subscribers.
As you can see from our review below we made sure we stuck to the typical conventions. To create the best look alike to a real little white lies review we used a programme called InDesign.
The text in the three columns is featured below
This film is ambiguous on a number of levels The title 'Drop' cleverly refers to the death of a character and the action of spiking a drink. . In addition, this is no ordinary 'who dun it' film because of the unexpected antagonist.
The short film genre is usually characterised by a minority of settings. However Drop manages to overcome this sometimes simplistic limitation and includes a plethora of contrasting locations which adds to the complexity of the story line. One location, the R.A.C Country Club in Epsom, mirrors the motif of the film perfectly: the upper middle class characters display opulence, affluence and wealth which is also denoted in the ‘Downtonesque’ setting. The crime committed in this setting at the country club may surprise audiences as this social class is not usually associated with 'crimes of passion'. On the other hand, more in sync with the short film genre, the cast is limited which allows for the creation of the character’s death in such a short running time. All three characters are executed superbly by Ettie Greenwood, Joe Willmott and James Garbis (up and coming actors that could really make their mark in the film world during the next few years).
The plot revolves around a complicated and secretive 'love-triangle', in which Rachel (Ettie Greenwood), is extremely guilty, doubtful and inevitably miserable leading to the films unexpected finale. This is skilfully handled by director Rosie Lincoln (also director of the inspiring ‘Life as we know’) who places the plot reveal at the end with the clichéd technique - a flashback, which literally 'makes the penny drop'.
Female director, Rosie Lincoln, is known for her feminist views that are especially reflected in her recent film shorts. Once again, Lincoln creates a strong lead female character, Rachel, who appears to dominate in the crucial love triangle. So, what are the feminist credentials: Rachel is a wealthy, powerful young woman. She emits signs of dominance and control, never being submissive to her man. She is far from the typical dependant female character of the past.
However, there are alternative interpretations of her character which suggest that 'Drop' instead does not communicate the feminist ideology that others suggest: Come the end, Rachel is seen in a very vulnerable light, as she panics over then death she had subconsciously caused. There is a great debate over whether these feminist values are consciously displayed or not, of which readers can discover more on the 'twitter-sphere' where the heated debate continues to rage.
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