"Me, Myself and I": Evaluation

"Me, Myself and I": Evaluation

Process of the evaluation

27/04/13
AB

After working on our film, it fiinally came to the time where we needed to evaluate it. Below are the the questions we needed to answer and how we responded.

Me, Myself and I: Evaluation

In the evaluation the following seven questions must be addressed:

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

 

Our media project develops what appears to be a stereotypical teenager and people perceptive of those who are mentally ill is subverted; through the revelation of her illness as it’s gradually exposed through introducing her personas.

 

We used the existing structure of coming of age films: Self-discovery, overcoming social isolation, finding were you fit, overcoming insecurities and growing up which is featured in blockbuster films like Juno, Super Bad and The Breakfast Club. Typical obstacles but exaggerated immensely by May’s DID and so we’ve also challenged the structure by taking it to the extremes.

We’ve also challenged real media conventions through our non-traditional production and through using anchored script where actors’ improvisation revolves around it. We differ as unlike in real media products during their productions various gadgets were available to them to help them film, such as dolly’s, tracks and perhaps even cranes.  The shots in our production on the other hand were improvised to mimic the same effect as these media conventions.

 

Another way we’ve challenged the conventions of film structures is by our distribution of information for the audience. Our opening scene in comparison to other films is more sudden, a lot more informative much like recaps from TV episodes; this is due to our limited time. Other films distribution of information is more gradual sometimes no information is actually given in their film opening, for instance: “Catch Me If You Can”.

 

 

2.                  How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

 

Our product represents teenagers with disabilities. The representation of the disabled in our film portrays them as ordinary, subverting the expectations of our viewers. An example would be Elizabeth, as she is portrayed as relatively normal in her scene; nothing out of the ordinary happens. However, Elizabeth is still a strange character as she is the persona of someone else. We develop this by revealing the depth of our protagonist and therefore portraying this social group in a different form than what the audience had originally expected.

 

We subvert the audience’s expectations as information is slowly released; challenging the notion in the minds of the audiences that it’s easy to distinguish a person with mental disorder. For example, many media products are dismissive of the mentally disabled for they’re not part of the plots at all. They’re characters are not fully developed and they remain a stereotype. However, when they are the focus of a film; often they are painted in a negative way. Many are presented as a psychopathic murderer, for example: Hannibal, Freddie Krueger, Jigsaw from Saw and many others. Our film challenges this as our main protagonist who has DID unlike those representation is presented in a more light hearted way. This creates a sense of curiosity and discovery for the audience than fear and dislike. May is more relatable to Charlie from “Perks of Being a Wallflower”. Both are social outcasts and are presented as quite odd but it’s something which is in a way celebrated, a quality they possess which is liked by the audience. So our film is conventional in a way that characters with disability are presented as odd but unconventional as the character is developed to reveal the reason behind their actions, unconventional as the film tries to explain, tries to help the audience understand the mentally disabled rather than fear them or be unnerved by them.

 

Another social group which we have featured in our film opening are normal teenagers, portrayed by Jasmine Gothard and Daisy Brunsdon. They have shown how some normal people may perhaps react to those with mental disability. Possibly mirroring how some of the audience may react if placed in the same position. As a result, we challenge their perception of the mentally disabled. The same is done as well in Violet’s scene in which her peers are actually laughing at her which challenges them even further. Our film had also shown range of age and nationalities to illustrate how no one is excused from this.  That regardless of age, gender and nationality there are many people guilty of reacting similarly to the characters in the film towards May and her personas. 

 

 

 

3.                  What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

 

Since our film’s low budget, it’s unlikely to be released in the cinemas like blockbuster films for it lacks marketability. But it may be featured in film festivals such as the Raindance Film Festival for a pre-promotion. It could potentially be used by foundations which support people with DID or other psychological disorders to help raise awareness, organizations such as: Peny Parks Foundation, First Person Plural, Mind and many others. Our film could also be used in media studies classes in schools, as our opening is effective but relatively simple and could help students understand the structure of creating a film.

 

Although, hypothetically if we were looking to actually produce our film, we may decide to ask “Kickstarter” to help us get funds, seeing as the cost for producing is immense. We may then decide to sell and market our film online. Perhaps use YouTube to our advantage and use it to promote our film. We may contact independent film distributors such as: DogWoof, Independent Film Company or Entertainment Film Distributors who can help us with sales and marketing throughout UK. Online avenues may be used instead of DVD creation to avoid possible loss of revenue, it’s likely we’ll use ITunes to market our film as not only will this save us money but due to the digital era; everything is becoming digitalized. 

 

4.                  Who would be the audience for your media product? 

 

Teenagers and people who have been affected by DID are part of our target audience. As well as these, our film is also designed to attract people who are interested in the genre of our film; which is mainly Drama. This means that although our main target audience is teenagers and people affected by DID, any group who has an interest in dramatic movies would be targeted for our film. It may even attract certain people who prioritizes their family first as “Me, Myself and I” celebrates the importance of parenthood and relationship within family and so mothers may take alike to our film. Couples who have teenagers of their own may find themselves attracted to the film.

 

Essentially our film is about an underdog. In our film we touch on the issue of bullying. Being bullied can affect a person’s social life and during time at school, social life is an important aspect as adolescents start to form relationships outside their family. Often the extent, at which a teenager can enjoy school and their youth, depends on their social life. This is where peer pressure, self-searching and crushes happen which will be explored in our film. For the older audiences, elements of this film could remind them of similar experiences of bullying they had at school or later on in life. Although bullying is more common throughout teenage years, there are many people who have been through similar situations at work.

 

Seeing as our film is about a girl with psychological disorder, people with curiosity in psychology may naturally be attracted to our film. Also curiosity plays a big role as it intrigues the audience prompting them to see our film and friends or family of the individual who wants to see it will be tagged along to watch it with them.

 

5.                  How did you attract/address your audience? 

We sparked curiosity amongst our audience, prompting them to see our film, at the very start of our opening while May is cycling and no one can tell where her destination is. In addition to this, we explicitly say that the movie is aimed at adolescents for the genre: coming of age often appeals to adolescents as they find they can relate to the characters. We use editing to gradually indirectly reveal information for the audience to pick up. For example: the flashbacks and the dialogues. Although by the end we do directly address our audience as May breaks the forth wall dividing the characters from the audience.

 

We’ve also used enigma codes right from the beginning of our film, it remains unknown to the audience who the girl is and where she’s heading. As the scenes proceed to the clips of the personas questions such as: “What is she doing?” “That’s the same girl, dressed in different costumes… why?” “Why does that girl dressed as a man…?” it becomes a fodder to audiences’ curiosity. All stimulates the audience to become active to try to work out what is going on. Another way which we’ve attract our audience is through making our film relatable to other existing texts such as “Perk of Being a Wallflower”, therefor evoking a discussion a comparison between the two films and so it lures the audience in as they speculate over our film.                  

 

6.                  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 

From making our film, we’ve learned about the process, the technicalities and the dedication it takes to create a film. We learnt how to use the Dedo lights, the filters and the bounce boards to imitate natural light for our film. For instance: Carefully placing them around the set to avoid creating false shadows and to avoid noticeable artificial light. We had to be constantly aware of the sensitivity of the mic, as it was able to pick up the tiniest sounds that can distract our audience. We were also able to experiment with different video recording gadgets and discovered that they can be quite beneficial. For instance: our substitution for the camera with an iPhone when recording Violet’s scene actually adds realism to our film.

 

7.                  Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

Comparing our film opening now from our preliminary task, we have made great developments. The quality of work for starters, our film opening had been recorded by professional technologies while our preliminary was recorded with a low resolution camera. The editing is much more fluent, we feel that in our preliminary video; the cuts are pointedly constructed. The editing of our opening on the other hand seems to have developed sophistication as shots flowed more fluently from one to another. Unlike in our preliminary task, we made sure that the editing in our final opening was almost invisible and did not distract our catch the audience’s attention. The execution of the shots are also much well-done due to the fact that we lacked technologies to assist us when filming our preliminary video. For instance, we had no tripod to make the shots still nor did we have a dolly to help us with panning shots; all of our shots had been filmed handheld. Furthermore, our sounds had been recorded within a better mic, not just the built in mic in cameras. We’ve also developed creative sight as we knew exactly what we wanted to include in each scene in the opening of our film, what shot to use and what to include in the misc-en-scene. Everything was well thought of, unlike our preliminary task in which we didn’t have enough knowledge regarding what makes a successful shot.

After writing our evaluation, we've decided to make a video for our evaluation. We recorded the audio to out evaluation using my IPhone. The editing of the video had to be done on Window Live Movie Maker, and as predicted the MP4 audio file was not supported by Windows Live Movie Maker and so I had to convert the audio file into an MPG. I used an online converter to do this. After the evaluation altogether, I uploaded it on YouTube. The link below should take you to our evaluation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1dpRWHVFhs

Crane Shot Productions Logo

Crane Shot Productions Logo

Crane Shot Productions: Logo

The creation of our logo:

Although we knew that we wanted our logo to be associated with the crane bird, we didn't know how we were going to make this picture look creative and at the same time professional. After searching, Emma found an app on my IPad called "Fingerpaint" which allowed us to copy a picture off of Google and make it more eye catching and 'logo worthy'. So, to start off we chose a sketch of a crane bird from Google images and transferred it to the IPad app. We decided that a sketch of the bird would be better than an picture of a real crane as we only wanted the outline and didn't think that our logo should look like a realistic bird but more of a creative drawing.

This is the picture that we took from Google Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dasiy then used "Fingerpaint" to add the colours, using the app's features to make the strokes seem featherlike and soft.

This is the picture when Daisy had finished adding the colours and effects:

Unfortunately, we had to find a way of making the background purely white. "Fingerpaint" would not allow us to do this and so Emma downlaoded another app on my IPad called "DrawCast" which then allowed her to carefully colour over the blue lines in the picture above. This did take a few hours but Emma finally coloured over the majority of the lines so that they were no longer noticable.

This is our logo with the background painted completely white:





However, our group came to a deliema when we decided that the white background did not look professional enough and that perhapes our logo would look more striking and 'logo worthy' if we had it on a black background. Unfortunately, we could not find an app or programme that allowed us to just change the colour of the background. Therefore, it took a few more hours to go back to the very original picture that we got from Google Images and use "DrawCast" to colour the entire background black. Emma was unable to take the picture above and paint the background black with the colouring that Dasiy had drawn on already. This is because Emma was not able to take away all of the white without damaging Daisy's colouring and making the logo look messy. Therefore, she had to go back the the very original picture that we took from Google Images and change the background to black, being careful not to ruin the outline of our bird.

This is the picture with a black background but without the colouring of the 'feathers':

As you can see, Emma was unable to paint over all of the white without damaging the outline of the bird. However, this was not noticable once we added on the effects.

Daisy then once again used "Fingerpaint" to paint on the 'feathers' of the bird. We did multiple versions of this to see which one worked best.

These are some of our practice logos:

 



We finally settled on this next image as our final logo, as we asked the class which one they think looked the best:

Once we had uploaded our image onto IMovie, we noticed that you could change the features of any image. After experimenting, we decided that our final logo would look the most professional and striking in a gold / yellow colour (this can be seen in our final opening scene). We did, however, have some trouble with making the image remain still in our opeining scene as it kept on moving from one side to the other, as if it was a clip and not a picture. We finally figured out how to make it perfect by clicking on the small button that appeared in the top left hand corner that was almost invisible! 

Here is our final Logo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credit goes to our awesome team member Emma! 

Revision Analysing TV Drama: Editing

Revision Analysing TV Drama: Editing

Information on how to analyse editing in clips

15/04/13
MWE

Editing

When analysing editing there are categories in which are part of it, features which we must look at in a clip. They are:

• Order of shots
• Continuity
• Transition
• Shot duration/ Rythm and Pace
• Special Effects

All of which helps construct the narrative of the story.

Order of shots

• The sequences in which the shots are put in affects the meaning of the clip.
• The sequence can either cause continuity or a juxatposition

For example:

 



 

 

As explained in the video above, when the middle clip between the start and editing is changed the whole meaning of the clip takes a whole different turn. For instance:

 

Fisrt clip:

 

First shot: A girl looking at something

Second shot: A group of people sat on the ground having a picnic, they notice her and they wave

Third shot: The shot returns to the girl's face breaks into a grin

 

This sequence of shots implies that the girl is lovely and is looking for her friends to spend her afternoon with. She's happy to see her friends.

 

However if we change the second shot, it takes a whole new different meaning...

 

Second clip:

 

First shot: A girl looking at something

Second shot: A group of teenagers are crowding over a another girl and harrassing her

Third shot: The shot returns to the girl's face which breaks into a grin

 

The second sequence connotes the idea that the focused character is quite unpleasant as we see that she enjoys another person's sorrow- from the second shot. Majority of the sequence stays the same, it is only the middle clip which has change yet the whole sequence take a whole different turn

 

 

The order of the clip also shows which character motivates the editing

 

 

 

Who does the conversation begins and ends with?

 

Who do we see the most in the sequence?

 

Whose eye line does the video match?

 

From the extract above and by answering the following questions, we can tell that Chandler is the motivation of the edit. This is because, to start with: we see him engage into the conversation and the duration of the clips of him are longer than the employers, he has a longer screen time. The eye line matches both Chandlers and the employers to emphasise that they're in a conversation, though the employers point of view is used the most to show the focus is on Chandler -determining that he's the motivation of edit, allowing him to have the most screen time. He's the most important character in the narration at this sequence. 

 

Continuity

Continuity editing is designed to be undetected by the audience, to avoid disruption of the narrative and to make the flow of the story fluent. It's function:

• To provide a smooth cut from shot to another to continue the narrative
• Fluency to create realism, avoiding the feeling of construction in films
• Cutting of the shots are purposeful- to proceed with narrative

There are many techniques to do continuity editing:

 

• Establishing shot

 

Often used to intrduce a new setting for audience, a foundation of where the narrative is set

 
• Match-on-action
   
   

This is used to show continuation of an action

 
• 180 degree rule
   
   

The 180 degree rule is used to help establish the postion of the characters, it helps oreientate the audience, it's when an imaginary 180 degree axis is drawn between the two focus and the camera is to stay in only one axis. Sudden switch of axis can cause disorientation for the audience. To switch side, the camera must show movement of changing side.

 

• Shot-reverse-shot
 
Starting from 0:31 onwards
 
Shot-reverse-shot is often used to show interaction between two characters, like Katniss and Peeta above
 
• Eyeline match
   
 
Seen at 0:22 the eyeline match is designed to allow the audience to see what the protagonist is seeing

 

 

Non-Continuity

 

Montage- a collection of short shots, used to compress a series of information

- Construction is much more obvious and breaks continuity. The meaning is often to juxtapose and metaphor shots are inserted

 

 

 



Transition

 

Transition is the process used to move from one clip to another, the most common type of transition is straight cut. Though there are other types of transitions such as:

 

• Fade to black- A shot ading into black followed by another
• Wipe
• Cross fade/ dissolve - When two shot are superimposed, overlaying one another. The longer the dissole the noticable the superimposition is

Transitions not only allows moving from one shot to another but also has different effect:

 

• Can imply passage of time
• Can imply change of location
• Emphasising connection
• What the character is thinking about
• Flashback
• Reminiscing

Shot duration/Pace and Rythm

Shot duration depends on the narrative context

• Shot-reverse-shot implies urgency

• Long shot duration creates slower pace and intensity and intimacy in the narration- allowing audience to see facial expressions and mis-en-scene

 

 

The following extract from a "Cinderella Story uses long shot durations in combination with different camera shots such as pan. This is then accompanied by diegetic sound of the violin, the music played is soft and light. On top of this, the misc-en-scene and the costumes further creates this romantic atmosphere. The long duration of the shots really emphasises the intimacy between the dancing couple.

Special Effects

Special effects are used to help manipulate the misc-en-scene, this is often used in Sci-fi film and fantasy.

Editing controls information, what we get and when  

 

When analysing a clip it's also useful to consider how editing techniques are used to control what is revealed tot he audience and the characters

 

For example, If as audience we know more of what is happening than the character. Then perhaps the clip is trying to provoke reaction- anxiety, tension, anticipation that something bad is going to happen

- Editing is used to build up suspense for the audience

 

 

Like that. Ouch.

 

 

More editing devices

 
• Ellipsis- to show advancement of time
• Parallel editing- intercutting between different locations (scenes) to show two events happening simultaeneously which builds tension
• Split screen- the frame is split into two, this is to show two scenes happening as the same time