Final cut on youtube
Sunday 30 April 2017
Wednesday 26 April 2017
Evaluation Question 1
1. For our short film this year we decided that we wanted to incorporate
the codes and conventions of a drama film, without fully conforming to them. We
did this through our creation of characters which subvert expectations and a narrative
with a twist at the end. Our film Aftermath follows the character Georgie who
has returned from war and is trying to overcome her PTSD. The plot conformed to
drama conventions as it handles an emotional and relatable issue which is
commonplace in society. On the other hand our film has a sad and unexpected
ending unlike a traditional drama which usually have happy endings. Our film
also borrows aspects from other genres, such as the combat scene is borrowed
from the war genre, and the fact that we have a large twist suggests aspects of
a thriller.
Genre
An important part of what makes a genre is the setting. We were
very aware of this during the planning of our film and this is why we agreed on
the idea of Geordie returning from war and trying to return to her normal life.
This gave us the opportunity to explore the themes of PTSD, loss and anxiety.
All of which are very common within society but are often ignored in the media,
especially PTSD. As PTSD is such an ignored topic we wanted to approach it in a
realistic, respectful, and informative way. Our film does conform to the codes
and conventions of the drama genre for the most part. One way it does this is
the film focuses on the realistic struggles of a single main character. Due to
the flashback at the beginning being set during a time of war our film could be
considered a war-drama hybrid. However we focused more on the drama genre as we
felt that the war part of the film was only a small part as the films main
focus was the mental illness and not the war. Some of the main drama conventions
we conformed to include; realistic characters and settings (Dr Sullivan and the
house), the progression and development of the main character (Georgie’s
realisation of Charlotte being a hallucination), and a characters internal
conflict (Georgie trying to move on).
However our film also subverts the codes and conventions. One
example of this is that drama films often star a couple, which we adhered to, however
we didn’t conform full to this as the couples in drama films are often made up
of a man and a woman whilst in our film the couple is two women. They both also
subvert stereotypes of women as they were in the army which is a typically male
profession. The ending also subverts the conventions of drama as it isn’t happy
as we realise that Georgie is suffering and alone as her girlfriend Charlotte
died in the war.
The use of using people who aren’t there as a personification of
the main characters feelings was inspired by another short film called Growth
by Elliot Gough in which the main character is going through a breakup and
talks to versions of his past self and his ex-girlfriend who aren’t really
there.
Continuity
This year we were more experienced with the concept of continuity,
however we still had our issues. This was mainly because the film was longer so
we had to spend longer filming meaning there was a greater chance of things
changing between shoots.
One of the main continuity issues we had to deal with was
Charlotte’s hair as during shooting Ellie’s hair kept changing. It started off pink,
long and curly, at the next shoot it was less pink, shorter, and straight, it
then went blue and ended the film brown. We managed to counteract this problem
by re-shooting some of the first scenes and in later scenes covering up the hair
with a scarf and a hood.
Another issue we had was house furnishings and lighting. When we
originally filmed there were curtains on the window in the kitchen, however
during a later filming session the curtains had become blinds sadly there was
nothing we could do about this as it was too late in the filming process but if
we had the time we would have re-shot the earlier scenes.
Examples of continuity errors in real life media products include
in the Shawshank Redemption the scattered bullets on the head of the prisons
desk become a neat pile in the next shot. Another example is in Star Wars: The
Empire Strikes Back in one shot Han Solo isn’t wearing a jacket however in the
close up, he is.
Influences
One of the real media product inspirations of our film was Stray
Dog by Bertie Gilbert. We decided that the title sequence within this short
film would allow us to give a greater insight into the characters in a short
amount of time.
We used mise-en-scene, to provide this insight, by showing household
objects such as flowers, an empty chair, and a purse with a photo in it. The
empty chair is shown on the name of the actor who plays Charlotte as it hint’s
that Charlotte isn’t real. The solitary nature and stillness of the items represents
Georgie’s loneliness and the fact that she isn’t moving on. The purse with the
photo shows the relationship between Georgie and Charlotte and shows that they’re
close. We felt that this helped set up the tone of the film whilst also setting
up a connection between the two characters and allowing the audience to
understand what’s going on.
Another real media product I looked at was The Fleeting Little
Life of Peter Wright. This helped to inspire the themes of mental health in our
short film and the twist at the end. The Fleeting Little Life of Peter Wright
is about a person trying to convince her friend to not kill himself, and at the
end of the film some doubt is created about whether she was real or not.
Despite our film making it much clear that Charlotte was dead I liked the idea
of the possibility of the friend not being there and decided to put our groups own
twist on it. We also wanted to explore mental health and this gave us in idea
on how to tie that in to our film whilst also using a small amount of dark
humour to engage our audience such as when Charlotte says “last time we went
out you wouldn’t stop jumping at cars”.
Was our film entertaining?
Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment states that people consume
media to counteract feelings of loneliness, boredom, absence, inadequacy,
discontentment, social tension and abstinence. The theory is split into five parts;
energy, abundance, community, intensity, and transparency. He believes that
film provides us with all five of these things and that they aid audiences to
feel fulfilled with a film.
Energy
Dyer believes that Energy is important due to the pressures of
modern society such as alienated labour and consistent hard work. Because of
this Dyer believes that the energy in films allows for “escapism” by watching
characters acting out their own desires that they are not able to fulfil. He
believes films inspire audiences to increase their energy levels through
characters showing their power, passion and physical activity.
An example of
this is Captain America (2011). This shows a skinny boy with a plethora of
medical conditions becoming a hero and fighting against an evil regime and
winning. Our film does this through fast paced editing in the flashback representing
the dangers being faced and urgency of the matter, this is paired with music
that builds tension to reflect the tenseness of the situation. We also allow
the audience to connect with the main characters path to recovery through the
use of close ups and point of view shots.
Abundance
Abundance is in reference to the want of material belongings and
having enough to spare. Many people who watch films don’t have this luxury and
therefore watch films to get a taste of it and fill the void.
An example of
this would be The Social Network. In The Social Network Jessie Eisenberg’s character creates a
social media page for the university he is in which ends up going worldwide and
he becomes rich. Jessie Eisenberg’s character is relatable as he is a reject
among his peers which is something many people have experiences. Because of
this the audience can use the character as a voyeur and imagine themselves in
his shoes. Our film does this in a quite twisted kind of way by showing
Georgie as an everyday relatable person, but instead of allowing the audience to
feel luxury we allow them to feel what living with PTSD is like. As it isn’t
often talked about this allows non-suffers to learn about the illness and to
appreciate the fact they don’t have it. It also allows sufferers to relate to
the main character and feel comfort in the fact they aren’t alone.
Community
Community brings audiences together through the films they watch creating
a sense of togetherness by encouraging discussion. Community can also comfort
individuals without active social lives or who have busy schedules and are
unable to relax. In our film we showed
the sense of community through the therapist that supports Georgie through the
recovery process. This also shows an audience that asking for help is okay. Charlotte’s
existence also indicates that mental illness can take over and become a very
powerful force within someone’s brain.
An example of this in real media
products would be Shutter Island (2010) in which we see Leonardo Dicaprio’s
character create a whole alternate reality to avoid the pain of losing his wife
and children before revealing at the end of the film it was all in his head.
Intensity
Wanting excitement is in human nature. Intensity creates this excitement
that can’t be found in day to day life. People consume media full of thrills and
adventure so that they can get an adrenaline rush they wouldn’t be able to
usually get by watching situations they could never find themselves in.
An example
of this would be Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) which follows Peter Quill a
lovable space rogue working together with a bunch of aliens to save the galaxy.
The film is full of cgi, action and music which draws people in. Obviously the
events of this film couldn’t happen as they are entirely fictional and
impossible. Our film achieves this through
the existence of Charlotte as she is a hallucination caused by grief and would
not have a physical manifestation, because of this the audience would not be
able to see Charlotte in real life. Intensity is also brought into our film
through the flashback, as they provide action with hints of violence and the
chaos of war, something most people haven’t experienced.
Transparency
Transparency is the act of being honest
and effectively communicating with others to oppose the manipulation
individuals experience through advertising and politics. Georgie constantly
denies her PTSD until the end of the film causing the relationship between
Charlotte and Georgie to be frayed. Charlotte’s presence is there to explain to
the audience what is happening to Georgie, and to portray PTSD in a manner that
is easy to understand to an unaware audience. We used Charlotte’s presence to
avoid confusion within the audience so they wouldn’t just be witnessing Georgie
talking to herself without an explanation whilst also showing PTSD from the
point of view from the sufferer. We aimed to help explain away the stigma surrounding
mental health by attaching the illness to a “strong” character one wouldn’t expect
to suffer, showing that anyone can be affected. To ensure we were sensitive with
the topic we researched heavily into the topic and detailed this on the blog.
Evaluation Question 3
Original Brief
We began the process by each creating multiple story-lines
that we shared with the group. We discussed what we liked about each story-line
before trying to incorporate ideas from each person into one idea. We all
agreed on the idea of showing the struggle of a female soldier suffering with
post-traumatic stress disorder. We also decided that the characters girlfriend
should have also died in the war but appears to the main character as the
personification of the PTSD. This original ideas stayed the same for the most
part throughout the process but was changed based on feedback as we went along.
Video Questionnaire
We created a video questionnaire to gather opinions on our
original idea and got five people to answer it. We started the questionnaire by
asking questions about them to get more of a picture of who is answering the
questions in comparison to our target audience.
Most of the people we asked were between the ages of 15 and
17 and most were male. We also asked what types of films they usually watch to
get an idea of what we could do to appeal to this audience. We found that the
most popular genre was comedy closely followed by action, with drama coming
third. This was a good sign as we wanted to create a war based drama, however
comedy coming first made us decide to put hints of dark humour throughout the
film.
We also asked were people preferred to watch films, it became clear that even though online wasn’t the most popular it was the most accessible so we decided to go ahead with plans to distribute via YouTube.
We then read out the plot to our film and asked them
questions based on this. We asked what genre they thought our film would be and
the majority said drama or war drama meaning that we had managed to meet our
preferred genre and that we would appeal to fans of those genres. We asked
questions about what settings would be expected in the film and we were
suggested home and therapy which we listened to and went on to include in our
film. We also asked about what music would be expected in our film. The main
answer was dramatic music followed by sad music as those are common in the
drama genre, we believed this would fit into our film well so kept that in mind
when selecting music.Linking back to where people like to watch films we asked
where they would expect to see our film, most said the cinema but streaming
services such as YouTube were also mentioned meaning that our path of
distribution could work. The next question was what certificate should our film have,
4 out of the 5 people suggested 15 due to the dark themes and hints of war,
which we agreed with and so set this as our certificate age.
All of the people taking the questionnaire said that they
found our story-line interesting and intriguing and they also said they liked
the title “Aftermath”. Because of this we decided to keep our story-line mostly
the same and to keep the title. When we asked for anything that could improve
the film the only comment we got was “good musical cues” so again we made sure
to focus on music during the process to help make the film have an emotional
impact.
Rough Cut Questionnaire
To create our Rough Cut questionnaire we used Google Forms
as we could get more responses in a shorter amount of time than the video
questionnaire as this could be shared online. We got respondents to watch the
rough cut of our film. We did this so that we could make the necessary changes
to our film before the final cut to make sure that it made sense and was
enjoyable. This also allowed us to get a fresh pair of eyes on the film that
didn’t know any background information, as we all knew the plot so everything
made sense to us and this caused some tunnel vision. This questionnaire made us realise that some of the
things we tried to put into the film weren’t coming across as well as we had
hoped. For instance we had tried to hint at Charlotte’s death by showing a gun
to her head just before the gunshot, and the fact she moves from room to room
instantly. However this didn’t seem to be as effective as we thought as one of
the comments said that “the ending was too sudden and we should subtly hint it
beforehand”. To counteract this we made another scene in the house to highlight
the apparent teleportation of Charlotte. Another thing was we put a sound that
was supposed to reflect the ringing in Georgies ears after the gunshot however
this was said to be distracting so we removed it as it wasn’t necessary to our
film.
We
received 8 responses on this questionnaire. This time the majority of
respondents were female, allowing us to see another perspective than the video
questionnaire, the respondents were also older as 75% were in between 18 and 20
and 25% were 15-17 meaning that all respondents were within our target
audience.
Our
first question about the film was about the enjoyment of the film on a scale of
1 to 10 (ten being the best answer) the majority said 8/10 and all answers were
between 6 and 9 indicating that no-one disliked the film, which was a good sign
and gave us the motivation to continue and finish the film.
All but one person said they understood the film which made us realise that even though most people got it, we might have to make some things a little more explicit.
The feedback indicated that the music we used worked well with the film however there wasn’t enough of it, because of this we added more music that was similar to the first track we had added to help deliver the emotional impact we wanted. We were also advised that the ticking clock in the therapy scene took made the actors hard to hear, this was harder to remedy as the clock was in the room we filmed in so we couldn’t just remove the sound. However we needed to fix it as this was an emotional scene, because of this (and another bit of feedback that stated the room looked too big) we decided to re-shoot this scene in a different room without a clock. Overall we were much happier with the re-shot scene and felt that it worked better than the old scene, especially as we added more close up based on another piece of feedback saying that the camera was too far away to fell connected to the characters. We were also told that the film had too much walking in it and that this as boring, because of this we edited out a substantial chunk of the walking and shot a new scene that explained the letterbox moment as many people said that they didn’t understand the moment.
All but one person said they understood the film which made us realise that even though most people got it, we might have to make some things a little more explicit.
The feedback indicated that the music we used worked well with the film however there wasn’t enough of it, because of this we added more music that was similar to the first track we had added to help deliver the emotional impact we wanted. We were also advised that the ticking clock in the therapy scene took made the actors hard to hear, this was harder to remedy as the clock was in the room we filmed in so we couldn’t just remove the sound. However we needed to fix it as this was an emotional scene, because of this (and another bit of feedback that stated the room looked too big) we decided to re-shoot this scene in a different room without a clock. Overall we were much happier with the re-shot scene and felt that it worked better than the old scene, especially as we added more close up based on another piece of feedback saying that the camera was too far away to fell connected to the characters. We were also told that the film had too much walking in it and that this as boring, because of this we edited out a substantial chunk of the walking and shot a new scene that explained the letterbox moment as many people said that they didn’t understand the moment.
Final Questionnaire
For
our final questionnaire we used Google Forms again for the same reasons stated
above. After making the changes based on the rough cut questionnaire, we put
the final cut onto a questionnaire and shared it on social media. At this point
we had also added the new scenes, the new music, and the title sequences all of
which we hadn't yet received feedback on. Even though we were happy with the
film this made us nervous as so much had changed since the last questionnaire
that we weren’t sure what the response would be. We decided that the opening
titles should give an incite into the characters personal lives and place it
just after Georgie opens her eyes to make it seem that she has been awake for a
long time before the alarm rings, and we weren’t sure how this would translate
to an audience. However luckily the audience feedback was overwhelmingly
positively.
The
questionnaire was answered by 5 people in our target audience, mostly female
but with some males still, between the ages of 15 and 20. This indicated that
we had succeeding in attracting both female and male audiences, however the
fact that there were more females could be due to the fact that the cast was
fully female and therefore it might attract more females than males. The
questions were similar to the rough cut so that we could actively see the
changes between the two cuts.
The first question again was about their enjoyment of the film on a scale of 1 to 10. This time round the answers were much more concentrated, being split between 8 and 9, suggesting that the changes we made payed off and made the film more enjoyable, this was also reflected in the fact that 100% of people said they understood the film showing that the new scenes cleared up any previous confusion. We asked what certificate they would give the film and the majority said 15 which matches the certificate we gave it meaning that we showed our understanding of the certificate system and how it applied to our film, however two people said that it could be given a 12A which is understandable as there is no explicit violence in our film but the inclusion of swearing does raise the certificate. We then asked where they would expect to see our film and the majority said YouTube again showing that our intentions for distributing on YouTube were realistic, however Cinema and TV were also answered showing that the film could be displayed to a wider audience. When asked what genre they believed the film to be 80% said drama whilst 20% said action, this coincides with our intentions of creating a War-Drama as it includes conventions from the action genre whilst mainly using conventions from the drama genre. When asked about if the music fitted the film 100% of people said that it did and some comments included that the “melancholy tone of the music fit the tone of the film” and that the music “built tension at the appropriate points”.
The final question was what they found successful in the film and what could be improved. Thankfully the suggestions for improvement were limited to audio issues that could have only been fixed by giving the actors microphones which we did not have access to and therefore was out of our control. Things that people found successful included the opening credits, the performances, the narrative being well displayed, and the style being consistent throughout. This shows that the final cut of the film was much more successful than the rough cut as the rough cut questionnaire had many more suggestions for improvement.
The first question again was about their enjoyment of the film on a scale of 1 to 10. This time round the answers were much more concentrated, being split between 8 and 9, suggesting that the changes we made payed off and made the film more enjoyable, this was also reflected in the fact that 100% of people said they understood the film showing that the new scenes cleared up any previous confusion. We asked what certificate they would give the film and the majority said 15 which matches the certificate we gave it meaning that we showed our understanding of the certificate system and how it applied to our film, however two people said that it could be given a 12A which is understandable as there is no explicit violence in our film but the inclusion of swearing does raise the certificate. We then asked where they would expect to see our film and the majority said YouTube again showing that our intentions for distributing on YouTube were realistic, however Cinema and TV were also answered showing that the film could be displayed to a wider audience. When asked what genre they believed the film to be 80% said drama whilst 20% said action, this coincides with our intentions of creating a War-Drama as it includes conventions from the action genre whilst mainly using conventions from the drama genre. When asked about if the music fitted the film 100% of people said that it did and some comments included that the “melancholy tone of the music fit the tone of the film” and that the music “built tension at the appropriate points”.
The final question was what they found successful in the film and what could be improved. Thankfully the suggestions for improvement were limited to audio issues that could have only been fixed by giving the actors microphones which we did not have access to and therefore was out of our control. Things that people found successful included the opening credits, the performances, the narrative being well displayed, and the style being consistent throughout. This shows that the final cut of the film was much more successful than the rough cut as the rough cut questionnaire had many more suggestions for improvement.
Overall
I think that the audience feedback helped shape our film and helped it to
become a success, as we listened to the comments and acted on them to improve.
I feel that we asked a range of questions that helped us to understand the
audience and would definitely use audience feedback to improve future projects.
Evaluation Question 1.
For our A2 Media Product, wanted to incorporate codes and conventions of a Drama film, without completely conforming to them. As normally expected within a Drama film, would be a male protagonist, however we decided to create a female lead protagonist, which subverted gender stereotypes, and also added a twist to the ending of the film. Aftermath follows the protagonist Georgie as she has returned home from a tour in Afghanistan and is now trying to overcome her PTSD. Our short film conformed to typical Drama conventions as it has an emotional storyline and relatable issues that are relevant to modern society. One way in which we did not conform to the Drama conventions was not having a happy ending where all ties are fixed and nothing is left unanswered, we left ours open ended which left the audience questioning what happens after. This allowed us to bring in some Thriller aspects.
In our A2 year we were all more comfortable as a group, as we all get on out of the lesson, which helped with dealing with more complex and technical parts of our course. This year we had to create a five minuet film, meaning we spent longer filming than we did in our AS year. Due to having a longer filming period, it meant that we struggled with continuity throughout as different aspects keep changing, for example a haircut or someones hair colour. Eventually this developed into a problem when it came to reshooting, meaning some parts had to completely be re-filmed.
The main problem we had with the actress who played Charlotte and as when we started filming she had a pink hue to the ends of her hair and it was long and curly. However once we came to reshooting these scenes she had her haircut three inches shorter meaning we had to entirely reshoot the scenes as waiting for her hair to return to the previous length and colour would have been too long. We also took the precaution of this not happening again, by adding a padded hooded coat and purple scarf to her outfit for the remainder of filming, allowing us to hide her hair.
We inhabited the key aspects of Drama conventions as we included real life situations, realistic relatable character and interactions between our main characters. We aimed to make our film relatable and familiar to our audience so that they create an emotional attachment to our characters. We aimed to achieve this through our flashback scene at the start of the film, as this allowed us to establish the plot and provide vital information to the audience, to create the relationship with the audience.
The next thing we did to strengthen the relationship with the audience was the title sequence which provided an insight into Georgie's house. To create our title sequence we used photos of various household objects such as, flowers, a foosball table, photographs and an empty chair. The empty chair was used to symbolise the emptiness within Georgie's life after the loss of her best friend. We uses 'Levi Strauss's' Binary opposite theory to juxtapose the two scenes (opening sequence and title sequence), this was done to emphasise the fact that Georgie and Charlotte were two young girls with their life ahead of them, however to portray the tragedy, that being in the Army out on deployment. This was cemented through Georgie's Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Charlotte's death. Once way we portrayed Georgie's innocence as a character, was through her mise-en-scene, she was frequently seen wearing Bambi pyjamas throughout, this implied her innocence and her mentality once she was away from the Army as she is trying to decompress, also the reference to modern pop culture as she is seen quite often with her mobile phone, while within the house, however once Georgie and Charlotte are outside they are seen wearing fashionable outfits. This is used to allow Georgie and Charlotte to be more relatable to the audience.
However throughout our short film, 'Aftermath' doesn't conform to the typical Drama conventions, such as our film doesn't reach a typical happy ending. Choosing to leave it open ended allowing the audience to decide themselves what happens to Georgie after the conclusion of our film, however we left subtle hints as to what happens with Georgie as she finally managed to open up to her therapist and tells her about what actually happened to Charlotte. An example of a Drama film that conforms to the typical genre conventions is War Horse, as Albert has to get over the loss of his best friend Andrew, who is killed by a gas explosion within the German trenches. Nonethess the happy ending comes when Albert is finally reunited with his horse Joey and they return home to Devon together.
The main media product we were influenced by was the TV series 'Our Girl' and 'Emmerdale' as both of these have dealt with the subject of PTSD and allowed us to gain some ideas on how to portray the matter through our film. From 'Our Girl' we were influenced by the war aspect and also the episode when Georgie is taken prisoner while on deployment over in Kenya on a humanitarian mission. This gave us the inspiration for how Charlotte dies as, in 'Our Girl' the aid worker Kiki is killed moments before Georgie is rescued.
We used 'Emmerdale' as an influence as the storyline of Belle being followed by a girl, who kept appearing randomly and always in different positions. This influenced our plot with Charlotte as we decided to follow there example and have her appearing and disappearing throughout, this was to hint towards the fact that she wasn't really there and just a figment of Georgie's imagination. However the only differnence is that when Charlotte appears it is to try and help Georgie, whereas the person 'haunting' Belle says hurtful and mean things.
We followed Tom Ryall's Genre theory which states 'genre provides a
framework of sturcturing rules, which act as a form of guidence over the
production of filmmakers and the understanding of the audience'. There
are four parts to the theory, iconographies, narrative, representation
and ideologies. If the audience is able to recognise these things in a
film, it provides them with enjoyment and also allows them to make
comparrisons to other films. Through our film, we inhabited key aspects
of a drama, however we also subverted them aswell, through having a
female protagonist and also leaving the film open ended.
Also we used Richard Dyers theory of entertainment, this included five aspects, energy, transparency, intensity, community and abundence. Our film includeds energy as it is told through a flashback at the start which set the tone of the film, and the eliptical editing throughout. Through the use of transparency it allowed us to have Charlotte appearing randomly throughout and to go unnoticed in the threapy session. We portrayed the intensity through Georgie's PTSD and the plot twist at the end. Transparency can be seen in the film Eden Lake (Dir James Watkins, 2008), where the working class teenagers are portrayed as bad and
Jenny and Steve are portrayed as middle class good people. Emotion is
portrays through Shawshank Redmeption (Dir Frank Darabont, 1994), where
Brookes who has been instotutionalised is released from prision, and
eventually hangs himself.
In our A2 year we were all more comfortable as a group, as we all get on out of the lesson, which helped with dealing with more complex and technical parts of our course. This year we had to create a five minuet film, meaning we spent longer filming than we did in our AS year. Due to having a longer filming period, it meant that we struggled with continuity throughout as different aspects keep changing, for example a haircut or someones hair colour. Eventually this developed into a problem when it came to reshooting, meaning some parts had to completely be re-filmed.
The main problem we had with the actress who played Charlotte and as when we started filming she had a pink hue to the ends of her hair and it was long and curly. However once we came to reshooting these scenes she had her haircut three inches shorter meaning we had to entirely reshoot the scenes as waiting for her hair to return to the previous length and colour would have been too long. We also took the precaution of this not happening again, by adding a padded hooded coat and purple scarf to her outfit for the remainder of filming, allowing us to hide her hair.
We inhabited the key aspects of Drama conventions as we included real life situations, realistic relatable character and interactions between our main characters. We aimed to make our film relatable and familiar to our audience so that they create an emotional attachment to our characters. We aimed to achieve this through our flashback scene at the start of the film, as this allowed us to establish the plot and provide vital information to the audience, to create the relationship with the audience.
The next thing we did to strengthen the relationship with the audience was the title sequence which provided an insight into Georgie's house. To create our title sequence we used photos of various household objects such as, flowers, a foosball table, photographs and an empty chair. The empty chair was used to symbolise the emptiness within Georgie's life after the loss of her best friend. We uses 'Levi Strauss's' Binary opposite theory to juxtapose the two scenes (opening sequence and title sequence), this was done to emphasise the fact that Georgie and Charlotte were two young girls with their life ahead of them, however to portray the tragedy, that being in the Army out on deployment. This was cemented through Georgie's Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Charlotte's death. Once way we portrayed Georgie's innocence as a character, was through her mise-en-scene, she was frequently seen wearing Bambi pyjamas throughout, this implied her innocence and her mentality once she was away from the Army as she is trying to decompress, also the reference to modern pop culture as she is seen quite often with her mobile phone, while within the house, however once Georgie and Charlotte are outside they are seen wearing fashionable outfits. This is used to allow Georgie and Charlotte to be more relatable to the audience.
However throughout our short film, 'Aftermath' doesn't conform to the typical Drama conventions, such as our film doesn't reach a typical happy ending. Choosing to leave it open ended allowing the audience to decide themselves what happens to Georgie after the conclusion of our film, however we left subtle hints as to what happens with Georgie as she finally managed to open up to her therapist and tells her about what actually happened to Charlotte. An example of a Drama film that conforms to the typical genre conventions is War Horse, as Albert has to get over the loss of his best friend Andrew, who is killed by a gas explosion within the German trenches. Nonethess the happy ending comes when Albert is finally reunited with his horse Joey and they return home to Devon together.
The main media product we were influenced by was the TV series 'Our Girl' and 'Emmerdale' as both of these have dealt with the subject of PTSD and allowed us to gain some ideas on how to portray the matter through our film. From 'Our Girl' we were influenced by the war aspect and also the episode when Georgie is taken prisoner while on deployment over in Kenya on a humanitarian mission. This gave us the inspiration for how Charlotte dies as, in 'Our Girl' the aid worker Kiki is killed moments before Georgie is rescued.
The clip below shows the build up and the rescue of Georgie Lane.
We used 'Emmerdale' as an influence as the storyline of Belle being followed by a girl, who kept appearing randomly and always in different positions. This influenced our plot with Charlotte as we decided to follow there example and have her appearing and disappearing throughout, this was to hint towards the fact that she wasn't really there and just a figment of Georgie's imagination. However the only differnence is that when Charlotte appears it is to try and help Georgie, whereas the person 'haunting' Belle says hurtful and mean things.
The video shows Belle sleeping rough and the girl 'appearing randomly'
Also we used Richard Dyers theory of entertainment, this included five aspects, energy, transparency, intensity, community and abundence. Our film includeds energy as it is told through a flashback at the start which set the tone of the film, and the eliptical editing throughout. Through the use of transparency it allowed us to have Charlotte appearing randomly throughout and to go unnoticed in the threapy session. We portrayed the intensity through Georgie's PTSD and the plot twist at the end. Transparency can be seen in the film Eden Lake (Dir James Watkins, 2008), where the working class teenagers are portrayed as bad and
Jenny and Steve are portrayed as middle class good people. Emotion is
portrays through Shawshank Redmeption (Dir Frank Darabont, 1994), where
Brookes who has been instotutionalised is released from prision, and
eventually hangs himself.Sunday 23 April 2017
Evaluation 1
In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
This year's project was to create a 5 minute short film, along with a radio trailer and poster to promote it. I found this year's task much more challenging than last year's as the film had to be much longer, meaning we had to write a longer script, and spend much more time filming and editing. The film we decided to make depicts the lead character, Georgie, attempting to overcome her PTSD after returning from the war.
Arguably, our film subverts some expectations of drama, as the ending is not exactly a happy one. Although Georgie begins her road to recovery, she loses her friend indefinitely, and is left alone. This subversion of convention can be seen in 'Titanic', as although it conforms to many aspects of the drama genre, it ends sadly with the death of the protagonist. Another influence of our film is 'Growth' by Elliot Gough, as it involves many similar themes, such as imaginary people. However, the film's main focus is a breakup, rather than a death.
Continuity -
One of the main difficulties we encountered was continuity and making sure everything was kept the same across the weeks of filming. The girl playing Charlotte changed her hair style and colour multiple times during the filming process, which proved challenging to accommodate, but we resolved this issue by re shooting some of the earlier scenes, with her hair covered.
Another continuity issue was the decorations in Georgie's house as it was Christmas when some of the scenes were filmed. Because of this, we had to re-shoot some of the interior scenes. Although seemingly problematic, re-shooting scenes allowed us to change other aspects we weren't happy with, such as lighting and background noise. Overall, this extra input allowed us to create a much better film in the end, and revealed that even with strategic planning, you can run into difficulties and experience errors.
In order to create sound continuity, we used sound bridges and dissolves between clips to allow a smoother transition from the noisy outside to the quiet inside scenes. Evidence of this can be found in our final film here.
This year's project was to create a 5 minute short film, along with a radio trailer and poster to promote it. I found this year's task much more challenging than last year's as the film had to be much longer, meaning we had to write a longer script, and spend much more time filming and editing. The film we decided to make depicts the lead character, Georgie, attempting to overcome her PTSD after returning from the war.
Genre -
In the planning stage, we decided we wanted to make a drama, which is why we chose centre the film around the aftermath of Georgie's tour of Afghanistan. This allowed us to capture the emotion surrounding the loss of her friend Charlotte, and explore a subject that, although affects many people, isn't often tackled by the media. By making our film a drama, we were able to explore PTSD, and how it affects people, in a respectful and sincere way.
I think our film fits the stereotype of a drama as it follows the life of a character, depicting a time of hardship and them trying to overcome it. Our film is also realistic, which fits into the stereotype of a drama. In the planning stages we considered the film to have a hybrid genre, drama and war. However, after some consideration we decided the film was better suited to being a pure drama, due to it's specific focus on the effects of war on Georgie's mental state, rather than her actual time on tour.
In the planning stage, we decided we wanted to make a drama, which is why we chose centre the film around the aftermath of Georgie's tour of Afghanistan. This allowed us to capture the emotion surrounding the loss of her friend Charlotte, and explore a subject that, although affects many people, isn't often tackled by the media. By making our film a drama, we were able to explore PTSD, and how it affects people, in a respectful and sincere way.
I think our film fits the stereotype of a drama as it follows the life of a character, depicting a time of hardship and them trying to overcome it. Our film is also realistic, which fits into the stereotype of a drama. In the planning stages we considered the film to have a hybrid genre, drama and war. However, after some consideration we decided the film was better suited to being a pure drama, due to it's specific focus on the effects of war on Georgie's mental state, rather than her actual time on tour.
Some of the main conventions of drama are:
- Realistic characters, settings and stories - We used the realistic setting of a house and a psychologist's office, along with the storyline of a woman suffering from mental illness.
- Portrays a journey of character development - Although our film is short, it depicts part of Georgie's recovery from PTSD and her realisation that Charlotte is a figment of the imagination.
- Centred around conflict, hardships or pain - Georgie faces internal conflict with her own mind, which manifests itself externally through her 'arguments' with Charlotte.
- A form of realisation at the end/happy ending- Georgie comes to realise that Charlotte is part of her imagination with the help of the psychologist.
Arguably, our film subverts some expectations of drama, as the ending is not exactly a happy one. Although Georgie begins her road to recovery, she loses her friend indefinitely, and is left alone. This subversion of convention can be seen in 'Titanic', as although it conforms to many aspects of the drama genre, it ends sadly with the death of the protagonist. Another influence of our film is 'Growth' by Elliot Gough, as it involves many similar themes, such as imaginary people. However, the film's main focus is a breakup, rather than a death.
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| Poster for 'Growth' by Elliot Gough |
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One of the main difficulties we encountered was continuity and making sure everything was kept the same across the weeks of filming. The girl playing Charlotte changed her hair style and colour multiple times during the filming process, which proved challenging to accommodate, but we resolved this issue by re shooting some of the earlier scenes, with her hair covered.
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| We accommodated this by covering her hair |
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| Brown hair by the end of filming |
In order to create sound continuity, we used sound bridges and dissolves between clips to allow a smoother transition from the noisy outside to the quiet inside scenes. Evidence of this can be found in our final film here.
Some continuity errors in real life media products include:
- The iconic scene from 'Spider-Man' (2002), where the window is broken, and then not broken in the next scene.
- Merry and Pippin are tied up in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' (2002), when they escape to the woods, they are untied and the ropes are gone.
- The 'divine intervention' scene in 'Pulp Fiction' (1994), when the gangsters are left unharmed by the shower of bullets heading their way, but with a keen eye, it can be seen that the wall behind them was filled with bullet holes before any shots were fired.
Music is another way continuity can be broken, for example, if the tone of the music doesn't fit with the film. I feel that the music in our film works well, as we did a lot of research and trial and error. For this evaluation I decided to research how changing the soundtrack to a film can also change the tone. Click here and here for the videos I found. One video is an example of changing the music of real films, and one is an independent example.
Influences-
We were influenced by the real media product 'Our Girl' as it has a military theme. A hostage situation is referenced at the end of our film, and hints at the reason Charlotte didn't come home with Georgie. Our Girl clip. We were also influenced by an episode of EastEnders that explores mental illness and loss. However, we chose to show Georgie dealing with her emotions in a more positive way, by accepting help, rather than turning to drink. We did this as we wanted to create a sense of hope for sufferers, and education for non-sufferers, in the short time limit we had. EastEnders Clip
How does our film provide entertainment?
People are often left feeling unhappy and unfulfilled in life because of things like social tension, inadequacy and abstinence. Richard Dyer suggests that consuming media can counteract these effects by providing entertainment and escapism through depicting:
- Energy - This helps to restore the vitality stripped by urban life and working hard. Films often depict human power and activity, which can be inspiring and increase the energy levels of the audience. An example of this is Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games, as she fights for what she believes in and tries to survive, sparking energy in the audience as they progress through the film with her. The Hunger Games Trailer. Our film provides energy by drawing in the audience's interest and restoring faith surrounding support for mental health and recovery, as the audience wants Georgie to get better. Additionally, the dream sequence at the begining provides energy through the chaotic feel created.
- Abundance - This refers to having enough to spare, and the enjoyment of material things. Many people use media as a way of supplementing the lack of luxury in their lives. By seeing people with riches and material possessions in films, they themselves feel as though they have it, and experience what it is like to have abundance. An example of this in a film is The Princess Diaries, as it explores many girls' fantasises of becoming a princess and having a luxurious lifestyle. The character of Mia is relatable as she begins as a normal girl, but the dramatisation of her becoming a princess allows the audience to experience what something so exciting might feel like, which creates a positive feeling. The Princess Diaries Trailer. In our film, Georgie is presented as a normal girl, making it easy for the audience to relate to her, but suffering from a mental health condition. Her PTSD is reassuring for other suffers as the film depicts the beginning of her recovery, and provides information for non-sufferers. It also shows people what it would be like to suffer from PTSD, reminding them that their lives could be much worse, so allowing them to appreciate their own lives more.
- Intensity - This refers to having excitement in life, which many people lack as they get pulled into the routines of everyday life. Consuming media products, such as action or thriller films, substitutes the lack of interesting events happening in the audience's lives, and allows them to feel a 'buzz'. A real life film that uses Intensity is 'Kong: Skull Island', as it depicts a mission to a remote island, with the crew unaware of what they will find. This situation is something most people will never experience themselves, so watching such events in the media substitutes this desire for excitement and adventure. Kong: Skull Island Trailer. Like 'Kong: Skull Island', our film has an element of magical-realism, as although the story is realistic and follows the conventions of a drama, the fact imagined Charlotte can be seen on screen adds a fantasy element. The dream sequence at the beginning of our film creates Intensity as it hints at violence, and depicts a war zone, which is often presented as exciting and intense in the media, and is somewhere many people will never visit.
- Transparency - This refers to being open and honest and effectively communicating, which counteracts parts of life such as manipulation, politics and democracy and advertising. In our film, Georgie is guarded about her PTSD, but Charlotte is used as a tool to explain Georgie's emotions and provide information to the audience. This transparency is what allows the film to work, as without it, the audience would easily become confused. Additionally, mental illness is often stigmatised, so by making it the centre of our short film, we hoped to create some transparency around PTSD, educating non-sufferers, and providing hope for sufferers in the audience. In order to make our depictions as accurate as they could be, we did research into the topic and how it affects people's lives.
- Community - Community creates a sense of togetherness and belonging, which offers comfort and support to the audience, especially those who lack close family/friends, or are part of high-rise urban life. A sense of community is created in our film as Georgie receives support from the psychiatrist regarding her PTSD, and reminds the audience that there is always someone there to help. However, Charlotte's presence highlights some sad truths regarding our society, that Georgie is so easily able to isolate herself, with only her unstable mind and figments of imagination for comfort.
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| Me setting up the camera to film audience feedback |
Saturday 22 April 2017
Wednesday 19 April 2017
Evaluation 3
Our intention was to create a 5 minute fiction film that would explore PTSD and make the audience empathise with the character of Georgie. We made several changes to the film in response to audience feedback, such as adding an extra scene of dialogue in the hallway, and cutting out the bus scene. Many audience members said they felt there was too much walking, and not enough dialogue, which is why we made those changes.
How did we create meaning?
We used a two shot of Georgie and Charlotte in the kitchen, but positioned them at either end of the shot to convey how Georgie has become detached from herself and reality through her mental illness, and to reinforce the physical separation of the two characters. The fact it is a two shot highlights Georgie's reluctance to let go of Charlotte, and presents her trying to keep the memory of Charlotte close.
We used a slight low angle on the shot of Charlotte on the stairs to present the degree of power she holds over Georgie's life. Although Charlotte is not really there, the effect Charlotte's death has had on Georgie is holding her to ransom and stopping her from moving on. Piano music is used throughout to add a sense of melancholy, which, when teamed with the slow paced editing throughout, creates a sluggish feel, mirroring Georgie's emotions.
Elliptical editing was used to cut out some of the less interesting parts, such as walking, as these non-essential scenes slowed down the pace of the film and made it less engaging. This can be seen from the first rough cut to the final project. I think that including more elliptical editing was a good idea as it made our film much more enjoyable to watch, and stopped some parts dragging. Click here for evidence of elliptical editing. Arguably, the car acts as a partial wipe, and allows a smooth transition into the next scene. We used backgrounds with similar colours, stone, blue and yellow, to again, allow a smooth transition between shots.
An over the shoulder shot is used to show Georgie's therapy letter. We used this prop to reinforce where she was and the significance of this meeting for her recovery. This is also shown in the close up of her phone, which shows a reminder text regarding the appointment. This reinforcement of the therapy session throughout depicts it as an important event and pivotal point in Georgie's recovery. The mis en scene of this letter is paired with the posters on the wall in the therapy room to give a more convincing look to the set.
These particular shots and edits were used to add emotion to the film. In the research video 'How did Aftermath make you feel?', it is reported that the emotion surrounding Georgie's PTSD was successfully translated to the audience. One of the main reasons for this was the shots and edits used, including the ones depicted above, and the close ups of Georgie's face at the beginning and end.
Questionnaires:
Below is our video questionnaire, which is the first bit of audience feedback we received. We asked 5 people in our target demographic. All were students at Barnsley College, and were between the ages of 15 and 20.
Most people said they liked the sound of our film, and would watch it. Many people said You tube would be a good place to exhibit the film, which we agree with as You tube is a good place to showcase independent films. A lot of people said they would expect to see the film in the cinemas, but our budget would not allow for this scale of distribution. If we were to re-make the film professionally, it may be distributed to cinemas.
Looking at the results as a whole, we received much more positive feedback in the later questionnaires. This is probably down the the changes we made, such as cutting out scenes of walking and including more dialogue. In the final questionnaire, 100% of people gave the film 8 or above out of 10. If we were to generalise this to the rest of the population, it would suggest success for our film.
In the final questionnaire, 100% of people said they understood the plot, which is an improvement from the 80% of people who said they understood it in the second questionnaire. This shows we were successful in developing the film into a much better piece.
Most people said they thought our film was a drama,which corrilates with the genre we intended our film to be. 20% of people said they thought our film fell into the action genre, which is probably because of the military theme and dramatic dream sequence at the beginning. No one said the film was romance, horror or other, which shows we were effective in translating our message to the audience.
How did we change the film in response to audience feedback?
The genre of our film was understood to be a Drama which correlates with the one intended for Aftermath. This shows that our film has been successful in displaying the conventions of the genre, such as using the army jackets and the sound of gunshots in the opening scene, and so suits the context of the film. People generally expected to see our film in the cinema or through film festivals, which is what we too expected for our film, as Dramas are a popular and successful genre. However, the low budget of our film would probably mean it would have to be an independent project, and the most likely place to distribute it would be to Youtube.
How did our film make the audience feel?
87% of the people that watched our film understood it's plot and the twist that came at the end of the clip. Georgie's PTSD caused her hallucinations, which we attempted to represent through Charlotte's character. We tried to make Charlotte's death subtle in order to capture the sensitive and heartfelt nature of Aftermath. Due to the limited timeframe we had, we had to make the ending of the film more prominent so that the message could be understood better and be more impactful. Most of our responses said that they wish that Charlotte's status had been referenced earlier in the film so that the ending was more clear, so we added some extra scenes to show Charlotte jumping around the house, such as Charlotte's sudden appearance in the kitchen, through the use of jump cuts in editing.
We used music to create a melancholy tone, and many people agreed that the music fitted well. Some people suggested we remove the clock ticking from the counselling scene as it was distracting and made our actors difficult to hear, which we agreed with, so removed for the final cut. They also suggested reducing the volume or replacing the sound of ringing after the gun is fired in the flashback scene, which smoothed the transition from the war scenes to the bedroom scenes. All of these suggestions were very helpful and helped to make our final piece successful.
I decided to gather some final feedback from social media sites on how our film made people feel. Some responses are evidenced below:
Overall, considering all the feedback we have received, I believe our film to be a success as we have achieved everything we aimed to. Our intention was to create a 5 minute fiction film that would explore PTSD and make the audience empathise with the character of Georgie, which I believe we have done. This is supported by the questionnaires and graphs, as well as social media feedback.
How did we create meaning?
We used a two shot of Georgie and Charlotte in the kitchen, but positioned them at either end of the shot to convey how Georgie has become detached from herself and reality through her mental illness, and to reinforce the physical separation of the two characters. The fact it is a two shot highlights Georgie's reluctance to let go of Charlotte, and presents her trying to keep the memory of Charlotte close.
We used a slight low angle on the shot of Charlotte on the stairs to present the degree of power she holds over Georgie's life. Although Charlotte is not really there, the effect Charlotte's death has had on Georgie is holding her to ransom and stopping her from moving on. Piano music is used throughout to add a sense of melancholy, which, when teamed with the slow paced editing throughout, creates a sluggish feel, mirroring Georgie's emotions.
Elliptical editing was used to cut out some of the less interesting parts, such as walking, as these non-essential scenes slowed down the pace of the film and made it less engaging. This can be seen from the first rough cut to the final project. I think that including more elliptical editing was a good idea as it made our film much more enjoyable to watch, and stopped some parts dragging. Click here for evidence of elliptical editing. Arguably, the car acts as a partial wipe, and allows a smooth transition into the next scene. We used backgrounds with similar colours, stone, blue and yellow, to again, allow a smooth transition between shots.
These particular shots and edits were used to add emotion to the film. In the research video 'How did Aftermath make you feel?', it is reported that the emotion surrounding Georgie's PTSD was successfully translated to the audience. One of the main reasons for this was the shots and edits used, including the ones depicted above, and the close ups of Georgie's face at the beginning and end.
Questionnaires:
Below is our video questionnaire, which is the first bit of audience feedback we received. We asked 5 people in our target demographic. All were students at Barnsley College, and were between the ages of 15 and 20.
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| Results gathered from the first questionnaire |
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| Results gathered from the final questionnaire |
In the final questionnaire, 100% of people said they understood the plot, which is an improvement from the 80% of people who said they understood it in the second questionnaire. This shows we were successful in developing the film into a much better piece.
Most people said they thought our film was a drama,which corrilates with the genre we intended our film to be. 20% of people said they thought our film fell into the action genre, which is probably because of the military theme and dramatic dream sequence at the beginning. No one said the film was romance, horror or other, which shows we were effective in translating our message to the audience.
How did we change the film in response to audience feedback?
In response to feedback, we made alterations to the sound levels in order for the dialogue to be easier to hear. As a consensus, the audience felt that there could have been more close ups included in our film in order to create more intimacy, and allow the emotions of the characters to translate more effectively. In response to this, we added close ups getting tighter in around Georgie's face in the final scene. Additionally, the audience commented on the sound levels throughout, with one suggesting we used external mics, which is something to consider next time we produce a film.
Changes can be seen between the different cuts of the film:
How did our film make the audience feel?
87% of the people that watched our film understood it's plot and the twist that came at the end of the clip. Georgie's PTSD caused her hallucinations, which we attempted to represent through Charlotte's character. We tried to make Charlotte's death subtle in order to capture the sensitive and heartfelt nature of Aftermath. Due to the limited timeframe we had, we had to make the ending of the film more prominent so that the message could be understood better and be more impactful. Most of our responses said that they wish that Charlotte's status had been referenced earlier in the film so that the ending was more clear, so we added some extra scenes to show Charlotte jumping around the house, such as Charlotte's sudden appearance in the kitchen, through the use of jump cuts in editing.
We used music to create a melancholy tone, and many people agreed that the music fitted well. Some people suggested we remove the clock ticking from the counselling scene as it was distracting and made our actors difficult to hear, which we agreed with, so removed for the final cut. They also suggested reducing the volume or replacing the sound of ringing after the gun is fired in the flashback scene, which smoothed the transition from the war scenes to the bedroom scenes. All of these suggestions were very helpful and helped to make our final piece successful.
I decided to gather some final feedback from social media sites on how our film made people feel. Some responses are evidenced below:
Overall, considering all the feedback we have received, I believe our film to be a success as we have achieved everything we aimed to. Our intention was to create a 5 minute fiction film that would explore PTSD and make the audience empathise with the character of Georgie, which I believe we have done. This is supported by the questionnaires and graphs, as well as social media feedback.
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