Evaluation

1. In what ways does your short film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real short films?

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Ancillary Task

Ancillary Task

We began by looking at short film posters that gave us inspiration to create a poster of our own, the poster shown below gave us inspiration to add certain physical elements as shown on the short film poster below. We also added a cast list at the bottom on top of a black vignette to make it more visible and obvious.

We then started off creating our poster by creating a spider diagram of what our poster could be about. You can see it below.

First draft of our poster:

Audience feedback:

The main points for improvement we received from this feedback were:

• Involve production team and add their names somewhere in the poster.
• Add the time and place where the film is going to be shown.
• Add more colour - make background more exciting.
• Make 'Starring' font bigger.
• More information into the film through the main image - make title and image relate.

Final poster production

Brief view at the stages of production:

To create our final poster, we began by taking a few pictures with a Canon 60D. To get the lighting we desired we set the white balance on fluorescent and the aperture was wide open. Below is our first attempt at capturing our background image.

The picture below is what our background image looked like after adjusting the exposure, contrast and the hue in Adobe Lightroom.

After editing the image above, we put it through Lightroom again and changed around the settings until we achieved the image below. We then put it in Photoshop and created our final poster.

Final poster submission:

This is our final poster. The changes we made are: we added the place and date of where the film is showing (Tricycle Theatre 2pm &7pm 20th May 2015). We also added the logo of our company, Empire Studios to add another element of professionalism, Lastly we added the names of the actors above the title. This is to follow the codes and conventions of short film posters, as most have the names of the actors.

Radio Ad

After creating the poster the next step was the create the radio advert. In order to do this we used Audacity and Soundcloud. Firstly, we needed to get a background track which would give off a dramatic and horrific vibe, whilst being relevant to the advert. To find this track   we used a website which is a part of the creative commons called Freesound. Once on freesound, we found the track we thought most suited the theme of the film and would portray this film through the advert. This track was called: Strange Ambient Music 1: Monastery - Broken Chimes. Once we found this we added it to our audacity track. 

Once we had done this we devised a script, this script included what we wanted to say but not any of the SFX we wanted to add. Here is the first script we created: 

Once we had created and recorded the script we realized that the background music was too loud, so we used a technique called Autoduck. 

This effect allows the track to be quietened according to the tracks below it. So this means the main protagonist narrators voice and the background track can both be heard. 

Once I had finished the recording and editing I uploaded it to Soundcloud and showed our audience to receive feedback from them up, as you can see below:

Once I uploaded it I asked our audience to listen to the advert and tell us what they thought. Here is the feedback I received.

As you our audience thought that much improvement was needed on our radio advert. I needed to add where the film is going to be shown and snippets from the film. We then created a new final draft and uploaded it. 

We then asked our target audience to comment on the radio advert again to see what they thought. Here is what they said: 

As you can see this time the audience is pleased with the radio advert. They said that they liked the use of sound effects on the ad and that I added snippets this time, this gave more insight into the film.

Main Task

Introduction

The BRIEF

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

• • •

* a poster for the film;
* a radio trailer for the film;
a film magazine review page featuring the film. 

Our main task is to create a short film and to do this I need to know what constitutes a short film. I will analyze the codes and conventions of short films to help to know how to make one myself.

Codes & Conventions of Short Films

Definition of a short film

In the early days of cinema, all films were short films. After over one hundred years of technical and aesthetic advances. One convention that identified short films back then is still valid today as short films are mainly defined by their length. Apart from their running time, there is no precise criteria or unequivocal characteristics that apply to all short films. We can identify some characteristics that entered the world of short films until now.

Character

In short films, it is essential to stick to only 2-3 characters because most short films are kept around 5-10 minutes. With most films reaching a run time of about 30 minutes. It is important to be able able to portray each character's storyline in a space of a few minutes. Short films often rely heavily on stereotypical representations as it allows audiences to recognise and generate meaning in the viewer.

Twists
The majority of short films contain a twist. This makes the film much more appealing to the audience, as they become more aware and desperate to see how the storyline unfolds. This twist can occur at any time throughout the film, it could be at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the film.

Budget
The budget of a short film is often quite low when a short film is being produced, due to the lack of funding they receive. The easiest way to cut down on spending is by using very few locations for filming and using as little amount of characters as possible.

Storyline
The best way to keep the film interesting is to develop the storyline into an everyday setting. This helps the audience relate to the film, making them look forward to the climax/twist/resolution of the situation.

I will analyse a short film I found called 'Inbox' This is a fantasy/love story.
In this short film, there were 2 main characters, a female and a male. Their importance is assessed from the beginning with cross-cutting editing presenting in the main frame as you can see below:

Past Production Team (RyRav Productions)

Ravey Pambu

Redwan Guled

Ryan Murphy

Current Production Team (Empire Studios)

Patryk Kulas

Elle Gilbert

Redwan Guled

Past Experience 

I have gained a lot of practice involving film production and especially video construction and editing which arose from my constant interest in the latest technology, but this was my first full attempt at constructing a film. We started by using video editing programs like iMovie and Premier Pro, personally Premier Pro allowed a lot more control over what was being edited and a lot more in depth editing tools as I will show in my editing decisions. After familiarising myself with Adobe Premier Pro, we had edited a short 2 minute film as a first draft which proved to be a lot more challenging than expected.

Editing Decisions

The screenshot above shows the editing that took place during the production of our first draft film.  The workspace of Adobe Premier Pro was something I had to familiarize myself with as it can seem overwhelming at first glance.

In the screenshot above, i show how filmmakers would replicate time being past in a film in a few seconds by simply creating a dissolve between the two clips which is different from a straight cut. i would want the transition to be slower than a cut at this point in this film to show how the character is trying to connect to the other character in the film.

This is my workspace in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. I have arranged my video clips along the timeline and I'm making decisions of how best to cut them together. I am beginning to realise that our production team is going to have to return to the location and shoot more footage so that I can edit together a more effective sequence.

Below is the first draft for my short film:

We then worked on the second draft, below is the improved version:

After that, we then abandoned the first plot idea and went after our second idea: Chain Mail. We believed that the plot could have been achieved in many ways which would also be challenging making the filming process fairly extensive which we enjoyed as a challenge. A lot of camera effects are planned to be used in the production of the film.

As i said above, we realised that our production team would need more footage, so we attempted to improve the film but then realised that the plot was too thin and wouldn't need much dialogue so we wanted to change our plot and came up with two main storylines that we would make our film around:

Plot 1

While doing some research, we came across a story that we thought would be interesting to see if we could build around it. The film was to be based on a true story that took place in Japan. The story was that there was a 58 year old homeless woman named Tatsuko Horikawa who lived in a mans closet for under a year living on food and drink while the owner was away. 

Plot 2

Our second plot idea was a fictional story based on a girl who kept seeing dark figures everywhere she went and that she was the only person that could see them. This was a starting point which then turned into a plot about 2 girls who received chain mail and ignored it. Dark figures then started appearing.

Why we didn't choose Plot 1

We thought that this would be a solid Thriller film that would also be challenging to produce, at a point we were dead set that this would be our film plot but then we ran into a problem. The problem was that we had everything planned but we had no location big enough for our fil to take place so we abandoned the plot and went with Plot 2.

Below is the script:

CHAIN MAIL

Produced by RyRav Productions

Intro

*Lesson is in progress*

*Ryan and Redwan both leave the classroom together*

Ryan Did you understand any of that?

Redwan Nah man, I thought it was bull.

Ryan Allow Economics, I just don't get it

Redwan So boring

Ryan Ahh man, I need to buss a shit

Redwan So Ryan, you going after-school revision today?

Ryan Nah man, I can't be bothered for that

*Ryan enters the cubicle and Redwan goes to the urinal*

Redwan Ahh, thats the spot

Redwan Ryan, are you actually taking a shit right now?

Ryan Um.. .yeah, pretty much

Redwan Who takes shits in school?

Ryan You think I can't hear you from this cubicle, watch when i get out

Redwan Ha! Dead that

After beginning to film our short film, our two main actresses did not want to proceed with the film which was a big problem as half of the film was already recorded. So we decided to slightly alter our film into a comedy and also changed our main actresses to Ryan Murphy and Redwan Guled in our production team. You can see our progress so far in the video below:

Below is a vlog that we created mid-production:

Audience Feedback

From the criticism above, we cut the time the teacher is teaching into half, to get to the point quicker. We also filmed a few more shots from different angles and also a few shots of the main character receiving the chain mail e-mail on his phone.

We also received a lot of criticism from people in person about the film in person, people suggested that we should mix up the shots in the toilet scene and also the shots in the classroom as mentioned above in the comment.

New productions

After abandoning our last production and pursuing a new short film in a new production team, we decided to produce our latest short film based on a fictional story which seems like an obvious improvement in comparison to our previous productions. Below is some work to do with our final film called Inhibition.

Mood board.

Below is a shot list that we made shortly after writing up the script.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Shot Examples

Below are a few examples of shots from our film based on the shot list provided above.

OSS: Over the shoulder shot

MS: Midshot

LA: Low angle

HA: High angle

POV: Point of view shot

EST: Establishing shot

2S: Two shot

ECU: Extreme close up

Editing Decisions

After shooting our short film, our next step was to begin the editing process. Although two members of our group were responsible for the actual editing, there were several decisions we had to make as a group in terms of how we wanted our film to look. 

Based on the short films we have analysed, we know what standard we have to maintain in order for our short film to do well.

Black Strip

After finishing the editing process, one of our final decisions was to add a cinematic black strip to our film. This is also known as widescreen.

Our reasoning behind this was to make our film look more professional.

Use of Constant Power

One thing that let down our short film was the sound. Due to not having a high budget, we could not gather the necessary equipment to ensure the sound was perfect.

As a group, we decided that we would experiment with several audio transitions to try and make sure the sound does not really jeopardise the quality of the film.

We checked the Adobe website, which gave a description of all the preset transitions in Premiere Pro.

From these descriptions and also experimenting with them, we established that Constant Power was the best fit transition for our sound issue.

After using the Constant Power transition, our sound between the two clips was much better and as a group we were happy.

Shot Change

Part of ensuring that a film remains interesting requires a variety of shots. Viewers must be engaged by the different shot types. Here is an example of our film continuing but the shot changing.

During the filming process, the actors were instructed to always repeat their movements despite the change of shot.

The screenshot below shows proof of how we had to instruct the two main actors to repeat their actions and record them in two different clips.

An example of another editorial decision that we had to make was when we were revising the script then realized that we couldn't fit all the dialogue under 5 minutes. As you can see from the script above and the film posted below, the ending was not extended as shown in the script above but merely shortened.

We also created a mood board that we thought was perfect for showing our ideas and visions. As you can see there is elements of restraint shown through this mood board. This is shown through the cages. We wanted to use events which our audience could understand and relate to. In this mood board is ways in which the protagonist may be restrained, for example: the picture of a baby, a pregnancy test and a cage. The cage also give the theme of imprisonment. Which is a theme throughout our film and poster. 

Another example of non-diegetic music being used in our film is when Fred picks up the phone while studying with Jose. Jess is waiting for him in a different location while trying to contact him, and so we used a song which directly correlates to the scene of the film. The song is called "Waiting" by Wann. We found this music on Free Music Archive, as you can see below: 

We were able to use this as Free Music Archive is part of the creative commons, it is free and anyone can use it and what is uploaded to it. The exact lyrics in the scene used are: 

"Waiting to find the way

Waiting for the phone 

Waiting to find the way 

Waiting for the phone"

These relate to our film, because while these lyrics are being said, Jess is waiting for Fred to come to meet her and Fred is on the phone. This helps the audience sympathize for Jess through the music we used.

The next step, was the actually film the first draft. We did this with a camcorder. This made the quality poorer than with a professional camera. This was something we definitely needed to improve.

Inhibition First Draft:

Once we uploaded our short film we asked our target audience to comment on in on what we can improve and what was good. Here is what we found out we needed to improve:

One piece of our audience feedback for the first draft of our short film.

The rest of our audience feedback for the first draft of our film.

Audience feedback for our final draft.

THIS IS THE FINISHED FILM.

It's worth clicking through to youtube to view at the highest quality.