Term 4 Evaluation

Year 10 Creative Media Short Film Production – Term 04 Mr Andrews

Task 5: Website and poster self-reflection and evaluation:

Part One: Discuss your feelings about the website, poster and promotional materials task:

1.    Are you satisfied with the final result?

Overall I am pretty satisfied with my final result.

1.    Did the website require more/less time than you originally thought?

The website actually required a lot less time than I originally thought.

1.    Would like to change any aspects of your final project (layout, links, images, colour scheme etc)?

If I were able to change any aspects of my final project, it would probably be to add more pages and detail to each page.

1.    If you could start the project again what would you do differently?

By restarting the project I would definitely spend more time on the aspects of my project such as my layout and theme, as I thought the website looked quite plain and bland.

Part Two: Respond to each of the following dot points (using complete sentences or paragraphs). You should include as much detail as possible in your responses.

1.    Discuss whether your website and poster have turned out the way you pictured them?

I definitely think my poster turned out the way I wanted it to, however I think the site was quite different. I wanted it to be really interactive and interesting, although it was just to hard to do this using iWeb, and a bit unrealistic with the abilities I have.

1.    Describe whether your site and poster clearly depicts the intended genre and describe some specific design techniques you have used to achieve this;

Forgotten is a mystery and I definitely think the color scheme shows this, but overall looking at the site it isn't clear the film is a mystery. The darkness of the layout shows that the film has something bad or tragic that happens in it. To achieve the full sense of a mystery, as said above I think I could of have made my sight more interactive. As originally I had a plan to have key objects from the film on my site and you click on them and they give you clues.

1.    Did you have all of the necessary resources to complete your site and poster or did you create new materials?

I had all the necessary resources to complete my poster and site, however it would have been good to have a website designer that would allow you to put a bit more detail into your site.

1.    Describe any problems or difficulties you encountered during the process. These may include; technical difficulties, corrupt or missing files, difficulty using the iWeb software, problems exporting files, sound or video etc;

The only difficulty I had using iWeb was transferring my whole film into the site. It was loading really slowly, so Mr Powell quickly showed me how to compress the file, and upload a much smaller file a lot quicker.

1.    Clarify how you made use of planning, content-lists and the flowchart during the authoring process;

The flowchart turned out to be my most useful source of planning. It enabled me to clearly see what pages i had to design on my website and what needed to be done. By completing my synopsis and character profiles earlier was also an advantage as I had more time to focus on the layout of my site. 

2.    Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection throughout your project.

Throughout my project my main fault was the use of reflections. I spent most of the class lessons working on my poster or website, and didn't take enough time to reflect on my progress and what had to be done. It was also because as soon as we received the task I had an idea for my site and poster straight away 

Planning

Synopsis: Blaire (Abbey Bayliss) and Nate (Jarrord Harkin) seemed like the perfect couple, but when Nate unexpectedly goes missing Blaire’s world is turned upside down.  She accuses Serena (Stephanie Rutherford) and Nate (Mitch Bayliss) her closest friends for his disappearance.  As they reveal their alibies her chances of finding him are sliming. But maybe there was someone else responsible for his disappearance? Someone much closer than you’d expect. 

Character Profiles:

Blaire

Blaire is a young teenage girl with light brown hair and blue eyes. She has always been a loyal and loving girlfriend, but her insecurities get the best of her. Blaire’s jealously of her best friends relationships with Nate stir her judgement. Throughout the film she is only acting out of love, but is she to emotionally attached to Nate’s disappearance to see all the pieces of the puzzle fitting together?

Nate

Nate is a young teenage boy, with brown hair and who is also very tall. He doesn’t talk in the film, leading to questions whether he really did disappear. Nate is a generous boyfriend but is his unusually close friendship with Serena getting out of hand?

Dan

Dan is a young teenage boy, with dark hair and blue eyes. He is Nate’s best friend, but has a very sketchy background.  He may seem innocent but his bad boy attitude isn’t helping his case. 

The Parents

Blaire’s parents are your average middle-aged couple. They are quite unspoken characters, leaving many possibilities for them to be the true reason for Nate’s vanishing. Their actions may be out of love, but is acting out of love not always the right thing to do?

Serena

Serena is a young teenage girl, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. She is very close friends with Blaire and Nate, which is one of the main reasons she is accused for Nate’s disappearance. Serena is one of the popular girls at school, and although she may seem ditzy she’s a true friend.    

Additional Resources

-Two screenshots of each of the characters will be required for characters profiles 

-The whole film

-Completed synopsis and character profiles

Colour Scheme
I am going to have a predominately black and white colour scheme, to show the darkness involved throughout the film.I want it to have a dark mood, and to make it look mysterious. The target audience is 14+, as it is a bit dark for ounce years, and it portrays bad messages. 

Exploring and evaluating promotional material for existing films.

1) Coraline

2)

3) Synopsis:

When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, with caring parents and all her dreams coming true. When the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in her world forever, the girl refuses and finds that the alternate reality where she is trapped is only a trick to lure her. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A young girl walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life - only much better. But when her adventure turns dangerous, and her counterfeit parents (including Other Mother) try to keep her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination, and bravery to get back home - and save her family.  

4/8) The promotional poster for the film, has to main colour schemes, one being lighter colours the others being dark and moody. The two sides of the poster show Coraline's real world (light) and the parallel world (dark). The poster also shows important items that are used throughout the movie, such as the buttons, cat and the ghosts of the children. The poster is very balanced with the focal point being just below the middle where Coraline is standing. Behind her is the house with odd items sticking out here and there, and directly down the middle being the split between the noral world and the parallel one.

5) (The tree diagram couldn't transfer to blogger) The website for the movie starts with a movie screen that pops up with options of choosing to click on either the trailer, DVD, film, map and Paranorman which is another film by this same director. As well as this, there is an interactive background behind the movie screen. It shows everything in the parallel world and allows you to click on significant landmarks, such as the well and the house, allowing you to enter the house as well.

6) The target audience of the film is meant to be 9-13 year olds. However I feel as if the website for the film makes it look quite scary, which the film in fact is. It is also very intriguing as you want to find out why the buttons are so significant and it really does make you want to see the movie.

7) The main thing I like about the film's website, is the interactive background. This allows you to travel all over the parallel world and gives you a good sense of Coraline's surrounding and what you'll see in the movie. The only think I dislike is the pop up screen in the middle sometimes makes it difficult to click on something in the interactive background.

Reflection Term 3

What did you learn?

In this term's assessment for creative media i learnt a variety of useful techniques. The major thing I learned was the lengthy process of making a film and all the things you have to do before you can start shooting. When making a movie everything has to be planned out, and it isn't a case of rocking up on the day and planning everything there and starting filming. The prior process to filming although lengthy, definitely was helpful in the long run.

What worked well?

I think our group came up with a really strong idea for our movie, as well as the fact our shooting was completed all in one day and early on in the piece. We worked out our idea almost straight away, giving us many lessons to plan out what we were going to do and allowing us to expand on our ideas. The shooting for our film was also all carried out in one day, and very early on, this gave us more time to do the rough edit, and allowed us more time if scenes had to be reshot.

What would you change?

Although we finished the filming quite early, I wish I used my lesson time more valuably, to complete my final edit. If I had used time more wisely I would of been able to successfully involve more sound into my film, which I didn't have enough time to do in the end. We also had a few issues with our group dynamics, although we all got along I think we should of incorporated more parts into the film, as there were many times when at least two of us weren't doing something.

Overall Evaluation/ extra thought.

Term 3 was one of the best units of work this year in creative media, however if I was to do it again, I would of definitely used my time more wisely!

Timecode

A timecode is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing system. Following this format: HH:MM:SS:FF, meaning hours:minutes:seconds:frames. 

For example:

00:00:01:00	=	1 second
00:01:00:00	=	1 minute
01:37:14:07	=	1 hour, 37 minutes, 14 seconds and 7 frames

Reflection

1.    Describe any problems or difficulties your group encountered during the planning. These may include; organizational problems, group related issues, etc.

Throughout the making of the film, some problems occurred along the way but were eventually overcome. The main issue, was having time for filming. We planned to do it all on the holidays and had set dates, however everyone's plans got in the way, so we ended up doing it on the weekend during school.

2.    Clarify any time-management issues your group encountered during the planning process and describe the steps you implemented to improve in this area;

Our time-management issues were that we left filming to the last minute possible. Leaving us not much time to complete the rough edit. I also think we could of got a few more things done during lesson times, and planned when were filming a but better and a bit clearer.

3.    Discuss whether your group made effective use of the provided templates to assist the film-making process;

Our group did not fully take advantage of the provided templates to assist the film-making process. Thee shot list was useful, but we found that when we stated shooting we went with what looks good and what shots were achievable. 

4.    Explain whether the planning process helped your group during filming. In particular, discuss whether the use of devices such as storyboards, shot-lists, and rough edits assisted throughout the filming process;
The planning process for our group was to a degree helpful in assisting the film process.  The planning of our actual idea was really useful, as we were able to fully figure our where the story line was going. The other things such as the shot list ect. were not as useful as we found when filming we went with the flow and what looked good on the day.

5.    Describe any problems or difficulties your group encountered during the filming process. These may include; organization problems, unreliable cast members, group related issues, equipment problems, etc.
During the filming process our group encountered a few problems during the filming process. One of the big issues was that one of our cast members ended up being “sick” so last second Abbey had to get her brother to fill in. In addition as stated above, our group found it hard to pick times where we were able to film.

6.    After reviewing your footage and completing the rough cut of your film, describe any aspects of your film, which need to be addressed. i.e does your group need to reshoot any scenes; are any additional shots required; are there any scenes which worked better than expected.
After reviewing the footage and completing the rough edit of our film, some things need to be addressed to improve our film. I think the part where Abbey gets hit by a fry-pan needs to be reshot as it looks quite fake, and I think it would look better from a different angle. As well as this, I think we need to shoot and ending, as our film just ends and doesn’t tie together.

7.    List any skills, techniques or tricks you have discovered during the project.
During the filming process there was a few techniques that were discovered throughout the project such as how to use a tripod and various shooting techniques. Before the filming process i roughly knew how to use a tripod, but the filming helped clarify this knowledge. I also learned how to do a sweeping shot and we also minimized the frame in one of our shots (the splash)  to imply that it was a splash from a body (not a rock).

8.    Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to throughout your project. Have you provided enough evidence to support your work? (Look back at your blogs/journals and think about whether it looks like 6 weeks worth of work).



Looking at my blog, I think it is evident that throughout the filming process I could have indeed done more reflections on each thing we had learned or tasks that still had to be completed.

Discuss your feelings about the production task:
9.    Are you satisfied with your groups final result?


After looking at our first edit, I am quite satisfied with the end result, however there are a few things that I would change.
10.    Would like to change any aspects of your film?Looking at the rough edit it is pretty clear the aspects of the film that have to be improved/modified. With the flash backs it is quite unclear what they are, and to improve this in the editing stage I would make them a bit more distorted and shaky, clearly showing that they were flashbacks. A few sections of the film also need to get shortened/ cut out eg. when Abbey is looking at the camera, when Clarah and I are walking up the pathway. 

11.    If you could start the project again what would you do differently?

If we were able to restart the project, the main thing I would s=change would be my time management. If the filming was able to be completed earlier in the term, more editing would be able to be done to the film, so we would be able to get more feed back  on the rough edit, so not much would have to be done to the final film.

Three Point Lighting

In today's lesson we learned about 3 point lighting. This is used in visual media such as video, film, and still photography. It is a simple but versatile system which forms the basis of most lighting.

Key Light

This is the main light, and the most influential, it is normally placed to one side of the camera or subject. Making its side lit well and the other side have a shadow.

Fill Light

This is a secondary light and is placed opposite to the key light. It used to fill the shadow created by the key, but is less bright than the key.

Back Light

This light is placed behind the subject's rear, and is used for subtle highlights and subtle outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background, also creating a three dimensional look.