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

Technologies I used on Prezi

One of the media technologies I've used is final cut express, when creating our animatic storyboard voice overs and also editing our film scenes. This program helped to construct our media product (our short   film). I used it to do the voice overs of the sisters diary entries, which helped the flow of our film. I also learn't how to experiment sound on final cut, seeing what type of sound was affective for our film.I also used a microphone as an alternative to record voiceovers and uploaded those voiceovers on final cut express.

I also occasionally used google to research about drama films, film posters and I aslo watched short drama films on youtube to get a feel of what type of narratives were expected and how drama conventions were formed and presented. These technologies were used for my research and planning process for our short film.
I aslo researched vital information for the construction of our short film e.g. the stages of bearevement, film reviews and drama conventions. I used  blogger to blog the work that I completed, through using this program I learn't how to post information, videos, images and prezi's. Blogger allows me to present my creativity visually and in word. Overall all  these variety of technologies were vitial & helped me to grow confident in using them, and helped me with the research, planning and construction for our short film. Also for the evaluation stages of our film, I used final cut to improve voiceovers to make the dialogue better.

3.How effective is the combination of your main product & ancillary texts?

The three main ancillary texts that my group produced were two film poster's and our film review :

This is one of our film's main poster. This poster links with our
main product (our drama short film) because the sister is shown
in black and white, as well as the background. This particular affect links with a particular scene in our film, which is the black and white flashback that presents the emotions of the sister at that moment, even though its not particularly that shot, it still identifies the deep, hidden emotions of the sister towards Hope's actions.

The diary of the sister is a very important, significant object in our film, within the poster it appears as (yellow) because it is signifying the hope that the main character (Hope) gains when reading the last diary entry from her sister. The tag line on our poster says 'one journal makes all the difference.' This tag line immediatly tells the audience the significance of the journal within our film. Our short film is a drama because it deals with real life issues such as death, bereavement, loss and isolation, it is therfore a serious, sensitve subject. It is targeted audience is teenagers, however parential guidance is necessary because of the issues it deals with so a PG sign is on our poster. The credits & actresses names are written in white to keep the poster simplistic, because of the issues dealt with. The title of our film is written in blue because this signifies the feelings of sorrow & sadness that Hope feels when her sister is dead.

                                                                     
This is our second film poster, which presents a good representation of the narrative of our short film. All of the sisters valuable personal   objects are shown, which is the (necklace that Hope gives to her  sister on her birthday. The sister's journal which holds memories of her that Hope reads, and lastly the sister's favourite teddy bear, that she values dearly. Hope is wearing mostly black within our film to present her emotions of sorrow and despair and to show her   mourning her sister. The fact that she's dressed in black is very  significant for the emotions that is presented in our film. The yellow affect around the title again connotes the hope gained at the end of our film. The purple writing is a reminder of all the happy memories that Hope shared with her sister e.g. the birthday scene showing the sister happy to recieve her gift from Hope. The use of colours grey and blue signifies the sadness Hope felt, which presents Hope's inner emotions.                                              
           

I came across a film poster that portrays very similar drama convent-
ions that our short film presents, the
use of black around the woman
signifies her despair, she is also holding
a valuabe object that her son held dear.
Even though this is not our poster, it
links alot with our theme of despair.
Also the yellow around the woman
suggests a hope to be regained and also
her dressed in white signifies a hope regained.
Similar to our poster, white writng is used
to create the simplicity. A lamp is aslo shown                
beside Hope in our short film to signify a hope
as shown here.

This is our film review which consists a screen grab of one of our scenes within our film which is the birthday scene. The quote below is one of the comments we got from our auidence feedback, these our main features from our main product (our short film) which fits perfectly with this particular ancillary task because a film review is a short glimspe of what to expect when watching the film, which this review successfully maps out. The warm bright colours shown in the film review presents the happy moments and a sense of hope for the main character. The main poster of our film is effective for a film review also. The last image of the sister writing her last diary entry before she leaves is a very key event within our film that does make all the difference as stated in the last quote next to it, which makes these two combinations very effective when combined together to present the message of hope across to the audience.

2.What have you learned from your audience feedback

Audience short film feedback on Prezi

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

Information added : Our film also presents the conventions of Fretags pyramid :

Exposition: The sister is depressed
Rising Ation: She looks at all her sisters personal objects, that reminds her of past memories that they shared
Complication: Reading her sister's journal she falls back into depression
Climax: Is the final journal entry in her sisters journal
Resolution: She gains hope again to continue with life and finally accepts her sisters death

* Flashbacks are commonly shown in drama's to create effect within a film, our flashbacks create different moods e.g. the first flashback,  of the birthday scene is in a bright setting signifying the happy moments shared with one another.
* The second flashback is black and white which signifies the sisters resentment to hope due to a quarrel they shared.
*The use of non-digetic music of the soundtrack creates another drama convention where the music links with emotion and action
*Our film compares to another film called 'when five fell' because it uses also meaningful objects that represent memories, our film does this with the sister's journal that maps out the memories shared with her and hope.
* At the end of our film, as Hope fixes her hair & coat and leaves the room, this signifies her hope returning. This scene also links with the film, Mariposa, where the girl is dressed in white & goes outside to a brighter setting, signifiying better days are ahead & the butterfly flies away, representing her freedom at last.
* Drama's are able to identify the nature of a character & within our film the audience can clearly identify characteristics of hope & her sister. The sister is outspoken & shares her frustrations with hope when she finds her belongings missing
* Hope is the shy character and doesn't draw attention to herself like how her sister does, we also didn't give the sister a name because in drama's it's important to focus on the main character.

Mock up film poster

 

This is my mock up film poster for our short film. The title of our short film is Bringing back hope.
I have placed a drawing of our main character who is called hope. I think is important to show the signifiance of her character by showing her emotion. This is a still shot from our short film, where she looks depressed by the fact her sister has died. I have placed the most important object in our film, which is the journal of the sister, the journal signifies the end result of her hope, and this is why it is shown largely.
It holds all the memorable, important stages in our film. The light bulb above her head siginifes a brighter day to come at the end of  her sorrow. My tag line for the poster is 'at the end of the tunnel there is hope.' I chose this because I feel that it goes with the moral of our film overall by prestenting a hope at the end of a difficult situation. The type of auidence it attracts are females aged 16-25 because of the plot of the film, which focuses on real life issues of lossing someone close to you. In the narrative and the genre of our short film which is drama the auidence is expected to see drama conventions within our film that express deep emotions presented on screen from the two sisters individuallly.

Analysis of film poster

This is another film poster for Changeling. It cleary presents sorrow and despair with the use of colours black, brown and grey. Her looking into a distance from the window suggests she has a sense of hope and the yellow bright light signifies a hope and a possibilty of a new beggining. The newspaper in hand suggests she wants to be informed. I think this is another good example of a film poster that reflects the theme of our short film.

Analysis of film poster

                       
This is a film poster of a film called changeling. It is a film about a mother who's son is missing. I felt this drama film poster links with the theme of our short film which is despair. The enlargement on her face shows the significance of her character and it shows her emotion. The dark brown on the poster signifes the feeling of sorrow. The dark shadow on her face signifies her despair and anixety for her missing son. I think this is a good example of a film poster that can connect to the plot of our film, which is the loss of a sister.The total dark shadow on the son demonstrates how he is lost and distant from the mother.

The second film poster on the top shows her holding a teddy, which is a object dear to the son. It is similar to our short film, because the sisters teddy is also dear to her.The majority of the backgorund is black and this creates the mood of the mothers sorrow and depression by her sons loss. I think this is another good example that portrays our theme.