Codes & Conventions

In our project we were required to use various different technologies. Due to the fact that digital technology is so easily available we were able to use digital video cameras to record our film. This makes it a lot easier to see our film whilst we are filming. We can also preview our film and re-record over it if we need to. The digital cameras were of quite high quality and because digital technology is so common, they are also very affordable. We were able to add effects on the LCD screen whilst filming to give us an idea of how the effect would look before applying it on the screen. We used Adobe Premier Pro to edit our film which is very simple but very effective in editing video. It allows you to do several different things such as saturation and credits to make your film look extremely professional. We also used Photoshop to create and edit our ancillary tasks. Photoshop is a piece of software that is often used in industry to edit pictures and create adverts. As I decided to create the magazine review, I had to learn how to use Photoshop effectively. To do this, I researched Photoshop tutorials. This helped me to use different skills to create a better ancillary piece. The software we used allowed us to save and export our pieces so they weren’t too large memory-wise. We were able to also upload our video onto different websites (web 2.0) such as Facebook and Youtube.

For my A2 media product, me and my group decided to create a short film. We chose this option as we thought it would be quite challenging but very rewarding if we could create one to a good degree. It was also a project that we could all be a part of creatively which would increase the amount of output that came from our group. Within our group we all have various 'talents' and it seemed like a good idea for my group to work together to make the most of these once combined. We also work well within a group, meaning we can give and take constructive criticism without it affecting our work or group negatively, making the group more efficient overall.

To get a general idea of what sort of product we were expected to make, we had to research into existing products. This was made alot easier by amount of digital technology available to us. Using the internet we were able to research other short films to get an idea of conventions. To do this we researched within websites such as 'depict' and 'virgin media shorts.' We also used 'Youtube' to research into previous A2 media short films. The creation of Web 2.0 has increased the amount of interactivity available via the internet. It has made it possible for other film makers to upload their pieces onto the internet for other people to view and comment on other peoples pieces. The increased interactivity of the internet also made it possible for us to create the blogs to show our ideas and progress throughout our project. At the beginning of our project, we held a small focus group just so we had a general idea of what sort of things our film needed to include so it would please our target audience. Our group agreed that this helped alot, as it gave us a set list of things we had to include within our film and also helped us to narrow down our ideas alot. It also helped our main audience feel as if they've had a big part in the film-making process as they shared their ideas with us. We had to research into short films to have a clear understanding of the exact conventions we were meant follow (or challenge if we had a good reason to.) Our group had quite alot of previous knowledge on the conventions of independant films and we tried to combine this knowledge with the new knowledge we'd learnt that affected the short film genre only. The internet helped alot with our research, as short film is quite a specialist genre. Researching into existing products helped us to find subjects, shots and ideas in short films that we thought we really good and helped us alot with some of the things we wanted to portray and how to do it. After researching into short films we were also able to establish the sort of shot types and editing that appeared most. We also researched into different film and television portrayals of teenage girls. This was extremely important once we’d established that our main character was a female teenager. It meant that, in effect, we could ‘pick and choose’ what traits we wanted our character to have to make her most relateable. We were also able to research into different drugs and how they are portrayed in film. This was a very important piece of research for our end product as it meant we could realistically show drug use and the effects of it. We also researched into existing products for our ancillary tasks. This helped a lot as we had a clear idea of different review layouts and posters. We were then able to look at several examples at once and decide what we thought worked well within them. I think our group researched well for our product and we gained a lot of knowledge on short film and various other things like that. Although we researched into several of the main things involved in our project, I think we still could of researched into other short films more and recorded what we found. We could have used various different research methods to gain information such as questionnaire. As we were using Adobe Premier Pro, I thought it would be useful if I researched into basic tutorials so I would be able to do at least the basics involved within creating the piece.

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback

We Need YOU!

And here it is, the final products of our film. However, we have two possible endings because we just can't decide.....care to help? :)



This is one version. This version doesn't have the full ending but we thought the ending to this one was more effective as it was quite shocking.



Above is version two of the film. Although we preferred this ending, the editing at the end of this one looks very effective and doesn't leave the film on such a cliffhanger.

Enjoy :)

Twitter&Flickr

Media is converging all the time and one of the major outcomes of this has been social networking sites. So we thought one of the best ways to promote our film production company would be to create profiles on social networking sites. That way fans can see any progress we make easily and can also comment on our profiles.

https://twitter.com/filmsecretmedia
-and-
https://flickr.com/filmsecret <--there is also a gadget on the right hand side with some of the pictures we have uploaded onto this.

Below are our finished ancillary tasks:



I believe the poster works very well and portrays the mood of the film very well. It's very dark and shows the character's emotions clearly. The font is impersonal which symbolises the character's exclusion from everyone else. The poster and the review fits very well together as they both have similar themes. Both are very dark and grim. They also use similar images to create specific emotions. They both use similar impersonal fonts and both feature references to drugs. The only negative thing about them is that they both show pictures of our main character using the drugs and this is meant to come as a surprise to the audience when they watch the film.