Critical evaluation - Adie Grimbley

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

  

When it came to planning our short film I began by looking into various aspects of the construction of a film, in particular the areas of genre and continuity prior to the commencement of filming. The aspect of genre was especially relevant because it presents an opportunity to challenge aspects of real media product. By focusing on continuity I felt this gave me an opportunity to develop an area which was lacking in my AS Media Product.

This piece was shot on tape, allowing us within certain constraint’s  to attempt to produce something that had the feel of shooting on film which was something we really wished to achieve. One of the ways in which this was developed was by concentrating on the color editing to overcome the very apparent ‘digital’ look to my previous work. It is in this area that many films on sites such as YouTube are disappointing, because of the limitations of  the digital equipment used and very often the lack of a very good storyline and poor production values.

An area we concentrated heavily on was the tempo the storyline. The decision was made very early to produce a drama. A conscious decision was made to avoid the often stereotypical look of a student horror film a clichéd genre which we did not wish to fall into

The time limitation of the piece places severe restrictions on how we can build tension within the plot using the more traditional methods of shooting, this is how conformed to the more expected traditions of drama as it is not always known for having the most risky style of cinematography.  Instead we attempted to create our own style of film using precise editing and more punchy cutting to take the story forward.

I terms of the conventions of drama it was our wish to follow as closely as we could the accepted methods of moving the film forwards, utilizing the interactions of the characters through their dialogue, supported by the use of non verbal audio and visual cues. It was our desire to present the audience with characters to which they felt a sympathetic attachment to enhance their involvement with the film, thus utilizing one of  the traditionally accepted means of the film genre.

The conventional and accepted aim of ending the film in a positive and happy way to reassure the audience that the story is resolved was achieved. However given more time I feel that a more challenging ending for the audience to the film could be achieved, the ending was acceptable however acceptable for a five minute film.

The depressed and unhappy emotional state of Ivy, the main character, through out, sets the tone of the film.

We used a number of film elements which are classic of the horror/thriller genre, for example the opening credits, in which Ivy is seen in fearing for her life. The scene develops tension both visually and with the aid of non diegetic music as it progresses, leading the audience to also fear something dreadful is about to happen to her. At the last moment Ivy awakes safe in her bed, releasing the tension built with in the scene. This is a classic example often used within the horror/thriller genre, for example the character Nancy waking in Nightmare on ElmStreet.

The apparent appearance of something that disturbs Ivy one night as she fills a glass of water would have been enhanced by a slow motion shot of the glass hitting the floor, we were unable to achieve this due to not having access to equipment able to shoot at a higher frame rate.

The character 'Carly' in 2005 House of wax follows
this theory and survives the the end of the film

The intention of the film is to build up suspense throughout, the use of dream sequences of increasing intensity is key to this. Ivy’s flight from an apparition during the second nightmare sequence is full of energy, heavily contributed to by the use of jump cuts and orchestral music building to a climax. Having the main character as a girl who is shown in apparent ‘danger’ slightly relates to that of Carol J Clover’s ‘final girl theory’. By choosing to have a female protagonist and allowing her survival we have conformed to the basic conventions of this theory, allowing a female survivor.

The conclusion of the film as Ivy realizes that the ‘monster’ that has been plaguing her nightmares is in fact her sister wishing to say goodbye so Ivy can accept her passing and release the tension within the audience is achieved through another dream sequence, or is it?


2.

Media Evaluation: Question two on Prezi

3.

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

 This project allowed the utilisation of a number of new technologies and skills during the pre-production stages to develop and exchange ideas. Social networking sites,  Facebook and Skype were invaluable in this process as well as YouTube. This allowed the posting of clips for comment by others as well as critical feedback allowing us to make changes before the final editing took place. As we did during our AS year we used a blog extensively to exhibit both team and individual work which has the additional benefit of allowing us to see how much work needed to be done at a given time.

Even before the start of this year we began research on YouTube and other websites such as BBC Films and Vimeo to look and gather information and examples of short film making to help us develop our project. From the extensive collection of films I watched I gained a wealth of inspiration.

Filming was done using the Sony HDV-1000 video camera. A camera that allowed shooting in 1080i, HD quality footage, which contributed a more professional look to the finished film. A higher quality boom microphone replaced the one that is with the camera. Lighting came from units from the College, and from my father who works in Archaeology at the University of Sheffield Some of this was in fact too bright for certain scenes. The use of a steadicam allowed for smoother tracking shots. Positive feedback was received from people via YouTube and teachers at college. Some of the steadicam shots did not turn out quite as well as we hoped but some did make it into the final cut. 

When filming was complete we returned to the classroom for editing using Final Cut Express software installed on iMac computers at the college. My skills had developed since last year and I have become accustomed to the software and during the course of using it this year. I have used other editing software at home which helped in this process.  Audio editing was undertaken using Logic Pro 9 and MIDI sequencing software by Ben. For my posters I drew out images and painted them by hand after which they were scanned into the computer  These were manipulated using Adobe Photoshop to produce the final graphic images. I was sad that I did not have access to equipment that worked for me, so I could have made my poster much more professional and high quality, but I feel as though the theme comes through and it works for the plot. 

Critical Evaluation - Benjamin Squires

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

Research into continuity and the language of film and editing was a major part of the preparation that I did before we began filming. I personally revised rules of film such as the 180 and 30 degree rules, the video below is a perfect explanation of the 180 degree rule.

I also took an extensive look into colour editing and the look of film compared to digital video. I did this because I personally wasn't happy with the look of my AS film; I felt that the video looked very 'digital'. I have always thought that the giveaway of a student film is in the poor video quality, I often overlooked many short films on YouTube whilst researching continuity and story telling in short films because of poor video and production quality.

I also took into consideration the pace of the film we were going to make - we had always planned on making a drama which would normally consist of drawn out shots and a slow pace. Unfortunately due to time constraints and inexperience of building an effective atmosphere, we avoided a slower a pace, keeping the editing and cutting consistent and always moving the narrative forward swiftly.

We had always intended to conform to the conventions of drama, moving the narrative forward with thoughtful conversations between the characters and both visual and audio cues throughout the film (tire screeching sound effect, roses on the lamppost, hand resting on the chair). The characters always had to be authentic too whilst telling a believable and even relatable story, giving the audience as much as an emotional attatchement to the characters as we could. I always would've wanted the ending of the film to be a happy and satisfying one for the audience, leaving them with positive emotions and connotations regarding the film. However, I knew this would only work if the story had started on such a low point; Ivy is consistently unhappy throughout the film and we used the 'gloomy' nature of the film to reach a more satisfying, conclusive finale - this way the audience are glad to see that the character's story ends on a positive note.

To create a deep illusion of film for the audience, we threw in a lot of other classic film/genre elements. The first scene is typical of that of a horror/thriller; we see a petrified, defenceless girl, the music builds slowly to a loud crescendo and the protagonist is about to meet her end before she shoots out of bed and the music stops to a halt. She was having a nightmare. When the same girl notices the 'monster' across from her one night, she drops a cup of water and it crashes to the floor (we would've done this in slow-motion if we had cameras capable of recording in higher frames per second).

Our film conforms to a number of Richard Dyer's sensibilities from his theory of entertainment and utopia. These include intensity and energy. For example, If the viewer has been paying attention to Ivy's story then the build up to the confrontation scene in Ivy's final nightmare should provide the audience with intensity. The film supplies 'energy' during the second nightmare when Ivy has to franticly run away from 'the monster'. This particular sequence consists of snappy cuts and a huge orchestra crescendo. Whether the films manages to make these impressions on the audience is up to them!

Ivy's character could be compared to Cole Sear, the lead character in 'The Sixth Sense' who is suffering because he is able to see/communicate people who have already died. Ivy's character is also plagued by this same issue in a sense, except she only sees her sister and only in her nightmares.

Cole Sears, lead character in 'The Sixth Sense'

Ivy, lead character in 'Nightmares'

Other aspects may also be comparable such as the title sequence which I looked particularly close at. Each of the films use a very simple font against a plain black background to introduce the films, the music also 'swells' in a way when the title of the film is revealed, similar to how the main theme beings to play in 'Nightmares'.

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

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

From the very beginning of our project, I remember new media technologies being particularly important to us as a team. Through the popular social networking site, Facebook, we were able to regularly discuss initial ideas and thoughts about the film that we hoped to create. I personally also used Skype to send a couple of my friends a first draft cut of the film to make suggestions to improve the quality before the final cut was made. But arguably the two most important websites that we used for the duration of the course were www.blogspot.com and www.youtube.com.

Just as we did in our previous year, we set up a blog displaying all of our work as a team and as individuals; this also helped us keep track of what tasks we had to complete and how far along we were in the process of film-making. Right from the beginning of the course I was using YouTube to research a large quantity of short films; the variety of which across YouTube is astonishing. Many of the films gave me great inspiration, both from amateur and professional filmmakers alike. Another fairly important website I used was www.imdb.com, the internet movie database, giving us access to trivia of films, budget, cast and crew, etc. Arguably, the Internet has been my biggest source of inspiration for the duration of the course.

When it came to filming and editing, there were a large number of new media technologies that helped us achieve our final product. We used the Sony HDV-1000 video camera. A camera that allowed us to shoot in 1080i, HD quality footage, this alone made the film look a whole lot more professional. The microphone that we used to record the sound was not the one equipped with the HDV-1000, but a better quality boom microphone. Along with such technology, we also had access to some impressive lighting equipment, both from college and from my teammates dad who works in archaeology (lighting that was in fact so bright that we couldn't use during certain scenes because it lit too much!). I also, for the first time, used a Steadicam for improved stability whilst controlling the HDV-1000 during moving shots such as tracking or dollying. Although I enjoyed using the Steadicam, I wasn't amazing with it and many of my attempts using it didn't look fantastic and were subsequently cut from the film. Nevertheless, It was worth it for the experience of using it and one shot in particular that made it in to the film I am quite proud of!

As soon as filming was complete, we moved back into the classroom to commence editing on the colleges iMacs. The iMacs have Final Cut Express installed on them, video editing software that I had now personally become comfortable using thanks to previous experience and owning the software at home. This meant I was very confident whilst approaching the editing stage after demonstrating ways in which we could achieve a more professional film look in Final Cut on the blog beforehand.
The ease of Final Cut allowed me to create effects in the film that I would've otherwise never known how to do. At one point for example, Ivy wakes from her nightmare and the screen fades to white before dissolving back into a shot of her in the bedroom. Timing was essential in this scene to create the right amount of tension. I made a solid white still in Final Cut and had the shot dissolving into the colour then into another shot to create the effect.

The fade to white edit.

There are a couple of things that I think could still be improved upon in regards to the editing stage; I couldn't quite control the unfortunate noise that was produced from the attached microphone during filming. It left almost every single shot with an annoying hissing sound which I managed to remove the most of using a very precise equaliser and hum remover.

The details of the hum remover, any more harmonics used created an effect that was
far too obvious.

My knowledge in Music Technology helped me more than ever here! A lot of the shots had to be colour corrected in some way or another, sometimes to achieve colour continuity throughout the film to maintain the mature tone, others to simply brighten them up because of the purposefully unlit sets.

The colour corrector during a scene which was simply too dark;
half of the shot is adjusted with a colour corrector which then fades to the
regular colours of the shot.

I also used Livetype again this year to create a font effect that we would use to show the title during the film. I did in fact use the same effect as I did for my AS film; simple but very effective, and relevant to the film!

Another important piece of software at my disposal was Logic Pro 9, audio editing and MIDI sequencing software that allowed me to compose the score for my short film, as well as create the final radio trailer for our film.

Scoring in Logic Pro with realtime video playback.

Within Logic I had access to several instrument libraries allowing me to replicate an orchestra from my bedroom at home! These particular sample libraries that I used were from a company called EastWest. They founders of the company specialise in writing 'epic' orchestral scores for hollywood film trailers, as well as creating incredibly detailed instrument libraries. I personally own EWQL Silk, Symphonic Orchestra, Gypsy and SD2. Most of the instruments that were available to me simply weren't applicable to the genre of 'Nightmares'. Therefore, I used a lot of simple instruments such as the piano, violins and other string instruments, and a few synthesisers. Reverb was one of the key parts to the score of the film, it adds a sense of 'dreaminess' to the soundtrack with haunting piano hits and crescendo violin effects. I am also able to control the articulations (style of playing) of the orchestra as well as it's volume, giving me huge control over the sound of my music.

A selection of virtual instruments available to me.

A number of available articulations for 18 violins.

This was the third time I have scored a short film, and i'm getting in to the hang of it! With each piece of music I compose I get better.

Finally, I also used Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom graphics tablet to paint and manipulate photos from filming to create a poster for our film. I took a shot from the film which I particularly liked, a silhouette of Ivy. I also got a character profile of Ivy's dad. Incorporating each of the stills into the poster and painting part of it myself, I was able to create a very professional looking poster. I also found the official 'movie poster' font after a short time spent searching the internet. I would've been lost without the internet during A2 media!

Stills from the film and a suitable title font.

The painted version of Ivy

The original photo of Ivy (with some already added painting)

Nightmares, Radio Spot (Trailer)

Just as I found researching radio trailers difficult, creating one was also surprisingly hard; I had to put a lot more thought into the choice of dialogue, sound and music than i'd originally expected.

I'm really pleased with the radio spot i've made, I think it hits the right tone and reflects the story and mood of 'Nightmares' just right. I also made the choice to lead the audience in the wrong direction however.

The radio trailer makes out that this could be a positively themed film, with the father asking "How'd you sleep?", and the daughter replying "Yeah, slept fine". The tone shifts completely however when the father comments: "Ivy, are you still having nightmares?"

I wrote accompanying music specifically for the radio spot, featuring 'Ivy's Theme' in a more orchestrated performance. The key of the piece then changes to minor once Ivy's dad makes the comment, and the stereotypical violin crescendo's play.

Logic Pro, my audio/MIDI sequencer!

The yellow lines indicate volume control, manipulated to accompany the music.

I quietened the music when Ivy and Nick are speaking, and boosted the volume when it was most important; the crescendo and revelation of nightmares. 

I decided only to do a little narration for the trailer, stating the title of the film, release date and age certificate. I also recorded the narration in a somber, deep tone, this way the audience aren't too distracted by the narration and I manage to maintain the tense atmosphere of the trailer.

Radio Trailer Research

Radio trailers for films these days are hard to come by; as technology becomes evermore popular, advertising flocks to the internet and spreads across the entire web in a bid to garner a huge audience and create unstoppable word of mouth. Go back a few decades however to 1975 and you might have heard the radio spots for 'Death Race 2000'. Go back even further and you might have heard radio spots for James Bond's 'Thunderball' (both seen below). As you can tell, the method of advertising has changed greatly and even the way they describe the film would now be considered massively outdated and cheesy.

 

The third trailer down promoting the film 'Alien' is a lot more appropriate; it creates tension with little dialogue and a suspenseful string section mixed with odd sound effects. There is very little narration, just the tagline of the film - "In space, no one can hear you scream", the distributor, certificate and title. All said in under 10 seconds. 

I will use this kind of approach when editing together our films radio spot to create a tense atmosphere with minimal narration.

First draft feedback - Nightmares.

We received some very good feedback from our first draft of the film which we will be taking into consideration for the very final version. This version is not complete missing some obvious things such as music and transitions and we expected that people would pick up on these. This is the feedback we received:

I also asked a filmmaker from youtube what he though of it and although he didn't give any critiques he picked up on some of the good bits which we took into consideration and kept.

We also asked our peers and our teacher and got mostly the same feedback, mainly positive with the exceptions of the obvious things such as making the transitions a lot smoother and to add the final pieces of music needed. 

First Draft, Five Minute Film - Nightmares

This is the first draft of our five minute, short film - Nightmares.

This version of the film tells the complete story, but there are some major changes we need to make in terms of editing. We need to work on smoothing out the transitions between each sequence (day), and feedback from the viewers offer other suggested changed also:

We'll keep the comments in mind, particularly those regarding the use of a colour corrector and making the transition between the days smoother and more clear.

We have received a lot of positive feedback regarding the film however, from other members of the class and other Media classes alike, a lot of praise about the film has also come from tutors at the college.