Media Evaluation

By Laura Budden

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

• Flashdance was a big influence in the development of my product. I decided to stick with the variety use in camera angles which is a typical convention of a short dance film. The dance scene had static and moving shots throughout, as well as the variety of them progressing within the sequence which I decided to follow in my short film. I also decided to use an audience to fit my intended message of a person expressing themselves to grab people’s attention and Flashdance was a perfect example of what I was trying to create.

I focused on my use of camera angles for my dance sequence as I found in my research that camera was extremely important for audiences to feel engaged with dance, as a piece of dance can be beautiful however an audience needs to be drawn in to what the director wants them to see or feel, which is why Flashdance was a good part of my research, as it uses various camera angles to draw its audience in.

Close up of audience member tapping his feet

Close up of audience members tapping their feet

Moving foot sequence

Moving foot sequence

I decided to use close ups to draw the audience in and engage with the characters to show my protagonist’s progression with expressing herself.

I wanted to add variety to my short film so I decided to have moving frames so my audience could follow my dancer and feel connected to her.

Character coming into a frame

Character coming into a frame

Mid shot of interested audience member

Mid shot of interested audience members

I thought this frame was effective and decided to use it in my short film to add variety. It also centralizes my dancer and acts as a close up to engage my audience with her.

I wanted to engage my audience with my film audience to show their interacting with my dancer, the use of this is to show the growing attention she is receiving as she dances.

• I also decided to focus on my research of other dance films or scenes. Flashdance had a big impact on my final product, but I wanted to combined it’s ideas with conventions of other genres of film and also different techniques.

I think that combining different conventions and challenging real media products worked well for me as I knew I wanted to follow my dance theme, but my message was something I really wanted to put across, and I find the use of no dialogue helped me convey why intentions effectively.

May- silent film was a video I watched early on in my research and I knew the use of it being a silent film could be an effective way of portraying my message of teenage girls not having the confidence to speak up. I decided to make my dance film a silent one, with no spoken dialogue, it did however have diegetic sounds as well as the soundtrack so it could be easily differentiated from a music video.

Olympia’s short dance film, Streetdance 3D and Make it happen are also important parts of my research when I decided to pick the dance genre. I found my research limited when looking for dance short films so I decided to look for scenes that I had previously seen in feature films.

I liked the interpretive dance within this text, and from this decided I wanted to have acoustic music and wanted to have interpretive dance. I found this sort of dance can show how free she feels when she dances. Also the genre of the music would be fitting with my isolation theme.

This video had huge significance in the rest of my production and not just the routine. I liked the intercutting between two different locations and I attempted to intercut my scenes, however I found that her progress was made through her dancing so I used intercutting from the routine to the audience.

I liked the variety of shots in this piece and also the use of cutting out parts of the soundtrack to keep sequences from dragging on. I decided to have scenes from behind my dancer, however after facing problems I had to cut them out instead. Although I did use moving camera and also different angles such as her spins which was influenced by this text.

Pug- to engage the audience by stating no other magazine would have this review, as it updates on all the latest releases.

Name of the magazine to remind the audience what they’re reading.

Main image for the audience to get an understanding of what the film will have in it, as they are screen grabs.

Smaller image to show different times within the film.

Information box for my audience to get a brief description of what kind of film the review will be about.

My review written in columns and use of sophisticated language and also includes critics as well as praise.

Rating with a quote from the magazine and also a page number which is typical in a magazine review.

I feel that my review follows the typical conventions of a magazine review. The magazine ‘Empire’ was my influence as I used the format of the review itself, also the information box and also the use of multiple images. I kept them same structure as it didn’t seem cluttered, however I did add colour to my background as I thought it would be more engaging then Empire’s plain backgrounds.

Colourful background to draw readers in.

Acknowledging the producer at the top to show it’s importance.

Pug- to let the audience know it’s being released.

A teaser for the audience, to entice them to watch as it’s been reviewed in a positive way.

Plain background to being focus to my main image and the title. Main image- for my audience

to know my character, it’s also to create synthetic personalization.

Title- bold and bigger then the rest of the text so it stands out, informing the audience of the name of the short film. Slogan- I used this to

engage my audience and want them to want to know more about it.

I introduced my actor as this is a character poster and I wanted my audience to feel connected to her.

I feel that my poster follows a basic structure to a character poster which I decided on as my short film is all about my protagonist and her resolving her problem. I feel that the simplicity of my poster challenges real media as posters from the magazine ‘Empire’ had backgrounds to their images or stronger colours whereas I decided to have a simple colour scheme and make her stand out by her dark hair and also her looking away to show themes such as isolation and loneliness.

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

My main and ancillary texts are all connected as they have the same style. For example my production and my poster both use the same font to show that they are connected. My poster has a quote from the magazine that my review was written in to show the clear connections between my products. The use of all three of my texts being connected is so they can be recognized as one production. My use of simplicity within my poster presents themes such as isolation and loneliness which is explained in the review and also shown within the main text. I used the same font and also connected my pieces together through quoting to prove there is synergy between my products.

• I decided to use a long shot in the review as my main image to show a part of the routine to establish my dance genre which I think is important in a review for the audience to know what they are reading about. I decided to use a mid shot for my poster as it’s typical for character posters to use mid shots or close ups to engage them with the intended audience. The reason I used different types of images for my ancillary tasks was to have a variety amongst my products and challenge real media texts. I do still believe all three of my products are effective and link because of the feminine and bold font choice, however my choice of images makes them seem separate and therefore the combination might not be as clear as other products.

I feel the font acts as a logo for my products as it’s the same in the film and the poster. The use of the font being feminine is to target teenage girls as my protagonist is a teenager and problem she faces is a common one faced by teenagers in society.

The information box contains information that connects with the poster such as the director’s name and also the actor appearing in it. Also the plot connects with the main production as it acts as a teaser to the audience.

Also, ‘Unheard’ as a short film contains different sequences such as the title sequence which presents a problem, the home scene which defines her character, the routine where she’s resolving her problem and then the end where she seems happier with herself, my film is about a girl who gains confidence because her friends start to notice her and my review describes the plot and comments on problems teenagers face, and my poster presents a isolated girl and also confirms to the audience of it’s dance genre through the slogan, which proves they are all effectively advertising my production.

Throughout the process I have been making questionnaires about my chosen dance genre.- My first questionnaire focuses on the genre that I had chosen and what people expected

from it such as good music and dancing. It was also to know who would be more interested in watching my short dance film and from this I found that girls between the ages of 16-20 were the most likely, so by this I decided to focus my attention on targeting teenage girls through the use of font, protagonist and also music.

- My next questionnaire was aimed at my specific audience to find out what kind of music they listened to, which helped me get a better understanding of how I wanted my character to be.

- I then made three final questionnaires on all three of my products with questions such as ‘what would you rate this on 1-10?’, ‘Did you enjoy it and why?’ etc. I also had a final question of which of the 3 products did my audience favour the most. The reason I had that final question is for me to know my audience’s opinions on my finished products and if my use of research and challenging real media products worked to my advantage and if it came across as effective in my main and ancillary tasks.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

'That's so good Laura! You've edited it so well and I love the way more people enter the room as the video goes on :) and great song!'

• This was one of the feedback comments I received on my first draft. I decided to get feedback early on so I could make changes to my short film in the right direction by using the audience feedback as they are my target.

• The quote comments on the build up of the audience within the production. I decided to start off with the room empty and then slowly build up to show the room is full to emphasis her growing confidence and also people noticing her. The effect is shown through the quote as I have done this effectively for my audience to notice and understand my intended message.

• Also, this particular comment mentions the song which lead me to believe that my choice of soundtrack worked well with my piece to make it enjoyable for my audience.

This is so good, Laura! I love the way you edited it'

This is another comment about my first draft where it mentions my editing skills. I feel I have improved from AS, as my editing on the production was limited therefore it wasn’t my strong point. However in A2 I decided to choose dance genre where my editing would be challenged for the different movements and to fit in pace with the music. The use of an audience member noticing the editing shows that it has worked in an effective way and made the routine enjoyable to watch.

• Facebook was how I gained my audience feedback. After uploading to my blogger through YouTube I would post my video onto Facebook and ask for positives and improvements I could do on my short film. I found this was effective as I also posted the link to a few of my friends via Facebook chat so I could get their attention. For my first draft I got a lot of feedback from boys and girls, all teenagers. Using the internet was effective as being able to link from your blog was a quick and easy process. The feedback I received was helpful as comments included things they liked and things they picked up on that were editing or camera faults.

• I then created the three questionnaires and decided to bring a few people into a classroom so they could watch and read my products and write out their questionnaires there. I found this useful as they had direct questions to answer instead of a general statement I put when uploading to Facebook. The feedback was really useful as my products were commonly marked the same number in terms of quality and their liking to it, so I found the questionnaires to be useful as they proved my audience liked my products and found them engaging.

Construction and Research • Media technologies were crucial throughout

the entire process. In the construction and research stages the World Wide Web was the dominant new technology. I used Google at first to gain knowledge on my chosen short film brief and then to blog my understanding of the codes and conventions. I decided to use YouTube to research dance films so I could focus on the media terminology aspect, where I linked together the typical conventions of dance scenes and dance short films. This helped me use typical conventions such as centralizing my character and using a variety of shots; both static and moving. I also found this useful for me to challenge the dance genre and short films themselves. Media technologies were important in this stage of the process as they gave me easy access to broaden my knowledge of genre and media terminology, also to give me a clearer idea of how to start planning my production.

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

Planning• When getting to the planning stages I found

analyzing the dance videos on Blogger very effective as it let me see the similarities between them that I could use in my production and also a variety of angles or editing techniques to try. For example I linked a camera experimenting video onto my Blogger and wrote a list on the techniques that I wanted to try which I followed through with. I practiced a few camera shots and decided to experiment with Premiere. This helped me as it made me comfortable with a camera again, also gave me experience with editing as in my previous project I was mainly behind the camera. I also then decided to analyze dance posters using Google, where I decided I wanted to choose a character poster as I want my audience to feel engaged with my protagonist. Premiere pro and Adobe Photoshop were the two that I used for my main task and my ancillary tasks, I found that practicing helped me when it came to planning and filming as I was already comfortable with the media technologies.

Evaluation• Throughout the evaluation process I

used Facebook to gain my audience feedback on my final products, and recorded all of my feedback on every questionnaire on my Blogger. I also used SlideShare to upload my evaluation to my blogger for my teacher to mark. I feel I have made a huge improvement from As, as my blogger has far more detail and analysis within it and I’ve kept a record of my progress. New media technology has been helpful throughout the process as it gave me a greater understanding of the niche genre a short film is and how effective the audience are on a director’s product.