Evaluation: Question 2

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

My poster is designed to tease the viewer and as well as giving an insight into the film. My blurred poster of Tom connotates the Autistic traits in Asperger's Syndrome; being unable to fully comprehend facial expressions. It is this deeper meaning that encourages the viewer to want to learn more about the character. The poster's typography follows a very clean appearance, it's also very simple and stylish and may attract the viewer's attention through it's bold appearance. It's not the text on it's own that attracts the attention though and it is mainly the confusion in the image that encourages the human nature of wanting to know more.

The film magazine review also follows similar techniques, such as Barthes' Enigma Code and this attract's the eye of the viewer. The magazine follows closely to the the conventions of a standard film magazine and this would instantly interest any film or documentary fan. In this case, it is not particularly the image that grabs the viewer's attention, but it is the bold and bright typography of "different" and it is here that the reader begins to understand the genre of the film as a documentary in the format of a short film. There are many similarities between the products such as the use of black and white, helvetica for the title and also a portrait of the antagonist; all of which would help the viewer of the poster to understand more in the review. As a film magazine, the reader is likely to take what it written as "gospel" and will probably follow the opinion of the magazine; Two-Step Flow Theory can be applied here, with the magazine company being the opinion leader, following Mass Media of other film magazines, the reader will likely see the review as the "best" review.


The film itself also ensures success through several techniques. In the review, it mentions of the film being shown in Curzon and PictureHouse cinemas, chains that specialise in independent film making and this ensures that the target audience are watching the film, as fans of independent work. The fact that the video is also on the site Vimeo creates a similar effect through it's speciality in art based film. The film also uses a short prologue and this creates a sense of excitement . I also used a strong amount of anchorage in the film, which conveyed strong meanings in the product, linking it back to the title; for instance in the voiceover Tom uses the title as a phrase "living with autism is an arduous task".


Overall the combination of the three products is extremely effective as it is clear the film is about Tom, with his portrait frequently appearing across them; he has become the icon for the film. Whether it is physically mentioned or not, all the products encode Autism and this also adds to the overall genre style as a short film. The ancillary products work together particularly well, creating a buzz for the film and encouraging readers to share the film online with friends or family and this overall creates a strong awareness for both Asperger's Syndrome and the film.

Evaluation: Question 1

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

media products?

Ancillary Task 2 - Film Magazine Review

The Making of:

Here I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create a film review for my short film. After a strong amount of research into magazines from last year, I chose to go with "Empire" magazine for their well reknown professionalism. The article mimics the "illustrative" feel of Empire's current style of bright colours and monochrome photos, as well as a range of typography. I also used Photoshop's "guides" feature to mark half way points and other important features to ensure that the article had a professional feel. I also used a brush to mimic the spray can effect, which is popular for most film magazine headers. I felt it was important to maintain the codes and conventions too, providing a page number, the "Empire" logo and the date at the very bottom of the page.



The Final Product: 

My final product displays the codes and conventions of a standard magazine review, using columns, headers, a colourful theme and a range of typography. I feel I have produced an effective and attractive review.

Ancillary Task 1 - Poster

The Making of:

Here I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create a poster for my short film. After plenty of research into fashionable posters, I decided to create two posters, of which one would be the final product.
The first poster was inspired by some of the posters from the artwork "The Social Network". 
For both of the posters I decided it would be important to use a the portrait of the subject (Tom) which is extremely common in documentary posters and gives an insight into the person it is about. However, the thick bar of text obstructs the viewer from seeing Tom's eyes, blocking the relationship with the reader and therefore imitating the affect of autism and not being able to understand the facial expressions and emotions of other people. I also used a black and white colour scheme to create a similar effect and to emphasise the dramatic story.

My second poster was inspired by the current trend of "vintage" and "retro" styled posters of modern films, in particular that of "Cowboys & Aliens" and "The American". This poster has a much more artistic feel than the previous but sticks to using the Helvetica typeface, a very stylish and popular font used in documentaries today. I also used other elements of typography such as letter spacing to make the letters closer together, creating an aesthetic effect. The spiral in the background is used merely to mimic the retro design, but can perhaps focus the reader's attention into Tom, making a connection. This leads on to the image of Tom itself; I wanted to create a vintage effect and researched into several methods into what worked best. I found that a "Gradient Map" using a vintage colour swatch worked best.  To finish, I found an image of an aeroplane in the sky, to conotate Tom's struggle of getting into aviation, this acts as a sort of snippet into the documentary.

The Final Product:

Before I chose a final product, I gave my peer group a chance to pick one and give feedback. After much discussion, I came to realise that neither poster had a strong "documentary" feel to it. I was recommended to keep the black and white theme, but to use Tom's image in a different manner and perhaps make the typography a lot larger. 
To create this image, I added a "motion blur" in Photoshop and then a "Film Grain" which gave the affect that the image was created by long exposure. This blurred image mimics the characteristics of Autism by blurring the face and making it obscure, as Autism sufferers cannot understand facial expressions. The large text also blocks the face and also makes the story more appealing to watch. To add a more professional feel, I used the font "Steel Tongs" to mimic a professional film poster's credits. Overall I feel this poster worked extremely well and convinced me to use it as my final product.

Construction: Editing - Review & Changes

After watching the product all the way through with peers, tutors and Tom, I discussed what they felt should be maybe changed or added to the film to create a more effective product:

• The Music in the Second Half - I felt that the music in the second half wasn't very fitting to the emotion conveyed and for some reason it just didn't fit very appropriately into the film's soundtrack. To address this, I decided to replace the song with Coldplay's "Paradise" which I felt had a more lyrical connection as well as a very charming and uplifting tone. To fit the song appropriately into the space of the other, I edited the song in GarageBand reducing it to around 1:40. 
• The NERF Gun Scene - Tom didn't feel comfortable with this scene, saying he personally felt it appeared as if he was bullying his brother, I explained to him that the scene was meant to convey happiness and a healthy relationship between him and his brother, so I decided to simply cut this scene to make him happier.

Construction: Editing - "The End"

The end of the documentary marks Tom's overcoming of Autism and to follow the journey into his new lifestyle, I decided make a physical journey with Tom to the airport, cutting back inbetween to shots of him enjoying himself with family.

After the brief shots of the NERF gun fight, we see Tom in the car, heading through the night to the airport, cutting at the speed of the beat in the music and this creates an aesthetic look and feel to the camera work. I also sped up some of the footage in the car to create a more visually interesting effect of the journey, also using focus pulls to show the "bokeh" of the street lights. After cutting to shots of Tom playing the PlayStation with his brother, we see Tom walking past various pieces of Airport scenery under the full moon of night, and by the glowing neon of the runway lights. I decided to end the film with Tom's silhouette hovering over the runway and this created a strong connection with his interests in aviation, I felt this was the most appropriate way to sum up the story.

Construction: Editing - "The Sound Transition"

Today's lesson involved adding the sound transition to the second half of the documentary; a happier and more uplifting tone.

The crossover involved a few changes to the soundtrack, using Coldplay's "A Hopeful Transmission" until the door is opened, where it fades into the next track "Don't Let It Break Your Heart" signifying the extreme change in mood.
The two Coldplay songs when imported separately created a gap, that even when overlapped, lost a few seconds of sound. After spending some time editing the sound, and not being successful, I decided to research online for other methods of "merging" the tracks. I found that iTunes itself had a feature, that allowed tracks from a CD to be imported as one track. I inserted the CD and the song's were ripped into iTunes using the "Join CD Tracks" feature, which reduced the "jump" between tracks and successfully merged the tracks together as one.

Although the sound transition is now a lot smoother, due to iTunes' "Join Tracks" feature, the track itself is too long and needs to be cut considerably for it to end with the end of the song without dragging on further. To do this, I created a new project in GarageBand and imported the track from iTunes.