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.

Construction: Editing - "The Transition"

Today's lesson involved adding the visual transition to the second half of the documentary; focussing on the changes in Tom's life and how things have improved.
To signify this change in mood, I felt it would be good to use the opening of a door into a new mood, or even a new way of life.
I felt that a simple cut would probably not create such an impact or a feeling of anticipation to the viewer, so I decided to create a blank screen for a few seconds, adding a fade into it from the previous scene. This gave the impression the scene was coming to an end and would trick the viewer into believing it was the end, however this abruptly changes with the jump cut into the next scene, showing tom having a NERF gun fight with his younger brother. I felt this would be a good way to start the new mood, showing that he is enjoying himself for the first time in the film and is the start of a new "era" for Tom.