Evaluation Question

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

When making our ancillary texts, we felt that we needed to maintain the same theme and style as in our film.  Our film is very slick, stylish and very original.  The colours, for instance, are very captivating.  Our poster and review page both needed to show the originality and quirkiness of the piece.  

Bokeh is the main feature within our film, and for our audience to understand, or be intrigued by our poster I needed to introduce the uniqueness of our film.  I selected both "untouched" bokeh (lights just blurred with no word/symbol) and two of our most eye-catching shapes (the stars and the people).  I chose the stars, because it is our brightest image, and will capture the audiences eye, and I chose the people because it is our most intriguing and thought-provoking image.  The main aim of the film is to intrigue people, and make them want to find out about the technique.  These particular images will certainly intrigue audience members to watch our film, and captivate them from the beginning.  

I used a dark grey background to introduce the surrounding dark area around the blurred lights.  Most of our shots are filmed at night, so I also wanted to introduce the way we present the bokeh lights in our film.  The grey background was also used to bring out the colours from the images further.  All the colours that are in the pictures are very appealing and attractive colours.  By contrasting them with a dark background they will become even more attractive.  

Although I was inspired by a current film poster (Martha Marcy May Marlene), I used the stencil of the title because it is like the lens covers we have been using.  Shown below...

I wanted to suggest to the audience how they could achieve this technique themselves through our poster image, a couple of shots within the film, i.e. the bicycle and the "wander" shots.  Because we did not invent this technique, and it has been done before, we felt that we wanted to make a film that used our own ideas, and at the same time promoted the almost unknown bokeh effect.  

What we wanted to maintain in our poster, we also wanted to promote in our review page.  When looking at the film magazine "Sight & Sound" we saw that the majority of the space filled was with text, and the lesser part of the space contained an image.  Most pages only have one image.  I chose to listen to the audience feedback and use the image of the blurred people as the image on our review page.  I wanted to link both my poster and review together, and this image was the most captivating image for our audience.  The image also links to our poster because of the vibrant colours used on a contrasting dark background.

When making our ancillary texts, we kept the same font as the title in our short film.  Most media companies, such as Apple, use the same font on all advertisements for their products.  This is a subliminal  reminder of the brand.  We decided to follow this principle, and make the title font our brand font.   It could be argued that we subconsciously chose this font because we are surrounded by Apple advertisements which target my age group.  We researched the font and discovered that "helvetica" has been used by Apple in promoting their iPod and iPhone products.  

"50% of iPhone users are under the age of 30, 15% are students. "  (Rubicon - Apple iPhone Successes and challenges for the mobile industry - focused on US users).  We share the same demographic as Apple, so using a similar font will guarantee visual interest from our audience.  

Using the same font maintains the same house-style throughout so that audiences would instantly associate the article and poster with the film through the same, recognisable font.  This promotes our products as a brand.  The images used are very quirky and rebellious in film techniques.  Because of this originality, our products promote our production company as an experimental, art house film company. 

Because of the originality of the technique, all products could easily stand alone.  However, they work strongly together because of the connection in colour, font and strong, captivating images.  All grab the audiences attention with bold statements, and intriguing design.  I think they combine very well and work effectively as a collection.

Evaluation Question

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

When gaining feedback from our teacher on "The story of an Hour" she felt that many of the shots were clumsy and not well placed.  She wasn't getting the right feel from the piece.  We therefore knew we needed to be inspired by our work.  We were not initially inspired by our film idea, and this was visible to the audience.  We therefore learnt that our audience will be inspired and captivated if we are when creating it.  

During the duration of the Blur project we have continually asked our target audience their opinions on all of our products through social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.  Gaining audience feedback has been very important in the improvement and development of our products constantly throughout the duration of research and planning.

Facebook:

This has been our main communication with our audience, and the social-networking site where we gained most of our feedback.  Facebook has allowed us to embed videos from youtube, post screenshots from the film and pictures of our review page and poster to gain audience comments, whether good or bad.  Not all of my friends on facebook/people who commented and gave opinions are passionate about film.  Some had a general interest, others more passionate.  This gave us a wider scope of opinions on our products so that we could really develop our film.  

Above is an example of one of my posts on facebook, showing our target audience our film poster, and asking for more feedback, and one of the comments from our target audience.  This comment suggests that we change the background to a different colour.  Although we felt that this background colour is the perfect colour for the background, we did agree that the font colour was too close to the background.  We therefore went away and changed the font colour to improve our image.   This feedback was very important to us.  From making the poster myself, sometimes it is hard to judge your own work, and to quickly think that other people will like it.  From gaining feedback, we can make sure we keep following audiences likes.  

We also gained feedback on our first draft of our film on facebook.  

Although our first draft had pieces missing, our audience reacted well.  They loved the calming effect of the footage and how the editing flows smoothly.  However, they found the music repetitive, and gradually boring.  When re-drafting we therefore focused on getting the extra footage and also in developing and changing the music, making it less repetitive.  This feedback, like before enabled us to improve our product, giving us focus points to work on.  From this feedback we learnt that our audience wants more shots using bokeh, and to maintain the "professionally" captured theme. 

Although we did not gain any feedback from youtube, twitter or tumblr, we did post regularly on these sites to gain interest and promote our film and products.  After the first couple of months, we saw that we were gaining lots of interest on facebook, so began to focus more on promoting out film on facebook.  

While it is important to gain a wide range of opinions from people with different passions and backgrounds, I also asked my teachers and class colleagues.  I was gaining some general statements of "I like this", which are non-detailed responses.  From my teachers and colleagues, I could get detailed criticisms which focused on "what worked" well and "even better ifs".  This helped us to keep on track, and to continually develop our products.  

From our first draft we have made the following changes to our products due to audience feedback:

• Soundtrack - we have made the music less repetitive, and more uplifting, yet maintaining the flow and rhythm of the piece.  
• We made sure that the theme and style of our film was maintained throughout our piece, and that all the shots were at the same level as each other
• We also posted screenshots from our film onto facebook, and asked them to vote which image would be perfect for a poster.  We then used the images that the audience picked and used them on our final poster. 
• Changed shots that did not fit in with the rest of the film - e.g. close up shot of bee hive - was said to be too by by an audience member, and that it didn't fit in with the rest of the dark background shots.  - We replaced this shot with a mid shot of a Ferry.  It is a darker shot and fits in with the theme of travel/journey throughout
• We changed the font colour on the poster so that the audience can read the text. 

Below are a serious of images of the changes made.

Image one is a screenshot of a close up we removed due to audience feedback.  The audience member said that she liked the shot, yet didn't feel that it fitted in with the theme and style of the film.  She said that unlike the other shots, this shot was very bright, and contrasted too extremely to fit in.  After attempting to manipulate the saturation of the shot on premiere and not being successful we decided to replace it with a shot of a passing ferry (shown in image 2, top line on the right).  The audience member felt this shot fitted perfectly, and maintained the style and theme of the film.  However, initially the ship moved in a diagonal line.  Our teacher felt that this didn't work with the ship traveling at this angle.  Jess decided to try leveling the ship.  After the change, our teacher felt that this worked perfectly.  

Audience members felt that the shot shown in image 4 did not fit in with the other words and symbols.  However, they liked the effect it create.  To create this, instead of zooming in, passed the lens hood, I did the opposite and zoomed out to show the lens cover.  The lights shown through the cover and created a different type of bokeh.  This is our own original experimentation with the technique, so I felt it was important to experiment further and use more titles like this one.  Image 3 is a screenshot of my further experimentation.  Audience members liked the "wander" shot, and felt it added to the feel of quirkiness and the originality of our film.  

Our music starts off quite gently, and then gradually speeds up.  Most of our footage is slow or has been slowed down during the editing process.  Audience members liked the calming feeling, but felt that the rhythm of the film could be slightly quicker in places.  I went and filmed more traffic scenes, which Jess suggested to speed it up in her edit.  To maintain the theme of blurred footage, we then put a directional blur which created even more pace.  After adding it to our film, audience members loved the mix of slow and quick paced, and said that it really covered and explored all types of travel, whether it be rushed or whether it be slow and graceful.

Evaluation Question

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

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

From my overall experience with blogger, I would have prefered a site that would enable me to set the layout of my blog, rather than ordered it in order of date posted.  Instead of creating new posts I found myself adding sections to older posts so as not to throw the order of my work.  I would have liked to ordered my posts in sections, Research, Planning and evaluation.  

Final Review Page/Feedback

Review Page - First Draft

This review is based on the Sight and Sound article I analysed earlier.  Like Sight and Sound I have chosen to used three colours for the fonts.  This makes the review easier for the audience to read, and puts focus on the main text and image used.

I have used one of the strongest images we've gained from the research and production stage.  This is our strongest image because of the eye-catching, bright colours and how they artistically, and naturally merge together.

I wanted to get more feedback for our review page....

"I like the image you've chosen to use as its very interesting and sums up the content of your film well, however, it doesn't show that you will change the light into a shape.  To improve it you could put the text into collumns, like they do in real magazine reviews, and put an image of a shaped bokeh." - Hannah Emery, 17




"The font used looks quite boring.  I know its more sophisticated than other film magazines, but I think it needs to look more fun.  I wanna look at the page and be interest, not put off by office fonts.  Maybe change the font to the same font used in the poster and film?"  - Abi Jones, 17




From this feedback I think I need to make slight changes to the review page.  Hannah felt that the image used shows the technique, but not as fully as it could be if we use a different image.  I will try using the close-up of the people instead of a simple bokeh.  This will show the complexity of our film and the skill involved.  Abi felt that the font used was very formal.  Our film is very fun and quirky, so I I will change the font back to our original font used in our film and poster.  This will link our ancillary products more closely together, because they will have the same house-style.

Poster Feedback

After producing our film poster, I then wanted to ask audiences what they thought of it.

• "It doesn't give much information about the film.   When and where is it going to be shown?  Audiences need to know this. " - Maria Stone
• "The text at the bottom of the page isn't very clear - thats the only negative thing I can think of!" - Jack Johnson

From the experimental film posters we found, like the image below, we found that most advertised the product and director.  Not many showed the time/date/venue of the showing.  We based our ideas on the poster below, because we did not want to follow the conventions of a saturated release, such as the Hunger Games (Poster shown below).

Experimental Film poster - Harlem 16                                          Saturated release - The Hunger Games

Jack, thought that the font used at the bottom of the poster was too hard to see.  From this feedback I went back and changed the size and colour so that it stands out from the background.  Here is the before and after the changes we made from our audience feedback.

Before....

After....

From Jack's feedback we improved our poster greatly, and made the text stand out more from the background.  This change was important so that the audience can read the text underneath the picture.  

Sight and Sound Info/Review Page analysis

Sight and Sound Background

Sight and Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute.  It was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management was handed over to the BFI.  The magazine is currently edited by Nick James.  The magazine reviews all film releases each month, including films with a limited (art house) release, as opposed to most film magazines which concentrate on films with a saturated release.  This would be perfect for our short film because it is an experimental, art house film.  It also offers the full cast an crew list on each reviewed film, and as new directors to the film world, we would need the promotion through this cast/crew list.  

Before creating our review page, I wanted to break down the structure of a Sight and Sound article to find what conventions I needed to follow when creating our review page.  We felt that we did not need to challenge these conventions because readers of a monthly magazine expect a certain standard each month they purchase the magazine.  

I have created a diagram beneath showing the break down of a Sight and Sound review page....

1)   Image – usually introduces new talent or the main character of a film.  In our film, because we do not have linear characters, we need to suggest the bokeh technique and the genre of our film.

2)  Title - Isn't usually the title of the film in Sight and Sound.  Writer creates a slogan that sums up the genre of the film

3)  Image description - lets the audience know whose in the image.  Usually has either a positive/negative thing to say about the actor/actress playing the role

4)  Main text - I was quite surprised to see that the text was not justified.  I thought that magazine articles were usually justified so that they looked more professional.  When creating our review page I will justify the text because it is easier for readers to read and it will look professional and slick.  I will use the same font as I used in the poster and film title, so that all our products are visually linked. 

5)  Film information - here the article has placed film information such as certificate, director name and all the different features.  

6)  Article sub-heading - introduces the tone of the article, whether it be positive, negative or mocking.  Audiences know what tone of writing the author will have from this heading.  

7)  Banner at the top of page - audiences know which section of the magazine the film comes under from this section.  Our film will come under "Short Film".

8)  Article type - audience know whether this review is a feature from this title - the title given to this review is "close-up"  this implies that more information will be given to the audience about the film.  

When creating our review page I followed all of these conventions.  

Review Analysis

Sight & Sound Review Analysis

I decided to look at the reviews in Sight and Sound.  Above is an example of one of their reviews.  

Starting with the colour scheme, they have decided to use only three colours within their layout - red, black and white.  This simplistic colour scheme does not draw attention away from the text or from the image, and is easy and clear for the reader.  

When reading the review I was surprised to find that the writer wasn't impressed with the film and he portrayed this through his language.  Personally, before reading this review, I thought writers had to be positive about the films they were reviewing.  The writer constantly implies that 50-cent has been lazy during the production, and compares him to the hard work of Eminem.  The language is also very professional, and his writing is like that of an industry professional.  

From the simple layout, and the critical and intellectual language used, we can tell that this review is for students and people who are experienced within the film industry.  Although he is very critical of the film, within his first sentence he sums up the theme and genre of the film he is reviewing, explains his opinions of the film and efforts of productions and then concludes with his overall strongest opinion.  

I like the simplistic choices of the layout of the review.  The choice not to use too many colours and different fonts makes it easy for the audience to read the review, and focus on what is being said.  The image used is a screenshot showing the two main characters within the film and the characters that the review mentions.

The FilmMaker

If we were to distribute our film online, it would be easier to link our film using hyperlinks or embedding.  When researching magazine reviews, I also found this online review page.  It is called the "FilmMaker" and it focuses on independent films.  Because our film will be distributed online through vimeo and youtube, an online review would be perfect for our audience.  This is because a hyperlink would be easier for our audience to access our film.  This system would be much quicker and cheaper for audiences to find and watch our film.  

Final Poster

From Jack Johnson's feedback, we decided to make the font colour white, so that readers will be able to see the font from the background.  

This poster will appear within experimental film magazines such as Sight and Sound.  Most magazines have poster advertisements within their copies.  This poster will take up either half a page or a full page.  Usually they are at the beginning of the magazine or the end on the opposite sides of the outer pages, or they are used as separators to separate different sections of the magazines.  

Our poster will also appear in small, independent urban cinemas, such as the Astor Theatre, Deal,  that show more niche films rather than saturated releases in their film club nights.  It will also be placed in community centres that the film will be shown at.  

Our film will appear in film festivals around the area, such as the Kent International Film Festival, so posters will advertise this event using the our poster image.  Our poster will be placed around the area on bus stops and noticeboards so audience members know when they can see our film.  

Film Distribution, Vimeo and Funding

What is a film distributer?
"A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television programs through broadcast syndication etc.). A distributor may do this directly (if the distributor owns the theaters or film distribution networks) or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors." - Wikipedia

Most of the films that we have come across when researching the bokeh technique have not been distributed through a film distributer, but have been uploaded straight onto youtube or vimeo.

Vimeo would be perfect for our project because most experimental film directors post their films onto this site.  Audiences go onto vimeo because they expect a vast majority of films to be of this caliber.  Youtube is known for its vloggers and music channels, whereas vimeo is known for its broad film interest.  Short films are commonly put onto vimeo, with a wide audience of film critics and film enthusiasts.  This is why vimeo is a perfect platform of distribution.

However if we were to distribute our film through a film distributer we would most likely use Dazzle Film

"We are dazzle, the UK's hottest independent short film label, handles the exclusive distribution, exhibition and sales rights for a selective catalogue of award-winning, critically acclaimed UK and international titles. From 90-second, digital micro-movies to super-35mm masterpieces, dazzle's bijou short film collection is often provocative, always original and sure to inspire."  DazzleFilm


Dazzle Films then distribute films to the likes of Channel 4.  


This would be a perfect distribution company because the films are original, unique and are inspirational.  Our film will inspire others to try the bokeh technique and to find their own originality with the technique.  Our film is provocative because it challenges and experiments the conventions of commercial cinema.  

Funding?

"The Film Fund is the production and development heart of the British Film Institute.  We support filmmakers in the UK who are emerging or world class and capable of creating distinctive and entertaining work. We have £18 million a year to invest across the development, production and completion of feature films. Being supported by the British Film Institute means more than just being given funding. It means that your project can be assisted at every step of the journey by our team, who can offer advice and practical help with many aspects of developing and producing your film." BFI Funding
 

Because of the projects background, our film qualifies for the funding from the BFI.  In order for BFI to offer funding, films need to pass the cultural test with a score of 16/31.  They can achieve points by having a British location, cast, director, crew or writer.  All of which our project has.   Most of the money given would go to the marketing and distribution in order for our film to have a broad audience.  We would seek help for the BFI (British Film Institution).

Poster designs

Poster Idea One

I based this idea on the Martha Marcy May Marlene (M) poster.  Instead of using one main image, like the original M poster, I decided to use more than one, and use a different image for each letter.  I thought this would introduce our film more to the audience.

I don't like the colours of the background.  I do not think that white was the correct colour to use.  Instead of making the poster look slick, the blurred edges and the font make it seem like a childs film.

Poster Idea Two

When planning our film, myself and Jess went and took some bokeh still images.  When looking through these photos I came across this one.  I liked the different colours used, and how eye-catching it was.  I then took the title of the film onto the poster.  I like the sleekness of the poster, and although it is simplistic in its design, I think audiences would be intrigued by this image, and it suggests the artistic style of our film.

However, I don't think this poster shows the amount of work that has gone into our film.  This poster was very easy and quick to make.  The stencils used to make the words/symbols took hours to make.  I therefor do not think this is the best image to use when promoting our film.

Poster Idea Three

Jess then suggested that I take the image from the previous poster and combine it with the concept of poster 1.  Instead of having a white background though, I changed it to a dark grey.  I felt this colour brought out the colours of the lights, and also made it look very slick and smart.  

I didn't feel, however, that the image used introduces the audience to the entire techniques or concept of our film.  

Poster Idea Four

From poster three I then decided to go back to the original idea from poster 1.  I used the strongest images from our film and placed the different images behind each image.  I like how the grey background brings out the colours much better than the white background.  The text used is clear and easy to understand, yet doesn't draw attention from the image and title.  The images used show our audience the concept and techniques used within our film, such as the stars and the person.  It introduces the audience to the bokeh technique, and it intrigues them to find out more about our film.  

Final film/Feedback from Target Audience

Feedback on final Film.....

"I found the final product very mesmerising and visually appealing. The use of sound was also effective and fitted the imagery well. I really enjoyed watching your product and think that you've created a production to be proud of." - Hannah Louise Emery, 17.

"I thought that the product itself was of a very high qualty and was visually appealing. Not only were the visuals of a great quality, the audio was of the same calibre!"- Charlie James Razzell Gower, 17.

"I thought the product was very well made, the cinematography was very effective and I found the use of lights and sillouttes really interesting. I also feel that the music went well alongside the visual" - Leanne Clarke 18.

Poster Analysis

Martha Marcy May Marlene film poster

This is the promotional poster for the new release of Martha Marcy May Marlene.

I really like the use of layers in this image.  The image behind suggests that the character will be the person that the audience connects to due to her looking straight into the camera.  I like how the eye-contact suggests the importance of the character.  Because we do not have a main character in our film, we need to suggest the fact that all the audience will see are shapes and words made from lights.  In our poster we could place an image of the bokeh effect, or a screenshot from our film of, for example, the light that blurred into a person.  It is important that the image is strong from the film so that audiences are impressed by what they see on the poster so that they want to see more.  Our film relies on the bokeh effect.  Not many people know about this effect, so choosing the image is key to the success of our poster because we want to intrigue our audiences into finding out more about the techniques used.  

I find the layer on top of the image very intriguing.  Normally, the main character is within full focus.  However, the letter 'M' covers our character, suggesting that she has something to hide, or is afraid.  For example, the 'Pride and Prejudice poster shows Keira Knightly fully, and she is not covered our hidden by anything.

Because she is closer to the image we know that she is a confident, out-going character.  Although she is close to the camera, the character is hidden by another layer, which suggests she is vulnerable and isolated.  It also suggests she has a secret worth telling, which intrigues the audience, making them want to watch the film.

A simplistic colour scheme suggest purity and innocence.  The text used is also simple and clear.  This is important because the audience need to be able to read the text so they can find out information about the viewings of the film, etc.

When making our poster we need to recreate the theme and style of our film.  Our film is very slick and smooth, so the poster will need to be too.  From this poster I have learnt what layers can suggest and the importance of choosing a strong image from the film.  I have also learnt that sometimes using simplistic colours can be more eye-catching than using many bright colours, and using simple and clear text is better than using overly creative, funky text.  

Potential Poster Images

During the post-production of our second draft, I decided to look at different poster images for our film.  I went through our first draft and picked out my favourite shots and the ones that would be suitable for promoting our film.  The image we choose will also be the image we use for our review page.  

Image one

This is the title image of our first draft.  It is very eye catching, and visually captivating.  I think this would be a good image to grab the attention of passers by.  It introduces the techniques of bokeh, and the genre of experimental film.  However, I don't think that the image allows much space for text.  I will try experimenting with text on this image.  This maybe a good image to use in the review page.  

Image 2

Although this image shows how we are experimenting with manipulating the lights into different shapes and it will intrigue our audiences to find out about the techniques used in the film, it doesn't quite show the theme that we are trying to present.  We are focusing on the theme of travel and journey's whether that be alone or together, whereas this image implies togetherness.  

Image 3

I find this image really captivating because of the mix of colours and how they merge together.  It also shows the experimentation of bokeh, and the techniques we will use in the film.  

We want to involve our target audience as much as possible in the development of our film.  I posted these images on facebook, and asked people to chose which ones they preferred and why.  

This is what they said about each image:

Image 1

• "I love this one!  I'm not sure what I love more about it, the texture and contrast of all the different colours inside the one shape or just the pure simplistic nature of it! I love how all the colours look so complete next to each other!  Great job!!"  - Ben Cockram, aged 18

Image 2

• "This one is more interesting and the audience can connect to it more!" - Nicola Tee, aged 18
• "This one due to its reference to the audience" - Sophia, aged 17

Image 1 was more popular than the other images with our target audience, meaning that this image is more captivating than the others.  However, others said that image 2 would be more connecting to the audience.  We  decided to go with the most popular image and use image 1 for our poster, and image 1&2 in the review.  

First Draft Feedback

After finishing our first draft we posted our film on social networking sites to gain feedback from our target audience.  We posted it on facebook, tumblr and twitter, all sites that target the same audience, meaning its the best way to gain feedback.

Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

This is the feedback we gained.

Improvements from comments

• All words should have an effect on them.  Otherwise they are isolated, and do not fit in with the piece.
• Sound is sometimes repetitive, yet some find it relaxing and that it makes the film flow and gives it rhythm
• Pace could be faster.  We could add more stop motion sequences into the film.