In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To answer this question I have created two key frame images with 9 frames in each. The first with stills from existing media and the second with stills from our own short film. I have created each frame to help explain different parts of the film. This will include the following -
- Camera shots/angles
- Lighting
- Composition
- Costume
- Editing
- Acting
- Locations
- Soundtrack
- Credits/titles
I am also going to be posting videos which include footage from our short, showcasing all 9 criteria throughout our short. Here are the two key frame documents which I have created.
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| Existing Media |
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| Own Media
1. Camera shots/Angles
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The first frame is all about the different types of camera shots and angles which we have used in our film. I have found another short called 'The Anti Social Network' which includes similar angles and framework as our own. The phone in particular shown from the short is almost identical to the shot used in our own, using the rule of thirds, as the phone isn't central but slightly to the right. Our film also has a variety of shots types throughout. I have noticed that most short films have more creative shots with a lot of movement. Therefore we have followed this convention within our own camerawork. Overall I think that the camera work as a whole has been very successful with a large variety of different shot types. Here is a clip I have created with some of the different angles which we have opted for.
The start of this video involves the opening sequence where our protagonist gets out of bed. The shot I would like to focus on in particular is the one where she opens the curtains as this shot involved a lot of creativity. We purposely chose to shoot her opening the curtains from behind to show the empty space, showing she is on her own (lonely). We tried to keep the shot within the rule of thirds and she then proceeds to open the curtain.
The shot of our actor rushing up the ramp was purposely done hand held as it helped exhaderate movement and displays the unorganised side to our character. This shot follows conventions of short films as I have seen several which have handheld camera work in them.
2. Lighting
Throughout our film we wanted to have relatively bright/high-key lighting. A benefit was that when we filmed outside for the train station sequence the sun was shining which gave an art house style to our shots. We wanted bright lighting to complement the genre of our film as the bright lighting would give off happy vibes to our audience. I found a film which had similar lighting to ours and also took advantage of the sun in the shots with a few lens flares and silhouettes. This gives a similar style to our own although the film from the existing media (short film, Proximity) is a different genre. As you can see in the screen shot there is a person in focus with the sun behind them in both shots giving more of a cinematography look and style. The way we adapted this from the existing media would be that we have involved it in a new genre.
Here are some other lighting effects which we have used in our film including shots which were filmed indoors to show our use of high-key lighting and also how we played around with the lighting in the transition as we transformed the bright light from the curtains, into a white fade.
I have not seen a similar transition where they use light but I have seen many transitions which are done through the movement or actions of a character. Therefore our use of lighting in the opening sequence challenged the ways of which shorts use transitions. Our choice of lighting is clearly demonstrated in the majority of shots as we felt it would be completely necessary to give the right vibe to the audience as brightness can also have connotations of positivity and happiness.
3. Composition
When looking at the composition I am focusing more on the position of the actors within the shots. The compositions shown in these two frames are similar in the way that the actor in the background has walked into focus while the actor nearest to the camera is walking out of shot. This shows that we can make close comparisons with the compositions as the same type of composition and movement of actors is shown in this short called 'Mistletoe'. We have used a lot of over the shoulder shots when the actors are doing their dialogue and this is a very common shot type used in all media when two characters are having a conversation. Here are some of these shots which we have used.
A shot composition I would like to talk about is near the end where they are both facing in each other and they are being shot from the side. This shows the chemistry between the and also there reactions when they are speaking to each other so I think this compositions was effective and also when they are walking away from camera the two man shot shows that the characters feel comfortable around one another.
4. Costume & Props
When choosing costumes it didn't take long to work out that we would need formal wear as both charachters are travelling to a place of work for an interview. Therefore we opted for a shirt and tie for our male character and a pencil skirt and dark coloured vest top for our female. Formal wear is also showcased in the short film 'Sight' where the two main characters go on a date but there is a difference in setting. The costume would be based more on stereotypes rather than conventions as we opted for the stereotypical formal work wear and the existing media have chosen formal wear for a different occasion.
Here is some footage which shows more of the costumes in our short. As you can see from this short they also have glasses as props although they are used in different ways in the film one of our pictures in the end show the two characters having a drink together.
In the shots we actually see the female character. Faith, pick out her formal wear and also put on a formal coat and bag. This shows that we put a lot of thought into costume as we included the coat and bag for when she was outside. Both actors wore coats in the train station scene and both wore their formal wear underneath.
Some important props which we used were the jewellery and lipstick as it showed the audience a bit more insight into the character as it could have shown vanity, femininity, wealth and with the colour of the lipstick, lust. Other props were there to move the plot forward. A good example of a prop which moves to plot forward in an existing film would be the black hole as the piece of paper which he prints is when the character starts to cause all of the mischief which results in him getting in trouble. This is similar to our glass as when she smashes the glass or when she drops the pen the plot is moved forward as they bot lead to the main plot point of meeting her love interest.
5. Editing
We chose white fades although not very common because we felt that it was a good way of showing a change in time as these along with the resin helped increase the understanding of the almost complicated story line.
6. Acting
When it came to acting we wanted there to be some form of on screen chemistry between the two actors as we wanted the romance to be believed by the audience. This was made successful the facial expressions of the actors and the way they react to the lines. Short film 'Sight' would be a good example of this style of reliable acting as the protagonist is playing a dating app where he is trying to get the love interest to like him and her reactions are his way of working this out in one part of the film. As you can see in the frames both females seem happy to be in the others company as they are both smiling and seem fully engaged. Here are some photos from the end of our film which increase the believability of our actors actually being in love as they are both smiling and laughing at one another.
7. Locations
We had a total of 3 locations in our film, the bedroom and kitchen, which were both at the same house, the corridor of offices and finally the train station. In these two frames you can see the train station is common in other films also. A noticeable difference would be that we have much more greenery in ours location, following our romance theme as there are brighter colours in comparison to the dull colours shown in the station from the existing film. This would therefore mean that we train stations are commonly showcased in existing products as there are a few other films which also include outdoor train stations. This location was obviously already like this without us having to change it but in the bedroom sequence we had to involve the feminine products on the chest of draws which includes the lipstick and jewellery by doing this we gained a bit more characterisation through the decor of the room as well. Here is a video which shows footage from all of our locations.
8. Soundtrack
Part of our soundtrack for our final cut included a voice over, giving the short a brand new narrative increasing the ability for the audience to follow the plot. As our film was a romance we had our main character reminiscing on the day she had met her partner. Safe Haven, which is a romance film. also has a voice over at the end where the woman is reading a letter. This makes our films similar as they both help to tell the story through the same narrative. I have included footage from both our voice overs and Safe Havens.
9. Titles/Credits
When doing the credits for our film I actually looked through a few shorts just to give me an idea of how I could lay them out and what roles I should include in them. 'Whats Virgin Mean?' seemed to have the better, more noticeable credits as it followed the conventions in general media of the scrolling text. Therefore in this case I followed the conventions very closely from the style and layout to the movement of text. Here is a video of our credits and also the titles shown at the start of the film.
In conclusion we have followed the conventions with much ease as with most decisions we made we would tend to look at existing media to give us some ideas of how we can approach it. We did this a few times with things like the voice over and the credits a specially as we needed an idea of how were were going to lay out the credits and also how we were going to approach the voice over.
I am now going to be looking at evaluation question 2 where I shall be looking at the combination of both our main product and our ancillary product and discussing how they complement one another.
