Evaluation - Amy

Introduction

Our short film is built around the on line game slender, with a little bit of a twist, shot from the point of view of our main character Max we take the audience through a exhilarating and suspenseful ride through a deep, dark Forest as he is being hunted down by the infamous Slender man.
The idea for our short film came to me as a random thought after telling my team members about the idea we proceeded to develop the idea and expand it to create a good narrative and story to go in our short film.



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

As our film is a short film we had to make sure that we leave the audience with a satisfied feeling at the end of Slender,
I focused on five main things to compare with the conventions of real media products, these are:
1. Narrative
2.Characterisation 
3.Mise En Scene
4.Genre
5.Editing


1.Narrative
Our short film uses a liner narrative, this means that the order of events that happened in our short film happened in real time. As our film is only 5 miniets long we have to get through a lot of the story in a very short time, this means that we cannot allow very much character development, this can make it very difficult to make the audience feel connected to the characters, however I feel that we did well to give the audience the connection that they need. 


2.Characterisation  

We choose to make our characters all teenagers, this was to connect to our audience but also to roll with the stereotypical idea that teenagers get themselves into trouble and danger. Fighting between being into the body of an adult but still with the instincts of a child our characters don't quite see the danger that they are getting themselves into, this is similar to a short film I looked at called Scarlett's Witch this short film really helped me to learn how to create the isolating feeling of being alone in a creepy dark forest. I learned that by  Using various sized shots you can make the audience feel the isolation that the characters do, for instance using big and extreme close ups gives the audience the opportunity to see the characters facial expression giving them  better idea of how the character is feeling, it also makes them feel close and connected to the character. 

The first shots in both my short film and my example really are just establishing the setting, as this is in a woods the audience will automaticicly know that its going to be a jumpy ride. The difference in our shots however is the time, my short film is set late at night in the dark were as in Scarlett's Witch the first shot is set in the light, this could be false reassurance to the audience, the camera movement in the shots are also very different, my first shot is a still shot that allows the character to come into focus were as in my example short film the shot is a tracking shot, this shows a journey and lets the character believe that they are also moving along in this journey.

The second shot is also similar to my short film's shot, this is showing the main character, although my shot is a medium shot, this is to show some of the character although I focused more on being able to see his facial expression, were as in the other short film you can see that they are using the long shot to show some of the setting as well, showing her alone and isolated, however as I chose to shoot my short film in the dark this leaves my main character Max  swamped in darkness, similarly making him seem alone.

3.Mise En Scene

A lot of different conventions to give the audence a real feel of the setting, for instance by using low key lighting I have created a lot of shadows, this can make the audience think that the characters are being watched or followed, it also connects back to everyone's childhood fear of the dark and the monsters that hide away in your shadow, by using low key lighting I was also able to use the angles of the lights to allow light to reflect and bounce from the trees, this can create the feeling that there are more trees then there actually are and make the characters seem outnumbered and small. 
Props were also a very important thing in my short film, this was important as I had to give the audience the right impression, for instance my characters are all carrying bags and other camping equipment  this lets the audience know right from the start that they are going camping, and as they are heading into a forest, so this lets the people watching my short film that I am following the old and well known pretty much tradition of teenagers going off camping in the woods. Through out my entire short film props continue to keep their importance, for instance there is the very important scene were Max finds the note, without this prop the initial danger would not have been recognised. The matches also have a very important role as they are the prop that creates the first real jumpy scene and is the first reveal of Slenderman.
The costume in my short film was not one of the most important pieces of information, apart from with the character of Slenderman, dressed in his black suit and white shirt he is made instantly recognisable to the audience to who he is. Our other characters costumes are pretty basic, they are just normal clothes that teenagers would were, however I did carefully plan to have mountain boots included in my short film as I felt that this was an important piece of costume that once again described the muddy environment that they are in.
Location is by far one of the most important features in my short film, being set in the forest was an absolute must, as anyone who has played the Slenderman Game or anyone who has heard of the urban myth of him will know that his favourite place is to hunt is in a forest. It is also important to create the isolation and spooky feeling that my short film has. I also love the atmospheric that the trees give in the dark and all of the shadows that the forest creates as I feel that this adds to the horror side of Slender. It also gives the great effect of making Max seem surrounded and lost because of the maze of trees, this will allow the audience to connect to his character as many of them will know what it feels like to be lost or trapped.
I feel happy that I chose to set the short film in the night time as the darkness really comes to y advantage to make the location seem more scary and confusing, it also give the illusion that the trees go on forever and that anything could be waiting in the shadows... even Slenderman.

4.Genre
I chose to use the genre of horror for my short film as I feel that it is the most well suited genre to my theme of basing my short film on the online game Slenderman: The eight pages. I was challenging for my to think of the right direction to take my horror short film, but I am glad with the choice of a chase sequence as I feel that this strikes fear into the audience and also gives them a bit of a thrill. 
As my short film is a horror there was certain things that I had to do to make sure that this was clear to the audience, such as having the Antagonist, who is the Threat, the villain and the overall bad guy, this was played by Slenderman, the character who was hunting down the others, his character seems even more scary I feel as he doesn't speak, so this takes the humanity out of him, making him seem even more like a monster, with no morals, this gives our protagonist  Max who is the 'hero' of my short film, the main character who is the good guy nothing to reason with, setting Slendermans character up to have no remorse and no mercy. The protagonist job is to give the audience someone to root for, someone who they can connect with and with the enigma, this is the mystery these things can all create a very scary short film. My short films enigma is that nobody knows who Slenderman is, what he is and most importantly what he actually does with his victims. This gave me the perfect opportunity to have an open ended ending, this means that after my short film ends, the audience will sit there and wonder what has happened to Max, they may even worry about him, this will encourage them to talk about my short film and therefore advertise my short film through word of mouth. 

5.Editing

I was the head editor of my short film and I feel that I did this very well. It helped me to develop hugely from my last project and I think that I made a very successful and flowing short film. As I was making a short film I understood from the start that it would have to be fast pace and it would need to develop through the story. This gave me the idea of having the fast pace chase scene, this is made up of a lot quickly cut shots, I chose to use clean cuts as with the occasional black fade in Slender as I wanted to keep the attention on the scenes themselves. This short film also gave me the brilliant opportunity to expand my skills in special effects, the static effect that is in my short film I created using a bad TV tool on Final Cut Pro, This will the colour correction filter to add the green/grey colour over the night vision shot and a static non diegetic soundtrack overlayed allowed me to create the effect that Slenderman was near. 
There was a lot of non diegetic sound edited into my short film, pretty much all of the sound that you hear is Foley sound effects, everything apart from the dialogue. I found that finding the exact sounds could be very frustrating at points especially the atmospheric crickets that I felt needed to  be there in the background. The non diegetic music soundtrack that is overlayed on the chase sequence was actually one of the first tracks that I looked at, but it didn't seem perfect until I had finished everything else to do with the editing, but when I tried it layered on after everything else it fitted perfectly, I really feel that this adds to the spooky and jumpiness of the short film, giving the audience goosebumps. 
I also used the colour correction tool to take the saturation down , I did this as I felt that it made the short film seem colder and less inviting, it also gave it that spooky wash, it also makes the forest seem more isolated and I feel that it makes Slenderman stand out more as the white mask he wears really stands out against the darker toned colours. 

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


I feel that I did well to make sure that our poster was very much connected to our short film, 
Choosing a selection of poster designs that I felt gave the best Idea to the audience to what our short film was all about, This first poster I fell works very well as it is very simple, graphic and straight to the point, you can see the two main characters, Max and Slenderman, as Max is holding a tourch you know that its going to be dark,
I also like the way that in this design Max is 'trapped' inside of Slenderman, this could suggest that Slenderman has already caught Max and there is no escape. 
The design is very basic with little colour, this also connects to the Design of my short film as the short film is very low in saturation as well.
This second poster was designed to really show the setting, with little colour this poster again connects well to my short film,
You see Slenderman the main character who seems to be standing, waiting. I think that this is good as it gives the audience a good idea of what the short film is going to be about. The low key lighting in this poster also adds graphic effect as it is making only some of he setting stand out, such as the tent, Slenderman, the note and the trees. 
I chose to use the same type of font through out the poster and the titling on the short film, this is so that it becomes recognisable to the audience as part of my short film. 

As my short film is targeting an audience of 15-25 the posters really had to attract and catch the eyes of people in this age range, this was why it was so important to make them look twice, especially in the second poster I feel that this is successful as there is small details in it that will make the audience look again and come closer to see what it is all about, the poster is mysterious but also gives of the chilling theme, so the audience will want to see the short film to see what it is all about.






What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We put our short film on three websites these were: Blogger, Facebook and Youtube. We did this so that we could get as much feedback from our audience as possible.Our Youtube account showed that we reached to our target audience  this was older teenagers, but surprisingly I found that we attracted a much older audience that were men. I am not sure why this has happened but I take it as a positive thing and gives us room and a better idea to if we were going to develop the short film that we could perhaps target older men as well as the teenagers.
From the statistics from Youtube and Blogger I can see that my short film connected to people from all over the world, I feel that this is because of the awareness of the myth of Slenderman, it also shows how much the game must have been played around the world, but especially in the UK and the USA I believe that this is because they are very similar countries and they will be into the same thing, the internet is also a huge convention in these countries and this is proved here, I can see that many people view our blog through different types of web servers but mainly with a PC or an Apple Mac, this shows me how online distribution is a very good direction to take my short film as it is the cheapest and easiest option to get my short film viewed by a lot of people in a lot of places that if I had used a different form of distribution such as burning my short film onto disks I would have no been able to reach.

I have filmed our friend Katie who is one of the people from our target audience age range and our main actor Max to see what they feel about the final outcome of Slender and how they feel that it all went.
I feel happy with the feedback I received from Katie and Max as i feel that they gave good honest answers, I feel proud as they both thought that I had managed to create a very good tense atmosphere, this would have been all through the editing and as this was my main role i was very happy with this.

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

For this question I have decided to use a Prezi to show my interactive answer, please click Here to view it or the link below

http://prezi.com/pt_40xcsefrq/untitled-prezi/

Review Draft - Nick

With many recent video game adaptions that we have had to endure in recent times, we have now fully learnt the lesson that special effect junk piles such as most video game adaptations, belong in the box office rubbish bin. That is of course thanks to big name movie distributors and the big budgets that come provided. However it’s not often that a videogame movie is penned by an indie company; perhaps it’s this that may yet prove there is a light at the end of that 32bit tunnel for video game movies.

From the ashes of video game movies comes Slender, a narrative of 3 friends who venture into the forest to disprove the existence of the internet phenomenon aptly named “Slender-man”, a disturbing figure, who according to internet myth, is believed to be a tall, thin poltergeist in a suit who steals unwanted visitors in the dead of night. A simple premise for a short film, and yet executed in a way in which is least expected.

With many throwbacks and obvious references to the ever popular “Slender the Eight Pages” you can see that the directors and writers have taken time to study the source material, and it shows in thisLuckily for Slender, the references aren’t forced down your throat. Subtle references here and there creatively add to the atmosphere of the film.

Like most independent films, the cast and crew are relatively unknown. This is the first Time for Director Andrew Peters, and for first impressions we are intrigued to see more from his imagination. Most scenes are shot in a way that creates a sense of Isolation which at times can be genuinely scary, which of course does not come around too often in horror movies either for that matter.

In addition to a first time director we have first time actors also. Max Hilbourne’s role as the ironicallynamed “Max” is an interesting one at best. Hilbourne brings a presence to him against the other supporting actors, however the more isolated scenes can become at best times subpar to that of how he acted in a group. Perhaps the ironic thing is that his acting shines when accompanied with other actors.

Overall all for The Little Company’s First film outing, they’ve officially set the bar a few inches higher than it has been for the past decade. Perhaps this is the direction that more adaptions should follow for the future, less effects, more stories; and if this is the vision of future video game adaptions to come, then perhaps there’s a little hope for hard-core gamers at the theatres. NICK BANNISTER

Final Posters - Nick

These posters are the ones that I created and each one I tried to make different to the last in terms of imagery. The only common attribute that all the images on the posters share are that they were each hand drawn first. I didn’t want to use photography as I wanted to create a much more abstract feel and a much more minimalistic and creepy feel. With photographs you can show the image as it is but with hand drawn work you can use different styles that will suit the tone of the poster.

Each design I used the same text template but I added in a new image each time I created a new design. They are all black and white as I wanted to show the dark atmosphere of the film; I also wanted to show this by using cross hatching in some of my posters as well. I thought the posters with the cross hatching turned out to be the best ones as they gave an overall gritty feel to the poster which was what I was aiming for.

I also decided to use both Max (the main Protagonist) and Slender (the main Antagonist) in the posters. I used Max because he has the most screen time out of the characters and is significant to the plot of the short film. I also used Slender in the poster but I put him in the background to show a frightening stalker presence to him.

 

Design 1

Design 2

 

Design 3 - Final Design

Poster research - Nick

Iron Man 3 – Theatrical Poster

Audience

The Audience of this film would most likely appeal to the average teen of around 12-20. The film being of the superhero genre could also be enjoyed by children and adults as although the character does appear to have some minor cuts and sights of blood in the poster, the bright colours of the suits and background give it a lighter balance.
In addition, the top font reads “from the studio that brought you ‘Marvel’s Avengers Assemble’”. This is obviously directed at the audience of the movie ‘Marvel’s Avengers Assemble’ and is giving us the message that the people who enjoyed that movie will enjoy this movie. Also the having the title ‘Iron Man 3’ also tells us that this is the 3^rd in the series and those who also enjoyed the previous iron man films are likely to see this one.

Representation and Genre

From what we can see on the poster, the poster can be assumed to be an action. The explosions in the background offer us a big hint as most action films are often associated with some form of explosions. In addition the pose in which the main character ‘Iron Man/Tony Stark is in with his fist clenched and in the position which shows he is ready to attack could also be pointed towards action.
The Poster could also be depicted to be that of the Sci-fi genre also. The suit that the main character is wearing is mechanical and has a futuristic look to it. The suits flying to the sky in the background can also support this. The suits could also lead us to believe that this is a superhero movie. Flying without help or support is often considered to be a super heroic trait.

Narrative

The poster doesn’t give too much away in terms of narrative but it does show a number of things that can hint towards the story. Iron Man from the look of his armour has obviously been in some sort of confrontation due to the damage sustained on his suit. The house in flames in the back ground could also support this. We can also see that there is more than one iron man suit in the poster and that they are in use. This could mean that iron man now has an army at his command or that these are in fact antagonists and that they are the cause of the confrontation.

Media Language

The title’s font although not too big in comparison to the poster itself, is the biggest text on the page. The title is red with a small yellow outline, which resembles the Iron Man armour, the font is also blocky, and has been made to look like a form of metal. This contrasts with both the title and the suit itself.

There is no tagline on the page apart from the studio mention at the top. There is no billing block either, this could mean two things. That the poster is an international poster or that it is a teaser poster and most teaser posters tend not to include a billing block. The company logos do appear at both of the bottom sides of the poster, they are grey in colour and small but they are easily visible. The release date is also given at the very bottom as well

 

 

Django Unchained – Final Theatrical Poster

Audience

I would say although that not too much information is given away that Django Unchained should be for the adults 17+. The blood splatters behind Django (the main character) and in front of the other supporting characters can point towards the fact that there will be some form of blood/gore in this picture.

In addition in the middle of the poster the text reads “The New film by Quentin Tarantino”. Tarantino is a very famous film director and is known for his excessive use of violence. This can also support that this film is strictly for adults. This along with the list of actors on the poster says that those who do enjoy Tarantino’s and any of these other actors’ movies will most likely enjoy this one.

Representation and Genre

The poster shows us that the film can be looked at as an action movie. Firstly the tagline at the top reads “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Vengeance”; Vengeance is often a goal of an action movie character; this could also be the case for liberty as well. The blood splatters on the page coupled with two of the characters holding guns also supports this idea that this is an action movie.

However this could also be deemed as a spaghetti Western. The clothing of the characters mostly supports this. The Stetsons worn by the characters are commonly used in Western movies. Plus the clothing of the character on the left of the poster points towards that of an 1800’s origin. The guns are also not modern weapons in their appearance; these types of guns and the holster on Django’s belt are stereotypically used in western movies.

Narrative

Not much at all is given away from the poster in terms of narrative. However the main tagline does give us sort of an insight. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of vengeance” could point to us that this is a tale about a man’s life, a man’s life that has either been freed or has freed someone else and that the vengeance part could be his payback from his earlier imprisonment.

Media Language

The Title of the poster is only a little bit bigger than the text about the director. The title along with the director's contribution, and the release date is in red. This is to probably match with the blood in the background. The characters are also in black and white as well which makes the red stand out that much more. The blood is obviously an important part of the poster and the advertiser wants the viewer to see that.

In additon to the title fonts you also have the billing block and the company names down below the bottom of the poster. There you also have two website adresses. One of the Actual website of the Movie and the other for the facebook page, so its obvious that they want to get people on social networking sites to see the movie in the cinemas as well.

Poster Design- Andy

This is my design for the poster for our film. I tried to capture the dark, isolated and mysterious feeling from the film and incorporate it in to the poster. I created it by combining three images together, these were the tent and surroundings, slender and the note. For the photo of the tent and the surroundings I put a bright torch inside the tent and did a very long exposure so it looks as if the light is emanating from the tent and making the picture seem surreal. 

Poster Designs- Amy

Here is my draft design for my poster,
I created it using photoshop by layering 4 different photos and editing them together, I also worked with the exposure and colour levels to give it the dark effect.

 

 

And here is a teaser banner or poster I created using the clone tool on Photoshop.

Behind the Scenes- Amy

Here is a clip that we took and i edited a short animation in the start using motion for you to see, it is about us behind the scenes just before we got into a stream at 9.30pm the night before it snowed.

Dedication