Media Evaluation

2. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Gaining feedback from an audience enabled the following to be
discovered
• Audience feedback highlights the limitations and mistakes of
the film, allowing these to be rectified and modified before a
final project is submitted.
• Enables the weaknesses of the film to be highlighted and the
strengths to be shown. E.g. Camera shots, voice-over sounds
and dialogues.
• Provides an indication of whether the plot of story is clear
enough.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• In the kitchen scene there was a problem encountered that the camera
and director was shown in the reflection of kettle. Therefore rather than
using a mid-shot to show Harry and his kitchen surroundings, we reverted
to incorporating several montages of the kitchen environment to show
where harry was and a close-up of harry when he was completing his
dialogue within this scene. The effect of this is that it contributed largely
towards the level of professionalism which was boasted by the film.
• On the day of filming in which the initial scene is shot where the
interviewers meet harry, a problem was highlighted that the lighting made
it hard to see the character. The main reason for this, is down to the fact
that when we completed filming, we was in the seasons of late
autumn/early winter therefore meaning that it tended to get dark at
around 4.30 pm. Hence lighting was very much a factor affecting how,
where and when our group could film, meaning that on a regular basis we
had to leave school quickly in order to make sure we completed filming
before it got dark, therefore making us to conduct a re-evaluation into our
filming schedule.

4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• Our audience also provided us with constructive feedback, in relation to the scene
where the interviewer initially meets harry and starts asking questions in relation to his
life. After the initial filming of this particular scene was done, it was outlined in
feedback that the shorts were slightly shaky and in sections laughter could be heard in
the background from individuals such as the camera man and fellow group members.
Therefore in order to guarantee our film was of a quality standard, we elected to re-
shoot this particular scene, in order to rectify these problems and guarantee that the
small details in the film were catered to.
• We changed the intro of our film to give it more of a mockumentary feel, which is the
specific genre we aimed our film to be. After conducting the initial shooting, we
showed this to a small audience, in order to gain their verdict in relation to their
thoughts and whether they thought their aspects which could be improved. The initial
feedback which was provided outlined that opening shots of the film could be improved
to better suit the theme of a mockumentary. Hence taking this feedback into
consideration, alterations where made to the various camera shots and camera angles
which were incorporated.

5. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
In our day and age, there is a large variety of different technologies
which can be used and incorporated in the various stages of filming
and editing a short film, which our group goes onto respectively
produce. This proved to be advantageous, due to the group having
various apparatus and equipment, which could be applied to create
a film of a quality standard. The effect of this is that it improved the
speed at which certain areas of our filming could be completed,
adding an increased efficiency to the editing proves and minimising
the chances of mistakes being made.

6. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
The first piece of technology which will be used comes in the
form both Sony and Panasonic high definition video, which
will be used in the filming process in order to record the
footage which will be incorporated within the short-film our
group goes onto produce. This particular piece of machinery is
beneficial towards the group, due to the fact that it provides a
basis for the footage to be streamed straight to the apple
iMac computers that we will be using, in order to edit footage
and compile together the mockumentary we created for this
particular project via the use of USB link. This piece of
equipment had features which are incorporated, allowing the
shots and footage which is captured to be done in a much
higher quality, therefore contributing towards our group
producing a film of a quality standard.

7. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
YouTube provided one of the ways in which our group was able to receive feedback and practical
advice from audiences in relation to our film. Our group simply was required to upload the
film onto YouTube, after which we received comments relating to things which could be
improved and things we could have done better.
Blogger is another piece of technology which our group will be making regular use of throughout
the duration of filming and editing a short film, due to the fact that we will be using this as a
tool to present the work which has been completed and log the progress which our group
manages to make. With this being an internet based interface it has features incorporated
within the software which allows modifications to be made, with this proving to be beneficial
due to the fact that if mistakes are make you can re-do the work or apply edits according to
the sections which require these, drastically decreasing the chances of work becoming
corrupted or lost. Furthermore through putting information onto blogger it provides a basis,
in which people can view the work which they complete on a better platform then more
conventional methods such as creating PowerPoint presentations or a portfolio on software
such as Fronter. Furthermore blogger provides a basis in which multimedia files can be
attached to the blog which is created, for example in our group circumstances blogger
enabled us to upload a picture image of the movie poster we completed, in addition to also
attaching the radio trailer which was used to promote the short film coming in the form of a
audio file.

8. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Adobe Photoshop is a specialist graphics editing software which my
group will be using, when completing the ancillary tasks of our
short film project, such as creating a movie poster to support the
short film which our group filmed and edited. With myself and two
other group members having high level of expertise and experience
in using the software, it meant that our group was spoiled for
choice in relation to using this software to complete certain tasks,
ultimately meaning that we was able to create a movie poster of
high quality and had a real professional look to it. In order to go
about doing this, our group took the approach of taking a picture of
“harry” which is the protagonist of the short-film our group
created, then using the tools and features within the project to
create the final poster our group would be using.

9. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
The final piece of technology which was used by our group came in the form
of using final cut which is non-linear video editing software, which was
used by our group to apply edits to the footage which was filmed, in order
to compile together the sort-film which we would submit for our A2
coursework.

10. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Our group chose to challenge the typical forms and conventions which are
associated with media products, through incorporating many of the typical
features and aspects which you would see in short films and the genres of
documentaries/spoofs and mockumentary.

11. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The first of these comes in the form of using titles within the movie on several
occasions. When the short film initially starts, A title with the text "this is
harry" appears on the screen alongside a mid-short of the protagonist of
the movie which is the main character called harry. Our research enabled
us to take a in-depth look into the mockumentary/documentary genre, in
which we established that unlike your typical movie where it begins with
opening credits which is supported by music or a opening montage,
mockumentary tend to incorporate the titles of their movies within the
opening scene of the actual footage which is compiled together. Therefore
our group came to a cohesive decision that it would be appropriate to take
this finding into close consideration, implementing this within the short-
film our group produced in order to give it more of a sense of
professionalism and have the effect upon the audience that it looks like a
real mockumentary which would be seen on television. The process by
which we went about doing this was not complicated or time consuming, I
generally put this down to the fact that 2/4 group members had sufficient
expertise in the use of the software, therefore it was a straight-forward
task to incorporate this within our film.

12. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
An additional feature which was incorporated within our film which challenges the conventions of real
media products is the incorporation of a narrators and interviewers, both within the script, voice-
over and main body of the film. Again during the initial research which was carried out by our group
in order to identify the typical features of the genre our film intended to cover, it came to our
attention that most films and productions from this genre had a narrator and interviewer, who
would provide the audience with an overview of the events which were taking place, whist the
interviewer would follow the main character around in order to gain a deeper insight into his
thoughts, opinions and views. In order to create project which seemed realistic, caught the
attention of the audience and had the chance of being a successful film, we felt that it would only
be logical if we implemented the findings from research into our film. With the main character of
our film being of a vague nature who does not like to express himself, using both a narrator and a
interviewer would enable us to make information known to the audience in a way which would not
necessarily come from "Harry" himself. Furthermore also incorporating these within the film would
mean that in some circumstances, they could have a direct influence upon the emotions and
attitudes of the main character, for example when the interviewer asks harry a question about
being normal he becomes angry and kicks the camera crew out, this provides an excellent basis for
both comedy to be shown and the audience to clearly see that harry has a short-temper in addition
to being sensitive about some subjects.

13. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Lastly one of the ways in which our project was able to develop/challenge the typical codes of
mockumentary/documentaries, came in the form of our ancillary tasks reinforcing the film which our
group went onto produce. During the stages of initially conducting research, our group was able to take a
in-depth look into leading films from the genre such "the office" and "super-size", with our main findings
being that aspects of the film such as their film posters and radio trailers strongly supported the film which
was produced, as they were both eye-catching and provided the audience with a insight. Our group knew
that in order for the film to be successful, sufficient time would need to be allocated towards creating both
our radio trailer and film poster, in order to guarantee that it was of a high quality also depicting the main
story-line and plot of "this is harry". Therefore our group took the approach of diving ourselves into two
groups of two, with group one dealing with the creating of a movie poster, whilst group two would be
responsible for writing the script and producing a radio trailer which would support the short-film. I was
part of group one alongside Imran with both of use possessing skills and experience n using adobe
Photoshop due to the fact that we are ICT students. In order to gain a better understanding we allocated
30 mins of our time to look at various movie posters, understanding aspects such as the key features and
characteristics which we should take into consideration during production. After doing this we brain-
stormed some ideas. Taking these two preliminary approaches served us well, due to the fact we instantly
knew what we wanted to incorporate such as the font styles which would be used, camera angle in which
picture would be taken of the protagonist and additional images which we would incorporate on the
poster such as a team logo or credits. This had the overall effect of our group being able to have a film
poster which strongly supported the short-film which we eventually went onto produce.

14. How effective is the combination
It is in my belief that the combination of the main product and
ancillary texts works in good effect, with main reason behind this is
that they relate to each other well.
The radio trailer which our group produces was effective, because a
brief script is read which provides a description about the film,
before key information relating to the movie is conveyed such as
the release date and age rating.
The movie poster is of a high quality, if you take into consideration the
fact that we are A2 media students. We conducted research in
order to understand the typical features and aspects of movie
posters, after doing this it enabled the group to have insight and
expertise in relation to what would be required to create an
effective movie poster. We took the approach of using various
features such as bold writing, logos and specialised font within the
movie poster which was created.