Evaluation

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

For this part of the evaluation, I will use a short film by Akash Lockmun and Nilesh Bell-Gorsia called ‘If Not Now, When?’. I will compare and contrast the codes and conventions used in this short with our short, My Brother Leon. I found ‘If Not Now, When?’ on the BBC Film Network website and chose this film in particular because it was of a similar genre and had some of the same themes as our film.

We went with this convention as it stands out. The use of white and black is quite plain therefore doesn’t take the attention away from the film. Also because our film was a “dark” film, the colours fitted in.
It is the screen shot of the credits at the end. I used this shot to with the black background and white writing to show that I went along with the codes and conventions.

There is usually one or two main characters in a short. In 'If Not Now, When?' there was one main character which was the teenage boy, Daniel.

We also went along with this convention aswell. We thought we should focus on the younger sibling rather than the actual person involved with the trouble. It was an original idea as many films of the same genre do not cover the reactions of families.

The screen shot is of Lily doing her schoolwork. I chose this shot as she was the only one in the room and the only subject the camera is focusing on is her. It represents her life as she tries to distract herself and blend into the crowd by doing normal every day things that other people her age do.

Short films usually start with establishing shots and have shots throughout of the location. 'If Not Now, When?' didn't have an establishing shot but did have glimpses of the location around his house. For example, he had the shot of the flat number and the stairs of the flats building.

We went against both these conventions as we wanted to keep the film inside a house to focus on the home life. Also, it would have been difficult to get a real location to film. The screen shot here is of Lily and Leon just about to come down the stairs. I chose this shot as it is the first time the audience notice something isn't quite right between the two siblings. It shows the boy's bedroom instead of the outside of the house as Leon is always upstairs, so shows the separation between the family.

Names of character are usually never mentioned throughout the film or mentioned very little. In 'If Not Now, When?' names are heard in voiceovers but otherwise very little. The directors had to use them in the voiceovers because otherwise the audience wouldn't of known who the people were talking about. It also gives him a sense of identity.


We went with the idea of not releasing names as it’s a short film and we agree that the audience does not need to know the names of characters as they won’t get to know them in the short time. We also did this to make the characters a little mysterious. Leon was mysterious as the family didn’t know where he was going or what he was doing. Also, Lily was quite a mysterious character as she never spoke which makes the audience wonder into what she is thinking and how she feels.

This is shot when Lily is coming down the stairs when the argument is going on in the kitchen. Even when the arguement happens, no names are mentioned as we thought it was irrelevant. I chose this shot as normally in arguements people shout names for emphasis.

A lot of short films are based around a subject that is or has been a big issue in the news. “If not now, when?” focuses on the life of a teenage boy living on an estate and the issues they face. This subject is often brought up in the news because of gang crime and youth culture.

We also used a similar theme of gang crime and how it affects the family. After a young person dies through gang crime, the family are the ones placed on the TV grieving.


The shot chosen is the close up of Leon picking up his belongings including his knife. I wanted to show that the film had a strong theme of youth culture and gang crime. This was a strong and effective shot in the film as it showed the audience that he may get into trouble early on.

The actors used in short films tend to be young in age. Apart from the Mother and Father in 'If Not Now, When?', the rest of the cast are young.

We had four young people in our film. They were avaliable at the same times to when we were and we could use them free of charge. They were also versatile and acted in the way we asked them to.
I chose the shot of Leon barging Lily as they were coming down the stairs to show the ages of the two actors, they are 16-17 years old and we managed to get them to act for our film free of charge.

Short films tend to be in between 1 and 20 minutes long. 'If Not Now, When?' is 10 minutes in length while My Brother Leon is around 5 minutes.

This is of the end of the film. It was difficult to show a shot of how long a film is. So on the timeline it shows the bar at the end of the film.

Short films do not tend to conclude the stories. At the end of 'If Not Now, When?' you believe that the guy has died as the family and friends are saying they miss him and wish for him to come back. So this goes against the conventions.

Although, we went with this convention of a short film and from audience feedback people are left guessing and unsure of what happened to Leon.

Shot of the policeman and Mother. This shot has been used as it shows that something has happened to Leon but nothing is ever confirmed in the film.

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

This was a design of Leon turning around facing the camera as if he wanted to be seen. He would have been just walking out of the door. The girl is seen looking through his bedroom door and would be an extreme close up. I was trying to make there seem like there was a communication boundary between the two of them, but I decided against this design as they weren't shots from the film and it didn't just focus on the main character.

This is a shot from the scene where she is sitting on the stairs and listening to Leon's and her mother arguing about where he's been. Its a significant scene as the audience start to see where the relationship between mother and son is really breaking down/apart.
The postcard just focuses on Lily who is the main character which goes along with the conventions of a poster. The directors name will be placed in the left hand top corner while the title will be placed in the right hand bottom corner and main character name will be placed in the centre.
This layout goes against conventions as the titles are normally alot bigger and the writing is altogether rather than being separated.

This is another draft of clash between Leon and Lily. She has her head down to show a shy insecure character while Leon smirks to the camera showing that he thinks he knows what he is doing which he thinks is right. There will be a line down the middle of the two of them to show a definate difference in life. The girl will have pyjamas on to represent the innocence of her while he'll be wearing a leather jacket and blue hoodie to show the strength of him. Leather is a strong material so will also represent him thinking that he is indestructable. The directors name will be across the top with the cast names by their head and My Brother Leon by the side of Lily.

This next postcard shows the Mother standing up in the kitchen with her dressing gown on at 2 o'clock in the morning waiting for Leon to return home.
This goes against codes and conventions as the Mother isn't the main character, also the title of the film is too small and the picture isn't a clip from the film.

I wanted to try out different fonts to figure out which one would be most suitable for a postcard. I wanted something bold, that would stand out but something child-like too as if Lily had written it. I know when I was younger, I had this type of bubble writing that I used to do along with everybody else, so really I wanted to re-create that.

This is a sketch and final design. I have used the idea of the communication boundary again. Lily's background has light as she is quite a light-hearted character who is shy and pure. On the other hand, Leon's picture is quite dark as he is a mysterious character. He is leaving the house in this picture to show that he is walking away from the people who really care about him. This postcard symbolises that they live in two seperate world and two separate lives. I decided to go with red writing and a black background as black symbolises death while red symbolises danger or blood. This goes along with conventions of a postcard as the two shots are from the film and the titles stand out.
I got my inspiration for the poster above from a poster of Trainspotting as the characters were separated by the titles. The titles have a black background with white font.
The characters are grey and do not have a background. The background is orange which stands out. All the peoples names that are involved are in the bottom section.

This is another final design. Instead of taking a main image from the film, I took a theme of attention. It shows Leon being the strong individual who is proud to be himself. People in gangs are usually quite confident on the outside but probably quite scared on the inside. This shows Lily being the shy, quiet individual as Leon has taken all the attention away from her. He's got the power out of the two of them which he is not afraid to show. His arms are crossed in this as a sign of protection as well as masculinity. He is also wearing dark clothes to represent his life, while Lily wears school uniform as a sign of innocence. The picture has been darkened around their outlines so that people focus on the two characters but also because living in a gang community gives a person and their family a dark lifestyle.
The font again is in red. This time it is put in the bottom right hand corner so that the focus is on the characters rather than the font. I decided to not put the director's name on the postcard as she isn't well-known so may have seemed a bit pointless. Brother is in a bigger font so that it has emphasis to point out that the film is about a brother, showing that the film isn't neccessarily going to focus on him.

This is my final design which shows the Mother and daughter worried about Leon. He is walking out on them as if he doesn't care. He is just a black figure as that is what he turns into in the film; as if his Mother and sister do not even know who he is anymore. The mother and daughter are sticking together as they have to look after each other. They are both looking at the floor to show that they are thinking about him and worried for him. The writing is along the bottom of the postcard as it focuses peoples eyes on the subjects rather than the title of the film.

This is the back of the postcard. It has the synopsis, cast and crew list. While on the opposite side it has the screening dates and places. Also the name of the production company is placed on the right hand side.

With the feedback I received and the use of conventions in the postcard, the most appropriate postcard to supply is the one with the communication boundary where Leon and Lily are separated. As previously stated it shows the two main characters and the separate lives they lead. Leon is covered up and away from the camera symbolising his lack of connection between him and the family at home.

Film Review

As I decided to write in the style of Empire magazine, I looked at all the layouts in the magazine and found this one. I liked it because it took up half a page horizontally and had a picture centered in the text. The text was in four columns and had different fonts for different sections. So the above page was my inspiration.

The voice clip says;

Date Nights review in Empire’s magazine had four columns which I resembled in my review.
I also put a big main image in the centre of the top. I chose this scene as it has Lily, the main character in it and also the bit where she is writing Brother on the hangman. It is an important shot as it shows that she thinks that Leon may die.
I used similar fonts to the one used in the article above. I used an Arial Black font for the title of the film in a similar green colour to Date Night’s article. Times New Roman in italic was used for the bits that were italic. And Arabic Transparent was used for the article writing.
I have noticed that most of the articles in the Empire magazine start of with background of the film, like some history. I included this by focusing the first paragraph on how gang crime is in the news so frequently. This then introduces the article aswell as giving an understanding to why the film was made.
I used some codes and conventions such as a big bold title of the film then a catchphrase which is Indestructible. I used this word as when I was researching, I came across an article that had quotes from gang members. They were saying basically that when they’re part of a gang they feel secure, like when they’re carrying a weapon, that’s what makes them feel safe. A lot of the time they don’t carry one to actually use it, they just feel safer with one. So when gang members have all the people around them that they think they will protect and back them up so they feel indestructible.
I tried my best to copy the design and layout of the article which I personally think worked quite well. Again it would just fill up half of a page instead of the whole page. It would have mini reviews at the bottom like the Date Night review.
In the review, I talk about the budget of the film, mention the director, themes, characters and the actors names. As I’m going through those elements I mention parts of the storyline without giving too much away.Like the review above, I put a verdict at the end and rated the film with a star system.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Part 1

During editing we screened our film to a group of students who gave us comments;
Alot of the comments were about sound levels which we already knew we had issues with, some scenes were louder than others while some too quiet. Alot of the shots had interference issues which we knew we needed to sort.

They said that the acting from Josh and Steph was realistic.

Some scenes had video but no audio.
Also with lighting, some scenes were too bright.

Some gaps in between time changes were too long.

Part 2 See Final cut of video

After screening my finished film to audiences the feedback I got is as follows;
People made conclusions about what happened to Leon or they asked me what happened to him. Some believed he was dead while others said that the Mum and the younger sister didn't look sad enough for him to be dead. Therefore assuming that he might be in prison or just in trouble with the police.
One person noticed the change of hair length, while others didn't notice it at all.

Everyone that I spoke to said that the film had a good storyline.
A person of the audience said that it was a bit like an episode of Eastenders, which I guess is a positive comment as people all over the UK watch it.

Some people said they were left confused as the story wasn't actually concluded which is what we wanted as we wanted people to wonder as this means they remember our film.

They all said that Lily gave a true depth of character and got the idea that the siblings were from different relationships.
"The girl didn’t speak which was a good point because it gave an impression that she was the one left out at home, not given the attention she should have done because all the attention was with the boy because he was dominant and loud."
They did point out that Leon was very stereotypical. We made Leon like this so people would understand the story easily.

Part 3

After showing the draft ancillary texts to my audience, this is the feedback that I got;

Postcard one with Leon walking out of the door and Lily walking down the stairs;

People said that this was the only postcard that told you on the front what it was- so a short film. People would have to guess or turn over the other postcards if they wanted to know what the front was about. In this one my audience said that they assumed the two people were brother and sister. It was pressumed that the boy character was walking out of a door and the girl was walking down some stairs making it seem like the films set in a house. They said that the girl looks sad and pensive. The black background with red writing everyone thought it would be a sad film.
Everything that is mentioned in the above summary is how I wanted people to think when looking at the postcard.

Postcard two with Leon and Lily back-to-back;
My audience said that the boy looked like a scary character but didn't know what the postcard was for or about. They gathered that Brother was written in bolder writing for a reason and that the title was clear/bold. The background around the characters, they said, made it look sad. The boy looks like he has a strong ego and the postcard makes it seem as if the girl isn't the main character.

This is disappointing as the girl is meant to be the main character so the postcard doesn't portray the story correctly. Also, the postcard had nowhere on the front that it was for a short film so no-one would know what it was about.

Postcard three with all three characters;

The audience thought that there was a close relationship between the girl and older woman. They didn't get that the two were mother and daughter as the older girl looked like an older sister. They understood that there was alot of sadness, although again there was nowhere to state it was a short film and they were unaware of what it was about. They also saw the detachment between the girls and the boy. They thought he might be hiding something as his hood is up and that the girls look like they don't really want anything to do with him. They didn't understand where it was set as there is nowhere to say it's in a house. They also didn't know what the relationship was between all of them.

I think this postcard is the least effective out of the three as there is nowhere to say what it is and what its for. The audience didn't get the fact that they are a family. The only thing they did notice was the detachment of him and the other two and also that it was trying to give a sad impression.

The review made the audience want to see the film as it was student made. The ending paragraph made people want to see the film. They also thought it had a good layout and was easy to read. They said it was brief but to the point. Most people said that it wasn't clear what was on the piece of paper in the picture.

This was what I wished my audience to think, although the picture may be more clear when it's enlarged and actually in a magazine.

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

1. Camera; I used the camera to take pictures for the location recce, my postcards and production photos. This year, I just expanded my knowledge with a camera, especially when taking location recce photographs as these had to have the same lighting and be taken at the same angle which is always difficult.

2. Microphone; In the previous year, we didn't have a boom and a microphone and just used the sound from the camera. Although, it brought troubles to us throughout filming, it was a technology that we had to figure out how to use. In the future, we would have to keep an eye on sound levels as this year they were too high in some places and we had buzzing throughout which should have been monitored more carefully. We did learn though how far away from the person speaking we should be.

3. Handheld video recorder; We used this to film feedback from class members. It was a handy tool as it had a USB connector with it so could easily transfer our video onto the computer.
4. Tripod; we used this throughout filming to keep our camera sturdy and the shots straight. We learnt that different heights of the tripod gave different effects and different camera angles. We also learnt that we need all the legs out at the same length if we want a perfect shot.

5. DVD's; We used a DVD to put our film onto when we had the final cut. A DVD works on most TVs or computers and was cheap and easy to get hold of.

6. Editing suite; I learnt alot through editing. We edited on a programme called Abode Premiere Pro which I did use last year. The editing process is always a learning curve. But this year I developed my skills as the film was alot longer than last years as we had alot more shots to edi. Continuity was a big issue when we were editing as we had to get it spot on, for example, when Lily turns over in bed, the shot moves closer in so we had to make sure her head and hand were in the same place and that she turned at the same time and pace. I developed my skills with the sound levels, the placing of shots and sound, the layering process and other elements to make sure the film looked as good as it could be.

7 & 8. Red heads and pro lights; In AS I used red heads throughout the piece. This year it was first agreed that we would use red heads, although as we started filming we tried out the pro lights which gave us a mucher softer light. The lighting experiment helped us with lighting a lot as we figured out which gels or methods of lighting gave which tone to the scene. So we were able to prepare before we got to filming. We used red heads for a harsher light and scene and pro lights when we wanted a softer tone to the scene.

9. Sony PD150 videocamera; I didn't use this camera last year so again we learnt alot from a new technology. I learnt that sometimes because of space, that the camera has to be handheld instead of being on the tripod. Also, I learnt that sound levels can be monitored through the camera screen. We found out that we have to look through the eyepiece instead of the viewing screen to see what is actually in shot as the camera is widescreen

10. Scanner; I used a scanner to scan all my hand drawn items onto the computer, such as my costumes and postcard designs. I didn't learn anything by using a scanner as I already have the knowledge to use a scanner.

11. Video tape; We used the tape to film all of our footage on. I learnt that we had to keep it in a safe place and also had to be named so it didn't get lost.

Photoshop was used to edit pictures such as the postcards. It is a programme I've never really used before, so I learnt basic skills like how to alter the sizing, how to merge pictures together, how to make a background, how to put words on there and how to put effects onto the picture. Although photoshop is the best programme to use for editing pictures, not all of my editing was done on there as I didn't have it on my home computer, so I also used Paint to do basic pictures such as the set designs.
Blogger was the website that I used last year to show all my coursework. This year I have found it easier to use as I know more about it and got used to it. This year I've managed to upload a lot more pictures to make my coursework look more presentable.
The internet in general has been a source of research for me to find things out about short films that are already out there and how My Brother Leon can find a space in the industry.
Word and Microsoft Works Word Processor was where I typed up all my work to then be tranferred onto Blogger