Evaluation

For our film, we wanted to achieve a short film that would emphasise on a message or a meaning but still keeping the film original and concentrating on representational elements to emphasise the film.

To research for this, we started by looking at short films from independent makers, using sites such as the BBC film network, http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/ and also YouTube. The ability that we are able to make and upload films, pod casts and any other media shows just how much technology has expanded in recent years, computers are made to adapt to the user’s needs and there are sites dedicated to independent film makers, for the ancillary tasks we were also able to use our phones to take pictures which we used for our main poster, from there i was able to Bluetooth the image to my laptop- by doing this it enabled me to upload multiple images quickly that using cables, this also enabled the characters to send us pictures of their clothing for prop lists.

We also looked into the variety of short films that are being made and the messages and themes that the makers have used for the narrative, it was interesting to see how some would use stop start animation in very morbid and intense themed films which would contrast the whole feel of the film, making the audience a little confused about how to react to the film.

we have challenged the conventions of both feature length and also short films as a whole as from out research that we conducted, specifically the audience research, we found that most people preferred the feature length films rather than the short films so we added in elements of both such as the Independence of the making of the film used in short films, but the editing, cuts and fade transitions that could normally be seen on the feature length films are seen here.

Another element that we thought was interesting while researching into short films was that most did not have dialogue and instead relied on the use of a backing track to continuously play through the film. This particularly caught our attention as instead of using dialogue to let the audience know what is going on through the film, we thought that we would portray the narrative of the film through the use of camera movements, the actions, expressions and emotions of the characters and with the correct music, the complementary backing music. The films that we looked into that used this interesting element was the short film 'The Beachcombers' which particularly took our attentions of using a found object to unite two characters- we have reflected on this in our film by using the penny as the found object.

Our film, tells the saying of the penny through the use of individual characters’ lives and how their fortune would charge, by using the name of the penny in both contexts (as the main character was called Penny and the link object of the story was all the characters receiving the penny as a coin)in media products today, most institutions would mainly focus on how the characters are formed and linked through each other instead of playing particular attention to how each character would receive them penny then by luck of chance the next character would receive it.

We wanted the film to not be classes into one category of genre as we wanted the film to show different points so that the audience can make up their mind and think whether the film would be drama, romantic e.c.t and therefore i think that our film would be classed into one of the hybrid categories (sub-genres, such as romantic drama)

To show the story of all the characters, we shot the film with a montage effect, the first scene of the film where the camera uses the point of view shot speeded up proved to be an interesting twist on the film, as this could either represent the travelling of the penny or of the person who is carrying the penny, i think that the establishing shot where we see the back of the actress walking into the sunset is the most effective and

my favourite shot of the film, it creates an air of mystery about the film and enables the plot to develop into anything, it could turn very morbid and tense or carry on and become even more light hearted.

In our poster, we have used the character in the establishing shot as the main focus of the poster as we feel that the image creates a sense of openness about the film, as to the audience, you would think that the character is penny and that as she is placed on a road this could connote that she has no limitations and that the story could be carried on further.

The penny has an interesting representational element in the fact that in today's society, a penny is seen as the lowest amount of fortune to have, but they always serve a purpose and are always needed, finding a penny on the street always increases your fortune, even by the smallest amount-and that's what we have attempted to portray through our film, as each character finds the penny, their luck will change in some form or another even by the smallest amount.

For our ancillary tasks, we make a magazine review and poster to accompany our film, the main photo that we used for the poster was taken of the character seen in the establishing shot, i thought that by using this shot, it would look the poster look as well as aesthetically pleasing and create a sense of mystery and intrigue about the film, the writing that i chose for the film stands out from the poster and catches your eye but as not to draw your attention away from the character, your eyes to the way that her arms are positioned, i made her do this purposely as in the scene she walks away from the camera an drops the penny, here the photo acts like a preview from the film.

For the main poster we created various drafts so that we would get the perfect one, it was hard to find colours, font and images that would complement and describe the film, when researching into posters we found that the less busy and simplistic posters seemed to interest the audience more, and my having one simple image surrounded by the necessary text, it would make the perfect poster- By having the combination of the ancillary task and the film, we were able to have one supporting the other, as without each they would not be successful.

We have been able to show our film to only a few people but the audience feedback from the film and accompanying poster and magazine review, was generally positive, all of the audience liked the concept and the feel of the film, however some members did think that some of the editing could of done better as they felt that in some places the film did not link well and the film felt rushed, another member thought that the music did not match the film and thought that possibly a more contemporary feel would of suited the film better, we were able to gain the audience feedback from posting the film onto Facebook, from there we asked people who saw the film to comment and say what they liked about it, these are shown in the feedback section.

However the audience did feel that the target audience of 16-30 was the right age group to target as they felt that the concept and feel of the film would be understood more.

Through the construction of the film we did encounter many problems.

For the editing of the film, we used Adobe Premier Pro. It was our first time using this software and at first the software was a little confusing to use but after playing

around and watching a few YouTube clips on how to use the software we decided to give it a go. The first problem

that we encountered was that the software only works if there are earphones/headphones plugged in, so we had to make sure that we always had a pair on us. The next obstacle we had was to capture the software as it kept saying that the camera was offline, when it was not, after a little while we got Adobe to capture our film and as we went along we named each section and there were only two ways that we could save the film- to the temp drive of the computer and memory stick, here there are problems within the choices, as when you save it to the temp drive, you can only play the film on that same computer and the next was that the files were too large to save to memory stick and would not play anywhere else as it would not be able to find the clips.

After we had overcome these problems, we were on a roll and after one day had finished the film and uploaded the soundtrack onto the film along with the credits. However, the next day when we went to go and make the finishing touches, the software had crashed and wiped almost every clip from the film and the hard drive, when I.T cam to assist us they were unable to help as well as they had not been trained in using Adobe...the only option was to go back and recapture the film to re edit it.

After that long hurdle, we were back on track (almost) and just needed to make the finishing touches to the film, granted it is not as great as it should have been due to the software playing up but everything essential to the film is there.

I personally am proud of our film due to the significant hurdles with the software that we had to overcome, and because of the concept that we used for the film, it is an original idea, they style that we have chosen to present the film is unique as we see from each character, and i think that through all the planning and research, the final outcome is a product of our hard work.