What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Paddy and I feel we had executed our ancillary and short film tasks as well as we had wanted, looking back at the end result. However we didn't receive enough feedback as we would like, constricting the variety of views on the texts and, perhaps, the amount that viewers thought should be improved upon. As I look back at this section of research, i feel that i should've been more persistent in gaining more feedback and hence aid the quality of my evaluation.


During the process of making our ancillary pieces, the development would be tracked by our onlooking tutors. Questions would be asked, such as "what components of your posters will magnify the story's style and meaning?". Receiving an outside viewpoint, especially during the editing process, really allowed us to judge our own pieces more efficiently and progressively sculpt the design to deliver the biggest effect, for example, rotating the film's title 90 degress to emphasise how 'atypical' the film is. With respect to our film review, it was recommended by a tutor to study other well-made film reviews such as can be found in 'Empire' and 'Total Film' etc. This influenced certain parts of the content we included, such as big punchy words and a star rating system.

It was far more difficult to receive regular feedback while editing the short film itself, as this process was carried out at home. My parents would have a look and make criticisms whenever they were available, but they didn't tend to pose very big questions, like a tutor would if i were at school. This left me relying more so on the feedback i would receive on our rough cut after a class viewing. This feedback was generally good, including comments such as "really like the story, didn't expect the twist at the end" and "good plot. Well edited.". But certain criticisms, such as "change in aspect ratio noticeable" and "certain shots at the beginning lasted too long" alerted me to clear areas of improvement. So i amended these faults and ultimately used these criticisms constructively to create the final cut.

The audio present in the film was a factor that both my fellow peers and tutors commended and criticised. A highlight of audio usage was, according to audience feedback, the council scene - sound layering was used to make certain key moments feel more natural e.g. The ruckus that occurs wasn't shot with every actor present at one time, but instead moulded from a collection of clips of individual actors. But certain views implied room for improvement e.g. Sound levels within the piece weren't quite as natural as they could've been. I realised that i had purposefully edited audio levels to make actors with quieter voices sound more profound. If i were to execute this task again, i would take more care within the production stage of the film, thinking more of how it will affect post-production.


Another criticism which not only became apparent about my piece, but among many others in the class was that of the picture quality. Due to not testing which output format the camera would produce for the film clips, i found myself trying to contend with a very pesky MTS. format. This simply wouldn't work in conjunction with any of my editing software, and so a file conversion application was used in attempt to salvage the situation. In using a .mov file format (appropriate out of limited selection), i found that the picture came out very pixelated and grainy. If i were to repeat the task, i would either find a way to change the output format on the camera or access a more user-friendly conversion application.


Overall, audience feedback has paid a huge influence on my creative decisions. I am very thankful for all the criticisms i had received as it could only be used constructively, and ultimately contribute towards the improvement of my work.



 

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

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

This blog publishing web service is where it all began. Blogger became the biggest tool in keeping track of progress throughout the pre-production, main production and post production period. It not only allowed me to structure my research and evaluation but, through providing picture and video applications, made my profile as informative as possible through a variety of visual mediums. The online service, alike youtube, allows people to see your profile from practically anywhere in the world, which allows perfect opportunity for a variety of viewpoints. You could be browsing the web in Australia and be watching 'Atypical Superhero Story' within a few clicks of the mouse. Comments are allowed on blogger, so criticisms of my work may be seen and taken constructively to further improve my work. Overall, blogger has been a huge help!

I'm going address both wikipedia and youtube at once, as i rarely utilised one of these web services without using the other at any one time. Youtube and Wikipedia became the most benefitial of tools used in planning and construction. Whether it was to research camera techniques, editing techniques or even to take note from previously made short films ('The Crusader' being a favourite), both contributed to improving my construction. Youtube was used more predominantly during the editing process as step by step tutorials were widely available on useful tips and tricks within 'Final Cut' and 'After Effects', for example- a good couple of hours were spent during the eye animation creation at the end of mine and Paddy's piece, as i would constantly chop and change between the tutorials directions and my editing software.

 

The Canon HF M306 HD camcorder that was used to film my AS level piece, was pulled out of it's box once again to capture some creative imagination. For capturing film at the level I'm at, this piece of kit has proved to be more than adequate. The interchangeable automatic and manual settings on the camera allow you to freely adjust focus, white balance etc. or allow the camera to adjust these factors automatically. This allowed a lot more freedom to capture the shot you want, the way you want. However, one problem which arose was the output file format of the video clips- The MTS. format which became noticeable among all the other students in my class was very difficult to import into certain editing software. For the Files to actaully be accepted by Final Cut, I had to convert them to .MOV files, using the file conversion software 'Prism'. The quality of footage after conversion was hardly HD and rather grainy, but i did the best i could to make the video files usable.

The 'Photoshop' editing software was used in creating our ancillary tasks (Two posters and film review). Paddy and I relied entirely on this software during the creation of the posters, as it allowed us the most freedom. From importing the raw images of Ram (played John) and Josh (played Neville), we progressed in applying an appropriate background as we cropped around the face etc. and layered in the colour black. Then the 'black and white' effect was applied to the faces themselves. After which we focused on the key element-the eyes. Changing the hue the eyes was a highlight of the two designs. We then simply had to add the title (tilted to the side) and production company to finish. Although photoshop was needed in creating the background and 'pelican man' picture for our review, the majority of the spread was created within 'InDesign'. This software allowed far more potential when creating a combination of documentation and graphics. Margin tools, extensive text formats etc. became very handy when structuring the design. This user-friendly application put far less pressure on the production of the review and gave enough freedom to present the film's unique style the way we wanted to. Overall, We were very pleased with the outcome of our ancillary tasks

Both 'Final Cut Express' and 'After Effects CS5' were used in the editing process. To begin with, Final cut was utilised for it's user friendly tool pallet and clip maneuverability. This is where the main bulk of editing was done, as the piece was sculpted to become a 7 minute, 4 second film. Once this process was completed, I progressed onto using After Effects. As implied by the name, this software became very handy in adding special touches and additional effects. I took advantage of colour correction, filtering indoor shots with a warmer feel and colour-burning a shade of blue onto outdoor shots for a colder feel. The vignette effect was also applied to draw more attention to the focal point within each clip, making certain on-screen factors more significant e.g. Neville, the action figure. The most tasking job within the After Effects process had to be animating. Both the opening film title sequence and green eye animation were made from scratch, using multiple solid layers, null layers, a few tweaks here and there, plus a whole lot of patience. This advantage taking of new software allowed a great deal of improvement from my foundation portfolio, giving my advanced portfolio an animation induced edge over previous work.

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

Finished Short Film- Atypical Superhero Story

Audience feedback for ancillary response - year 13 class

Our feedback was generally very positive. The blog post of the two images next to each other has been interpreted wrongly in some cases- saying that the images don't quite match up...they are two seperate posters so, wouldn't be seen next to each other when shown in the ad-campaign.

A small negative cristicism which we will take into account, is the comment on the absence of a comapny tag. We will take this as constructive criticism and add a company name to our poster designs.

Many liked the Black & White effect, contrasting with the brightly coloured eyes-this was meant to catch attention so has proved to be effective.

FINISHED TWO-PART POSTER