Culture clash finished film

print artefacts

evaluation

Question 1:

One of the ways my product uses the conventions of a short film is in the cast, the two I have researched, Standby and Connect, both use a small cast with only one or two main characters or one main character and a supporting character. My product therefore only uses two characters in the whole film which was useful because it meant when I was filming there were less people to direct and in turn that made the whole directing process more straightforward. However from a critical perspective it could have impacted the film because by only having dialogue between two characters it can make the script repetitive and therefore struggle to captivate the audience for the entire film.

I also developed the idea of individuality because in both Standby and connect it was an insight into the individual characters life which is what a short film is because it should be a 'slice of life' but I wanted to use the 'slice of life' I was presenting in my short film to show how different cultures are individual from each other because the basis of my film was Britain meets America and this allowed me to use the individual characters personalities to represent two different cultures so instead of having the insight to one persons life the audience gets the understanding of an entire culture.

I also challenged the codes and conventions as well because in short films the characters tend to not address the camera or acknowledge the audience directly and this links in with the idea of it being a 'slice of life' as a short film should be about the character living their life without the camera being there but I wanted to change this and break down the barrier between audience and character so I have used scenes which are the main characters thoughts and in these scenes he is sitting in a chair with these thoughts popping up behind him and he speaks to the audience about his feelings on the situations in the film. The concept is that those scenes are his inner voice inside his head made visual to the audience so they are put in a position of power where they know the truth but the characters don't. This is effective because it gives the audience a sense of purpose which makes them feel as if they are part of the film and allows them to immerse themselves into the film. However to make these scenes it took longer than the production itself because I had to edit the background using a green screen which affected the whole production time overall.

Question 2:

The film itself is very much focused on American culture being different from British culture and I believe that the two prints I have made are extremely useful in showing this message. Firstly the poster for the film works well with the film itself because the posters background is half an American flag and half of a British flag and as a result of this it shows the two different cultures colliding together in the form of the two characters who are in the foreground of the image staring down at each other on either side of the flag. Therefore I feel it is effective because it is very striking which gets the message across to the audience about the different cultures. However the downside to this print is that when I came to Photoshop the two flags together I realised that the American flag would need to be cut on the left side so that I had the stars and stripes instead of just the stripes. The downside to this was that the image for the foreground was already taken and I, acting as the British character was on the left in front of the American half of the flag which could therefore confuse the audience when actually watching the film.

The other print I made was a film review and his too complimented the film well because the message it gave made it clear what the basis of the film was. Firstly it showed the audience that it was going to heavily involve America as a theme and that was because of the image used in the review. it was from the film and was of the main character with an NFL badge in the background which is the key indicator that the film will involve American culture because NFL (American football) is a huge part of American culture and is a symbol of America all around the world. Other than the main body of text which reviews the plot and the characters there is a short character profile about the lead actor and shows that culture plays a big part in the film because it was based around what they wouldn't like about the UK which is useful because it sets the tone for the entire film. As a result of this I feel that this print is very useful because it simply outlines the key features of the film for the audience.

Question 3: 

The feedback received first informs me that our film is seen as average by the majority of the audience and a smaller proportion saw it as good. To me this suggests that people see the idea and concept being good but the execution of the initial idea is not reflective of the concept. This is partly down to the fact the initial idea for location was different and would have been original as it would have had a variety of locations. Despite the fact I do agree that in principle it is average and for me this is down to the restricted locations we used I do think that the use of the green screen is why some see it as a good production because I feel that it is an original idea that has been executed well, it is similar to the mockumentary sub-genre but takes the twist that the character is talking to himself in his mind. This has therefore showed me that I need to focus on the whole films continuity rather than individual aspects of the film for it to be seen as either a good or excellent film.

100% of my feedback says that the planning on my blog was only average which I again agree with because to begin with I had no plans of making a short film and in fact intended to make a music video but due to the difficulty of picking a narrative and a song to match the tempo of the narrative I decided to collaborate with Alessandro because his short film narrative allowed me to be much more creative as there are a lot of things to centre a film around the cultural differences in the USA and the UK. Therefore due to this there was not substantial planning into the genre as compared to the research for music videos. However at the same time I did create a strong target audience using yougov.co.uk which helped to form a narrative around the personality traits of our target audience and because of this we decided that the film should be about cultural differences because the target audience being young adults they would fit the category of adventurers who are people who want to see the world and experience new things so I thought this would be a selling point of the film because it is an example of how cultures are different and exciting. However the feedback has showed me that I need to focus on planning the production carefully and researching the conventions of my genre in more detail.

As for the film itself, 80% of the feedback suggests that the editing is of a good quality, this is mainly down to the use of the green screen where I edited the background to fit with the characters mood and in one scene added a dissolve to change the background half way through. This gave a good quality finish as it did give the effect that the character was in his own mind as the audience were able to see what he was reacting too. The reason 20% of feedback thought the editing was weak is to do with the fact that other than the green screen there is very little editing required and the majority of it is continuity editing so that the narrative falls into place so most of the editing will not be noticed by the audience but the fact remains that the editing stage was mainly cutting down the videos to the exact points that I needed and then fitting them into place to create the narrative.

One criticism from the majority of feedback was the lighting with people saying that certain scenes were hard to see and this was a problem because we had filmed scenes with extra lighting but it caused part of the scene to be too bright and blocked out part of the scene and because of this I used the slightly darker scenes as it was clearer than the brighter scenes. Due to the fact I did this I had to keep each scene consistent so therefore the same lighting was used throughout filming. In the future it would be beneficial to add a filter to highlight darker areas of the scene and therefore make the scene clearer.

There have also been suggestions that the introduction is not clear and that the narrative begins with the audience not understanding what is happening. However in my research short films such as ‘Gasman’ or ‘Wasp’ tend to do this and begin with something vague that then builds up to the main part of the narrative. However I could make it simpler to understand by having the first scene where the two characters meet and then cut to the green screen for the main character (Austin) to explain the context rather than for the first scene to explain why the narrative is about to happen and ignore why there is significance to the narrative.

Question 4:

audience feedback sheet

Audience feedback:

 

How would you rate the success of the production in following the codes and conventions of a short film?

 

Excellent           good            average            poor            very poor

 

From the evidence you have seen on the blog, how well planned was the production?

(1 being excellent and 5 being very poor)

 

1     2     3     4     5

 

How would you describe the level of creativity of the production?

 

High imagination and creative flair               Some imagination and some creative flair

 

Little imagination and no creative flair         No imagination or creative flair

 

Please rate the technical aspects of the short film. (1 being excellent and 5 being very poor).

 

1. Camera Angles:     1     2     3     4     5
2. Mise en scene:       1     2     3     4     5
3. Editing:                  1     2     3     4     5
4. Sound and music:  1     2     3     4     5
5. Fonts/texts:            1     2     3     4     5

 

How could the production be improved? Please answer in the space below being as specific as possible.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do the print artefacts fit with the codes and conventions of other print products and does it show creativity in the design? Please answer in the space below being as specific as possible.