Project Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:

 • a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

Town Saviour Short Movie

Double Page Spread Final

Final Poster - Town Saviour

Question 1: In what ways does yours media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Short Film:
In my short film I followed many conventions from other real media texts, these being mainly Mockumentarys, In my short film it was crucial to my storyline that I had the main charecter seem real and the "mockumentary" seem very much like a documentary. My short film was based from another short film within in the same genre this being known as "Big society" this has a very similar story line although there films message is about litter.


The opening shot of my short film, was done via a drone with a camera attached, it allowed me to get a 1080p shot this allowed me to get an arial shot and then a slow zoom almost like it was zooming into the house. This added to the story line of the short film and gave the viewers some more information about where the protagonist may live.

In my short film there are close ups that have been purposely done to create an atmosphere where it feels to the viewer that the main character is talking directly too them, this enhanced the documentary genre of the short film. This is similar in the short film "Big society" when the main charecter is talking directly to the camera and making complete eye contact.

The mise en scene was extremely important in my short film, when my protagonist (the main charecter) is in the house there is high level of detail to make it seem like an actual kitchen and that he is cooking. Through the use of this mise en scene it allowed me to create an product that was extrmemly close to the documentary genre.

The shot when my protagonist is cooking and the shots following of him being in the house and doing normal tasks that you would allowed my charecter to connect with the audience. Not only did it allow an connection but it also allowed the shot to seem more suttle and less brutal to the audience.  A similar shot was done again in "Big society" where they have there protagonist cooking in the house making a cake.

Framing in the scenes was also a very important aspect, from my research I gathered that in most documentaries framing doesnt tend to go by the usual of keeping the charecter in the left or right segment of the rule of thirds but instead try to keep the charecter in the middle of the screen for most of the time. I replicated this in my film as I wanted it to portray the documentary genre so In frames such as in the kitchen and while having the protagonist talk to the audience in the short film I have kept him in the centre of the frame. An example of when I did this was on the bridge scene where I used a dolly to move the camera back and he walked towards it at the same time, during this scene you will notice he stayed in the centre of the display.

In my short film audio from other sources was used, I gathered some clips of sound from outside and of a rural environment,I then imported this sound into my short movie and edited it so that it blended in well with the current sound of the short film. This added more life to my short movie and stopped some scenes from being silent which they were planned to be originally and only then changed in post production.

The ending scene of my short film consisted of a hand held shot, this shot took quite a few tries to get right but once it was right I feel it was one of the best shots in the short film. This technique allowed for an unexpected ending to the short film almost like a clif hanger type ending, which is also a very common thing in documentary as they usually follow them up with a second episode.

Double page spread:

 To follow conventions of a typical double page spread I had a very formal layout to mine by using columns I feel these are one of the most important parts to a double page spread and allows the double page spread to seem more along the documentary genre.

The image on my double page spread was manipulated to the correct sizing and allowed me to have the background of the image spread all the way over the second page allowing for a very good effect on the double page spread. It allowed me to brighten up the background image which in turn allowed viewers to read the text easier.

Other conventions were followed on the double page spread such as using quotes and also reviews of the film and also helps show that the ancillary products are linked with the main film.

A black and white colour scheme was used on my double page spread to match the poster and short film allowing them to work in synergy.  The background image colour was dulled down whith a white overlay allowing the black and white colour scheme to continue.

Poster:
My posters feature article photograph follows convention of a medium close up of the main charecter making eye contact with the camera. Through the use of eye contact it allows the viewer to feel a connection with the product it also allows me to link together my triad of products as in the short movie there is also alot of eye contact made.

The colour scheme of my poster again follows in the footsteps of the double page spread and short film, with a mix of whites and blacks throughout the poster. An effect was placed over the feature article photograph to allow for it to be darkened.

The credits of my short film are also located on my poster below the date in which the film will be released I used a conventional format for these credits as most of the time they are at the bottom of the poster, and also the way in which I designed them to be the name big and the role small all the way through.

The movie title is a massive feature in my poster and covers the top one third of the page following the convention of a normal short film poster.

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary ?

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From this above feedback, I was able to know what I did right and wrong in my short film. I found out that I did get the genre right as the people who watched the film understood what genre the film was and the layout the film was out in. Another thing I found out was that they liked the way it was going from his home life at day to fighting crime at night. They also understood that all 3 of my products linked with each other and had same fonts and colours throughout to help with this link. However in the future I feel the short film would need to be longer and include more shots and scenes.

Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Final Poster - Draft

Double page spread - Final Draft