Evaluation

Evaluation:

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

Film:

• Film noir typically features a femme fatale character - my female protagonist 'Barmaid' has a generic femme fatale quality in that she is feisty, which can be seen from the bar scene as she does not let the male overpower her. This is similar to the way Phyllis in "Double Indemnity" overpowers Walter through her language - showing the femme fatale not to be a subordinate woman.
• Film noir is shot in black and white whereas my film is shot in colour
• Film noir typically features a male character as its anti-hero - this can be seen in films such as "The Big Heat" and "Body Heat" - whose path to resolution is made through corruption or morally questionable acts. This happens in my short film as Boy is ultimately wronged by Barmaid and the path to a resolution, in Boy's mind, is to confront Barmaid and intimidate her. The anti-hero stock character blurs the boundaries of a hero and a villain, which is also done through my film's ambiguous ending as it is left unclear what happens following Boy's final line "I'm sure your flatmate can wait a while".
• My film challenges the forms and conventions of not only Film Noir but films in the general sense through the lack  to the nameless protagonists.
• Generically in film noir, there is a theme of alienation and paranoia which features in my film. Boy is alienated from his fellow man as he is rejected from the pub - for me, this represents the rejection by social groups in the human and animal world who, if felt they are not provided with enough information on an outsider, will reject the outsider causing further alienation. This rejection causes Boy to follow Barmaid home and his paranoia is revealed as he says "I know you didn't mean to hurt me". This reveals that Boy has a paranoia of people intentionally causing him harm which worsens with his alienation.
• Violence is a generic theme in film noir - a theme which is shown explicitly. Although violence does not explicitly occur in my narrative, the ambiguous ending along with the police sirens could connote violence. In this case, I think it possible to say I both challenge and conform to the forms and conventions.
• Boy's clothing challenges the conventions of the film noir male protagonist. Unlike film noir protagonists, Boy does not wear a suit and hat as he is not a detective or involved with the law - this was the usual occupation of the film noir anti-hero. Boy wears a chequered lumberjack shirt, jeans and Converse trainers, which is the typical attire of young men in the 21st century.
• Barmaid's costume is synonymous with that of the film noir femme fatale. Typically the femme fatale wore dark clothing which was often sexualised and feminine make-up which always usually included red lipstick. In the middle and right windows of the femme fatale montage (below) you can see the femme fatale wore a black coat - which was usually knee length or lower - and their hair was kept down.  

A montage of the generic costume of a femme fatale
The left and middle window features Gloria Grahame playing Debby from "The Big Heat" (1953) and the right window features Barbara Stanwyck playing Phyllis from "Double Indemnity" (1944)

A montage of the clothing worn by Barmaid in my short film, which resembles that of the femme fatale
Barmaid is wearing a dark full length coat (below), red lipstick, eye make-up and is wearing her hair down 



Film Poster:

• The lone male on the film poster is a typical framework for film noir posters e.g. "Brighton Rock", "The Third Man"

      

• Like many film noir posters, there is a strong contrast between the use of light and darkness. Having said this, my film poster is also contemporary in the use of the institutional information provided towards the bottom of the page and using a photographed image and not a painting which has been used in many film noir posters such as "The Dark Corner" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
• My poster subverts the codes and conventions associated with modern film posters as it does not have a web address available. I done this purposefully in order to comply with the generic codes and conventions of the film noir posters.
• The only identifiable colours from the original image are the monotone colours (white, grey, black) which uses the conventions of film noir posters
• Many noir film posters feature a dark background with a lighter figure. I have kept to this convention through the use of a black background and, through the use of artificial light, have lit the figure in the poster.
• However, I have not entirely lit the figure in my poster so in this way I am challenging the conventions.

Film Review:

               My film review                                                           Empire magazine's film review
                    

• I looked at the codes and conventions used in Empire magazine's review and based my film review layout upon that of Empire.
• I included the features such as the layout of the text and the image, the position of the verdict box - although I called it 'OVERALL' in order to create my own film review within the conventions of Empire's layout - the position of a rectangular box to the left of the main image and a humorous image inset.
• I have challenged the conventions in the form of placing the film's institutional information in the box to the left of the main image and not under the film's title, using 3 columns and not 4, placing my text selection from the review in the centre of the 2nd column and not at the bottom of the left hand side of the page
• In order to have a continuous colour scheme through my media products I chose a black, red and blue colour scheme.
• I feel I have equally challenged and conformed to the generic codes and conventions of film reviews as I followed the general layout but altered the positioning of certain elements.
• However, I find it extremely unlikely that well-known film review magazines would devote an entire page to review a low-budget, independent film. If independent films are reviewed they are usually done so using half a page with a less extensive review which I have done in my review.

Q: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

• All three of my products follow the same colour scheme, which gives a sense of collective identity. All my products feature the colours red, black, blue and small references to yellow.
  In my main product, red is is the colour of the nail varnish and lipstick worn by Barmaid. This is a key colour in terms of noir as red has connotations of violence, sexuality, danger and death. Black is a dominant colour as Barmaid's entire costume - except the lipstick and nail varnish mentioned above - and, as the film is set at night, every scene is dark and black. Black has connotations of mystery, corruption and death. An example of how I have used the dark effectively in my film is the moment Boy steps away from the shadows and into the light. This is symbolic of Barmaid's 'death', the revelation of the identity of her stalker and, whilst in the light, Boy shows his mind to be corrupted with insanity. Blue does not heavily feature in the film as, at some points, the darkness of the sky appeared to contain blue-ish pigments. Typically blue is associated with the male sex, which only features slightly but it is an constant motif. The continued appearance of the blue is symbolic of the constant presence of the patriarichal values which govern society. Yellow, or light, features in the film as there is a constant presence of yellow-ish light: street lamps, the light upon Barmaid's face in the alleyway, the light in the pub's interior.
  On my film poster red is the colour of the font for "i.D." which is the largest font used on the poster, and the "Palme D'Or Short Film" text. Black is an integral colour of the poster as it is the colour of the background and, thus, the most dominant colour. Blue is the colour of some of the text on the right hand side of the poster and its feature on the poster was influenced by the "The Third Man" poster. Blue also features on the logo of Lens Entertainment Productions, which I created on Photoshop. Yellow is the colour of the Palme D'Or logo and of some of the text on the right hand side of the poster.
  Myy film review features red as it is the colour of the masthead's background, the star-rating's background and the tagline text. Elements of black feature in the main image and is the colour of the text used in the columns, as well as the stars in the star rating system. Blue is the colour of the rectangle which is the background for the institutional information and the colour of the selected text in the middle of the second column. Blue also features on the star logo I created using Photoshop, which is at the top of the page and also features the colour yellow.
• I believe there to be the same tone and ambience in all three of my products.
  The film has both black comedy and thriller moments. Black comedy is present from the Irish pub music coming from the pub's interior just as Barmaid has left and Boy is in hot pursuit. The lyrics "Oh my lovely rose, you're the sweetest girl I know" connotes romanticism, which is darkly comic considering the ending of the film and Boy's intentions. Towards the end of the film, when Barmaid is certain she is being followed, she attempts to run from the clutches of the pursuer. Thriller is established through the audible heavy breathing and handheld camera work. Both these elements of black comedy and thriller arouse a sense of fear and terror through sympathy for Barmaid.
  The threatening look from the male protagonist on the film poster evokes a sense of fear from the intimidating and cold glare he is giving the view.
  Fear is also seen in the facial expression of the female protagonist from the image used in my film review. Although this tense mood is uplifted by the humorous image inset "You look... different to your dating profile picture".
• So, I find all three individual products to induce the same intended trepidation.

Q: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Target Audience:

• Aged 16 - 25
• Both genders
• Middle and working class
• Mixed ethnicities

I received both positive and negative feedback from the paper based questionnaire and the video log which features me interviewing 3 people - with the same questions as the paper based questionnaire - who have seen the film.

Positive:

• Positive representations of females - subverts the stereotype of the meek woman - the power struggle between the two protagonists means there is a balance of gender representation
• Good build up of suspense
• Piano soundtrack made the stalking sequence more sinister and helped to create a spooky ambience
• The piano music fitted well with the chase sequence
• Handheld camera work made the stalker more threatening as the viewer could not see him
• Realistic setting - made the film more credible
• Clear narrative - was understood that the ending was left ambiguous intentionally
• Variety of locations made the film seem more professional
• Good range of camera shots and angles

Negative:

• Bad filming quality made the film look low budget
• Film not seen as realistic as it is centred around an unrelatable subject
• Plot is unrealistic
• Better continuity throughout
• Music should flow better and not be so fragmented
• Handheld camera was too shaky
• Camera was not in focus all the time

Conclusion:

• I found that only the female viewers, with one exception, found Barmaid to be a sympathetic character and so they enjoyed the film more so than those who did not have an emotional response. This indicates that my initial expectations of the target audience was incorrect.
• I found the majority all agreed that the plot was unrealistic in the sense that it was centred around an unrelatable subject - the stalking - but found the beginning very realistic as my target audience are those who socialise in mature environments and are the people who do get asked for i.d. frequently. This allows me to conclude that I should start, finish and end with a subject or issue which can be related to my target audience.
• I found that no-one who completed my questionnaire were able to identify codes and conventions of film noir, so this aspect of my film went unrecognised - although one person did compare my film to be in the style of the TV neo-noir drama "Whitechapel". A high majority of my audience feedback stated that my film was considered to be of the Thriller genre. This leaves me to conclude that it would be most appropriate to show my film in an arthouse or independent film festivals and cinemas such as The Pheonix Cinema in East Finchley. 
• I received mixed feedback regarding my soundtrack. Although it was unanimously agreed that the used and tone of both pieces of music worked very well in their respective placements, most agreed that the music would've been better if the loop was not so fragmented and flowed into each loop better. However, having this been said, some of the same people who made this critique then stated that despite the fragmented soundtrack, it added to the overall eerie feel of the chase sequence - so I had very conflicted views regarding the soundtrack.
• The audience feedback left me to conclude that my target audience should've been female,  younger and of narrower age gap. However, I received the same responses from different ethnicities and social classes (the middle and working classes) so I came to conclude that I did not need to change these elements of my target audience.

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

Construction:

• I used a digital camera to record my film footage
• I used an Apple Mac computer to upload my footage onto iMovie - the Apple software which I used to edit my film and my questionnaire feedback (which I recorded on the Apple Mac's build-in camera)
• As I do not own an Apple Mac at home and as my computer does not have any software which would allow me to edit my film, I could only edit my film on the Apple Mac computer which was available at school
• In order to create a piece of original music, I used GarageBand software on the Apple Mac to create a loop
• To capture the image for my film poster I used the same digital camera that I used for filming
• I used Photoshop software to create my film poster and film review
• To capture the image from my film and use it for my film review, I print screened the image as it appeared on iMovie. From here, I was able to paste the screen shot onto Photoshop, crop the image from the rest of the screen shot and paste the selected image onto another Photoshop tab and I began creating my film review.

Research:

• In order to research the generic codes and conventions of film noir I watched film noir and neo-noir films on DVD
• I used the internet to further research the films I had seen (Wikipedia, IMDB) and to further identify generic codes and conventions of film noir (Youtube videos)

Planning:

• In order to establish my target audience, I created questionnaires using Microsoft Word 2007 on my home computer and distributed them to various family members and school peers.
• To create my anamatic, I used a digital camera to record images I drew onto a paper based storyboard, which I then edited using iMovie and published onto Youtube.
• I used Microsoft Word 2007 on my home computer to create the call sheets for my production. I then print screened a call sheet and pasted onto Paint where I was able to make the call sheet into a JPEG file - a suitable file which I was able to upload onto my blog
• I created my brainstorm spider diagrams using Paint. I typed the text and created the shapes on paint and then saved them all as JPEG files, which I was then able to upload onto my blog.
• I captured my cast and location shot images on a digital camera, which I uploaded onto iPhoto and from there was able to upload the pictures onto my blog.

Evaluation:

• I used the internet to access my blog, where I recorded my progress.
• I used the internet to research images of femme fatales, copied and pasted the images onto Paint where I created a montage of pictures - using the cropping tool - to depict the femme fatale costume.
• I print screened stills of the Youtube video of my film and pasted the images of Barmaid to Paint where I created a montage of different camera shots - using the cropping tool - to show her costume in the film.