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

Here is question 3 of my evaluation, i hope you enjoy it.

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

For the construction of my short film i used lots of different media technologies. For example, when trying to find an idea for my film i was looking through a website called Youtube, which is a site where anyone can upload videos to, on this site there is millions of short films, and also feature films. So this is where i went for inspiration. After weeks and weeks of looking through short films on here i decided that i would create a futuristic short. After deciding this i then looked back at futurisitic shorts on youtube and tried to find what people liked within the films, so i could include them myself. Once id come up with my idea and plot for gas man, i then decided to share this idea on social media, so i could get some feedback as to whether this was something people would want to watch or whether i'd need to start brainstorming for a whole new idea. Feedback i got was quite good, however i got some suggestions of little bits i could change, which i ended up doing.

Another way in which media technologies helped with the construction of my film is by helping me recruit a filming team. I used the social media site 'Facebook' to message people and find contacts who might be interested in acting in my film, or being behind the scenes. From doing this it meant i could find people who were interested in drama, and also in film generally. I ended up recruiting my whole team via facebook. Facebook also helped with organising everything, i made a group chat with all the crew in it, so we could keep each other updated at all times, with times of filming, and when we were available etc. Being able to do this was a huge help and without this organising everything would have been extremely difficult.

A third way in which media technology was used was to create this blog itself. By using blogger it meant i could update everyone with how my film was going, and how i was going about doing so. Aswell as all the preparation i had put into it. I have uploaded everything i have done over the year to this blog, including my film, poster and magazine review. This lets the whole world have a chance of seeing it meaning i could get feedback from others and also look back to see this in the future so i could see what needs improving and what doesn't when i do this again.

Media technologies also helped massively with my evaluation. I wouldst have been able to do a single bit of my evaluation without some of the websites and software. For example, i have used Pezii to create a presentation for one of my evaluation questions, as i was hoping it would be something different to a normal blog, meaning people could enjoy it more. I also have made vlogs which i have uploaded to my blogs, in which i used editing software and cameras, which without, it obviously wouldn't have been possible. But of course the main thing i used in my evaluation was social media. I used this to gain all sorts of feedback about my film, mainly using survey monkey to create a survey and then posting this on facebook, along with a link to my film in order to get people to complete the survey. I found this extremely useful, it was so much quicker than asking for peoples feedback and opinions in person.

In conclusion media technologies helped me massively with the production of my film. It helped me develop my idea, create the film, advertise my film and also gain feedback about it. I would say that without the media technologies we have today i would have struggled massively to do all of this.

Evaluation question 2: How effective is the combination of your short film, your poster and magazine review?

In order to advertise my film and let people know about It, I decided to make a poster and also write a magazine review. By creating both of these I hoped it would make people want to see my short film, and ask questions about it. Together I think the poster and magazine done a fairly good job.

My magazine review - There are three main characters in my film, the two burglars, and also Rory the ARB. Because of this I decided I wanted all three of them to be in the main picture. From doing research into successful film magazine reviews I found that a lot of them used stills from the actual film, as I wanted all three characters to be in my review picture too I done the same thing. I think by doing this It leaves a lot of questions the audience want to ask, such as 'who is this hologram?' and 'what is going on?' and therefore may make them want to watch it for themselves. From this picture you can obviously tell the genre very easily too due to Rory the hologram being in it, this means sci-fi fans will automatically know its a film directed for them.

Social media is also a big part of everyday life for lots of people, and because of this I decided to add a '#GasMan' at the bottom of my review. People automatically know this is to do with twitter, and they can then look up this hashtag and see what people are saying about the film, and find any news about the film. Once again hoping this will make people more excited about the film and it gives them a chance to follow what is going on with Gas Man. Social media is free and a very easy way to gain a fan base.

My poster - Once again for my poster I thought very hard about the image I wanted everyone to see, I thought this one was even more important than the magazine review, and this would be taking up a whole page. After a long thought process I decided on making the ARB big and very dominating, towering above the two burglars who are struggling around on the floor. This tells people that the ARB is going to be stronger than the two burglars and something may happen to them. I was hoping this would leave the audience wanting to know more. The way I made this image was by using adobe after effects and taking two different stills from the film. I then keylighted the ARB unit out, and enlarged him to the size I want. I then added a red tint to him to make him look a bit more evil and menacing. After that I then took the second still, cut out the burglars and made them look small compared to the ARB towering over them. The last effect used on the poster was to make the title 'Gas Man' look all smokey. Yet another clue for the audience to be guessing why it is like that.

I added the month of which the film was due to be released, a review from a youtube channel and also a hashtag. The film date was on there to let the audience know when the film was due to be released, this would then give them the chance to see it as soon as possible, and also use the hashtag to talk about the film. The review from 'The media student' which is five stars is meant to show people how good someone else thought the film was, hopefully making them think they would enjoy it just as much. Finally the hashtag was put on there for the same reason as the magazine review. To get people talking and to gain a fan base.

In conclusion I would say that the combination of both my magazine and poster worked well together, they both showed little clues for the audience to find and give them things to think about, leaving questions in their mind and ultimately them wanting to see my film.

Evaluation question 1: How does your short film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real short films?

for this evaluation question I decided to make it on prezi. This is only the second time I have used it but I think the end result was fairly good.
You can see my Prezi here: https://prezi.com/mj7str9mb3qx/evaluation-question-1/

How am i going to answer each of my evaluation questions

In order to see how well I have done with my coursework so far I have been given four evaluation questions, by answering these I will hopefully be able to understand what I have done well, and mainly what I could improve if I were to do this again. The four questions im going to be answering are:

1) In what ways does your short film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real short films?

2) How effective is the combination of your short film and your poster magazine?

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

I will answer each of these in a different way, the first question I will be answering using prezi. Hopefully by using prezi I will be able to show how my film is similar to other real short films. The second question I will be answering by writing a blog post, with the possibility of adding videos and pictures to the blog post. The third question will be answered via a vlog of me. Hopefully there will be film footage of my audience giving feedback, aswell as answers from the questionnaires. The final evaluation question will possibly be a voice clip with animations/pictures on top. So I will be talking over it, this will hopefully give the effect im looking for however im not 100% sure I will be doing this one.

Updated magazine review

 

Here is an updated version of my magazine review. As you can see I added a part for social media.

Updated Poster

Here is an updated version of my poster, here you can see ive added social media taglines aswell andf production companys at the bottom.