Evaluation question 3 - WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Audience Feedback from holliehogan

Overall feedback
The feedback I received such as "your original idea was better" about the idea to put my brother as the one who dies not the dad, really was a depressing comment because in my head I knew what my film would look like and in reality it didn't come off, so that's why feedback is important as it cement s your own thoughts.
I used platforms such as web 2.0, Facebook as most of my audience use the virtual world alot more than the real world and face to face questions after of course, watching my film. The Facebook feedback was from my friends which adds a slight element of bias, however they seemed very genuine comments and in real life they told me how good they thought it was and that they didn't expect it to be that good. The face to face questions were the best form of feedback in my opinion as I got to see the persons reactions when watching the film, whenever there was a confused face at the start when the sherbet lemon appeared, it was rectified at the end, showing that my mysterious enigma created the desired effect.

Evaluation question 2 - HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

The photographs

The photograph on my review page shows Harriett posing onto on a bin next to council flats, wearing  shell suit looking deep into the camera lens. Although the camera angle is low, Harriett is not superior as she is standing on a bin, superficial superiority. Just like how she thinks drugs make her superior when in fact they don't. 

The darkness reflects the film brilliantly as the whole film is set at night time apart from the last scenes, This dark effect also compliments the dark tones of the film. This picture reflects the deprivation element of her life which is shown in the film, deprivation is the link.

The photograph on the poster represents the film well also as the character is wearing clothing that is seen in the film aswell as also being at night time in the darkness,keeping the dark theme going. The ravescene and mind boggling drugs are evident here by the use of photography skills, drugs and the rave are the link from this photo to the film.

I made these ancillary tasks on the same platform - Microsoft publisher, this convergence makes the tasks look similar automatically. 

I believe my film and my ancillary tasks compliment each-other well as they all reflect the film very well by showing, deprivation, rave lights, prison element with the bars and costumes in the photographs all correspond excellently with the film.

Evaluation Question 1 - IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

1st Prezi is how I used conventions 

2nd Prezi is how I developed and challenged them

Lemon Sherbet Short film review

Lemon Sherbet short film poster

Lemon Sherbet - Hollie Hogan A2 Media Studies

Audience profiling

The underground rave scene is rife with teenagers doing drugs as a way of announcing themselves on the social scene. My typical audience member will be a girl ages 18 who lives at home with a part time or full time job that's minimum wage. She lives for the weekend so she can escape her low-aspiration life, Mkat, MDMA, Cocaine are rife in the rave scene and so eventually she gets experimenting with them and becomes a raver. The audience will spend the majority of their money on expensive clothing, they will smoke cigarettes.

Audience profiling

Technology for photographs

 I am going to use an Olympus mju ZOOM 140 to take my photos for my film poster and my magazine film review to get the 90’s effect in my images as the images will automatically tell the audience about the type of film it is. The fact my camera is from 1990 will enhance the pictures relation to my audience as they will connect with the grainy/retro image as the rave scene is from that time period. The clothing and dialogue that ravers wear and use have the purpose to appear retro and stylish. So by using a film camera from 1990 will compliment this style and main goal of the raver to be retro so will appeal to them. 90’s Film camera shots are extremely popular on social media networks such as instagram, my target audience ‘like’ the photo posts which is another reason why I used this piece of technology and it is very representative and popular with my target audience. 

Props

Filming schedule

Originally my filming schedule was not very well planned due to my original actresses hectic lifestyle, I never had complete assurance that she would be available. However over the Christmas period was when I filmed Niamh, trying to get the seasonal feeling into the film. Niamh then decided to go to Finland for months without telling me, leaving me in the lurch to find a new actress, however my friend Harriett was more than happy to help me out, even though she lives in Solihull there is a bus '71' that goes from my frontdoor to hers, making meeting up very easy. I would meet Harriett once or twice a week for four weeks to do the filming, it would always be in the night time though as my film is a DARK film and this would add to the effect of darkness. February and March are the months in which I filmed.

Film poster research and planning

I am researching films that revolve around the reality of the lower socio-economic classes, time set and drugs to see how the reality is shown through imagery and composition of the photograph. The codes and conventions are not my main focus as my film doesn't follow convention as there is no new equilibrium so im not afraid to go against conventions.
This is England is a film that is perfect in creating a different era through the costumes, make up and props as the skin heads, rolled up jeans and the denim composed with the estates and un-educated language and racist views signifies the 80's. This is helpful to me in the composition of my photo as my character represents the 90's in today's time, so both iconography needs to be represented in my photo via costumes, props and surrounding area.

Trainspotting along with other successful films have more than one poster, this itself shows the audience that this film has been successful as they have the money to make multiple posters.
 The main image in the seconds poster is of the main character 'Mark Renton' going through obvious withdrawal, Sweating, messed up body temperature, layered at the bottom of the main image are cropped picture of the rest of the main characters on what seems to be playing cards, numbered by importance in the film the illustrator manages to get across to the audience the personality's of each character through their poses and costume. The images are also in black and white to emphasis the time in which it is set (late 80's) when this film was released in 1996.
The title of the film is in the house style of orange and white in order to make the title recognisable by the public and eventually become iconic. The title itself is very ironic as Trainspotting has absolutely nothing to do with the film, it is a hobby completely contrast to the actual activities in the film such as hard drug use, robbery and sex. These explicit's are mentioned on the poster to explain the 18 age rating and warn the audience as the title of the film could mislead some.

 In small print at the bottom of the poster are the credits including production labels.
At the top of the poster, the most famous quote out of the film is used to draw the audience in as it intruiges them as to what sort of person doesn't want a normal life?

PLANNING OF MY LEMON SHERBET POSTER.

The title 

A great convention of film posters is that the font and title image are extremely iconic to the point where the audience only need to see the font style and know what film it is. Therefore I wanted my title to be just as iconic, so I combined the fact my film is about lemon sherbet and cocaine with my title font, I used icing sugar and flour to create it by using my debit card I manoeuvred it to create the title, i then took a photograph on my iPhone, emailed it to myself, uploaded to photo onto paint and cropped around the writing until no background could be seen, just the rugged, raw ingredients.   

How I constructed my poster

I scanned all of my photographs from my film camera onto my computer, sifting through the photos, experimenting with different looks and positioning of pictures. I originally positioned my photo vertically thinking it was the only way posters should be. But then I remembered that posters on billboards tend to be horizontal, having my poster horizontal also kept the quality of my image as it wasn't stretched, I was able to just transfer my film camera picture to my poster blank template, fitting superbly.

Choice of photograph;

The photo I chose to use as my main flagship main image was this photo as it best shows my photography skills and my ability to combine the rave scene with a still photo of my character. The lights and fire effects represent the blur of the rave scene and the effect it has on her as the blur is taking over the photo, representing the rave blur taking over her life.

Conventions included

Quotes from two well established and respected newspapers are positioned on top of the poster as through my research I found that quotes are very effective in persuading the audience to see it as it is someone else's opinion of the film as trustworthy as a newspaper critic, they wouldn't lie.

I used 'grunge' type fonts that I found on 'font space' to correspond with the nature of the film, so everything connected with the film, even the quotes.

I also included the release date as that is an essential part of information that a poster should include when promoting the film. The font used for this is the same font used as the small print at the bottom, my production company ' Depiction pictures'  owns this font, creating consistent iconography.


The small print at the was positioned at the bottom of the poster to comply with convention

The font style was based on my production company 'Depiction pictures', I didn't want alot of font styles on my poster as I wanted everything to look united. Therefore I WENT AGAINST CONVENTION by using the same font for my small print and release date as my production company. This as a positive consequence creates iconography for my production company, in future films that font will be automatically recognisable to Depiction Pictures.

Production Company 

Definition of depiction : representation in image form, as in a painting or illustration


The whole purpose of Depiction pictures is to represent real life situations through art-films.

Costumes

photographs for film magazine review and poster

In my research i found that the iconic scenery that gave the film its time and emotion were included in the background of the main focus which were the characters. So in the composition of my photographs, night time had to be utilised, as the darkness represents the feel of the film as it is mostly set at night.

The main character, Harriett, was the main focus in all of the shots due to her heavy feature in the film, her clothing style would attract the target audience as straight away they can relate to her and want to know what else they can relate to. I made Harriett wear iconic sports and street wear brands in order to gain the relation effect for the audience and also hint at what my film is about, as streetwear/sportswear in the darkness only means one thing... the rave. These are the clothing choices: 

 

Nike Air Max 95's are commonly worn in the rave and by drugs takers as these shoes are extremely "street". These shoes are quite expensive at £115 a pair so for the audience to see these shoes on my actress they know that this film os seriously representative and 'in the know' not just the same old film pretending to know about youth culture. 

A Sergio Tacchini shell suit jacket was also worn as mixed coloured jackets are extremely 90's, in my research as previously stated, photos of the film normally show the time that the film is trying to represent, this jacket automatically says 90's. 

The full costume may look unorganised and not colour co ordinated but every peice of clothing is over £60 and is respected by every member of the youth. 

The Photos

(i paid £8 to get these photos printed)

This photo was set in the same place were i filmed Harriett at the back of some flats in Walmley, Birmingham, i made her crouch down on a bin with the rails and flats in the background for the time and place effect, this photo shows that she is a street rat effectively. The fact that i took these photos on a camera from 1990 gives the effect of time and era aswell as the jacket.
This photo would be brilliantly used when talking in my film review about characters.

This photo again shows Harriett out, possibly waiting for a drug deal or just thinking about her hard life, the 90's feel of this photo is incredibly real, the shops in the distance at the end of the long spiralling street path give the contempory feel to the film.

These photos were set in the same palce as the smoking scene, the bars and boarded up windows show perfectly the life of the actor and the setting/feel of the film.

The Adidas raver jacket was a change in costume.

This was shot on my own flat balcony against the bars, in order to represent a prison aka trapped in by drugs.

This photo is my favourite picture as my technical skills came of a treat. As i took the photo i moved the camera during the flash in circular motions to create a whirl effect of colour, the colours now symbolise the lights at the rave and create a slow motion blur as would be seen through the eyes of someone on drugs. The bars also look like prison bars

better than the other pictures as the bars are extended to create a full trapped effect.

Sound

I recorded my own soundtrack in the school studio, Ben Holland was the pianist who I gave instructions to make the piano out-of-tune to create an eerie effect, I also instructed him the play the intro extremely slowly in order to fit in the film sequence of on the bus as it would have a stronger effect on the audience as mad world is a well known tune so for it to be made even sadder is hard hitting.

I have uploaded my soundtrack onto soundcloud as a way of getting feedback from my followers.

I received messages giving feedback on soundcloud, this one from 'caitlinmaynash';

Locations

Flat

My own flat was used as the inside of Harriett's flat in the film as by having her live in a flat makes the poverty she lives in a reality as the distinctive hallmarks of a flat are seen such as the high windows and the branched hall way. However, only the inside of my flat was used as the surrounding area of the flats are not low enough class, so I filmed another area for the outside portrayal of Harriett's flat. I travelled via bus and train to the 'Lyndhurst' estate in Erdington, Birmingham which has a reputation of being rough, so I used this area to film the blocks of flats to establish the setting and class of the character.

I effectively made up my own location as the establishing area I filmed the Lyndhurst estate in Erdington, for outside Harriett's flat I filmed at the back of shops and flats in Walmley, and the inside of her flat inside my flat.

In order to get across the deprived living conditions that Harriett faces I replaced the plasma TV with a 25 year old portable one and scattered beer bottles around the room.

 

Rainbow

Rainbow warehouse is the pinicle of raving in the UK, drugs are rife, the events i will go to in order to film will be Dj EZ and calibre. I chose these two event because alot of people will be attending, making the rave scene look more appealing and popular to show that alot of people can relate as they are doing the same thing. The lighting and music at these events will also be extremely effective on the audience creating a huge contrast of Harrietts home life and escape.


Bus

The average mode of transport for a working class girl, not the safest, shows that she is street wise and adapted to travelling on her own in the dark. Another relatable aspect of Harrietts life as my target audience would encounter the same travelling channels as Harriett.
I filmed the bus scene in chelmsley wood as the council flats there are extremely deprived.

Walmley

At the back of a row of shops in Walmley there are flats above these shops which means there were bins and graffiti, railed outdoor stairwells for the added 'rough estate' effect. This reflects my drama genre as Harrietts life is shown as deprived and lacking in many aspects and these locations help depict this portrayal. 

Actors/Actresses

My main actress was originally Niamh Grace, as she was totally unique in dress sense and quite introvert (Her gorgeous looks were a plus for my film as it would draw a larger audience in), this complimented the original story line of a girl who gets introduced to drugs and completely changes every aspect of herself including style and needs. Niamh's dark demeanor reflected by her pitch black, greasy hair and heavy dark, smokey eye make up and bright red lipstick created a mysterious character, however, looking back, she was not an actress who a wide range of people could relate to because she was so unique.

 

Me and Niamh are very close friends, so i know her characteristics include huge mood swings, this would automatically shine through in the film as the film would need my actress to be able to demonstrate different contrasting moods.

Niamh studies fashion at college and therefore doesn't take any inspiration from anywhere else when styling herself, she is her own blank canvas. This shines through via her outrageous outfits and make up, in the film i would of shown the dramatic change in style when the introduction of the rave scene and drugs became apparent, street wear would feature heavily.

This example of Niamh's style from her instagram page, the contrast between this and street wear would show the audience the huge influence of drugs, garage music and the social scene. 

Me and Niamh

However, Niamh due to college commitments and personal issues was unable to find time to arrange a schedule to film my project, after the 6th time of being let down I dropped her from the role and decided to get a real life rave scene girl who many of my audience could relate to.

Harriet Carolan-Orton was my chosen actress, I met her through going to raves myself and I know she is a good representation of the 'cool kid'. She is a natural beauty which makes her low maintenance in the composition of filming as I don't have to go for make up breaks, it enhances the reality of the film and actress, raw. She is a well known girl in the Birmingham rave scene, she promotes for events, which is a real coup as the actress is well conditioned for my film. 

Harriett has tattoo that she got when she was 13, this further shows the careless attitude and the sensation seeking characteristics of the actor.

She, aswell as niamh is a very crazy girl who loves to go out to the rave and get 'mashed', this immunity to the rave and the comfort-ability to the environment will enhance the reality of the acting and the film. She is an experienced veteran of the rave at the age of 18.

Harriett's style

Street wear and sports wear (e.g Fred Perry, Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste, Adidas) signifies the 90's scene and automatically creates judgement of Harriett being a raver/drug user. The clothes are not smart but quite expensive, this reflects the social group that Harriett is in. The social group's lives revolve around illegal substances and going out, so her style is a great real life representation. 

Adaptation of my film to my change of actress

Originally, the actress would of been introduced to drugs and the rave scene as Niamh's style was not that of the social group, so the change of style would of been a focus point in the film to show the drugs changing effects. Because Harriett does not dress like Nimah and would not suit those clothes as she would feel extremely uncomfortable in them, I had to change the fact that the actress gets introduced to drugs and instead an original street girl who has that lifestyle. So for added identity, Harrietts street wear will feature heavily in my film.