Evaluation Website

I haven't been uploading too many blog posts recently, and that is because I have started my evaluation. On my website you can find all my final products plus all four questions. The website link is below.

https://jackthechinesemonk.wixsite.com/jackculluma2mediaeva

Final Products

In this post I have attached all of my final products. The short film, the poster and the magazine article. The film has been through five drafts, the poster has been through seven drafts, and the magazine article has been through three drafts.

The Short Film



The Poster

The Magazine Article

Third Magazine Draft

This is my third magazine draft. I have moved the grade until what I think is a better position and I also have added a fake author to the article. I'm waiting for more feedback off my peers and teacher so I can improve it further.

Magazine Article Survey feedback

Earlier last week I created a survey to get some feedback on my second draft of my magazine article. I posted it on Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. The responses are mostly positive, but with some suggestions on how to improve the magazine articles. With this information I am going to update my Magazine article and hopefully create a better draft.

Reflective Comment:

I was hoping for a bit more feedback from my survey, but that responses I have got have been very helpful. I'm hoping that with this information I am going to create a better draft.

Second Magazine Article Draft

Above I have attached a second draft for the magazine article. I think it's definitley an improvement on the first draft and is closer to resembling what a review article from IndieWire looks like. I have added a banner on the side, with the 'most popular' articles on the site at that time. I have also shifted the article and main photo to the left to accomdate for the banner.

It does still need some work however. I can't really seem to place where the grading of the film should do. I also feel that some of the proportions of the article themselves are a little off.  I also still need to add a author to the post.

For the 'most popular' banner, I created fake articles about productions from fellow students. These include Max Shephard, Adam Anderson and Fabian Harrison. 4 is a previous project that I have helped create for media and 5 is a mockumentary that I starred in year 10. I added a photo from Fabian's production as the most popular article always has an attached image with it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm starting to feel a whole lot more confident about the final ancillary task. Before it overwhelmed me slighlty, but now I understand what I have to do and how I can improve. My next plan of action is to show my magazine article to some people and get to complete a survey for me.

First Magazine article draft

Above I have attached my first draft of the magazine article. My film would fit well on the IndieWire website as they have a large portion of website dedicated to short films. I used one of their articles as a template and worked off of that.

To improve I think I need to improve the layout of the text and the grade. (A staple of IndieWire's reviews.) I think the photo and everything above it works very well and looks good, and would certainly fit it in with image of IndieWire. 

Reflective Comment:

I'm pleased with my first draft of the magazine article and how it has progressed. It looks like it would've fit in with the IndieWire website. I've already had some over the shoulder feedback and I know how to improve the draft futher.

Survey Feedback

So a few weeks ago I created a detailed survey about my poster and my draft. You can find the post about that here. I have now got the results.

Are you male or female?

How old are you?

Are you religious?

Do you like the design poster?

Do you think the poster would catch your eye?

Did you like the short film?

Do you think the poster works well with the short film?

So from my feedback it seems that what I am doing I am doing right. I can make a few changes to what I have. I'm hoping to do some interviews with some more particular audience members and get some more in depth feedback. There were 'Why?' question in the survey but they were quite basic in their responses.

Reflective Comment:
While the feedback I have received isn't too in depth, I still find it useful. Using this information I can adapt my next draft for both the film and poster to better please my audience.

Class Feedback on Poster

I decided to show my poster to my class to receive some feedback. The poster I showed was my sixth draft. I had a few questions on the board to indicate what I was trying to gain from my feedback. I have attached a Vimeo video below of the feedback. With the feedback, I made a few slight changes.



Below is the improved poster with the feedback I received.

The changes that I have made to the poster are only slight but I do think they improve the overall quality of the poster. First I removed the WordUp logo from bottom left corner as it filled too much space and didn't really fit in with the atmosphere on the photo. I also made the block credit bigger and easier to read. The other change I made was the addition of a scythe for the Reaper, making it much clearer who he is and what the film is about.

Reflective Comment:

I'm happy with the changes I have made and feel like with a few small tweaks I'll have a finished poster. I'm planning on showing my poster infront of my entire year in assembly, as they won't know what the film is about like my class do. Their view will be unbiased and much more truthful.

Magazine article attempt #3

On the first of February I completed my second attempt on a magazine article contents. Since then my teacher has gone over what I have written and has identified some changes that I can be completed. I have made some changes. These can be observed in red.

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"I don't really know." The following line is said quite a few times during the short film about the Grim Reaper and his unfortunate companion. While many would expect the Grim Reaper to know everything and anything about life and death, but Dying Denial, a new short film by up and coming film maker Jack Cullum, offers a much more humorous and clueless Grim Reaper.

Dying Denial leads with only two characters, however they are extremely convincing characters. Nathan, who has recently died, is perplexed about his current predicament and just can't stop asking heavy loaded questions. Asking about religion and the meaning of life, Dying Denial explores several different subjects, but does not offer a definite answer to anything. The film is very open ended and definitely up for discussion.

The visuals and soundtrack compliment the writing well too. The eerie setting a early morning forest, empty and desolate. The music is at times dreamy, while at times it's quite sombre. This combination is very interesting and can really does add to the atmosphere established by the characters and story.

A highlight of the film is certainly Peter Long's portrayal of the Grim Reaper. Serene, wise and amusing, Peter excels in the role. Acting as a guide for Nathan, and in part the audience, you'd hope that the Grim Reaper is quite alike to how Peter portrays him. His chemistry with Ronan is strong, as Ronan plays the poor guy who has unfortunately died. Ronan plays his role exceedingly well and convincingly.

When you break the film down, all it is is one man's passing on. It doesn't focus on dramatic goodbyes or second chances. Death comes, and there is nothing you can do about it when it does. It's a sombre ending, but as an overall film, it's quite a touching take on dying. The film is open-ended and open to interpretation, so much to the point where anyone could enjoy it.

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Reflective Comment:

I am much happier with my third attempt, and think I'm getting closer to the final content that I am going to use. After another review from my teacher, I will refine the changes.

Update post

This is an update post to update on the current situation. Due to unforeseen consequences I was not available to film on the Sunday that I had planned. Therefore I have moved the filming a week back, to the 12th of February. This, while not ideal, is not too much of a problem.

I am making steady progress with my poster ancillary task. I am now creating the sixth draft, which I am hoping will be my final draft. I have received feedback from several different people, from those who know about the film and those who do not. I am planning to have to complete by the end of this week.

The second ancillary task, the magazine article, I am struggling with but still making progress. My teacher is going to be helping me with how I write the article and this seems to be my weakest point at the moment.

Despite my set backs I still feel that I am on track to meet with the deadline. The filming should be done this weekend and once I've edited in the changes, my main product will hopefully will be close to finish. The poster is the least of my worries right now, as the progress there is steady and stable. While the magazine article is difficult to complete, I still have plenty of time to do so.

Reflective Comment:
I started a lot of my production early, meaning that even with these setbacks I still have time. I am not overly worried about not meeting the deadline, as I just seem to refining the majority of my work, with the bulk of it completed.

Analysis of Poster Development

Below I have attached a voice thread in which I go through all my different drafts for my posters. I highlight my ideas, whats changed and feedback I have been given. This voicethread is quite useful in observing how my ideas had progressed, and is quite useful when looking back in reflection.




I apologise for the audio quality.

Reflective Comment:
Completing this was actually quite useful in understanding how my ideas have developed. I can clearly see now how my ideas have grown over the past few months and I think this voice thread will be very useful in helping others understand how my ideas have grown. 

Magazine article contents 2nd attempt!

So after my first attempt at writing a film review for my ancillary task, I now am going to attempt to write a second attempt. This time I have a better understanding of the mode of address that IndieWire uses so I can better replicate the way they write.

Article

"I don't really know." The following line is said quite a few times during the short film about the Grim Reaper and his unfortunate friend. While many would expect the Grim Reaper to know everything and anything about life and death, but Dying Denial offers a much more humorous and clueless Grim Reaper.

Dying Denial leads with only two characters, however they are extremely strong characters. Nathan, who has recently died, is perplexed about his current predicament and just can't stop asking heavy loaded questions. Asking about religion and the meaning of life, Dying Denial explores several different subjects, but does not offer a definite answer to anything. The film is very open ended and definitely up for discussion.

A highlight of the film is certainly Peter Long's portrayal of the Grim Reaper. Serene, wise and amusing, Peter excels in the role. Acting as a guide for Nathan, and in part the audience, you'd hope that the Grim Reaper is quite alike to how Peter portrays him. His chemistry with Ronan is strong, as Ronan plays the poor guy who has unfortunately died. Ronan plays his role exceedingly well and convincingly.

When you break the film down, all it is is one man's passing on. It doesn't focus on dramatic goodbyes or second chances. Death comes, and there is nothing you can do about it when it does. It's a sombre ending, but as an overall film, it's quite a touching take on dying. The film is open-ended and open to interpretation, so much to the point where anyone could enjoy it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm still not overly happy with the article contents. I feel I am struggling to do it correctly . I have analysed IndieWire so hopefully this second attempt will be closer to the mark. 

Dying Denial Third Poster Draft

I have completed the third draft of my poster for my film! While it isn't finished yet, I think it's getting much closer to the being finished. The photo used is much better and I think my typography is getting better. I am soon going to show off my short film and poster together. The poster first, to see what people think the film is about, then after the film to see if they think it fits with it.

The effects on the typography.

Reflective Comment:

Just like my film, my poster is coming along nicely. I feel like I am getting closer to the final product with each attempt. The photo is much better and I am getting much more confident with my Photoshop skills. I believe I am on target to having my poster finished for the deadline. 

Photos for the posters and outside lighting

While I did spend the most of my time on the 23rd filming, I did try get a better photo for my poster. I was able to get some really nice photos that I think will fit very well. It was 2 o'clock when I started meaning that I was fighting against the sun, but I managed to make it work in my favour. Thankfully my good friend Fabian let me borrow his camera.

We will now go through the photos.

So first we tried from behind the two actors. The sun was coming in the from the top left corner, and made the lighting a little too harsh. I didn't really like what the lighting was looking like. However I did still like the way the sky faded with the blues.

I then tried the photo from the front. This worked even less. For a start, I don't want the poster from the front and this didn't convince me otherwise. I think it's too bright for the subject matter of the film and you can also see the shadows. The sun was behind me.

I then tried directly from behind and closer up. but this again made the sun too bright. Also, I didn't like the shadows that the actors were casting. It's also a little too close for my photo. The sun was directly on my left during the shot.

I then moved in line with the sun to experiment with what it would look like. This was a lot closer to what I wanted, just a bit too close and not at the correct angle. The lighting just looked perfect for the poster.

This was the photo I most happy with. I think the lighting here is best, with the two actors looking like silhouettes and the sky looking a nice faded blue. I think the photo is taken at a good distance, and the photo fits the rule of thirds quite well. I can have the information at the top, the title in the centre, and the two at the bottom. To capture this photo I had to go down the hill slightly, crouch down, and keep the out of shot. The sun is just on my left. This is the photo I am going to be using for the poster.

Reflective Comment:

I'm really happy with the photos that I was able to take. Working with natural light can be difficult and I'm glad that I could test out different angles. I am hoping to get another draft of the poster ready for the end of the week.

Poster Drafts

So below I have attached two posters ideas that I have created. The main difference being the location of the title and the second photo. My teacher suggested having two photos, one at the top and one at the bottom.

I also liked the idea of having just one photo, because I quite liked the emptiness that came along with it. I think with a cloud it looks quite good, however for the real poster I am going to need my own photo of a cloud, as I do not own the photo I have used for the draft.

I have got some better photos from my second day of filming, so I am going to re-create both the posters with the better looking photos. I will update the blog as soon as I have completed this.  

Reflective Comment:

I am quite happy with the progress I am making towards the completion of the poster. I am looking forward to using my new photos to try create a more professinal looking poster.

Analysing IndieWire

So I've started analysing the reviews from IndieWire. I'm trying to identify what common similarities all the reviews share. From the mode of address to how they actually review the film.

Content
The reviews often start with either a key quote from the film or by identifying the key characters and their motivations. The reviews then often break down the basic narrative of the film without giving away too much of the plot, only highlighting key scenes. The reviews then end with a grading, ranging from A-F. A being very very good, F being terrible.

Mode of Address
I found a really useful article that talks about the Modes of Address. It can be found here.
The article is written with an indirect mode of address, and is quite optimistic and slightly humours. The article also make mention of the fans of other films, and how they may be interested in whatever film they're writing about.

The Review
When it comes to writing the review itself I've found a useful article on how to structure a film review, that fits with IndieWire. It can be found here. IndieWire reviews often focus on the characters and the writing the most. In many reviews music and cinematography do not seem to be focused on.

Language
IndieWire article writers tend to use quite smart sounding words when writing their articles. Some sentences are written in such a way that they sound like something from a creative writing piece. When I write my review I'll have to make sure to replicate this way of writing.

Examples:

• "Indeed, “We Are the Flesh” is so instructive that it’s hard to find any wiggle room for even the most amenable viewers to think for themselves."
• "Some passages manage to provide both, as protracted close-ups of the actors’ genitals are sustained for long enough to go from amusingly confrontational to intellectually bankrupt."
• "Mexico may be eating itself alive, but there’s only so much that can be gleaned from watching it chew with its mouth open."

Reflective Comment:

I'm quite glad I've done a analysis of IndieWire, as there seems to be a lot more how to you write an article than I originally realised. What I wrote a few weeks ago is not suitable for IndieWire and I now know that I have to write it again in a more suitable fashion. 

Magazine article analysis: IndieWire

I have decided that IndieWire is the website that I think I will be writing my review for. IndieWire is a long standing independent magazine about film, tv and radio. They review both big films and independent breakthrough films. My film is perfect for this website.

I went over to the reviews page of the website and took some screenshots to some links that lead to reviews of independent films.

I then quickly edited one of these article openers and replaced it with a picture from my short film and changed the text. It fits in with the rest of the reviews and I think shows that my film fits well on the site. 

Reflective Comment:

Knowing what website I'm going to put my review on is very helpful with moving forward with my ancillary task, as I can begin to identify what mode of address they use and how they format their articles.

Another Poster draft and comparison

I've finally managed to uncorrupt my first poster draft and now am able to upload the poster to my blog. I definitely need to work on the typography, but I quite like the simplicity of it.

Now that I have both poster drafts, I can conduct some audience research on which poster people actually prefer. I have a feeling that the end product will resemble something in between the two, but we will see. To remind you, this is the other poster.

Reflective Comment:

I'm glad that I have two drafts for two different posters, as it gives me a few options that I can explore going forward. I'm planning to have some form of audience feedback by this time next week.

Pixlr and drafts

I created a draft poster using screenshots from my film on photoshop, but for some reason the file became corrupted. As I do not have photoshop at home, I looked for other photo editors. What I ended up finding, was Pixlr.

                  
Pixlr is a free photo editor. While not as complex as Photoshop, it offers the same basic features. Curious to what the program could do, I started messing around with the pencil. I realised that you could create some quite intersting typography with it.

That took about about a minute or two to make. I continued to mess around with the program and eventually made the following.

Looking a bit better now. The black cloud looks a bit rough but I think the typography looks good, reminds me of chalk writing. I then took a few minutes just creating a rough draft of a possible poster idea.

While not perfect in any way, I think that this is quite a good draft for another option for my poster. Originally the only other option I had was the film screenshotted one. Now I have two options. 

Once I recover my first poster draft, I can get other people to decide which one they think looks better. While I think I'd rather do my original idea, it'd be a good idea to do some audience research and get some feedback. Perhaps I could even somehow mix the two together.

Reflective Comment:

Considering I only found Pixlr about 45 minutes before making this post, I think my little tests are okay. They aren't overly great, but for rough drafts I think they'll do. I could always mix the typography of these tests with my pre-existing idea. However I think the best way forward is to do some audience research.

Deadlines

We now have just over two months to finish our media coursework. While that seems like a lot of time this time is likely to fly by, as first we have mocks to do. After mocks we just have over a month to finish everything up. Our final deadline is the 10th of February. To meet this deadline, I have set myself miniature deadlines.

I want to have both ancillary tasks done by the end of January. This is a realistic target, as I am getting closer to finishing up with them. This gives me a few weeks tweaking time if I need to fix anything.

I want to have all my filming done by the end of January also. I've already got a large amount of my filming done, so this should not be too difficult. I have one more scene to film, and a few re-shoots. This will leave enough time just in case I need to do some more re-shoots, but I think that this should be fine.

I want to have a final draft of the film completed the week before the deadline. I can edit fast so I know this will not be a problem, and will leave me time to fix any errors that I may find. This also allows me to make changes if audiences believe it can be improved.

Reflective Comment:
I feel pretty confident about meeting my deadlines. The only deadline that worries me slightly is the filming deadline, as filming is always the most difficult part of media. Several things can go wrong, however with the time I've allowed myself I should be fine.