Evaluation

For my media A2 project me and my group chose to create a 5 minute short film. At first we mindmapped possible ideas for short films, although our main source of research was the internet as this enabled us to view existing videos on broadcasting site 'Youtube'. Also short film sites such as Depict! and the bbc short film site inspired us into coming to a final idea. We came up with the idea of a running man trying to get somewhere as he is running late. A clip from comedy show 'Horne and Corden' on BBC 3 inspired us to take the idea of somebody running through many places to reach somewhere, as this was a clip from this show, where a character is running after another character called Julie. Another inspiration was a short film from Depict! named 'Le Cheval'

Le Cheval 2.1 from UWE Bristol Media Practice on Vimeo.

, it is a french film about a man who wishes he was free to run like a horse. This helped us to take ideas for certain shots we could use.

So our final idea was the 'Running Man', where a character is running to get somewhere. We thought about how this character could be running late, so he is trying to get somewhere on time. We came to the conclusion that we wanted our character to be a male student, as we felt this would have great appeal to a mass audience. Our target audience would be aged between 15 and 20- particulary students. This would reflect our character as he would lead a student lifestyle. In our short film we followed the conventions of a student bu his dress. He wore jeans and a short which were put on quickly when he woke up without any thought.
We took feedback of our ideas from creating a questionnaire on social networking site Facebook. We asked our peers as we knew they were the age of our target audience. We wanted our short film to have a certain twist to it. Taking inspiration from the film 'Sliding Doors', we thought how we could use a split screen effect to show the possible outcomes of if our chacracter gets on the bus and what would happen if he doesnt. The character that manages to get on the bus is involved ina fatal crash. To show how our character misses the bus, the main turning point is that he loses his hat and therefore has to pick it up. He then sees the bus driving away. We took the idea again from 'Sliding Doors' as the woman misses the tube as a little girl gets in her way. Also the effect of rewinding the film was a inspiration to us. As he has missed the bus the bus he returns home and turns on the radio to hear the bus that he would of caught was involved in a serious collision - this is what happens to the character that caught the bus. It shows how his day could of had 2 possible outcomes depending on the bus.

Although we followed typical conventions of a student, we challenged it by not having a genre to our short film, as we couldnt assign a particular one to our film.
We went out a few times to film, as we mainly shot at a member of opur groups house, the streets around the house and a bus stop. In the house we used the bedroom for our character waking up shot, the bathroom for him to brush his teeth and the kitchen for the part when the one who missed the bus returns home to turn on the radio. Everything mostly went smoothly when filming, although a tape we were using broke in our camera so we had to get another, which on day 1 of filming, cost us valuable time. Technology has enabled us to create a good quality film. The camera we used to film was only a small digital filming camera, but it did the job. To create the radio link at the end of the film we used a program called 'Garage Band' on a Apple Mac. This program enabled us to make a near real sounding radio link by being able to add radio jingles and background noise of sirens and people talking to make it realistic to our audience.
After our film was completed and the final touches were made, we had to use the Adobe Premier Pro editing program. This helped us to create a split screen effect.
We also had to short list some songs that we wanted our character to be running along to as he is listening to his ipod. The 2 songs we finalised were 'Vanpire Weekend- A Punk' and 'The Rumble Stripes- Girls and Boys'. We managed to sync Vampire Weekend to the point where our character turns on his ipod. With our film now in the editing process we had to upload the songs to the film and make sure our split screen works. After some feedback we found that our film didnt come across as confusing as we first thought.
For the 1st part of the project- the ancillary tasks, we chose to create a film review and film poster. I feel the combination of them together is very effective. As we have linked them by quotes from magazines and our short film - The Running Man is featured in our short film revierw. We tried to use the same colours too.
We looked at existing film reviews such as 'Empire' magazine and website 'Total Film'. This helped us in creating our film review. We based our film poster on the 'London to Brighton' poster, which is also a short film.




Overall i have really enjoyed making and creating 'The Running Man'. As a group we have worked very well together and have succeeded in our assigned jobs.

Pre Production

Our group decided to create a short film. In the pre-production process using digital technology was highly helpful. In-particular Web 2.0. Watching short films such as Le Cheval which had a big influence on our film as it was of a hybrid genre which we felt ours was going to be.

Again Digital Technology has also helped with the story-boarding process, we scanned them into the computer and they were created through a program called Scribd. We were then able to create an Animatic which would show our shots flowing together and give an example of how they would look together. PUT ANIMATIC ON. We then uploaded our animatic to our Youtube and Facebook page to gain audience feedback. This allowed us to gain feedback from our target audience. This helped us in our development stage as we were able to make a film that our audience would enjoy.
At the beginning of this project we produced a questionnaire which would help us find more about our intended audience. We wanted them to tell us what they would like to see in a short film. so we could include this in our short film. This would help us in our initial ideas stage.
We wanted to include our audience in the process of making our short film as more and more people are becoming interactive thanks to the progression in digital technology and Web 2.0. From our feedback we could see that our target was aged between 17 and 21, and they wanted a film that was entertaining and a sense of escapism to it. I think that we took on board this feedback as it entertained the viewer and although it wouldn't be said it was a fantasy genre it has parts of escapism, with the twist at the end of the film.
Through the internet as a group we were able to make a high quality film, through our researchwe were able to find the codes and conventions of short films, therefore this helped us into creating a real life short film. Short films use many different ways to portray a message or story line which shows that short films are more so a genre in themselves. The different aspects of short films mean that they form a Hybrid genre. We followed this convention of a hybrid genre in our film, as we used features of different genres. We thought that using different aspects of different genres would make the film more interesting. Using different aspects of different genres made the film different and not stereotypical like blockbuster films.
From the research i found that many short films contain a message,for example when looking at short film Goodbye Mr Snugglesit begins with 2 country men, you immediately assume they are upper class gentlemen, they go to a field and begin to paint. We then see fast paced shots of a clown who is in a fast moving car,he then enters the field that the 2 gentlemen are in. It then ends up in a battle. with one of the men pulling out a gun and shooting the clown. He ends up on the floor. The ending of this film is really unexpected, when you see the 2 men painting you just expect them to be on a normal day out, until one of the men pulls a gun out. The message in this film could be to not judge a book by his cover.
We wanted to portray a 'Butterfly Effect' , which has the message that every action has a consequence. In our film the man who drops his hat misses the bus. In our film the man who drops his hat misses the bus, and the one who doesn't catches the bus, which then crashes. This is a big consequence and it relates to real-life. Our pre-production was highly useful and we were about to get ideas.

Final Film!

This is our final edited film, although we are thinking of changing some parts of the film, as when we recieved our audience feedback, it became clear that at the point when the running man who didnt catch the bus arrived home there is a shot of him turning on the radio twice. This was a continuity error, so we may have to change this.

Production Complete!

We have now completed our short film,after watching it over many times we feel that it has been finished to the best standard. We are all happy with the final piece after lots of tweaking and feel it has been completed to the best of our abilities.

Copyright- Boys and Girls In Love

Here is the email we sent to Island Records, to ask for copyright for Boys and Girls in Love by the Rumble Strips.

Dear Sir/Madam,I am currently in my last year of 6th form, and studying media. My group and I are currently producing our own original short film and would be very grateful if we were granted copyright for one of your songs. The song in question is 'A-Punk' (instrumental version) by Vampire Weekend.

Yours Sincerely,
Danielle Phillpott
Fuse Films

Copyright- A punk

Digital technology has many benifts however it also comes with many disadvantages, mainly for the record companies. The biggest threat of digital technology is piracy, and it has been said that companies can lose up to $6 billion due to the piracy of their music. Therefore to distribute our film on the internet we will have to apply for copyright.



Here is the email we sent to XL recordings for the instrumental of A-Punk by Vampire Weekend.


Dear Sir/Madam,


I am currently in my last year of 6th form, and studying media. My group and I are currently producing our own original short film and would be very grateful if we were granted copyright for one of your songs. The song in question is 'A-Punk' (instrumental version) by Vampire Weekend.


Yours Sincerely,


Fuse Films

Editing- Soundtrack 2

When looking at our film again we realised that the soundtrack we had when on loop 3 times was getting abit repetitive, so we wanted to come up with another song.
We will put the song on when the running man changes his ipod, which shows again that he is listening to the soundtrack through his ipod. We decided to go with Boys and Girls in Love by The Rumble Stripes.
We think that the song fits in well with the typical conventions and stereotypes of a student.
We will have to look at the copyright issues again which will mean contacting Island Records.

Editing- Soundtrack 1

A big part if our film is the music, a decision we had to make is what songs we thought would fit with our film. Because our film is about a running man, we wanted our song to start when he clicks his ipod, so this would be a diegetic sound.

After editing our film together we came up with a list of possible songs that we could use. We had to be careful not to make it like a music video but also fit with our narrative.

Embers- Just Jack
A Punk - Vampire Weekend
She's so lovely - Scouting for Girls
Boys and Girls in Love- The Rumble Strips
The Day I Died- Just Jack
Jump in the Pool- Friendly Fires

After much discussion we decided that Vampire Weekend- A Punk suited our film the best. Although we wanted the version without the vocals so then it wont look like a music video. We feel that this track is upbeat and fits with our film.
It gives the film a light hearted feel and draws the audience into a false sense of security that the overall outcome of the film will be happy.


Links: Vampire Weekend Homepage

We will have to contact Vampire Weekends record label XL Recordings to deal with copyright issues. This will be done at a later date.