Scheduled 2nd Test Screening

UPDATE!

I have scheduled for a 2nd test screening for the 9th March, my plans for this screening is to preview my latest cut of my short film in order to see if my new alterations made to the film has improved it's overall quality; but as well as gathering more constructive criticism on my project.

A Lost Soul (Rough Cut #4)

4th Editing Session

Within this session of post production work, the main objective within this draft of my media product is to approach this edit with the feedback from the test screening in mind.

The major changes made to the edit is trimming a few shots, in particular the slow motion shot as this was identified as a shot that diminished the overall production value of the entire sequence. In order to fix this, I replaced the shot with a take that simply had the radio fall in one drop instead of bouncing and prolonging the shot; resulting in a quick but effective shot.

One other trim made to the film is within the eye line match within the opening of the short film, cutting out the shots of the eyes reacting to the blood on the actor's hands. This decision was made particularly due to pacing as this small sequence over welcomed its stay according to feedback from the screening and from my teachers. By only using the one shot of the blood covered hands, the same message is delivered regarding the shock the character is feeling just simply without the intensity seen with the eye line match.

In regards to the sound mix, the significant change made was towards the ear ringing sequence during the office scene. During the test screening, many complained it was far to painful to hear and therefore disconnected them the story. I then took this as a priority to reduce the level of the effect as well as reducing the duration of the sound effect.

last addition made to the product is the inclusion of a production logo as well as credits. Overall the product is assembling very nicely and will be continuing to perfect the edit.

Evaluation Questions

As I come closer to finalising my main task, the evaluation questions  grow more relevant after every edit or decision made to the project. In order for my project to succeed; I must ensure that I am more than capable of answering the evaluation questions whilst referring to my media product.

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

- The ways my media product uses conventions is to mainly ensure that the audiences are familiar with the genre of 'Thriller' as well as their expectations; by using the forms and conventions associated with the genre, I can gain their attention and resulting them in engaging with the story. How my media product challenges these conventions is by altering the idea behind the antagonist/protagonist within the story, changing the way we as an audience perceive characters based on generic codes and conventions as we tend to be introduced to the protagonist from the opening shot. I've also challenged the conventions of casting within my film by casting an asian actor as the lead of the story, something within the industry lacks as we tend to see a predominantly white cast of leading characters within film; a fixed form I intend on breaking.

• How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?

- The combination of both tasks allow me to share the content between them; which lead to the creation of both tasks.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

- From my audience feedback I learn a lot in regards to what they are paying attention as they watch my media product. Picking out what they liked in relation to the story and performances; as for the negative comments, it was primarily due to not understanding certain narrative aspects. The negative criticism was brought to my attention, however there was no significant changes I could make as their questions where already answered within the product; they just were not paying close attention.

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

- The various task I had required me to use new media technologies such as adobe premiere and photoshop in order to create the different ancillary tasks. The internet is a huge tool used, web 2.0 is a notion that I gathered a lot of data from that fuelled my knowledge and creativity regarding my planning and evaluation.

Film Review (Draft 2)

This is the second draft of my film review, within this edit I have written the review of my film as well as including a quote besides the main image. However comparing the layout of this draft with my research of magazine reviews; the review itself would be broken down and presented in columns. This will require me to re-edit the way the review has been presented in addition to adding additional content within the review in order to make up the space with smaller font.