Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing media products?

I believe that my media products use and further develop typical forms conventions, and themes, however I also believe that my media product challenges forms and conventions of real media products is some aspects.
The short film genre has a wide and contrasting range of typical conventions that are expected allowing the producer to experiment with his short film. Short films can last between 5 minutes to half an hour, this is the only standard characteristic of a short film for this reason I have shortened scenes or shots suggesting a non chronological linear narrative typically used in existing short film productions. However this is not always the case, the short film genre is very original and artistic in terms of production and the possibilities or angles a producer can work from are almost endless. The short film genre is unique due to its duration length and due to this factor the audience does not feel cheated or upset if they did not like the short film and this is why the producers can create more innovative outcomes that may not be liked or even understood by the whole audience.

However there are some aspects in my production where I have used ‘classic’ conventions that have been used throughout history such as the scrolling credits at the end of the film usually associated with Hollywood mainstream films. I used this classic convention for the audience to think that they just saw a decent film from Hollywood, just like brands the audience could find a way of liking the film just knowing that it could have been made in Hollywood. But then again half way through the film, to introduced the title of the film and indicate an obvious split between the two different main characters and lifestyles the title scrolls onto the screen from right to left, mimicking the title of the film ‘From east to west’ as if the letters were travelling from east to west. This is a development of forms and conventions for credits with a clever title and editing technique that in my opinion is original and I have not witnessed this before in previous film products, for this reason it could be considered also a challenge to the ‘classic’ conventions of credits.

Secondly I have utilised another classic convention of short film by tackling a hard social issue as the theme of the film, in this case multiculturalism. Established forms would suggest themes or racial abuse and struggle to get out of the ‘hood’ that the audience would expect. This theme could also include to some extent violence, discrimination, and even social breakdown depending on the extent to which the producer wants a hard hitting production. I believe that to some extent my theme follows standard conventions in the idea that these two nationalities have different racial views that contrast and could be subject to some racial discrimination. In some aspects my approach at tackling a theme of multiculturalism or racial discrimination could be considered challenging forms and conventions of this theme is the sense that I tried to reduce the amount of discrimination or contrasts in order to promote the short films message to equality and peace. However I also believe that my short film does not include any elements that are in complete opposition to what the audience would normally expect in terms of its genre, unless it could be considered towards the end of the film suggesting there should be peace and harmony. By tackling this social theme my production is developing conventions of the short film genre that this short film can be used to make audience think and consider about life and their environments, I can further this by possibly having my short film shown for educational reasons in schools or work places to promote racial harmony if needed.

In other aspects of the film I have challenged typical forms and conventions of existing media products for example my short film does not have a distinctive middle and end, as Toderovs theory would suggest however as I mentioned in previous research this is not necessary in the short film genre. However my short film could have a beginning represented by the alarm clock of the majority of working/studying Londoners every day in the morning, however my short story does not follow Toderov’s three part theory, in contrast my production has a lucid narrative that is better understood in terms of its documentary style. I still believe that the voiceover and narrative towards the ending of the film conveys the message or moral in the short film well giving it narrative closure, possibly in a development I could have a proper narrative closure or a circular narrative suggesting the reoccurrence of the Londoners lifestyle.

My short film is very mixed in its use, development and challenging of typical conventions of the short film genre and my themes even to existing media productions, I believe that my final outcome of my short film was a great success.

In other aspects I have used standard forms and conventions in my magazine film review utilising characteristics following a conventional technical layout, high levels of visual imagery including subsidiary images and breakout boxes with additional information. Also the magazine review used the existing layout from right to left because I was aiming at the educated generation for my target audience, incorporating factors such as facts and information, with this target audience the magazine review must be simple, accessible and easy to read and the audience will be expecting to read from left to right. I also incorporated lots of images and breakout boxes to split up the information over the page and make the magazine review easier to read. I also included different fonts and sizes so the review looks interesting for example the fonts of the title of the film makes the magazine review look less plain.

Finally I completed my magazine review by adding page numbers and adding shaped and coloured boxes even with a 5 star rating of the short film so the review looks professional.

I did not challenge typical conventions in my magazine review due to my target audience of an intellectual generation were the message should be heard most, possibly with a less intellectual audience I could develop and challenge conventions because the audience could expect a more original style of journalism and layout.

I believe that my magazine film review follows standard conventions and could be considered as a contemporary media product. I have followed these standard conventions in order for the target audience to understand the magazine film review easier and I believe that my outcome has been very successful in terms of its layout and content that works well towards its target audience in advertising the production.

Similarly for the film poster I have followed forms and conventions for the reason that the target audience would be able to infer information more efficiently and faster making my poster efficient for its purpose of advertising my product.

By following these conventions I had a large centred title consisting of two fonts, a normal western font, and an Arabic font clearly visible with a tagline underneath in western font. A contrasting convention of titles for example would have to be a well known mainstream product such as ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘Spiderman’ were the audience is so familiar with the product, that the title does not even need to be included, it could be obscured or continuing off the page. My product is very low budget and not well known, for this reason I have included a clear title and strap line. Because my product or the producer is not well known I have chosen not to include ‘Produced by...’ because it is of little importance, however if a producer was well known they would want to put their name on the poster so if the audience likes the producers work, they will be more likely to see the production.

I have developed some conventions of existing posters for example differing my placement of the billing block, typically this would be found at the bottom of the poster but I have chosen to put mine at the top because it is easy to notice, at first sight the audience know they are looking at a film poster, I also faded and layered my images together almost into one for a professional look. I chose to use lots of images, following typical conventions because the audience can infer semiotics faster and create anchorage of the whole product to know what themes and narratives could be present in this production.

I have further complied with typical conventions of existing posters by having large images of the two main contrasting characters however this is not to advertise what stars are in the production that could influence the audience in seeing the production, instead both these characters are in the foreground to be noticed and infer that these two people are very different. However in comparison, usually the actors names are on the poster, I did not include this for the reason I mentioned earlier, the actors in this production are not well known and would seem irrelevant unless the stars did very well for acting.

In my opinion I did not really challenge established forms and conventions of existing film posters due to the audience’s inferences; however in a short film poster I could create a secondary poster that could abstract however my production is not very abstract and is too realistic to impose an unusual poster. Also with the fact that the production or producer is not well known, too much experimentation could be frowned upon.


2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My three media products being the short film, magazine film review and the films poster work well together in terms of the products genre, narrative, audience, institution. I believe that over all three products there is a common genre theme that the audience can infer efficiently which unties them all especially due to semiotic readings

I believe that in the film poster due to synoptic and inferred readings the audience can realise the genre better and communicates the narrative and genre to the audience more efficiently than the other products, fulfilling its purpose to raise awareness. Because of the quick glance at a few pictures and title and tagline, the audience can imagine the theme, genre and narrative most efficiently.

However my film’s poster is effective due to its simplicity of visual images where the younger target audience can inferred easily therefore this media text is stronger than my other media texts in portraying the genre and narrative for the young target audiences. For my poster I have mainly targeted a youthful audience mainly because due to its visual imagery and title the target audience can remember easily its signs and infer most efficiently, secondly due to youths under representation in media such as the news, radio and even television, I believe that the poster targeting a youthful target audience with a youthful image would be most effective. The poster approaches the target audience in visual imagery and inferred readings that rely on the symbolism of the images; these have to be effective due to the little attention audiences pay to film posters being advertised and the little time that the audience witness the poster. In terms of my poster working well from an institutional view I have my billing block at the top, however it is rarely the first thing that is seen it could be inferred as important due to its positioning at the top and may interest audiences to read its producers, credits and actors.

In comparison the short film itself the theme or genre may not be clear until halfway through only when our second Muslim character is introduced therefore not as efficient as the poster in conveying the theme or genre of the product. However the target audience of the film is of a slightly more intellectual standard, the film requires the audience to read into the films narrative, creating a deeper meaning as oppose to the younger audience of the poster of inferring from the pictures. Due to the voiceover the narrative is revealed very quickly, the audience will be able to clearly understand the narrative unravelling into the life of a person in London until half way through the title is revealed, when the themes and genre become obvious. In my opinion I believe that the poster combined with the short film makes my product very effective in terms of conveying the products genre and narrative to the audience. Firstly the poster would indicate the films theme and then the audience would read into the media texts suggesting to them a film about racial discrimination, different ideals and lifestyles. Until they see the film the audience could have a completely different idea of what the film is about, until the idea of eudemonia and harmony comes through and at this point the audience would think ‘what’s the difference?’ between these two people which is my aim.

Hopefully this would help the audience realise the real problems of today and think about humanity. Secondly I have targeted different audiences from the poster directed at youths as oppose to the short film targeted for a more mature audience, this means I have a better chance of a larger audience with age diversity.

I have targeted different target audiences for my three separate products in order to achieve an audience of all social classes, ages and genders all with different opinions. I have targeted more youthful audiences for the poster due to its simplicity to understand and because the vast majority of young people will not for example pickup a magazine with film reviews and read. I believe that the poster works most efficiently in advertising and understanding my product to young people.
Unlike for the poster, for the short film my target audience is of the intellectual kind who read the deeper meanings in this short film, the audience witnessing the film would be there to see the this film tackling multiculturalism in London, they would not want to go and see ‘Spider-Man’ or ‘Harry-Potter’. The Short film approaches its audience with a harsh reality; this intellectual audience will clearly receive the short films theme and message that could be relevant to all the audiences’ cultures.

And finally for my magazine film review I have similarly targeted a more mature audience, this older audience will be much more likely to read an article about a short film tackling multiculturality in London than any other audience, for this reason my magazine film review is very academical with complex language, similarly to the existing magazine film review ‘Sight and Sound’. However I have included a smaller picture of the official short film’s poster to incorporate some of the visual semiotics which I believe is effective for the audience to learn more into the productions genre. Also if the audience are not too bright, there is a complete synopsis that describes the short film, this could be the most effective way for the audience to understand the genre and narrative of my product with the poster included. For the film magazine I kept in mind that these two media products have nothing to do with each other from an institutional point of view apart from the magazine company being and objective third party endorsement and I believe it’s ‘journalist’ is very persuasive in his writing as if he was made to watch it and give his own subjective opinion. This is desirable for the producer of the short film as long as the writer implies that the short film is good to influence the audience to see it for themselves, like the poster marketing and advertising the short film.

Also I believe that the magazine review and poster are efficient together in advertising, marketing and even distributing my product to the audience and institutions, the review and poster are important in terms of promoting the short film in different ways, the poster directly advertises the production to passers by compared to the magazine review which is an objective third party endorsement that advertises to an audience already interested in short films due to the magazine they would buy to read about news and production of short films. Secondly if a short film is being reviewed in a magazine it would gain circulation of the product giving it more of a chance to get noticed by other producers or investors to create future opportunities as a producer. Also there could always be a possibility of making a deal for the short film itself to come with the magazine as a free item to increase circulation; it would help in terms of advertising and distribution of my own product. Finally if my short film would not be reviewed or shown at a film festival there is always an option of uploading the short film onto the video sharing site http://youtube.com/ to obtain an audience.

Overall I believe that the combination of my short film, poster, and magazine review work effectively in terms of communicating the genre and narrative to the target audiences and from an institutional point of view in terms of advertising, marketing and distributing.


3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is very important when producing media texts, especially films, for example a producer may have a great concept in their mind and try to portray this concept in their film, however without knowing about this concept the audience may not understand or are confused. Audience feedback allows the producer to gain information like a test audience about his film whether it was boring, if it needed a score or more dialogue, it lets an audience suggest ways in which the producer can make his film better or more understandable.
The audience feedback I took part in was within my classroom with my colleagues as the audience, after witnessing the short film my colleagues were asked to fill out an information sheet with suggestions about the film on factors such as clarity of the theme/genre or sound and if there is strong relevance to British ideals.

I found that I had very strong factors and relevance to British ideals, including the theme of multiculturalism and the London mis-en-scene, due to this I felt confident that the plot and narrative would be easily understood. I was correct, however a few colleagues suggested to me that I should put in some sort of western score and maybe an eastern score for the other half of the film because they argued that the plot was rather slow to develop and may bore the audience. However this went against my forms of production of a documentary style and I believe that it would contrast my voiceover, for this reason I did not include a score because I wanted my audience to pay attention to the voiceover pushing along the narrative.

During my audience feedback i was also suggested to shorten the gap between the two characters where there is silence and a black screen, this is because the audience may think that the short film is already over and may lose concentration, I argued that the reason for this was that there was a large gap imitating the big difference between the two cultures, my colleagues responded with saying that during this black gap I could include a score to keep the audience's attention.

Finally towards the second part of the film the audience was confused to not see as much of the easterner as expected, this is because I may have used too many point of view shots that should be from the eyes of our characters, it could be argued that the short film tries to put the audience in the characters shoes and see life from their perspective. I believe the short film lets the audience see from another perspective very efficiently drawing the audience into the characters lives with important information about these characters being communicated in the form of a voiceover.

One disadvantage of an audience feedback for a producer is that they may not be very willing to change their production because the audience does not understand it well, especially if the producer created his short film for the purpose of experimentation or even art for an art house genre. Similarly I did not edit my short film after my audience feedback because i believe that their suggestion of including a score did not follow conventions of a documentary style genre. I believe that my short film is quite clear in portraying its message to the audience which in my opinion is most important therefore I did not need to edit my short film for the audience to understand better.


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

Throughout my advanced portfolio I have used many different media technologies in the construction of my media blog online, researching using the internet and posting research on my media blog and especially in my evaluation stages. I have learnt the use of many different new media technologies with different operational systems such as the use of apple computers and i-macs.

Firstly for my first stage of my production in creating my media blog on the internet http://www.quickfilm.blogspot.com/ I used a blogging website called BlogSpot and created my account using my email and edited my blogs theme and layouts and even links that appear on the right hand side. I customized my blog by including a newsreel that incorporates daily news on mainstream films and short films because the audience could be interested in a similar topic, this could also be a source of income with internet advertising. I also customized my blog by changing the layout and colour scheme. The benefits of blogging is that it is possible to keep audiences engaged in a mass media communication and keep them updated on stages creating the production and behind the scenes information, without the blog or even the internet I would have no means of communicating with the audience and would generally have a much lower viewing rate. Secondly the benefit of using templates and layouts in blogging is that I can effectively customize my blog and personalize it to communicate with the audience best, I have done this by including pictures and video clips incorporated into the blog from the internet, we take the internet for granted, if there was no internet my creativity would be limited due to little wider influences and inspiration. However the technology is not perfect, I experienced many problems with the blogging software, for example in the use of hyperlinks to link specific websites I used for my research and it is not the most effective word processing technology.

For the first part of my advanced portfolio evaluation, I had to research into the conventions of short film in order to know the definition of the short film genre, to complete my research into the definition of short films, research into the conventions of existing short films and how they differ from mainstream products and also into existing media texts such as magazine film reviews and existing film posters. The research was collected from the internet through key word searches in search engines such as http://www.google.com/ on conventions of short films and mainstream films using some educational sites, some film festival sites and the http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ to obtain information on film requirements for audiences.

The implication of the search engine technology is that I was able to very efficiently find the information I was looking for as long as I used the correct keywords. I used the video sharing site http://www.youtube.com/ to view existing short films, then uploaded and embedded them into my blog to be viewed and analysed easily, I also used these examples as inspiration for my own product. This is one of the short films that inspired me from Youtube.

To research into existing media texts such as posters I used Google images, searching just images to find some existing films official posters using keywords then uploading the images to my blog.

http://images.google.co.uk/imghp?hl=en&tab=wiagain

To research magazine film reviews, I used a few examples of real magazine spreads varying from brand and style of layout ect. I then scanned them into my blog that can be viewed by the audiences easily. Without the internet using different educational sites, film festival sites and YouTube my research would be very limited; I would not be able to obtain information so easily on factors such as the conventions of the short film genre. Similarly I would not be able to obtain film posters easily, especially the productions official copy, and again without the video sharing site of YouTube my inspiration would be very narrow limiting my creativity due to the lack of access to existing examples of short films. The only option to view existing short films without the internet would be to buy a DVD with some examples or actually attend a short film festival.

When planning my own production the main technology I used was the internet, I searched for reliable sources of information on aspects such as my theme of multiculturalism, British ideals and the cultures of eastern religions, without the internet and this information I would have to find this out first hand from a devout Muslim possibly in the form of a questionnaire.

Also I used Google earth http://earth.google.co.uk/ from the internet to view some locations from a bird’s eye view where I could use as a setting for filming. Without the internet and this satellite technology I would have to travel to all possible locations to see if they were suitable for my mis-en-scene, however this technology allowed me to scope out locations for me to film from my computer. The amazing thing about this technology is that you can zoom into street level almost all over the world as if you were really there; this impacted my production by saving me lots of time that could possibly be wasted travelling to a location that would prove to be unsuitable.

When I was ready I drew up a synopsis and script and finally a storyboard, I then scanned my storyboard onto the computer and uploaded it to my blog, and these images can be enlarged for a larger picture like many of my uploaded images.
Firstly after I scheduled meetings with actors and shooting times, I filmed all the footage with digital video cameras giving my production a very realist grainy London effect which I would prefer over the glossy perfect environment Hollywood films. The development of DV cameras has influenced my production due to its portability and its size, it is small and can be thrown into a rucksack, in the past the only option would be a large video camera that would be mounted onto a shoulder due to its size and effect commutability.

After all the footage had been captured on my DV camera I uploaded it onto an apple imac using a fire wire cable, this fire wire cable is recent technology that allows a fast upload time effecting my production in its efficiency of construction.

I was then able to edit my footage on ‘imovie HD’, this was the program I used to edit my short film and record a voice over. ‘Imovie HD’ is a non linear editing program, this means I was able to edit any footage non-sequentially and non destructively meaning my short film continued to develop during the post production phase and made reacting to audience feedback much easier. If this media technology did not exist, I would need to capture the footage, and then edit it chronologically starting from the beginning until the end, I would not be able to start editing my production anywhere but the beginning. Secondly when editing, the producer would have to think of a concept for editing, however if this concept did not work, the production would have to be scrapped and would have to start again. The technology of non-linear editing influenced my production by saving lots of time and a possibility of footage being destroyed during editing; also there are many more creative possibilities with non linear editing programs rather then linear editing.

During my production phase I used many new media technologies to me, such as apples Photoshop (image manipulation) and pages (desktop publishing).

After I completed piecing my short film together I used images from my footage and a digital camera to take pictures. I used Photoshop so I could incorporate all of the selection of pictures into one picture that would become my poster. I faded the images together and positioned them in an appropriate way, including a billing block and titles that would be found on an existing film poster. I have never used this program before and I found it very professional what could be achieved with such a program in terms of imagery. Without this image manipulation technology producing a film poster would be very time consuming and difficult. In the past this problem was overcome using artists to actually draw or paint the posters, if a producer does not have these skills it could also be expensive, and example of this is ‘Casablanca’. This technology has affected my production greatly due to the fact that I can produce a poster on my own, using my own images, otherwise I would have to resort to either very simple posters without layering or fading or I would have to hand draw the poster.

And finally the second new program I have used in my post-production is called ipages which is a desktop publishing program. Similarly to Microsoft publisher I could create a layout for my magazine review that I could incorporate images of all kinds including page numbers, text collumning, a variety of titles and breakout boxes. I believe that this technology has affected my production one of the most. With this software, I was able to construct a page of a magazine review very easily and then just upload the image to my blog, or send it off to a printer. If I did not have this technology I would have to use old printing methods and assemble my magazine film review in reverse using imprintation technique with lettered stamps and shapes which would consume much more time than using desktop publishing technology.

Finally using a blog to present my evaluation of my production, I have much more possibilities then using ‘Microsoft word’ for example. If I was to evaluate my production using a word document, I would be limited to just using written evaluation and analysis. As oppose to this using a blog I have more capabilities to include links to websites, images, and videos to enhance my evaluation and increase the understanding of communication of my concepts to the audience.

Final Outcome of the Short Film

This is my Short Film embedded from youtube:

Final Outcome of the Short Film's Magazine Review

This is my final outcome of my QuickFilm magazine review:

Final Outcome of the Short Film's Poster

This is my final outcome of my short films poster:

Planning and Initial Ideas for the Short Film's Magazine Review

My magazine will be called QuickFilm, a short film review magazine, and it will be reviewing short films executively with sections such as upcoming short films and new including uprising producers. This magazine would have found a niche market to audiences that enjoy short films and advertises information to the audience that would not be accessible without the magazine.
Like mentioned earlier my target audience is the youth and young adults and my target audience for the poster is youth. However to obtain a vast range of audiences from age to ethnic diversity I have targeted a different audience for my magazine film review. My target audience for my magazine will be an older and more intelligent audience that is much more likely to pick up a magazine on a topic or hobby they enjoy rather then the youth of today, the youth of today is very hard to approach due to their little use in medias such as radio, TV news and newspapers. This is why I will try to incorporate a professional looking magazine review, with sophisticated language and a formal mode of address that my target audience will be able to understand.

The target audiences of QuickFilm Magazines would typically be based in London, and would be very accustomed to London’s lifestyle that usually involves waking up early, eating, working and then sleeping only to repeat the process again and again. My intellectual audience would be a niche market with an interest in subject such as academia and the arts, I believe that this could be a great success as I am not aware of many magazines that are dedicated to the short film genre.

My magazine review will consist of an introductory paragraph that would be a brief overview of the short film, and later on in the article I will include a synopsis so the audience can make an informed judgment whether or not to see the short film being persuasive at the same time reviewing my short film positively. My magazine will also include images and breakout boxes filled with information such as producers, actors and facts to break up the written content so it is easier to read and remember.
Similarly for these reasons I have chose to follow the typical conventions of layouts with titles at the top reading down from left to right as expected, I believe my target audience would expect this and instead of going for an experimental layout that may seem ‘ridiculous’ to the intellectual audience.

For the production of my magazines short film review I will use the desktop publishing software, ‘Ipages’.

Planning and Initial Ideas for the Short Film's Poster

As mentioned earlier my target audience would be 15-25 year olds of all genders and races; however the audience can range due to the theme of humanity and society promoting peace between people that is relevant to everyone in all societies. My target audience is the youth and young adults because the younger a person is the easier it is to shape and influence their minds, teach a child to do something when their young and they will do it through adulthood, if this message is received by the audience they too will promote harmony and peace and eventually actually creating a good impact on humanity or even just their local society.

I will try to incorporate the theme of different cultures and peace by possibly including a shot of the two main characters, the westerner and easterner possibly standing next to each other friendly maybe leaning on a shoulder, the large images of the two characters would also attract eastern cultured audiences as well as westerners too see this film of social unity. Or I could work from the opposite angle and suggest difference and strife between the two characters and essentially cultures, this could be done by characters turned away from each other and maybe one character can be staring at the other character with a mean look behind his back. I could also try to separate the characters using semiotics in symbolic codes by using contrasting colours in the background that could clearly or fade in the centre suggesting two different sides, maybe a few smaller montages of stereotypical and noticeable images resembling the two different cultures. I would include symbols of religion or countries such as flags and a tagline that suggest to the audience separation and difference.

I could also include an image of the location of the film for example have a backdrop of central London towering over the characters, this would directly indicate a target audience of people that live in the city of London, and as London is a very culturally diverse city the audience will vary from age to race, in this case I do not believe gender is very important.

From my previous research into film posters I noticed many had taglines that indicated the plot or theme of the film, it gives the audience a little insight to the film and keeps them wondering, for example in the ‘Clockwork Orange’ pretty much the whole of the film is summed up nicely by the tagline being ‘Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven’. Similarly I can sum up my film of the differences of the cultures and maybe imply through the written codes of semiotics that the cultures are trying to get along overall suggesting the events of the film without revealing much to the audience keeping them in suspense. Example like this can include:

‘Two races, two religions, is there a compromise?’

In this tagline I have used semiotics for the audience to infer that there is some sort of problem or situation that must be solved that consists between the two races and religions. This tagline has a clear indication of the two cultures suggesting a comparison between the two. However this tagline does not impose peace and unity which is my intended idea and may not be the best approach to a multicultural film that has the potential to reach various types of religions and race. I have also noticed that some taglines use literary devices such as the power of three, where things work best in groups of three, in this case the tagline consists of 3 parts separated by pauses in the attempt to create an easy tagline that the audience can easily remember that will summarize the film:

‘What’s the difference between people in the east and west? No difference’

In this different approach I have suggested a clear indication of unity between cultures imposing the right message upon the audience, in this tagline the plot or events of the film aren’t revealed and in this case the tagline for the film could be anything that involved two different races.
For a final approach, I could try and stay away from both positive and negative sounding taglines and let the audience infer their own opinions from the tagline. Approaching it from a neutral perspective I could just infer that there is a difference between these two people but the tagline would not reveal what this difference could be, also this tagline could be considered slightly comical to all cultures. This could consist of images relating to the different religions such as the Quran and the Bible and have our two main characters in the foreground with the tagline underneath reading:

‘Spot the difference’

Location Reccie

Here are a few possible locations that i can film for a setting.

Perivale (westerners home), An ethnicly mixed suburban region.

Gunnersbury Catholic School, Current educational institute.

Ealing Broadway, Local shopping center in a suburban area.

Alperton / Wembly, A suburban area with the majority of habitants eastern.

Character Casting

Westerner - Established in London white, stylish with multicoloured clothing? Jeans and hoodie or cap? Well known brands of clothing, Nike? Intolerant of Arabs and other cultures? Typical western youth? West London regional accent. Is morally good to a certain extent...(swearing?), influenced heavily by news? Intimidated by unknown and other cultures? - Matt Bninski.

Easterner - Arabic, young or middle aged, full beard almost stereotypical, traditional white robe clothing, skullcap or turban? Withdrawn, faithful to family/father and mother, very faithful in terms of religion due to upbringing, peaceful, confusion to the new culture and new cultural ideals? - Dariush Hassanzadeh-Baboli.

Draft Storyboard

This is the draft storyboard during planning.

Draft Script

Western character: hello, my name is Philip George Baxter and I live in west London. I am studying psychology at university and my hobbies include sports of all kind, mainly football, staying healthy with exercise, reading popular novels and of course socialising with my friends at the local pub.

Ever since I can remember my mother made me go to church when I was young, I didn’t want to then because I guess it was boring for me, but now that I’ve grown up I realized that my parents wanted me to go to church to raise me properly, and abide by certain rules that make us morally good. You could say that it was one long lesson to create a good person. Since I’ve grown older and wiser I’ve realised the context of which Christianity taught, and that it isn’t there to follow devoutly with no questions asked, but I realised that as long as you can call yourself a good person, no matter what your religion God will love you. This teaching has defiantly helped me understand the meaning of good, especially in such a multicultural society as London.
However all of this terrorism on the news and Muslim bombers does not help to make a good name for non western religions, stereotypes start being made and then muslins are thought of as radicalist bombers and strike fear into the population. I’m just an ordinary member of society, right now I just want to finish my studies at university, after get a well paying job, then I can consider about making and supporting a family, I’m sure the majority of Londoners my age want the same as me.


Eastern character: Walahi, my name is Mohammed son of Jaffa, as a child I was raised in Iraq but as I grew older my parents decided to move to England because my parents did not want me to be conscripted into the army for a few years after the age of 17, and also we had heard stories of how this new land was filled with opportunities with very few problems there was in Iraq
being raised in Iraq with very devout parents, I have grown a strong faith to my religion, I have learnt it helps to keep a person morally good and allows me to try to make myself a better person in preparation for my afterlife. However since I have moved here I have witnessed how much things are different, here in London there are very few strong believers compared to Iraq it’s almost like they don’t care about a divine power or they have more important stuff to worry about. And I hate how arrogant and intolerant these westerners are to other religions and cultures that isn’t their own.

I am in fact quite similar to the average westerner if you think about it really, we both strive to achieve religious enlightenment, both cultures do their best in terms of their education to provide a future of financial prosper, this can then continue to stay close to your family and even start making one of your own. Both people want to live in a social eudemonia and be happy.

Draft Synopsis

My short film will be about two main characters of constrasting religions and cultures within a western society, Britain.
A christian and a muslim will compare western civilizations to an eastern civilization in a documentary style production, showing the two societies' similarities and differences in terms of their practices, opinions, points of views and their aims in life. This will be done visually by filming their different lifestyles but the message of the short film will also be reinforced verbally as if the characters are speaking to the audience in the form of a voice over.
The identifiable British factor or theme will be visible in the mis-en-scene and with its multicultural ethnicity.
The purpous of this short film is to show the differences between both religions/cultures due to the possible foreign upbringing but also to impose the fact that their aims and needs in life are very similar. This short film would promote world peace and the realisation that there are not that many differences between race and cultures and promotes unity.

Research on Film Magazine Reviews

I will now analyse film magazine reviews from British magazines such as ‘Empire’ or ‘Total film’.
The purpose of a film magazine review, similarly to the film’s posters, is ultimately to increase the audience awareness and revenue that the film will receive. The magazine review tries to engage the audiences who read and the article will try to promote the film by giving the institutes or writers opinion on a film that is usually positive and gives a brief overview of the film synopsis. This allows the audience to gain access to an informed opinion without needing to see the film, depending on what film magazine the audience will be reading will depend on the bias the audience will be subject to.

For example there are different magazine producers that make different style film magazines for different purposes and different target audiences, for example the magazine 'Total' usually reviews all its films in a positive light towards its lower class target audience and is rather casual chatty and simplistic, ‘Total Film also tries to incorporate elements of humour with captions from screenshots of the film. As oppose to ‘Sight and Sound’ in which the language is very sophisticated, formal, academic and leaves rooms for the audience to think and make assumptions.


The main film magazines in the UK include ‘Empire’, ‘Total film’, ‘Sight and Sound’ and all of their reviews are very different in terms of their written styles, layout, content, mode of address and their technical conventions.

like mentioned earlier 'Sight and Sound' is a film magazine for artistic purposes for audiences who have a real passion for films and want quality film reviews that still leaves room for the audiences to make inferences into the film. Compared to other film magazine reviews this magazine contains lots of columns in its layout still including pictures however take up less space in order for a detailed analysis of the film. in this edition of 'Sight and sound i have also noticed a breakout box to the right that contains the directors and views on the film, in this case he explains how his film should be thought of 'beyond the framework of heterosexual vs. homosexual' and his filming techniques and characters he portrays. This magazine review expects that the audience already has knowledge of classic famous films and directors by referencing directors other films and using them in comparison. another thing i have noticed is that 'Sight and Sound' that usually includes an introduction that gives a quick sum up of the film in the first paragraph, from this example we can tell the film is about aids in a group of Parisians possibly from an optimistic point of view. in the centre we have a large picture that is contradicting the theme of the film because we witness two couples dressed casually pouring drinks in possible celebration or on holiday looking very happy and if we keep reading the annotation of the picture we are notified that the main character is later diagnosed with aids.

A different film magazine review is called ' Total Film' which is aimed at a completely different audience, possibly for the younger or less educated audience. in this magazine we can see a very different layout and style, firstly at the top of the page we see a large picture with the magazines logo and section title in the top left corner, on the bottom right of the picture there is a caption for the picture that often makes an attempt to create humour out of the picture. In this example we see a nuclear stricken waste land and the caption says ' after another muddy year, they vowed it would be their last Glastonbury'. Secondly we only have two main columns containing the analysis of the film. The small column on the left of the magazine is called a call to action in which the magazine tries to include the audience by suggesting other films of the same genre or category and directs the audience to an internet site with more reviews.
One good idea in this magazine film review that I have noticed that no other magazines include is a predicted interest curve where the magazine tried to show the quality and entertainment of the film throughout its duration in the form of a line graph.

By analysing these different magazine film reviews I have noticed a few typical conventions that always occur in magazine film reviews depending on the company. However in a serious magazine film review directed at an intellectual audience the magazine will always include certain conventions such as the magazines 'house font' which is the company’s choice of font or fonts that don’t change over time. These are the typical technical codes and conventions for the magazine film review media:
Section title
Headline
Strap lines/taglines
Introduction
Subheadings
Breakout boxes
Columns, usually in three
Pictures
Graphics and logos
Font and typography
Call to action
Issue information
Subheadings for images

Research on Film Posters

I will now analyse a few film posters especially into their technical conventions and characteristics. The purpose of a film poster is to advertise the product to the target audience, the poster tries to encourage the audience to view the film and the poster would be very much for the financial, commercial processes of the film such as incorporating third party endorsements to increase the products revenue being the core reason and purpose of the posters. These film posters appear in dense public areas to increase the amount of people that see the posters, this can include in the underground, on billboards, busses, newspapers anywhere that the advertisers can get a range of audiences or the target audience to see the poster. The more the film producers pay out for adverts in more forms of media will increase the amount of people that are aware of the film and a range of audiences using different forms of media. Film posters alert the audience to the genre and/or theme of the film and let the audience recognize popular actors/stars casted, with an indication of the plot or events, this could influence the audiences opinion of the film after seeing the poster and effect the audiences will to see the film.

A less contemporary poster which is more of a classic Hollywood mainstream film is the official star wars poster. I believe that this classic poster is a good example of the producer’s attempts to interest the 1977 audience into this new futuristic space theme. Similarly to the gladiator poster this film also has a tagline saying 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' this is to let the audience know a bit about the films theme. Next I have noticed that the majority of film posters have the main character or protagonist on the films poster, this is often done to alert the audience to the actors, if the audience likes the work of certain actors, these actors will influence whether the audience would like to see the film. From the background the audience infers future information about the theme or genre of the film from the spaceships, robots, and the bright ' futuristic' light. As we move down the poster we see the title of the film in its trademark font that has developed over the years, also used in the credits of the film, and below we can find the billing block that includes the actors, producers and third party corporations . However, I noticed this poster dedicates a lot of space for the billing block and less space for the title of the film to accompany room for the montage of pictures, this is not usual in contemporary posters, they usually have the title clearly visible and the billing block very small.


Over time the posters were merely to advertise a mainstream film that was 'coming soon' and the aim of the poster was to interest the viewer, and recently there has been an increase in the attention for the advertising market in film posters. This attention is causing the conventions of film posters to develop in order to sell the product more efficiently to the audience; one method of this is called specific audience advertising which is explained below.
For the most effective advertising in posters, producers create a range of specific audience posters designed to sell the film most efficiently by targeting different groups within the audience such as age or gender. For example two posters of the same film could be released with one poster having a pink backdrop that would be aimed at girls; the other would have a blue backdrop targeting boys.

A good example of this is by the producers of the Harry Potter posters:

This audience specific poster is aimed towards the young female audience by advertising the narrative of a possible fantasy based romantic theme that could be interesting for the fans once noticing the second protagonist from the trio in the background indicating a plot of romance. This can be supported by the 'lovely' pink lanterns shining above that wouldn’t be in another audience specific poster directed at or even the official release poster. This is the official film poster for ‘Harry Potter and the half blooded prince'. In this poster the 'Harry Potter' logo isn't even completely visible which is a different option, this is because of the familiarity with this franchise. I also noticed that in this official poster the release date is made clearly visible, a marketing technique.

In this more contemporary example of the official 'Gladiator' poster I have noticed a few things that the majority of other mainstream film posters share in common.
Starting from the top working down, I noticed a catchphrase from the film known as a tagline, or slogan that sums up part or the whole film to the audience. Between this tagline we have our main character Russell Crowe with a sword and roman armour with an extra diagetic gaze pictured at a low angle suggesting power, this extra diagetic gaze involves the character looking directly at the camera in order to engage the audiences. Secondly we can guess the theme of this film by the characters armour and the background where we can see part of the Collusium. Underneath we have the names of the director and the main character in appropriate style and font to the roman era and finally in much larger letters we see the title of the film 'Gladiator'. Underneath the title in the small print are producers, advertisers and other third party corporations.



From researching a range of existing mainstream film posters I believe I can clearly identify the technical conventions of a film poster. I have noticed that in all film posters semiotics are used, this is the messages or meanings we can understand from the film poster from looking at the signs, symbolism, written messages and visual images. This is how the producers of the poster allow the audience to quickly process a lot of information about the film from visual imagery in the short space of seconds that people will spend looking at the poster. For this reason advertisers consider all the visual imagery, colours, titles fonts and even layout with the aim to increase the chances that the people that see the poster will also go and see the film.

There are many codes within film posters. Technical codes are considered when producing a film poster and this includes the use in the construction of a text, e.g. if there is a tagline included or film title or billing block. There are film posters that do not have a tagline or even a visible title.
Secondly written codes are considered carefully, this is the range of contexts in which words are used in the text itself, e.g. the actual words themselves that create a tagline or title.
And finally the last codes are symbolic codes, these are the system of signs embedded within the poster in the forms of connotations of images, colours used and even the font style. All of the technical conventions of film posters have to be considered within technical, written and symbolic codes to make sure the right audience is being targeted and that the audience is making right inferences into the film poster and about the film.

Through extended film poster research the typical conventions of a film poster include:
Names of the main actors or popular stars.
A picture/s of the main actor or an iconic image that is linked to the film.
The film Title.
A tagline, slogan or caption about the film.
Background imagery.
The billing block.