SUICIDAL EVALUATION

KATIE MAYCOCK

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

Our first scene throws us knee deep into James’ predicament. This was needed due to the fact we had a 5 minute production time

allowance. In our next scene we were concerned whether or not the audience would be able to distinguish between real time film

and the flashback scenes. Therefore, we needed an effect to show a distinct difference between the present in our film and the

flashbacks James experiences. We experimented with many different filters and production effects but we found that black and

white was the most appropriate choice. However, there were many other options we could have chosen to further improve the

flashback scenes. The exchange between our first flashback and James on the balcony is not as good as I would have liked it to be. Firstly, the lighting was not very appropriate for the chosen scene

as it does not create a sufficient amount of drama or emotion. Also the movement of the camera worked to our disadvantage. It was

jumpy and the zoom was too quick and also unsteady. In the scene where James reminisces to himself we chosen to revolve the

camera around James’ head clearly showing that he is thinking.

We have used a voiceover to show all of the malicious things running through his head that people have said to him, which I believe has worked

well and was successful in helping the audience build emotion towards James leading to a more powerful climax. In the scene where James

enters the common room where everyone is seated you do feel sympathy towards James, but we tried to create an effect of the camera becoming

the eyes of James to give the effect of a first person perspective. Unfortunately, I feel the background noise from the camera equipment spoils the full effect we could have achieved. Another point technique I

believed worked well was the fade out effect we had on the voices running through James’ head. This led us nicely onto the scene where James falls to the floor. I also believed we successfully created suspense by situating our camera on the floor waiting for something to happen, i.e. James falling to the ground. As I mentioned previously, the exchange between present

time and the flashbacks could have been merged together more smoothly creating a better flowing effect throughout the film. Near to the climax of the

film I incorporated a quick succession of short powerful shots building pressure and tension, which I believe aided us in our attempt to emphasise to the audience the reason for James’ upcoming actions. To create a feel of

drama near the end we started with a black screenshot followed by a melodramatic soundtrack indicating something distressing has either

happened or is about to take place. I think we achieved our intention with our soundtrack and the black screen was especially powerful because of

the quick-fire shots suddenly coming to a black screen ending.

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

I do believe my final product was a success to a certain extent. Like was mentioned previously there was room for improvement

and there were many things I wasn’t completely satisfied with. This film was not without its disadvantages. A major one of those being due to the fact our main character pulled out of the media course leaving us with the issue of not being able to film any further. The creation of my film poster has benefited my final product greatly. I

believe the poster acts as a good build up and pre-emptive look on my actual product itself. It looks professionally finished and well

edited, giving the anticipation upon my own film. I have also created a film review to analyse and give an insight into my film from another perspective. After creating both of these pieces my skills using Photoshop have greatly increased and I now have a

wider understanding of how to use this program.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After much revision of my audience’s feedback I have gathered that my film would have been more of a success if it would have had a longer running time. Also we have found that our audience believed the movie could have been improved if the

smoothness of the film and exchange between scenes could have been better. The audience have also commented on the clear outline of the film, at first they had trouble interpreting the difference between flashbacks and present time. I have

learnt that there were many ways that I and my group could of improved the outcome of our production, although i understand there were many ways of

improving the editing in my film I still believe that in the absence of James we were unable to re-edit to the full extent that we would of liked to.

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

stages?To construct, manipulate and improve my production I have used various programs and modern media. The first being a film editing program called ‘Final Cut Express’ This is a very useful program I used to create my entire

production. This is a very powerful program that allowed me to easily manipulate my film in many different ways leaving me with a successful

final product. The second program I have used is ‘Adobe Photoshop’ this is also very powerful photo-editing software that has helped me greatly in the production of my film poster and magazine review, giving them a smart and

professional look. A similar piece of software to Adobe Photoshop is ‘In-Design’ another extremely useful photo editing pack that has helped me in creating my film poster and magazine review also. Using all three of these

programs; taking the strongest points from all three I believe I have successfully created a very professional film poster and magazine review

as well as a good final product. To also aid me in the construction, research and planning stages I have found the use of the internet to be

very useful. Looking at other films for example ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘Kidulthood’ which I have included previously have proven to be very useful and have helped me greatly during the production and actual filming of my product.

Conclusion!Overall, I believe my whole film production

had its positives and negatives. On completion I believe I have learnt a lot and

widened my knowledge on media production. I have also gained new skills in programs such as ‘Final cut Express’ and various

others as mentioned previously. If I was to undertake this task again there I believe I would attempt certain things differently to improve the success of my production.