Evaluation - Question 3 - Feedback on Soundcloud

What have you learned from your audience feedback?



Below are three Soundcloud files that contain the feedback from my focus groups on my Film, my Poster, and my Double Page Spread respectively.

Evaluation - Question 2

How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary tasks?


Throughout my products, one thing I have focused on is a consistent and professional house style. I have followed a few principles of design that have been implemented in all aspects of creation - the production company, the film, the poster, and the magazine spread. This style includes the use of minimal colours and sticking with a black and white scheme for most logos and designs.

I chose this design as I didn't want to over stylise my piece, which is reflected in the film's simple style - present in it's cinematography mostly. I wanted there to be a focus on the characters of my film and their story, rather than it's style. Substance over style, if you will. Below is an example of how I have used basic Cinematography to keep the focus on the characters.

In the scene shown, the two characters share a pivotal narrative moment, and I did not want to detract from that by having flashy, or otherwise distracting cinematography. Throughout my product, the narrative focus is the characters, and whilst I did have a post-modern and almost self aware style to my film, I always tried to keep the audience focused on the characters. I believe my house style has gone a long way towards this, particularly so in my ancillary tasks. In my double page spread - seen below, I only had screenshots of the characters when they were being interviewed. They were the focus of the whole thing, just as in the film.

In this sense, I believe that my ancillary tasks and my final product have been very successful. They follow similar styles throughout and they give a distinct sense of focus as well as building a brand. I designed a logo for the film, present throughout my media. It can be seen above, in the Magazine Spread. It is the title of my film in a simple typeface that gives a formal feel. The typeface is one usually associated with typewriters, which added to that formality and, contrasted by the comedy of the film, adds a very Indie feel to the brand.

Evaluation - Question 1 - Magazine Task

Above is my Magazine Spread Ancillary Task.

I chose to base this magazine article of an established layout pattern. This pattern is dominated by large central images, enlarged quotes, and often includes something related, but slightly different, from the main article along the bottom - in this case, an interview.

I have retained the house style with the use of a white background and I have used the exact same type face for the film's title as I have in the poster which adds a sense of professionalism to the house style and gives it a more authentic feel.

Evalutaion - Question 1 - Poster

Above is the poster I took most of my inspiration from, side by side with the final poster for my film.

The most striking similarity - and the one I have tried to replicate most - is the house style. Both posters have a white background, and similar colour schemes. Both follow a mostly white colour scheme, with the only other colours being black and the plain colours of the characters' and their clothes.

They follow simple, and well established design principles such as the use of narrative coding. They have characters standing in the front of the composition - the main characters - and less significant characters behind them. In the case of my poster, I chose to only include the primary love interest of the protagonist. I chose to do this as it gave me the chance to do some interesting graphic design work with the whiteboard in the background and the stance of the main character, suggesting that he had maybe drawn it himself, which gave an interesting visual aesthetic to the over all look.

Originally, I toyed about with the idea of having more characters in the poster, but decided to keep the poster focused on these two characters, as it was looking too cluttered with the others.

Evaluation - Question 1 - Cinematography

One of the most well known forms and conventions present in the style of a mockumentary would be the 'talking head'. This is a device usually used to deliver punchlines, exposition, or even (as shown below) intense emotional character development. I have included an example of Talking Heads from 'Spinal Tap' below...





This is a way to give character information, exposition and (most importantly) a punch line. This is one way in which I followed the forms of the mockumentary genre through my camerawork as seen below.

This is an example of how I have followed forms and conventions of the mockumentary style through camerawork. I think that the 'talking head' is an extremely useful way of moving a story along in a believable way, and allows a way to present the main narrative features within the story such as the equilibrium and disequilibrium and the new equilibrium.

Evaluation - Question 1 - Introduction

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

The genre of my piece is what is called a 'mockumentary' which is a fictional piece, often grounded in comedy and a through line of self awareness, shot in the style of a documentary. A heavy influence on Lecture was 'The Office'. This was the first largely serialised TV mockumentary. The creator/star/runner of the show has since moved on to do more work in a similar style such as the show 'Derek', and this style has become well known and accepted, which is shown by how well it transferred to American TV with 'The US Office'.

Another example of the 'mockumentary' style is a film called 'This is Spinal Tap'. They joke in the film about it being a 'rockumentary', but the same forms and conventions are still largely present. It is a fictional story shot in the style of a documentary that draws its comedy from highlighting the mundane and through the ridiculousness of the characters, just as 'The Office' does.

I primarily tried to follow the forms of this genre in the script, as well as the cinematography and the editing of the piece, at least as far as my actual film goes. When it came to my ancillary tasks, I stuck to a simple design/house style, which took inspiration for the advertisements/house style for 'The Office'. I didn't feel that 'Spinal Tap' would be an appropriate inspirational text for this part, primarily due to the style of that being reflective of heavy metal music in it's design.

Ancillary Task - Magazine Spread

Above is my final magazine spread. The spread is based on magazines such as Empire. It reviews the film whilst providing various stills and keeps with the style of the advertising (such as the poster I had previously designed).