Thank you

For the final Blog for my A2 Media Coursework, I'd like to say thank you to;

- Matthew Healey for being my main character, as well as helping me along with the Editing and Cinematography of the film.
- Jack Quinlan for helping by acting in the film, also with helping with the Editing and Cinematography
- Tom Sayers for playing the part of the best character, The Narrator perfectly, and for bringing his own suit!
- Shane Sayers for helping to act in the film and being overall hilarious during production
- Richard Ives for helping with post-production
- Matthew Johns for teaching us how to use the varied equipment as well as playing the part of the Teacher and helping in post.

The Twilight Hour Short Film - FINAL

The Twilight Hour Poster - FINAL

And Action! Magazine Review for The Twilight Hour - FINAL

Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Part 4

-Discuss your use of the Blogger

Blogger was the perfect blog website for me to use. Nothing was hard to use or understand, and the layout was very simple you use. By using Blogger, I was able to meet the criteria set out by the course and the lecturer. Finally Blogger was the best website for my Research and for doing my Evaluation. 

Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Part 3

Limitations of Technology:

The limitations for the technology was that I have never used any of these pieces of equipment before. There was a learning curve required in order to be able to use them. Another limitation was that we have to digitalise the recordings from the cassette onto a DV tape, then onto the Mac's and FCP. This process took ages to do, and if I used a a plain Sony handycam and a SD card, the process would had been a lot quicker.

A final limitation was trying to get the equipment. Many a time where I go ask the technician, he either wasn't there or the equipment was already in use. This meant that I had to constantly change the production plan, and this ultimately left me with less actors then I could had had.

Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Part 2

Prezi featuring the Technology I used:

Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Part 1

Programes used

- Photoshop

Photoshop is a programe that I used before, of which I first started using back in year 9, four years ago. I'm used to the process of using Photoshop so it wasn't difficult for me to use. All of the work that required Photoshop was done quickly with no problems at all. Here is a Photoshop tutorial that was uploaded onto Youtube. The way I used photoshop was using the blending tools perdomoninatly. It was the best way to merge the images together, as well as keeping one of the images as the main background. Another thing I used on Photosjop was the crop tool. This was used in order to crop out the background on a picture, and to then be able to use the picture on the canvas. That's final part of Photoshop that I used was the colour ranges, which was used in order to make the Storyboard, pictures and poster black and white.

Final Cut Pro:

Final Cut Pro was very difficult to come accustomed with. I didn't know how to do anything on apart apart from splicing the clips. However as time when on, I learnt the basic like how to insert credits, sounds and stuff like that. Luckily for me, basing the movie of the 50's TV show, not much stuff had to be altered in post. Therefore the basics of FCP where good enough for me and to use in order to edit the film. Here is a Final Cut Pro tutorial that was uploaded onto Youtube. The tools I used on FCP where the sound enhancment tools. This was used so I could alter the sound for it to be louder or softer, as well as adding the music required. Another tool I used in FCP was the cutting tool. This was used in order the cut and serperate clips, the most important tool of FCP. I also used to effects bar to change the scenes from colour to black and white. This was easy as you create a pre-set in the effects tool, then you can drag that pre-set onto all of the clips, and they automatically change colour. The final tool I used for FCP was the text bar which is located in the effects bar. I used this to create the title and end credits for the film. Something that is mandatory and essential for every film.

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback? Part 2

My view on the feedback that the audience have given me.

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback? Part 3

Narrative and Genre:

Enigma:

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Part 2

- Have you used any motifs which are recognisable across all 3 products?
- Are there any other themes, enigmas or style elements (such as fonts/graphics) which unify the products?

Have you used any motif's which are recognisable across all 3 products?

Yes, the use of the stary night and the twirl is something that is featured across all of the products. This is because these images where pivitol parts of the orginal show, and I wanted to include them on my products. Another thing that is recognisable across all of the products is the narrator character being the figurehead of the film. This was because Rod Serling played the narrator in the original series, and I consider his character to be the most important, and adds well in that supernatural mood. "Is he there, isn't he there"? 

Are there any other themes, enigmas or style elements (such as fonts/graphics) which unify the products?

The theme is unified bewteen all the products. The black and white, noir style theme unites the pieces and makes it clear that they all fit and link into each other. The enigma is also linked. Who is this narrator character? Is he there, isn't he there? Is he God or a conscious? These are the enigmas laid out in the film. Font and graphic arn't unified thoughout the pieces. This was done to show that each products is made by someone different. This is because the people who create the film, poster and magazine arn't always going to be the same company, especially for an independent film.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

- Who are the target audience for each production?

Poster

The target audience for the poster are film buffs who love movie posters from the 30's through to the 50's. Seeing as this is my favourite time period for films being produce, and seeing as the 50's was when The Twilight Zone came out, it was the perfect example to associate my poster with movies from that era. Another target audience for the poster is any person that has a love for imagry. 

Article:

The main target audience for the article is both gender people who read movie magazines. That's a broad target audience, however if people read magazines based on films, then they read them to see films like mine, and therefore would be more than likely to go and view the film.

Short Film:

The main target audience for my short film are film students, currently studying film as a course (or relatable film courses like Media) and have a deep and patoniate interest in movies. Also lovers of the original show and lovers of films from the 30's and 50's are a target audience. The final target audience for the film are people who grew up watching the original series as they would have a nostalgic view on the film. 

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 5

Magzine analysis:

- How did you chose the name for your magazine?
- Why do you chose the colour scheme?
- Describe the creative process of how you made the article

How did you chose the name for your magazine?

And Action was chosen as the name because I want to be a director when I graduate from University. And Action is one of the lines used my many directors around the globe, and I thought it would had been a nice name for the mag. Also I used the 35MM film picture as the logo because my most favourite film and film decades of all time, Frankenstien and the 30's & 50's, where shot on 35MM film.

Why did you choses the colour scheme?

I chosed it because black and white are the main colours associated with The Twilight Zone, and it fits perfectly with the black and white television show that the movie is based of.

Describe the creative process of how you made the article.

The magazine article was made on word as, in my opinion, it is the easiest and most fluent way of making an article.I used the website Screencast-O-Matic in order to make a video of how I created the Article:

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback? Part 1

Audience Feedback:

 Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 3

Part 3 of my A2 Media Studies Question one Evaluation. In this part I will be talking about:

- Length
- Storyline
- Characters
- Budget and Creativity

Length:

The length for my short film is 4 minutes and 40 seconds. This falls perfectly in the 3-6 minute short film lenght that I mentioned in a previous post. It's long enough in order to establish the characters, narrative and to show a good story, whilst not being to long to bore people and drag along.

Storyline:

Characters:

For 'The Twilight Hour' I followed to conventions of tradition short films of having a small ensemble of cast. There are only 7 characters in the film; Matt, Jack, Shane, the Teacher, James (me), the Father and The Narrator. People instantly associate and relate with the main character in Matt. People feel lonely and sad, and the message at the end of the film leaves a good message "Even if you're alone, there is someone in this world just like you. Somewhere". 

Character Profile:

Matt:

Full Name: Matt ......

DoB: 21/8/94

Blace of Birth: London

Parents: Mary and Mark .....

Siblings: None

Job Occupation: Unemployed

Education: Full-Time

Jack:

Full Name: Jack....

DoB: .....

Place of Birth: England

Parents: ......

Siblings: .......

Job Occupation: .......

Education: Full-Time

James:

Full Name: James ....

DoB: 25/6/94

Place of Birth: London

Parents: Stacy and Stephen

Siblings: Sister

Job Occupation: Unemployed

Education: Full-Time

Shane:

Full Name: Shane ......

DoB: 3/3/94

Place of Birth: London

Parents: Sarah and Rob .....

Siblings: 3

Job Occupation: Unemployed

Education: Full-Time

The Teacher:

Full Name: .........

DoB: ........

Place of Birth: London

Parents: .......

Siblings: ......

Job Occupation: Teacher

Education: Full-Time Employment




The Father:

Full Name: Stephen

DoB: ........

Place of Birth: London

Parents: .......

Siblings: ......

Job Occupation: ........ 

Education: .........


The Narrator:

Full Name: .........

DoB: ........

Place of Birth: .......

Parents: .......

Siblings: ......

Job Occupation: .......

Education: ..........

Budget and Creativity:

The budget was non-existent, just like most short films. There was also no props used as no props where required. If I had a bigger budget for the film, I wouldn't change much apart from using maybe a couple of props, however they would be partially used. In terms of creativity, due to me working on my own, I had 100% creative controle over the piece. However the actual concept and narrative of the film was heavily influenced by The Twilight Zone, therefore the premise wasn't 100% my creative input.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 2.2

Part 2 of:

- Where is your film intended to be shown?

Video hosting websites!

YOUTUBE is the best peer-to peer video hosting website in the world. With over 100 hours of videos uploads per minute, it's by far the most used website for uploading videos, and the amount of users that use Youtube for non-commercial purposes, and people who use Youtube without an account, is staggering. 

Because Youtube video views statistics comes under devices used (like Desktop computers, Tablets, Mobile Phones E.T.C) as opposed to people with accounts, and by going by the most viewed Youtube video; PSY - Gangnam Style, at least 1.9 Billion have used Youtube.  

And with websites like Social Blade, which focus on the statistic of Youtube, the actual Youtube Channel for PSY has a monthly view count from users that having view his videos of 46 million. So you can estimate that within the next couple of months, Gangnam Style could have 2 billion views. Which is 2/7 of the world population, and that's why I intend you use Youtube as a website where I intend my film to be shown.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 2.1

Part 2 of my A2 Media Studies Question one Evaluation. In this part I will be answering:

- Where is your film intended to be shown?

Social Media Distribution!

Due to the Internet, film distribution as a whole (long or short) is so much easier to share and distribute around the world to ANYONE around the world. Social Media sites like Twitter and Facebook are perfect ways to show your friends your media, and it creates the process of peer-to-peer networking, in which the creator shows two of their friends something, then they show two more friends something and the process goes on like that.

I just showed six different people my short film. If they all only go on to show two people the film, in total that would be 12 more people who would had seen the film. And it they went on to show two more people then it would 24 more people would would had seen it! So in total, by just talking to friends, that's 42 people who would had seen it! And that's just on Facebook! Facebook is one of the places where I intend to show my film.

Twitter's different in the sense that you don't need to accept follow request (unless your account is private. Therefore anyone from around the world can follow you and see your tweets! 

I have 105 followers, meaning that if every one of them showed my film to two friends, that means 210 would had seen my film! Also that's without tweeting or retweeting the film themselves. For example... 

Someone who follows me has 10,000 followers, if he tweeted out my short film, 10,000 people have the chance to view it. And again if they showed two friends each, the amount of views would be staggering and the size of an average football stadium! That's insane!

Therefore Social media is the perfect way of hosting and distributing your media! And that's the main of many reasons of why I would show be film on there!

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 1

Part one of my A2 Media studies Question one Evaluation. In this part I will be answering:

- how long is your Short Film?
- how many clips (scenes) did you use?

1.1 - How long is your Short Film?  

There are really three different types of 'short films'. 2 minute short films, 3-6 minute short films or 7+ minute short films, with each having their own pros and cons. My short film falls under the 3-6 minute section, with the actual length being 4 minutes and 40 seconds.

This is a perfect length as it allows me to introduce the characters, overall narrative and credits all within a time spane that doesn't allow the audience to lose focus, get bored or confused. Some short films drag on, and I didn't do that. 

1.2 How many clips (scenes) did you use?

Video: 

Magazine Article - And Action! - The Twilight Hour Review

The Twilight Hour | A2 Media short Film

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 4 - Poster Analysis.

- How did you go about designing your poster?
- What information did you use?

How did you go about designing your poster?

I followed the conventional ways that a poster is published. I went about designing my poster based on example posters from the Twilight Zone, specifically this one.................

I wanted the narrator character to stand out from the rest of the images, and I achieved this with using a black border around the character. Also the stary night and the twirl were also inspirations for the background. I went about picking the main image as the narrator is an important and vital character to the original Twilight Zone, I felt as it would pay hommage to it in using my narrator as the main image for the poster.

What information did you include?

The Twilight Hour Poster