Our media product challenged and developed the conventions of other real media products in many ways. One way in which the narrative of our film was conventional was by introducing the characters in a more realistic way and showing a connection between them. The opening scene does this well by representing the younger brother as being immature and childish while the older brother being more responsible and dominant. The first scene shows the older brother asking where the parents have gone in a respectful manner towards the younger brother and is responded in somewhat a rude and childish way. The ongoing action helps the viewer in distinguishing the more responsible of the two brothers and gives an immediate idea of who might be older.
We wanted to make our film a bit different from others with the use of language and narrative so we used some slang like for instance in the first scene where the younger brother says “blad.” Slang isn’t known to be used that much in dramatic films but it helped in showing how disrespectful the younger brother was to his older brother. This was challenging other drama films that would normally go for the regional accents with a normal ordinary narrative.
In the beginning of our film, their was a long shot of the older brother walking towards the house. This was done to a good standard as it helped to show the location of the film and helped in showing the house in which he was walking into which was a semi-detached. We wanted to give the audience an impression that the two brothers live an ordinary life in an ordinary family home. The establishing Shot of the house at the very beginning of the film also helped in showing the viewer the location of the film and the type of house the two brothers live in.
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We wanted to trick the audience into taking sides between the two brothers and the unconventional use of the camera does this to great effect. An eye line match with a panning shot of the brother peaking out of his bedroom checking where his older brother is at. The film story structure at this stage has already made great impact on the audience by making them feel sorry for the older brother and take his side but the panning shot involves the audience with the younger brother and the audience follow the younger brother and puts them in his shoes. It makes the audience feel that they are part of the conspiracy.
Continuity editing within the film helps in making the story line fit in the right places. I feel that our first scene does this very well with cut edits between the younger brother watching TV. and the older brother walking towards the house. There are cut edits between the younger brother on his phone and the older brother looking for his timetable. Not only does the editing keep the viewer entertained but also helps in the understanding of the story and helps the viewer to keep up with developments in the plot.
We used mise en scene conventionally; we made the decision that all the lighting was kept natural. The extract was set in a house and the use of casual clothing and props such as phones just made the film more realistic. This all helped in the build of the story line which helped in making the film more dramatic. It helped to show the conventional characteristics of a family home.
Diegetic sound is sound that the characters in the film can hear e.g. a character listening to the radio. We used a few diegetic sounds for example when the younger brother was watching television at the start of the film. This showed the realism of the day to day life of the characters and helped to implement the younger brother as a conventional character of a family home. We also played music such as dreams and bombastic which also created realism and dreams was associated to the title of the film showing that the older brother can’t get sleep. Non-Diegetic sound is sound that is only for the audience to hear and we used the voice over where the younger brother was talking to his friend on the phone while an action sequence of the older brother putting his shoes away was being displayed to the audience. This was done to give the audience an impression the younger brother may have been in the wrong. Up to this time, the audience has been on the younger brother’s side but the voice over helped in showing the older brother getting organized yet the younger brother planning trouble ahead. The voice was meant to create an effect on the audience in which that they had to pick sides.
The poster helps in creating a brand identity for the film with the use of its image. The older brother is sitting on the bed with his head in his hand which shows he has something bothering him. This shows his unhappiness. The younger brother is looking back with a serious suspicious face. This shows that the film is more likely to be serious and dramatic. The magazine feature has a capture of the younger brother sitting on the couch whilst the older brother is standing up which shows dominance. The medium shot image shows that the room is small and the couch shows that it could be a family home which relates the two characters to being related. This draws back to the fact that the film could be dramatic.
The tagline, “worse than a nightmare,” makes the film sound like it’s a horror; however the image is doesn’t indicate a horror genre which symbolizes a double meaning. The bed in the image in relation to the tagline suggests to the consumer that the older brother might not be able to sleep which is worse than a nightmare because he can’t even have a nightmare without actually sleeping and this is backed up by the title Insomnia. This adds to the fact that the film is more likely to be dramatic; posting the question to the audience why can’t the older brother sleep?
The design of the poster is also used in creating a brand identity for the film. The title Insomnia is white with a black border which gives the film a classic sophisticated look. This helps in creating a good feel to the film. The title also has a blurred effect. This helps into making the audience visualize the film more and think deeply into it. What does Insomnia mean? It brings confusion to the film which can be used as a unique selling point as the consumer is left wondering what the film is about with a slight idea but still drawn away and therefore willing to find out more.
Our magazine feature enhances the audience’s understanding of the film through the image. The image shows the older brother standing up while the younger brother is seated on the couch. The image is dark and has shadows which create tension and mysteriousness. The fact that the older brother is standing up shows that he is the dominant force, while the mysteriousness is there to be solved which is done with the great effect of the image. This deceives the audience into thinking the older brother is to get away with everything which is shown through the early stages of the film however the fact that the younger brother gets told off at the first meeting between the two characters in the film creates the possibility of the downfall of the older brother as the film approaches its ending. The magazine doesn’t only help in the understanding of the film but also helps in understanding of the characters of the film and the genre before actually watching the film.
The language in the magazine feature helps the consumer understand the film in great detail before actually watching it. It gives an insight into the film in more detail and distinguishes between the two characters. The use of the rhetorical question “How do you dodge this bullet?” not only creates that excitement about the film but also makes the consumer want to read on and find out more.
Informal language such as “Everyone wants to be a superstar” puts the consumer in the characters mind and makes them feel part of the film. They feel like they’re in the film and they also want to be a superstar. This is most especially targeted to the audience of 12 – 16 who will want to be that superstar.
The feature is laid out in small short rows which help to ease the reading of the review. It makes it more enjoyable and less frustrating to read. It’s not a big essay just happened to be written out. This not only makes the consumer want to read the whole review but also appeals to the target audience of the film. The language is not sophisticated such as “This seems like an all nighter” therefore the target audience of the age 12 can understand it. However those of the age 16 might know that some of the language may have two meanings.
The whole review therefore helps the consumers in understanding the film more and language helps in making the feature more exciting and interesting to read engaging the magazine to the audience.
I used Adobe premiere for editing our film footage. The main and only problem I found using the software was the rendering of footage. Each time the work had been saved and re opened later for usage, I’d have to render the work areas again which took some time. However, rendering is only done where effects such as dissolves are added into the scenes. This did not hinder the creative process and as we wanted to keep the film as natural and simple as possible.
An advantage of the software was the fact that it could support numerous nested edited sequences. It was easy to toggle between each sequence using the tabs above the timeline. The software also allowed me to have several bins in a project and expand them or shrink them in a tree like structure cutting out video footage that I didn’t need but however if thought I did need later made it easier to get it back. Adobe was also time saving as I did some research and other software such as Mix Pad Video Editor would need third party applications like Cleaner (Final Cut), or multi-step conversion in order to finalize in editing but adobe allowed all the editing to be done at once. This assisted the creative process in a way that sequences were put onto the timeline in any order and the editing allowed to start from scratch hence several different ideas coming up which allowed different orders and action to take place rather than the original plan for example when the older brother was tidying up the living room, that was initially meant to be followed by a shot of the younger brother sleeping.
I used Blogger.com for my planning and evaluation. It was advantageous and disadvantageous in many ways. The blog allowed in informing other groups and potential consumers about the film which then would help in group discussion and make it easier to get feedback. It was easier to place the short film on the blog and get as much feedback as possible. The blog allowed me to show the film rather than tell a story about it whereby potential consumers could see it with their own eyes. Blogger also allowed me in sharing and gaining knowledge from looking at other people who were doing similar projects and sharing ideas online helped to shape my ideas and enhance my creativity. This then helped me in challenging other peoples work in order to make my evaluation better. The feedback helped in letting me know what I could have done in making my short film better. In general, using the blog helped me to express my ideas and show my creativity and the experience I gained through making the short film. insomnia-kennedy.blogspot.com
The main disadvantage of using Blogger like any other online blogs was that mistakes immediately go live once you publish the post. When you redesign your website with the blogging redesigning it live on your site once the publish button is pressed. Any mistake you make is instantanly reflected across your site. This meant I had to be extra carefull with my posts by thouroughly checking each post to make sure their was no errors before publishing any material live. Inorder to this, I had to first do all my work using word as it indicates any mistakes made which blogger doesn’t do therfore consuming more time. This made the process feel more clinical and less interactive.
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
Above is a pie chart illustrating the data for our audience feedback. Most of the viewers that we asked thought that our film was excellent. We got a few good quotes such as “the short film should be made into a series,” and “The film being made longer could actually hit cinema showcasing,” as well as many others. The major negative comment was that the film was too short. This had to be the case because it was our brief. The feedback showed that our short film was a great success in proportion to the viewers that watched it. NP 85% of our audience thought that the day to night transition shot was the best part of the film. They thought it looked really professional. The audience loved our choice for the two songs that were played during the film Most of the audience thought it gave a uplift to the film and the Bombastic song made it more comical as it was unexpected and the lyrical content was quite funny.
We made a graph showing what the audience liked most about insomnia giving them option to choose from as shown below:
The above graph was taken from a statistical view about what the audience liked most about the film and as shown most of them liked the music. Music was really important in the making of our film because it creates the atmosphere around the whole film. We had to come up with good choices that would entertain our target audience of 16-18.
Based on our audience feedback, the only thing that I would suggest in making our short film better is making it into a series as it was loved by most of the audience and that idea was actually suggest by most.
