1. Evaluation Tania Rahman 13A3 Images from google

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

4. A film in this genre depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. They include dramatic themes such as prejudice, social problems, family life ,conflict and crime etc.

6. Conventions We have included the element of social problems and conflict to keep in line with the conventions of drama films Our main character has a mental illness which can be categorized as a social problem. This issue leads to conflict within her mind which is shown when she thinks she is had an argument with her family. We used the conventions of drama well, as we were able to include real life situations that people might be going through. For instance there are so many people who have to live with a mental illness or know someone who has a mental illness, so they may be able to relate to it. This is similar to other films in our genre as there is often a story line audiences can relate to. We went against the stereotypical idea that all people with mental illnesses are somewhat ‘crazy’ and ‘violent’ as our main character is just the same as any other person with a mental illness.

7. Conventions As our film deals with emotional themes it does fit in with the conventions of a film in the genre of drama We were able to make the storyline more dramatic so it interests our audience, but we’re also able to keep it realistic enough so that it wasn’t too over dramatic Most films in this genre also have a very dramatic element to them as if they didn’t include this aspect, audiences may find it boring We tried to add dramatic elements, such as when our main character is angry at her family for lying to her about being adopted. Even though not all people may react in this way, we tried to make the film more interesting by adding conflict to our narrative

8. Conventions Our film is most similar to Roland Barthes ‘Enigma Code’ theory. This is because we use alot of the different codes the theory identifies. In our film each scene is colour coded, for example we use yellow, orange, green, red, blue and white, which are the six colours of a rubix cube. These colours represent different emotions such as happiness, anger, jealousy etc. This is similar to the ‘symbolic code’ in Barthes Enigma Code. We have used colour coding in the clothing our main character wears, so when she is feeling angry, she is wearing red for example. This theory worked well for our film as we wanted it to make the audience think more deeply about the story.

9. Conventions Our film goes against Todorov’s theory of Equilibrium as it is not in chronological order. It challenges the way most films are made, which are usually in a similar structure to the way Todorov describes. We wanted to do this so that our film wasn’t the same as most other conventional drama films and so that the audience can see something different.

11. It was also a good technique to get audiences involved as they would want to figure out what is going on and so would want to watch on. This is in line with the conventions of a drama film as it is normally dramatic so that audiences are gripped from the beginning

13. Our poster was made on Photoshop and combines well with our film We have put screen captures from scenes in our film to let the audience get an idea of what’s in the film. We used some of the dramatic parts of the film to make the poster portray the film in a good and interesting way. The title of our film ‘Dimensions’ is in a font that is bold and stands out. It relates to the Rubix cube- image of rubix cube and colours represent the different dimensions of a rubix cube. We also added the date of the film and some words that link to what the film is about The age rating for our film is right for the content and we have also added our logo to indicate our film company

14. Radio trailer: Sound of a rubix cube being used…gets louder Whoosh sound Voiceover: Life is full of different dimensions Clip from film: ‘I’m going to America’ character screams happily Voiceover: It may seem simple Clip of family congratulating her Voiceover: But there’s always something you’ll regret? Rewind noise…dramatic bang Clip of characters mum saying ‘it’s about you not her’…dramatic music starts… Clips of sisters arguing… ‘I won’t regret it’! Climax Clip of character crying Beeping sound and ticking sounds Dramatic sound and voiceover says ‘Dimensions’ This was the plan for our film trailer. However we have had to change it due to a alteration in the narrative. Now our film is not about regrets anymore.

15. Main radio trailer script: Whoosh sound Voice over: life is full of different dimensions Theme music Helen: sometimes it feels like my mind is like a rubix cube, I just cant seem to figure it out. Explosion noise before the rewind scene Dramatic music (used at the start of the film) Clips from the film: Helen: how could you lie to me? Mother: this isn’t about Helen Helen: get out of my face u evil cow. Voice over: your mind can play games with you. Helen: how can that be when it feels so real..? Voice over: DIMENSIONS out may 12th. As we changed our narratives theme, this trailer was more suitable. We were able to add clips that were connected to the storyline. We added some of the dramatic lines from our film so that the trailer is fast paced and captures audiences. The voiceover gives a dramatic feel to the film as it drops hints about the plot of the film. This might add suspense for the audience and is similar to many trailers in our chosen genre.

16. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

17. Feedback Feedback before the film Our target audience has an age range of 12-21 years old. From our questionnaire results we found out that most of them actually liked the genre of Drama/Psychological Drama but we can see that people from the ages of 17-21 liked it better than that of 12-16. This is the reason we decided to stick with this genre.

18. Feedback From our results we realised that our target audience preferred films about real life situations. They also thought that twists in the story line and narratives that were thought provoking were good. So therefore we put these aspects in to our film. Even though there were less people who liked conflict between people in films, we realised that without this element to a film it wouldn’t be as interesting. As our audience liked the idea of a surprise twist at the end of a film, we added one. We also realised that our target audience seemed to prefer tragic endings than happy ones, so we decided to leave our film on a sad note.

19. Feedback From our results we also found out that the openings that were ‘different’ like flashbacks and unusual starts were liked better from our audience. So we decided to add an element of each to our film.

20. Feedback From these results we saw that our target audiences preferred something different and so we tried to do this by making our main character unique and adding twists and effects to our narrative.

21. Feedback Feedback during making the film: We had our film checked by an expert so that we could get feedback on it. We were told that it didn’t really make much sense and there was no point to the rubix cube being there. We decided to make the opening of the film more clearer. We added a narration at the beginning to highlight the relevance of the rubix cube. We then had to re-shoot the opening of the film and added extra scenes to make the transitions of scenes more affective. We filmed in a medical room as previously our main character was in a bedroom, which was a confusing aspect to our film. We changed it to a medical centre as it made it more clearer that our main character was ill. However we thought that rather than our main character having a terminal illness we could change it to her having a mental illness. We realised this was a better idea as it was perfect for our story and we highlighted her breakdown and instability in the film through things such as shaky camera movements and visual effects.

22. Feedback Feedback after the film Our film was reviewed from our target audience- we got some critical analysis along with the good points of our film. If we had time we could have used this information to improve our film. HABIBA KHANAM 18 years old As we had some time we were able to try and fix the part where when one of the characters speaks it cuts into a word. This was helped by the feedback we received.

23. Feedback Feedback after the film on Facebook: “I like the story line”- (KhadeejaKamilah Bint Sa'eed) “Really good”- (Khaleda Begum Amin) “This is actually quite good. The story is really cool. Love how the rubix cube acts as a metaphor of her life not fitting together. Really cool. Can't really think of any improvements to make. Well done”- (Mafara Ahmed) “Its great but it could be a more in-depth story line for the main character????. Good job”- (Sean Maguire) “Acting is good + editing too!! great work”- (Aly Butt) If we had more time, we would probably try to fix any more problems highlighted by our audience feedback, such as creating a more in-depth story line for the character. However doing this would need alot of time and establishing a more in-depth story would be hard to fit into a 5 minute film as we wouldn’t be able to develop the narrative & emotions.

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

25. Pre-production Used the internet (search engine ‘Google’) to find out about the conventions of the film genre of drama , searched on ‘Youtube’ about videos concerning our film genre and watched films in our chosen genre e.g. ‘Memento’. This helped us identify the key themes we needed to make our film follow the conventions of our chosen genre. Watched short films on ‘BBC Film Network’ and ‘Youtube’. For instance we found short films such as ‘Last Words’ which connected to the narrative of our film of regrets so we wrote a review on it. This helped shape our films narrative even more. However we decided to change the theme of regrets after we received some early feedback. Used digital camera to take images of our story board and upload them onto iMac computers. For example we drew our story board onto paper and then took pictures of them using the digital camera. We had to have the correct amount of lighting to make sure our images looked right on screen. We then uploaded the pictures using the camera wire. Then used iMovie to create our animatic We used ‘Microsoft Word’ to type up our script. Emailed and texted actors to set time and date for filming Used Facebook to do audience research such as doing a questionnaire

26. Production Used video cameras to shoot our film. For example we learnt how to leave around five seconds of filming when we presses record at the start and then shoot so that we didn’t have unwanted cuts at the beginning of our shots. We also used white balance so that our scenes could appear in the way we wanted them to. For instance a lighter atmosphere for a happier moment in our film etc. Used final cut software to edit our film and added visual effects to our film. For instance we were able to use the cutting/cropping tool to edit and cut scenes to the right size. We also Used Live Type to create opening animation to our film. We decided on what font we wanted to have and then what effect and colours we wanted. Recorded narration on microphone and used ‘Logic Pro’ (music production and sound software) to put it onto the computer so that we could then add it to our film

27. Production First Iused a digital camera to take a picture of an image we wanted to put on our poster Then I copied and pasted it on to ‘Microsoft Word’ and changed the colour of it to ‘black and white’ After that I copied and pasted that image onto ‘Microsoft Paint’ and used the rubber to tool to delete the black background Finally I used that image for the poster of our film and put it onto ‘Adobe Photoshop’. I then selected the white background the image had and deleted it so that al you can see it the hands and the rubix cube

28. Production In the studio we used the following software and technology: Power Mac Make dub mixing desk to create the right sound levels etc. Varies sound bank from college library All loyalty free themed were composed by members of the group

29. Post production Used mobile phone to record our audience feedback Used Facebook to get reviews on our film. We converted our film into ‘Quick Time’. We then uploaded it to ‘Vimeo’ and then uploaded to ‘Facebook’. People were then able to leave comments about it and how they thought we could improve it.