Evaluation

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

Firstly, my film title, ‘The Placebo Effect’, straight away gives the audience a big insight of what my film is about. A Placebo is something where somebody has something that effects the way they think, however, it doesn’t affect them at all. This is the whole point of my film, the main character finds an object that he thinks is lucky but it turns out it’s not. Linking the title with the film is a very common, almost certain, convention that most films follow as it helps the audience understand what it’s about so that they can decide whether they think they would be interested. The three word title also links to real media conventions in my genre of film. Most films in the thriller genre have two or three words in the title (i.e. The Dark Knight, Black Swan and The Avengers) which is what I have also done with my film. I had a bit of a decision to make whether to call my film ‘The Placebo Effect’ or just ‘Placebo Effect. I decided to go with the first one as I think it’s bolder because of the use of ‘The’. This is a similar case to ‘The Dark Knight’; it wouldn’t sound as good if it was just ‘Dark Knight’.

My short film features lots of very stereotypical school themed scenes. This is helped by the use of typical locations that would be used for a school themed film (i.e. corridors, classrooms and school car parks). Before filming, I did some research on films that have a theme of school and bullying, I researched the locations they used throughout the film. One of the main inspirations for the locations I used was the film ‘Drillbit Taylor’. In this bullying themed film, a lot of scenes are filmed in school corridors. This is because school corridors are a very versatile place to film. You can film when there’s lots of people or no people, you can film in different parts of the corridor with different lighting and décor. In the first scene of my product, I decided to use the part of the corridor that was quite plain and the lighting was quite dark, this was to go with the dark theme which consisted of a theme of bullying. The lighting also helped with the development of Jordan Hart, the aim in the first scene was to make the character seem very lonely and powerless, and if the lights were bright then this wouldn’t have been as sinister. The darkness of the corridor also builds suspense which is a key point when creating a theme surrounding bullying. The park scene also creates isolation around the character which is good as he is very alone and defenceless.

My opening scene was probably one of the most important in terms of setting the scene and introducing the characters. Introducing the characters was crucial as it’s only a short film so I only have a small period of time to portray the characters and their personal traits and attributes. For Jordan, I had to use lots of camera angles and lighting in order to portray the character correctly, the use of low angle shots and over the shoulder shots was vital in order to demonstrate the loneliness surrounding the character. To show Mark Hanna’s traits it was fairly easy, he just had to act arrogant and cocky and again, the use of camera angles helped a lot as I needed the audience to know he was a powerful character who can easily disrupt the equilibrium whenever he wants. I found it quite a lot harder to represent Nadia Rodriguez’ character as there was no way to really show her traits apart from what she says. I tried to portray her by the use of language and body language. Another thing that was very important in the opening scene was the establishing shot, the establishing shot has to show the audience where the film will be based, in my case it’s in a school.

In ‘The Placebo Effect’, there were many things I had to consider in terms of mis en scene, such as clothing, music, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, surroundings, props, extras and many other things. I found it quite difficult to get the diegetic sounds right in the school as you should be able to hear students talking and shouting as you would in a big film, however, when I tried this, it was too noisy and you couldn’t hear the characters talking so I decided to film in lesson time so that the corridors were empty in order to hear the characters. Clothing was just normal clothes that a student would wear to school so that was easy. Props were also relatively easy to summon as all I really needed was a pair of geeky glasses, a bag and an iPhone; these were all quite easy to get. This would be much different from big Hollywood films as they may need huge props like cars or planes, this would also cost them a lot of money where as I paid nothing for my props. The props that were used in my film help to create the stereotypical teenager feel with the use of iPhones as young teenagers are always on their phones.

Before producing the poster, I researched popular thriller films' posters such as 'Inception'. However, I couldn't find one that really stood out and that I liked so i just decided to try and go with my own style. My style consists of a black and white colour scheme to show contrasts within the corridor. My style also includes a unique 'drawn style' image to correspond with the theme of school. I really like my poster as I think it's very effective and very unique.

Whereas my poster was very unique, my magazine had a very similar house style to most big film magazines (i.e. Total Film and Empire). Whilst researching magazine film review pages, I discovered that most of them always have a large image of the movie, this is a typical film magazine convention, this is exactly what I did. I decided to stick to the black and white colour scheme as it makes my image stand out as it is very colourful. The image features two of the main actors in my film in a crucial scene in the film. In front of the image, I also demonstrated more typical conventions of real media products, I did this by placing ratings from other film companies, this is very common in film magazines. There are also lots of little details that I needed to include in order to make it like a real media product, things such as Twitter advertisements, quotes from interviews with the actors and small pictures that are linked to the short film.

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

Throughout the research and planning stage of my coursework, I used many different technological programs. I used a mixture of internet programs such as YouTube, Google and Blogger and computer programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. The internet was very helpful during the research stage as it had useful search engines like Google to help me discover more about other students' short films and other media products such as film posters and magazine pages, these gave me inspiration. YouTube was very helpful when I needed inspiration for camera angles and inspirations for my film as it gave me lots of different ideas as I was able to watch many different examples of students attempts at creating a short film. Most of my research and planning was undergone on the computers we are provided with at school. The computers are very basic but they are good for searching the web and just getting the job done when it comes to planning. When I wasn't at school, I could also use my Sony Vaio laptop at home for research if I needed to. I much preferred doing research on my laptop as it is much faster when searching the internet, however, my laptop does not have Microsoft Word so I was unable to take notes and plan whilst at home unless it was with a pen and paper which I did do occasionally.

I was also able to use the internet on my iPhone if I wasn't able to access a computer or my laptop and I needed to research something such as how to do a certain camera angle. I didn't use my iPhone much for this stage as it was unneeded as I could almost always access a computer or my laptop at home.

Microsoft Word was vital in my planning stage. Almost all of my work was written up as a first draft on the program. I found this program very simple to use and it also has many different capabilities such as font change and font size change and you can structure your work very easily on Word.
I did face a few difficulties with what to do with my research and planning after it was completed as we were required to put all of our work onto a blog so it can easily be marked. Firstly, I tried to use Weebly as my blog site, at the start it was hard to get used to and I found it very confusing and complicated, also, some of the images wouldn't show so I decided to move all of my work over to Blogger. I found Blogger so much simpler to use and it also looks a lot better as you can easily customise your blog to suit your own personal preferences. Blogger is also much simpler to navigate through as a website as you can set tabs so it is easy for the audience to see what they want to see. Blogger was one of the main media technologies that I used throughout the course of this project as every single thing I've done has been put up on there. It is very useful as you can put almost anything you want on there, you can post texts, images, videos and links etc. I tried my best to use Blogger much like a diary, constantly updating it whenever I had a new idea or when I had made progress in my work.

My iPhone was quite important with the planning of my film as I used one of the iPhones main features, iMessage, to organise dates to shoot my film. iMessage came in very handy as I was able to start a group chat with the actors to see when they were free to let me shoot them acting my film out. If it weren't for the group chat then it could've taken a bit longer to contact them both.
During the construction stage of my film, I was faced with a bit of a problem. Originally, I wanted to shoot my film with a camera. However, I was unable to use a camera as I don't have one so all I had to shoot my film with was my iPhone 6. I was quite disappointed with this because even though my iPhone 6 has an 8 megapixel camera and is very clear, it's not as clear as a professional camera would be, but there was nothing I could do about this so I just had to deal with it. However, as I've always had an iPhone, I already knew how to use it really easily whereas I would've had to learn how to use the camera which could've been very time consuming.

I actually found filming very fun, however, it was also very stressful. I think I found it stressful because I knew exactly what I wanted the actors to do but it is so incredibly difficult to explain your ideas to them the way you want to and when they don't do it the way you want you cant help but get stressed. However, you can only expect so much from them as they aren't qualified actors and they can only try their best and they did so I am happy with that. The only other thing I didn't like about filming was that I had to keep asking the actors to keep repeating the scene as I needed to capture lots of different camera angles in order to create a good effect, for this reason I felt really needy and pushy so I didn't want to be too strict on them. Apart from that, I found filming and directing very fun.

After getting all the shots for my film, I was very grateful as I was lucky enough to have a friend who let me borrow their Apple MacBook Pro to edit the film together. Once I uploaded all of the footage to the MacBook using a lightning cable, I was amazed by how easy it was to use. I was initially expecting it to be really complicated and complex. I used a program that was created by Apple to edit my film together, it's called iMovie. This was also a very easy program to use, after 10 minutes of using it I knew exactly what to do. Editing the footage together was very time consuming, I probably spent approximately 7 or 8 hours editing it to get it perfect, adding transitions and matching the sounds and music with the film and once I did, the film was over a minute too long so I had to cut it short which made me less happy with the final product but this was not something that I could change as it is only a short film. If it wasn't for my friend letting my borrow her MacBook, I have no idea how I would've edited my film together. My only other option was a possibility of the school computers having Windows Movie Maker in their programs but I have no idea how to use that so I was quite lucky.

After the completion of my product, I then had difficulties uploading it to my blog and I discovered that the only possible way that I could do it was by creating a YouTube account and linking onto my blog. So I also learned how to create and manage a YouTube account which was a new experience for me. One of the other clever programs on the MacBook is called QuickTime Player. Basically this program records everything you do on the screen so I was able to record the editing process so that was something else I was able to upload to my blog.

In order to evaluate my product, I needed some feedback. One of the main ways I did this was by uploading the short film to YouTube so people can comment what they think. It also means that anybody in the world can watch it so I could potentially receive feedback from all over the world. Blogger was also a very useful site in terms of my evaluation. I was able to easily navigate through my blog to bring together all of my work to evaluate it. It was used to note my filming process, my editing process and all of my research and planning activities. I was able to access my blog anywhere anytime as it was easily accessible on the school computers, on my laptop, on my iPhone and my iPad. I tried to organise my blog well so it was detailed and easy to navigate.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before you begin to produce your media product, it is very important to receive some audience feedback so you can get a better understanding of what people want to see. Before beginning the construction of my media products, I produced a questionnaire that would help me understand who my target audience was and what they think my product should be like. Before I received the completed questionnaires back, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve upon completion of my product but I needed to find out what other people want to see as it is pointless if I create something that only I like. When I got the results back, I learned what my audience wanted and developed my initial ideas. I originally was going to call my film 'Escalation', however, after analysing the answers on the questionnaire, one of the people who answered it came up with a better name, 'The Placebo Effect', so I decided to go with that as it fitted with the plot better.

After showing my finished film to the same audience, it was clear that I had adapted my product to suit their preferences and desires as they all agreed that it was very good and they like it. However, after completing the product, there are still a few aspects that I would change. For example, I really did wish that a was designated a longer run time for my film as I preferred it before it had to shorten it as the music fitted better and it just had a better flow. Also, if my short film was allowed to be longer then I probably would've added more scenes to create a better story, by doing this it would've meant that the consumer would have created more of an emotion towards specific characters as they would have more time to digest the story and get to know the characters and know their personalities more.

In terms of my poster and magazine, the feedback was very good. I like both products but I think that I could've done more with them, however, I cant define what I could've done to make them better.

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

The coursework for A2 Media Studies required that I had to produce a short film lasting approximately 5 minutes. Alongside this, I had two ancillary objectives to complete; to make a poster for the film and to produce a magazine review page of the film. In all three products, I tried to stick with a similar theme in order to create a unique feel surrounding the products. If the products had a uniqueness about them then it would keep the audience interested in the film as it would be something new. A unique selling point is always a very good point to have when producing and promoting a film. If all three products have their own unique style then lots of people will want to watch the film as it is different from anything else.

After researching and studying lots of different thriller film posters, such as 'The Dark Knight' and 'Inception', I had a better understanding of how the big Hollywood films portray such great effectiveness. Most thriller film poster follow a very similar structure. Their aim is to advertise the film with the use of images, fonts, actors names and the colour scheme. Using these elements to make the poster the best it can possibly be is what the makes the film approachable to the consumer. If the consumer likes the look of the film then they will most likely go and watch it. Main conventions of a typical film poster include bold fonts for the title to make it stand out so the consumer knows what the film's about. It also consists of a very striking image to attract the attention of the viewer. However, a poster should never include too much information about the film as it could potentially ruin it for the viewer. This is what I tried to do with my poster, I made the font of the film title big and bold and made it stand out from the dark colour scheme, I also put the actors name at the bottom in a similar font and colour as people may wish to watch a film as it has an actor they like starring in it. All of these conventions were used to create effectiveness for my film.

My film poster is quite simple but I do think that that it is effective as it attracts the audiences attention and also links to my film. I think the main reason my poster is effective and eye catching is due to the contrast of the dark image and the brightness of the title, it is really quite striking. Once the audience have noticed the poster they will then hopefully notice the drawn style image which is quite unique so this may persuade them to watch my film. As the image is quite plain, the main actor in it really stands out as he has a dominant presence in the image so this may create appeal to all of his fans.

My magazine followed a lot of typical magazine conventions (i.e. Empire). Some of these conventions include the font style, the page layout, the image, the ratings and quotes. Many big film magazines such as Empire have a certain house style that they follow in each issue. I also have a certain house style throughout my three products, it consists of a black and white colour scheme and also includes images to catch the audiences eye. A house style also creates effectiveness as consumers will know what to expect when they see your product so this may create customer loyalty which could increase the number of customers you get watching your film as people hear about it via social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter and also via word of mouth.

I think that the magazine review page combines with the poster and the short film to create high quality effectiveness as it continues with the house style and adds to the atmosphere surrounding the film which creates awareness.

Hopefully the combination of my poster and my magazine review page were effective enough to attract the most thriller seeking film fans to watch my film and hopefully they will like it and not feel disappointed because I have over sold the film. Overall, I think that my short film ads a lot of effect to the films package, i think this because it include the same atmosphere, feel and themes. For example, on my poster, the main character is in the corridor on his own which is how the film begins which is good as small doses of repetition creates a lot of effectiveness towards the overall package.

Proccess for my Short Film - A2 Media Studies

The Placebo Effect (Short Film) - A2 Media Studies

Magazine Review Page

 

Actors I'd like to be in my Film

There are a lot of brilliant actors in the film industry, each of them has their own traits that make them unique, this is why people prefer them to other actors, if they like certain characteristics that an actor has then they are more likely to enjoy watching the films they star in.

There are way too many actors that I'd like to feature in my film. Huge stars such as Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper Christian Bale, Will Smith, Adam Sandler, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Jackman, Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey are all among my favourite actors. They're all incredible at their job and portraying the different characters they're given to play. Most people think being an actor is easy, but all of the people above have to work incredibly hard to perfect what they do. And what makes everything even more interesting, is that they all have different abilities, for example, Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler are good at being funny so they feature in lots of comedies, so if somebody liked laughing a lot then they may like to watch some of their films. Robert Downey Jr. is good at playing a certain character for a long time, for example, he has played Iron Man/Tony Stark in 3 Iron Man Films and 2 Avengers films so he is clearly good at being this character. So Iron Man fans will probably also be huge fans of RDJ. Tom Cruise is known for doing most of his own stunts which is a very impressive thing for not only the audience, but for the film company as they don't have to pay as much for stunt men. Morgan Freeman has a very distinctive, unique and iconic voice that is well known all over the world so many companies may seek to pay him to be the 'voice' of their company. Old school actors like Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are known for their terrific performances in Gangster films so they have created an image for themselves. Fans of Gangster films such as Scarface and Goodfellas will most likely be huge fans of the two actors. Actors including Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg are very popular for film fans as they can play such versatile character roles. This basically means that they perform well in all of their films so they are big fan favourites. Most of the versatile actors are normally quite good looking, this is another selling point for companies as they can sell film merchandise to young girls (e.g. posters that they can put on their walls).

Although these are all brilliant actors, I couldn't feature any of these in The Placebo Effect; they're all too old to play the role of Jordan Hart. I need somebody of equal talent but they need to be relatively young. After some thought, I decided that the perfect actor to play the role of Jordan Hart would be Zac Efron. I think this because he's young, he's a good actor, he's charming, he's good looking, he fits the role perfectly. I could also use him as an advertising technique towards young girls. If young girls found out he was starring in my film, they'd all want to watch it just to see him.




If I had to choose someone to play the role of Mark Hanna, then I'd probably choose Taylor Lautner. I think he would play the role well as he has played a similar role before in Grown Ups 2, where he was the popular kid who was also a bully. I think this would give him an advantage as he would know what to do as he's done it before. He's also young so he would fit in with the character. He also has a muscly body which adds to his presence when he's being a bully which would make him more intimidating which is good for creating tension in the film.




I think that Vanessa Hudgens would be the perfect actress to play Nadia Rodriguez in my film. I think this because she's young, she's talented and she's already had previous experience acting in a school setting whilst performing in High School Musical. She can also sing so if I ever wanted to add a singing scene into my film, that would be possible if she was in it. She's also very attractive so lots of guys may want to watch The Placebo Effect because she's in it.

Reasons for Changing/Developing Plot

I had to use a Japanese token as it was all I could find that would suit its character. However, I do think this worked better as a 'lucky charm' than the poker chip would've as it looked very unique and symbolic. Anything else that was changed was only due to difficulties recording or a better idea was thought of when it was being recorded.

Final Plot Update

Final Plot
Name – The Placebo Effect
Genre – Drama/Thriller
Target Audience – Teenagers (13-18)

Songs – ‘The Plain White T’s – Rhythm of Love’, ‘Phillip Phillips – Gone, Gone, Gone’, ‘Train – Hey, Soul Sister’

Main Characters -
Jordan Hart – (Main Character) 16 years old, male, born in London.
Nadia Rodriguez – (Love life) 16 years old, female, born in Madrid.
Mark Hanna – (Lead Bully) 16 years old, male, born in London.
 

Plot
Jordan Hart; a young 16 year old boy at school who is not very popular and gets bullied. He doesn’t receive much attention at home as his parents are hardly ever there. He struggles to concentrate at school because of all of the bullying; he also has anxiety and paranoia. There’s only one person who really cares for him, Nadia Rodriguez which is strange because she is quite popular.

He regularly gets beaten up by the school bully; Mark Hanna. One day at school, Mark chases after Jordan and beats him up and throws his bag around and all of the contents fall out. When picking all his stuff up, he finds a random Japanese token that, the next day, has seemingly started preventing Mark from bullying him. Jordan carries the token on him at all times as he thinks it’s lucky.

As Mark stops bullying him, Jordan becomes more confident and can concentrate more in class. However, what Jordan doesn’t realise is that it isn’t the token that makes him feel lucky and gives him confidence, it’s Nadia.

Jordan is walking home from school one day and realises that he has lost the token and begins to panic, he then realises, the little token was never lucky, it was Nadia.