Evaluation Question 4

I showed my film to the same family which was my focus group in the research and planning phase of my portfolio. I have made some graphs according to the results of the questionnaire my audience filled after watching my film. The audience mainly criticized on the confusion of theme that the film was more leaned towards the mother and son relationship than the education system which was the response of my teacher and colleagues as well. The audience was satisfied with the acting, story, music and also understood that the main theme was about corporal punishments. They also appreciated my skills as a director and DOP but also criticized on my editing skills on which I need to improve a lot.

Graphical analysis

Audience Feedback ( Resource)

Evaluation Question 3

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

Presentation

Ans.               

Poster

1. A poster is a marketing tool for a film and it tells many things about a film. As far as my poster is concerned it is more character oriented.
2. There are three horizontal layers of my poster with screenshots of all the three characters.
3. The upper layer has the screen shot of the teacher which is a low-angled shot in order to tell his dominant character, his expressions are very serious and rigid which also defines his character which is shown in the film. The second layer which is in the center has a screenshot of the main/central character of the film who is a boy. The third layer which is the lowest layer has the screen shot of the mother in the film and the kind of face expressions, dressing and hairstyle she has tells her unorganized and tensed personality.
4. Apart from the visual part the type of font I have used in my poster is also very much related to the story as the font is like the handwriting of a small kid.

Magazine Review

1. A magazine review is a marketing tool used once the film is released so it is a mixture of the views from the critics, director, actors and other stake holders. It also have a short plot and main concept of the film so that people can get to know about the film and they are attracted towards the film.
2. The structure and design of the magazine review page is very much simple as the film is also simple and basic.
3. The background of the review pages is of a blank and damaged paper on a notice board which is related to the theme of government education system.
4. The font used in the magazine review is also similar to the one used in the poster so that the audience can relate to it easily.
5. The pictures of the director and one of the actor is also there to make audience more aware of the film.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Video Interview

Research and planning
Basically technology plays a very important role in any of the productions. So in my coursework this year technology has helped me a lot. Firstly in the research part I have used the internet for all the statistics about the education system in country. I also interviewed some of the teachers who belong to the government education system and as well as the teachers from the private education system in order to get both the view and to do so I used a digital camera.

Construction

In the production part I used a DSLR canon 60D and a tripod to shoot my film. I also used a mike so that I can get the natural sound of the school environment. In the post production part I initially used mac book pro with the software final cut pro to edit my film and than I also used adobe premiere pro CS4 for the editing on my school computer.

Evaluation

In the evaluation process I again used the digital camera to take the video interviews. I used Microsoft office powerpoint to make a presentation. I uploaded the presentation on www.slideshare.com and I also uploaded all the research and evaluation videos including my final film on www.vimeo.com with the use of internet.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Video Interview

Ans. In this year’s coursework my film genre was drama and as the industry was Bollywood so it was more towards Bollywood drama genre. I have followed all the conventions of a drama genre and the todorov’s narrative structure which is normally used in Bollywood drama genre. In my film there is first an equilibrium where there is an examination going on. When teacher catches the student cheating and beats him that is the conflict part. Flashback is the resolution part where the story unfolds and the teacher as well as the audience gets to know that the boy wasn’t cheating but the paper was a prayer from his mother. The new equilibrium is the slight change in teacher’s behavior and the conventional happy ending when the mother and child hug each other.

When it comes to the camera shots so I have followed the low and high angle shot convention. This means that the low angle shots are used for the dominating character to create an image of his character which was the teacher in my film. The low angle shots are used to show those characters which are being dominated or have low morale and motivation towards life which were the character of mother and his son in my film. Lighting of my film was the natural lighting on the location and I haven’t used any extra lights.

In editing the drama genre has a convention of cut to cut editing and simple editing. I initially did mistakes in editing with lots of effects of slow motions and fast motions but later I removed the unnecessary ones according to my teacher’s guidance as drama genre film needs to be simple. So the final edit was very much natural and easy for audience to relate to as the drama genre is a people oriented genre.

The sound and mise on scene of my film was also all natural and I didn’t created any artificial things as the drama genre has the convention of real locations and real sounds to give a real feeling to the audience which helps the audience to relate with the film, theme and the characters. So I choose a real location of an actual school and took all the natural sounds of the school as well to make the film more conventional.

Final Ancillary- Film Poster

A Film Poster

Final Ancillary- A magazine Review

Editing problems and techniques

Rushes conversion

As I used DSLR Canon 60D so all the rushes were in the MOV format which was only acceptable in the mac editing software "Final Cut Pro". Initially I edited my film on my cousins macbook pro but later when my teacher said that I have to re edit my film so I edited the second/final edit on the school computer using adobe premire pro 4. But as the format was not acceptable so I first converted my rushes in the avi format and than in the mp4 format due to which the quality of my film was badly affected.

Color correction

First step after cutting the extras from the rushes was the color correction of the rushes. In some of the shots from the second day of the shoot had problem of over exposure to light so I lowered the exposure. Apart from that all the indoor shots had great natural lighting but I gave it a dull look by using the saturation, contrast and brightness options. This dull look helped developing a feeling of a poor government school which I needed in my film.

Visual effects

In my first edit there were many slow motions and fast motions out of which many were removed in the final edit as they were not justified. But I kept some of the slow motions in the start reason being that I wanted to establish the characters and convey the tension in the mind of student due to which he was not able to concentrate as well as the dominating character of the teacher. I used fade out and fade in to white and black when there was a start and end of the flashback scene. In the ending of my film I added an extreme slow motion when the mother hugs the son and a frame effect where the shot was in the frame and as well as in the background with the end credits coming on the right side. 

Audio effects, Sound and Music

In the start of the film I added a dialogue between mother and son where I also increased the volume. I also added an echo effect for the voice over of mother. I took sounds from the internet of early morning and two instrumentals as music of my film to create the mood of my film. The classical instrumental was only used in the flashback scene to convey the confusion in the story and lead to the audience to the resolution part of the narrative structure. Initially, I removed the natural sound of the rushes and doubt the dialogues but as it was looking very unnatural so when I re edited my film I used the background natural sound of the rushes and the dialogues in the rushes so in the final edit sound was more natural.

Mistakes and learning

I know the fact that I need to improve a lot on my editing skills and there are some technical problems in the final cut of my film as well due to which I am not completely satisfied with my product but I think that I have given my best attempt in the limited resources. Unintentionally, the confusion I wanted to create in the mind of the audience which was there in the characters has affected my product in negative way due to which the audience may get confuse about the theme of the film as well. The biggest mistake I did was that I was unaware of the fact of the compatibility of the camera and the school computer I had to edit on when my laptop crashed due to which the quality of my film has suffered a lot. May be I am unable to deliver the message and representation I wanted to show to my audience but this entire process taught me a lot of things about how a film can be made or can be destroyed on the editing table even if the pre-production and production process are extremely good. I learned some editing techniques which I didn't knew previously like the color correction, sound/music editing and some visual effects. I can say that although it is a very immature start of film making in my life but all the learning in this entire process will definitely help me in my future projects at the university level.  

Final Film "Maa Ki Dua"

When I edited my film again so I changed the name of the film as I accepted the fact that my film was more leaned towards the mother and son relationship than the education system. I added some dialogues in the start of my film to give an exposition of the film and also removed the slow and fast motions from many parts of the film. I edited the sound of my film, used some follies and changed the music also in one part of the film. Now my film and the story was conveyed in a more clear way with all the natural sound and natural feeling of the local school and common man of developing countries. Below is the link of my final film.

Maa ki dua - A short film

First edit

Initially I edited my film with the name of "Ek zindagi". But later when my teacher guided me that the name does not go with the film and there were many problems in the film. In this version of the film which was the first edit there were many slow and fast motions which were distracting. There was no natural sound of the film and only the music which was constant and not changing. The dialogues were not clear and the story was not conveyed. This version of the film was more like a music video and so I changed my plan and than I edited my film again according to the points my teacher highlighted. Below is the link of the my film which was the initial edit.

http://vimeo.com/64050633

Shooting Days and change in actors

The first day started with major problems of equipment. I had to go to my friends place to pick his camera and tripod early in the morning with my actor who was doing the role of the teacher. The teacher whom I choose initially didn't get an off from his office and I had to change my actor one day before the shoot.

Apart from that the main lead of my film was a kid and he also had his exam on that day so I choose one of my relatives son for the main lead who was really good.

After getting the equipment from the other side of the city I started my shoot almost one hour late. During the shoot there was only one problem which was to handle the extra kids in the class while the camera and acting was on but the school staff was really helpful and cooperative. I finished the scene which were to be shot in the class and when we came out for the outdoor shoot so there was an unexpected rain so two outdoor scene were not shot that day.

The two scene which were left out were to be shot near a junkyard near my home but the local police didn't allow me to shoot as there was a local strike that day. I had to go to the school and as it was Saturday so the school was off but I shot outside the school the last scene of the film. After that I went to a place where there  were small houses which was perfect for the shooting of scene 1 and shot the first scene over there.

Although there were many problems but still I was satisfied with my shooting as my teacher and class mates appreciated me when I showed them my rushes in the school. 

Rushes

I removed the extra shots and all the rushes which I will be using in my editing phase are combined in a video and I have uploaded the video with the name of rushes on Vimeo and the link is given below.

Rushes

Shooting log

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

DATE AND LOCATION	TIMING	SCENE#	DESCRIPTION
1st, February.2012 Government School Junkyard	8:30 AM-9:30 AM	Scene #2	Suraya sea offs Ali for school .
	09:30 AM-11:00 AM	Scene# 1	While examination a letter is caught by Jabbar, he punishes Ali and takes the letter and after some minutes examination ends.
	11:00 AM-11:15 AM	Scene# 3	Jabbar realizes his mistake and gives back the letter to Aly.
	11:15 AM-11:30 AM	Scene # 4	Suraya comes to pick Ali from school.

Prop List

1. Letter
2. Uniform
3. Scale
4. Newspaper
5. Wall clock
6. Spectacles