4 ) HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

3) WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

From our audience feedback, we have learnt that people found it hard at the beginning to understand weather the mockumentary was supposed to be real or believable. They didn’t necessarily understand what was going on and they found this a little confusing. They said that the title cards helped with this, yet these title cards were hard to see as the writing was quite small.

"I liked the way it changed in the middle." - Focus Group Member

None of the focus group said they had witnessed this kind of situation themselves and they didn’t realize that it was such an issue among teenagers and they thought that this mockumentary helped them and would help other people to realize the dangers. The majority of the focus group were aged between 17 and 18 but we had one teacher, this pretty much matcyhed our target audience.

"Not very realistic but it made sense within the given genre" - Focus Group Member

Charlotte’s character reminded a lot of the focus group of an American teenager which made them feel like our mockumentary was similar to an American teen movie. The focus group didn’t say that they wanted to know what happened later on, as they didn’t feel that there was a later on.

"It was very informative." - Focus Group Member

The last question, people had a mixed feeling about. Some said that if a drug results in death then it isn’t for a good or legit reason and therefore it is just as bad as other drugs. On the whole people enjoyed our film and were impressed with it, they thought that more time would have resulted in maybe a better production but the enjoyed it. In general comments, people said that it looked like a real documentary and was very professional looking.

2) HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILlARY TEXTS?

 PLEASE CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL

Our movie poster targeted teenagers. We used an independent style that appealed to the niche audience that we tried to attract. We used a de-saturated image which connoted the nostalgic and independent style we wear aiming for.  The poster revealed the main subject of our film, Ben Collins, the boy who died and the title of the movie, ‘Why did Ben Collins die?’ A name that catches your eye and summarizes what the mocumentary is all about. We made a double page spread for a magazine, featuring an interview with us, the directors, and a summary of the mocumentary. This was similar to the two art house magazines, ‘Little White Lies’ and ‘Sight and Sound’. Both magazines targeted a certain niche audience similar to the one that we wanted to attract to our mocumentary. We consciously decided not to use successful actors as we didn’t want the audience to be detracted from the films verisimilitude. Therefore the magazine article focuses more on us, the directors of the mocumentary and our motivations and reasons for the film.

1) IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

We consciously choose not to use Voice Over’s in our Mockumentary as we felt like it would alter and influence the reading of our media text and create a passive Media audiences rather than a active one.  Therfore, instead of Voice Over, we used Title Cards to explain certain events that happened off-screen.

 Two of our Title Cards; used instead of Voice Overs to explain off-screen plot points.

Our whole project as a whole encourages a more active media reading. Our genre for example, a mockumentary, usually “mocks” a certain topic, mockumentaries aren’t meant to be taken serious mostly but ours is. That is due to us not specifically wanting to do a mockumentary. Our main ambition was to create a hybrid of two media genres. Teen Movies and Documentaries. The Mise-En Scene within our Mockumentary heavily references the general conventions of Documentaries and the way they are shot. We used Talking Heads for the individual interviews with the various characters and used subtitles to annotate the shots, revealing the characters name and their profession.

 Example of Annotations and Subtitles used in Talking Heads of our characters.

 In order for the interviews to not get visually boring, we decided to use reaction shots and noddies of the interviewer in order to make the on-screen happenings seem more alive and quick. This makes it easier for the audience not to lose interest and keep paying attention. 

Example of Reaction Shots of the Interviewer during the Interviews

  At several instances we used Handheld to create a feeling of everything happening in the moment, making our mockumentary seem more real as opposed to staged and scripted. For Example, the scene where we interview the character  “Charlotte” takes a surprising twist when she receives a text and storms out the room. The camera switches to handheld and follows her out the room for quite some time when finally, it is shut down by the angry character. This makes everything seem more real and believable. 

Example of the camera switching from tripod to handheld, chasing one of the characters.

The American documentary “American Teen” features similar technical aspects that are often present in this genre. The movie often uses a Handheld camera following the various characters. Vox Pop and Talking Heads are also a recurring technical stylistic device. 

 Example of Reaction Shots of the Interviewer during the Interviews

FEEDBACK QUESTIONAIRE SAMPLE

ANNOTATED FINAL FILM

FEEDBACK QUESTIONAIRE

1. Did you think the way the documentary was made is believable and realistic? ______________________________________________________________ 2. Have you witnessed similar situations yourself during your school time? ______________________________________________________________ 3. How old are you? ______________________________________________________________ 4. How realistic was the representation of Charlotte’s character? ______________________________________________________________ 5. Did you enjoy it? ______________________________________________________________ 6. Do you want to know what happened later on? ______________________________________________________________ 7. Did the film raise awareness on the matter of ADHD? ______________________________________________________________ 8. How far do you agree with Tom’s statement that drug abuse can be justified by a good enough reason? ______________________________________________________________

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BEN COLLINS - FINAL VERSION

The editing process is complete and this is the final version of our mockumentary "Why Did Ben Collins Die". We are very pleased with the outcome of our movie and appreciate the variety on things we learned creating it.

ROUGH CUT (+ ANALYSIS)

• Spelling mistakes in text • Change font of titles and add in some • Music at opening and ending of film • Add fade ins and outs • Titles • Add in mother scene Having seen the film for the first time, I think that it will appeal to our target audience a great deal and although it is a mocumentary it could be seen as quite emotional. There are still a lot of alterations to be made but so far I am pleased with what we have done. The timing exceeds the guidance so we shall examine what can be cut and try and do that. There are a few small mistakes, such as spellings but that can easily be changed. We are planning on going on Sound Cloud and other similar websites to find appropriate music the opening and ending of the film. This will help with the atmosphere of the film and should be a good finishing touch. We have yet to film the last scene of the Mother talking to the reporters and that should conclude the film nicely.

SHOT LOG // TAKE LOG

Log Sheet 1 Log Sheet 2

CALL SHEET

Media a2 Call Sheet

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

65050591-53933051-Production-Schedule[1]

FINAL MOVIE POSTER

This is our final version of our poster for the movie "Why Did Ben Collins Have To Die"

Poster Final

FINAL MAGAZINE SPREAD

T his is our final and finished version of the magazine spread/interview on our movie "Why Did Ben Collins Die?"


Finished Magazine Spread

OUR MOVIE POSTER (UNFINISHED)

After having done our poster mock-up awhile back  and having shot our pictures for the poster, we were finally able to edit the final version of the poster. Mostly, we are happy with how the poster turned out although we are going to have a few adjustments, such as possibly changing the position of the image and changing the credits at the bottom of the poster. As of now, we used a template out the internet which looks quite out of place. Other than that, we are happy how the poster turned out. At the moment, we have two versions but we are most likely to use the more saturated version (the one on the left), with him looking to the side.

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POSTER IMAGE - EDITING PROCESS

After choosing our favourite shots in Adobe Bridge, we tried various ways of editing them in Adobe Photoshop. We used two different pictures one of our actor facing the camera and one of him looking away. Both are shot in a yearbook-esque way.
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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN PHOTOSHOP

 

We used various tools to edit the two images. We started by using the "Levels" tool in order to adjust the lightness and contrast of the image and then used the "Exposure" tool to soften the image and create a rather old style.

We procceded by adding a texture over the image to add a bit of noise, again, to make the picture look a bit older. We then played around with the "greyscale" and the "Hue &saturation" tool having to final versions to choose from. The Black & White version and the slightly saturated version.

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For the second image, we choose a similiar editing style. We again, worked with the "Levels" tool to adjust the Lighting and the Contrast of the image and also altered the "Exposure" settings in order for the image to soften.

Then, just like with the first image, we added the same texture and put it's oppacity down in order for it to only slightly affect the image. We finished by using the "Hue & Saturation" tool.

TWO FINAL MAGAZINE LAYOUTS

MAGAZINE SPREAD - BASIC LAYOUT

Finally, we designed the actual magazine spread in InDesgin. Important Note: The actual Text is not done but the pictures and the layouts are.
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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN PHOTOSHOP

 We started by pressing Ctrl + D to insert Christabels Portrait. Originally we were thinking to put both our portraits in but we thought the layout looked much more interesting with the emphasis on one of us. We then inserted an image of us during the interview on the second page, much smaller, but making clear that this is an interview.

 We then proceeded to add some text using the "Placeholder"-text tool. We arranged them and decided where the text would look the best. We also added a subtitle for the actual title "Why Did Ben Collins Die" making it look much more neat and less empty and spacy. As the background colour for the two pages are different we decided to highlight this in the colour of the heading aswell, something we first saw in the magazine "Little White Lies"

MAGAZINE SPREAD IMAGES - POST EDITING

After looking at magazines such as "Little White Lies", we knew that that sort of niche magazine would be right for  our movie. Pictures in niche magazines such as "Little White Lies" are usually edited mildly to look a little more edgy etc. We decided to change the saturation of the images and go for a sort of greyscale-esque style just like our initial magazine spread layout.
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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN PHOTOSHOP

We started by using the "Levels" tool on photoshop to adjust the right amount of Brightness and Contrast. We then used the "Hue & Saturation" tool to minimize the colours on the image. This way it looks more classy, edgier and is more likely to be in a magazine such as "Little White Lies".

With the second sideprofile we did the same as with the first one. We used the "Levels" and "Hue & Saturation" tools to achieve the effect we were looking for.

For the interview still of both of us ,we edited in a similiar way to the portraits but instead of using the "Hue & Saturation" tool to cut down on the colours, we decided to go all the way and used the "Black & White"- Tool. Other tools we used were again the "Levels"- Tool to adjust brightness and contrast plus the Filter selection "Lens Distraction" to add a subtle vignette around the image.

MAGAZINE SPREAD IMAGES - SHOT SELECTION

Having done the Mock-up of our Magazine Review already, today we did the photoshoot for the actual magazine spread itself. 

Set & Props
We took the pictures in the photography studio of our school. We used the Studio Lighting and delibaretly chose to show the studio set on the pictures creating a sort of more casual atmosphere trough not actually shooting editorial-esque pictures. This gives the picture a sense of a proper reportage due to us being in a professional surrounding but being more or less inbetween takes. Using a Tripod and a Canon DSL, we took various shots of both Christabel and me talking, single portraits and side portraits in order for us to have a variety of pictures to choose from.

Editing Process

We uploaded the pictures to our computers, opened them in Bridge and made two selections in total. The first screencap shows all the pictures plus our favourites which are highlighted with the green label. The second screencap shows our broader selection and the screencap below shows our final selection of pictures we want to use in our magazine spread.

SHOT LIST - WHY DID BEN COLLINS HAVE TO DIE

Shot List

SCENE 1.2 (Vox Pop)

Medium Close Up – 5 different people.

6-7 seconds.

Question and answer.

SCENE 2 (Charlotte interview)

Medium Shot 45 seconds

SCENE 2.1 (OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL GATES)

Interviewer hiding spying on Charlotte and Tom who are talking about Ben.

Handheld- start further out and move in closer throughout conversation.

Subtitles

Voices get louder while you move in.

Duration:      30 Seconds

Shot Type:   Handheld

SCENE 3 (Personal tutor)

Duration:      45 Seconds

Shot Type:   Medium Shot

SCENE 4 – Mothers door shut on interviewer.

Duration:      10-12 seconds

Shot Type:   Handheld one interviewer holding camera while other interviewer knocks on the door

SCENE 5- Interview with Tom

Duration:      50 seconds

Shot Type:   Medium Shot

SCENE 6- Doctors office

Duration:      30 seconds

Shot Type:   Medium shot

SCENE 7- Mother’s monologue

Duration:      50 seconds

Shot Type:   Medium towards Medium Close Up

POSTER SHOOT - SHOOTING PLAN

A rough plan and collection of ideas for the shooting of our official movie poster. We brainstormed things such as Equipment, Costumes and generally needed Props.

Equipment

- Lights

- Studio 

- Camera (Nikon/Canon DSL)

- Tripod
- Gels

Costume (ideas)

- White shirt and cardigan

- Collared t-shirt

- Glasses

- Gelled hair

- Skinny jeans

- Tracksuit bottoms

- Rugby shirt

Props

- Rugby ball

- Football

- Pen

- A*

- Prefect badge

VISUAL EXAMPLES OF DOCUMENTARY CONVENTIONS

Before actually shooting our documentary/mockumentary, we went trough various documentaries to establish visual examples of common documentary conventions. Below, there is a few examples.

This is a visual example of a voice over - Adolescent Suicide by Mattew Oquendo

This is a visual example of a Interview documentary -

This is a visual example of archival footage in a documentary -

This is a visual example of a montage sequence -

A visual example of the exposition of a documentary -

MAGAZINE MOCK-UPS

Before creating our actual magazine spreads, we tried around InDesign and created two different Mock-Ups in order to establish what kind of layout we want to use for our own article. The first layout is quite a simple one with a small range on different colours, appealing to a more niche and arty kind of magazine such as "Little White Lies". The second spread is aimed at a more mainstream magazine, using more colours, different shapes and sizes and less text in order to appeal to that kind of magazine readers.

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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN INDESIGN

First, we created a new InDesign file and made a double site spread. We started of with choosing the background colour. As this spread is aimed at a more arty magazine, we didn't want anything to vivid and distracting but didnt want to leave it white either. We choose to go for a greyish creamy mix. In order to set this as the Background colour, we created a large "Content Frame", and used the "Swatches" option to create our colour. Then we arranged the "Content Frame" to be set in the back of the page in order for us to be able to put the article on top. We continued by looking for a picture online that we could use as a Director's portrait. Then, we created tree columns and using the various grid's InDesign has to offer, we sized them all the same and justified the text within them.

We proceeded by adding a heading and a subtitle. We decreased the tint of the subtitles as we wanted it to look subtle and didnt want it to distract from the heading or the picture. In order for the double spread page not to look too plain and boring, we went trough the various available fonts and changed from "Arial" to "Times New Roman" for the columns and "Trebuchet" for the Heading.  The last step in creating this double spread was to find another picture of our fictional director and to put it on the page at the right. We choose another black & white image to maintain the sort of contemporary and classy vibe of the previous page.
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  TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN INDESIGN

 For the second doublespread page, we decided to use an female director. Again, we started by setting the background colour. Again, we used a "Content Frame" and the "Swatches" option to choose a colour of our choice and set it over the two pages. We then arranged it to be in the back again. As opposed to our first layout, we decided to keep the director's picture in colour and also had a more colourful approach on the rest of the page. Using a "Text Frame" and the "Swatches" we created the Heading of the pages, maintaining blue as the dominant colour on the page, but colouring the Heading in Red and yellow in order for a more vivid and quirky vibe.

 We continued by creating a few columns with an place holder text. We again, justified the text and edited various parts of it to make it look more like an interview. We did so by bolding various parts and leaving the "answers" in regular writing. Then, to finish this double spread, we created a stroke and a different background for the text columns, using the colours red and white in order to stay insync with the colours previously used on the Page.
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