Practice essay question

My AS music magazine has a similar house style to that of NME magazine for example the use of images and the layout of texts.  For the front page I used a head and shoulder shot and cut out the background. Around the models head I placed tag lines, captions and a variety of text. The double page spread included an image which took over the entire right page and a little bit of the left page. A title, a subtitle and an article were present on the left page. The contents page I created was very similar to that of NME. I used a contents column which stated what could be found on each page and a few images which could also be found on certain pages. I completed a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread and used a colour scheme of red, yellow, black and white which is different to the typical colour used in NME. The colours were bright and stood out well. I took photographs of music artists and used them on each page.  The photos were posed rather than action shots, which is typically how NME display their images.

For my A2 ancillary tasks I created a film poster and a double page spread. I used a camera to take photographs which I then edited on PhotoShop. I then used InDesign to complete my poster and double page spread. Both publications complimented the ‘thriller’ theme through the use of dark imagery and body language.  I used the article for the film ‘Benjamin Button’ found in Total Film magazine and used it as inspiration for the house style of my double page spread. The short film we created within my group was called ‘Countdown’. We were inspired by the John Lewis Christmas advert where there is a little boy counting down days. It is not revealed until the end that he is in fact counting down the days until Christmas. 

Practice essay

We created a short film named Countdown. It had the hybrid genre of a romantic-thriller. Katz and Blumler’s uses and gratifications theory can be applied to our film because the primary purpose of our film is to entertain. The audience experience diversion and a sense of escapism whilst interpreting the film into their own life experiences. They can emotionally relate to the film. The two characters in our film have a relationship where they are boyfriend and girlfriend who co-habit. The audience may be in a similar situation. As the film progresses the audience get a sense of expectation that the boy (Peter) will act violently towards his girlfriend due to his obsessive behavior. The audience may pick up on some of his actions and question whether their situation at home could be in any way similar. This is an example of surveillance because the audience use a cognitive approach to interpret the situation personally.

Via the use of the Internet and using primary research such as creating a questionnaire, which we gave out to our target audience, we were able get an idea as to what the audience expectations were. The main genre of our film is Thriller but has a dual genre of romance within the twist at the end. Pearl and Dean said that there were core mainstream audiences and we found that these were categorized via common themes. The audience was our main focus when creating the film as to create the aspirational genre we needed to fulfill audience expectations. Our audience was people who enjoy watching short films and were between the ages of 16-23.

When we presented our finished product to our audience we received a lot of positive feedback as well as areas that could be improved upon. The audience said they understood the genre and they gained a sense of expectation. They were shocked by the romantic twist at the end because they expected the narrative was going to result in a violent attack against the girl. The audience liked this twist because it was unexpected. Areas to improve would be a few of the shots, as they seemed to be slightly out of focus. We may also cut some clips a little shorter, which will decrease the overall length of our short film. 
We have exhibited our short film onto YouTube where people who enjoy watching short films can watch and enjoy it. 

Double page spread planning

I used this double page spread found in 'Total Film' as my inspiration for my own double page spread. I liked the positioning of the image, covering the entire right page and the fact that the article is displayed on the left page. The article title is bold and stands out against the contrasting background. I liked the arrangement of the text and aimed to create the same effect; title, sub-title and article. I incorporated some of the themes of this double page spread into my own double page spread, but tried also, to make it individual. I used a similar image to the one above because I think it leaves something to the imagination. It doesn't give much away but looks rather ominous. I used a grey scale on my image so that it appeared mysterious and also supported the theme.

Short Film- Countdown

Audience feedback questionnaires

We showed our short film, 'Countdown' to an audience of 6 students in the class. We then handed out this questionnaire where they gave feedback on our film.