Voice over script

this is the script i have written for the voice over for my film. i may change it slightly when it comes to actually recording it, depending on how it sounds. 

My name is peter dodds. Six months ago, the world ended. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. One day the world was normal. The next it was empty. People were dying. They’d get ill at the start of the week and be dead by the end. Watching my friends and family die had been the hardest experiences ive ever faced. The agony they suffered through. Id wondered if killing them would have been kinder. but what right did I have to make that decision. They could have pulled through for all I knew. But they didn’t.  Before the broadcasts stopped, I heard some people were immune. But it was hard to believe. Everyone I knew was dead. Everyone. But I'm alive. Somehow, I am alive. I was immune. it was true. So theyre were others. i left my home shortly after that. The memories were too painful and there was a chance of meeting survivors out that. After a week of travelling, I was convinced I was alone in this world. life was abysmal, if you could call it life at all. The hovels I stayed in. the things I ate. Under any other circumstances, id never have eaten it. but when life is tough, you have to make hard decisions. however I was wrong. Along my way I met another survivor by the name of lewis, someone immune like me. I couldn’t believe it, and wouldn’t of if he hadn’t been stood there. But there he was and That gave me hope. If we had both survived, maybe there were others.  My companion seemed to have trouble letting go of the past. He told me how his friends had turned on him when he didn’t get ill. He’d had to kill one of them before they killed him. He seemed traumatised, though I expect that’s to be expected having killed a close friend. He still had the gun he’d done it with. I asked him why once. Why he kept it. the answer was always the same. “Just in case”, he would say. It seemed odd. More dead people is the last thing this world needed. Assuming there was anyone left to die, besides us that is. And so we wandered. And wandered. But we never found anyone. And it was getting harder and harder to stay alive. Food was scarce. Tins of beans will only last so long. About five months after Armageddon, my one friend, joined the rest of the planet. I felt suddenly empty. Id been alone before. Before id met Lewis. Struggling to survive had been hard, but it had been made easier having him there and knowing we were in the same boat. Now, hanging onto life felt pointless. In the end, it didn’t matter. Once winter hit, surviving became impossible. It felt horrible, dying cold, hungry and alone. But we all have our time. And for me, that was it. the last man alive will be the last man to die. 

Eval Question 4

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

Evaluation question 4

Eval Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After completing my video, I showed it to a group of people and gave them each a piece of paper to write down their thoughts and opinions. Some of the audience I chose were regular students whilst some were students also taking the media course. I did this in order to get a general audience’s perspectives and opinions as well as more media based criticisms, such as camera shots and editing. After collecting the pieces of paper and reading through the comments, I picked out the most common ones and analysed them to find how I could improve in the future.

“The camera shakes a lot and makes it looks really bad”

This comment suggests to me that, despite the intent I had with the hand held camera shots, there was too much hand held. In future, I could use a tripod more within the films but still use some hand held shots where appropriate, giving my video variety and making the audience feel involved with the characters.

“There is a lack of continuity. The old house and low angle shots of the holes in the roof make it appear abandoned and a victim of the passage of time. This is negated by the cars in the film that all look clean and new.”

This comment came from one of the other media students. This suggests to me that the setting of the film was good and that I am good at finding settings but that, when it comes to shots, I need to look at more than just the focus of the shot and more at the surroundings. A shot isn’t good if part of it looks good. The whole shot has to look good and match the style and setting of the rest. It also suggests that I need to plan my locations and make sure they match the setting I am trying to convey.

“There are lots of things that aren’t explained”

I grouped this comment with a few others that pointed out specific things within the film that didn’t make sense.  For example, one commenter pointed out the fact that Lewis’ death is never really explained. The narrator simply tells the audience that he died. From this, I can deduce that I need to spend more time on the script for my films and make sure they make sense. Perhaps even have people proof read them for me and point out any plot holes in the story that need fixing. Most commenter’s that mentioned problems with the story board also said that there was nothing wrong with the script. They said the script for the film was good, but the story line wasn’t up to the same quality.

“The titles are bland, boring and look unprofessional.”

When choosing the titles for my film, I looked for titles that I thought represented my film the most. I went with plain white text as I thought the plainness was good for representing the lifelessness of the world the film takes place in. however a lot of people thought the titles were too plain and said it made the film look professional and that it caused them to expect boring film. This tells me that in the future, I should focus less on the meaning of the titles and focus more on titles that have an appealing appearance and look interesting as interesting titles make the audience expect an interesting film.

“The acting wasn’t very good. The actors over acted and under acted”

Although I don’t have much control over how the actors themselves act, a lot of people mentioned the poor acting and said it made the film seem amateurish. One of my actors over acted whilst the other under acted and it made my film seem like something other than a film. Therefore in the future I may consider a new method of choosing actors rather than choosing people I think are simply going to be convenient. When choosing actors in the future, I may hold auditions so I can choose people who I think are suitable to the role. Although this may be slightly inconvenient in terms of a shooting schedule and availability, it may improve the film in the long term as more time can be spent ironing out the imperfections.

If I take these comments as constructive criticisms and use them correctly, I can incorporate the advice they give me and make a better quality film as a result. Although all the above comments were “negative” there were also plenty of positive comments as well. Although these aren’t as useful as the negative ones in terms of learning and improving, they are useful in pointing out what my strengths were in the recent production and therefore, allow me to improve on those areas as well. Some of these comments mentioned how the music and transitions worked well and that the cuts between shots really helped set the pace for the audience. One comment from one of the media students stated that “although the different light levels could at times, make the scene unclear, it worked well in creating the mood and an atmosphere for the film and audience”. This tells me that although the lighting was good for conveying feelings and atmospheres, it did at times make the film hard to see. Therefore in future, I can use similar lighting techniques to create mood, but make sure that the lighting doesn’t go to the extremes of being blindingly bright, or murkily dark and hard to see.

All the feedback I got meant I was able to get a set of unbiased opinions and criticisms about my film, which I could then use and learn form in order to produce better quality media texts in the future. It has taught me what my strengths and weaknesses are and where I need to improve. Overall, I am happy with the feedback I received and it has given me the confidence boost and inspiration to continue making media productions.

Eval Question 2

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

(this is only the script for my question 2 answer but i wanted to get it right before actually recording it so any comments would help)

Although my video does seem slightly amateurish in certain aspects, it does, in my opinion, look like a film that would be shown at a film festival or possibly in a smallish time slot on TV. It seems to me that it would most likely be shown as a short before a similar film in the cinema.

I made my poster look as professional as possible by taking my time on it and focusing on each detail of it before moving onto the next. I looked at other film posters to find the conventions they held and then tried to incorporate them where appropriate. I used a similar method when making my magazine review. I looked at what conventions seemed to be present in most magazine reviews then found ways to use them in my own, giving it a professional looks. I probably could have improved my magazine review by writing more for the actual review. Although it isn’t marked on the actual content of the review itself, the relatively small amount of text appears less than would be expected form a real review, making it seem less like a real review and more like a piece of work. To improve my poster, I could probably have spent more time working on the film title. This is the part I spent the least amount of time on and it shows in the quality. I spelt out the title then did it again using smaller letters in red, before placing them above the first set. The end result looks unprofessional and slightly cartoonish, giving completely wrong signals about the film.

There is a difference between the poster and the film that makes them, to an extent, appear to be unrelated. Despite my film being in colour, I made the poster entirely black and white aside from the title. However I did this as I intended the black and white to symbolise the lifelessness of the world the film takes place in. so even though there is a difference between them that separates them, there is a link between them. The magazine review is even less related to the film. Magazine reviews tend be follow a visuals style similar to the magazine itself, rather than the film it reviewing. Therefore, the only real link between them is that the review is about the film.

I used the lack of colour on the film poster to symbolise the lack of life within the world of the film. However I used the red colour for the main title on the poster to connote the danger and threat the characters face trying to survive. The location and pacing of the film also gives the impression that my film is a thriller.

Eval Question 1

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

Conventions are common occurrences we as an audience associate with specific media texts or genres.

The common conventions often associated with short films in general include:

• ·         A length around five to fifteen minutes
• ·         A smallish number of characters, usually between one and thirty
• ·         Often low budget
• ·         Often made by small independent film studios or individuals
• ·         Usually made for the purpose of web 2.0

After watching over my film, I believe I have followed most of these conventions. The length of my film according to the brief had to be five minutes plus or minus ten percent (thirty seconds). The actual length of my video was five minutes thirteen seconds, a typical length for a short film. To try and keep my film simple and make it easier to follow for the audience, I only used two characters, played by only two actors. This is also within the norms of a short film. With my film being schoolwork and not a funded film, the budget for my film consisted of whatever money happened to be in my pocket at the time of filming. This was usually less than £5 and was mostly spent on refreshments for actors. The main purpose behind the production of my media piece was for coursework for my A level media course. However for the benefit of my course and the associated blog, my video was placed on the web 2.0 site YouTube for people to see and leave feedback.

After a lengthy period moving from brief to brief I chose a short film along with a poster for the film and a magazine review. I then had another period where I went through different ideas for films, including different genres. I went for a thriller genre for my film as I enjoy the suspense you get from thrillers and I wanted to try to emulate that suspense.

With my genre decided as well, I asked my friends and family what they thought about the conventions of thriller films. Although not a convention in terms of the film itself, doing research in this way went against the norm of using a questionnaire. I decided to do my research in this way as the friends and family I asked, I believed would be more open, honest and willing to participate, compared to people id never met or didn’t know very well. Some of the key conventions my respondents picked out to me included:

• ·         Low key lighting
• ·         Range of paces for the film
• ·         Cliff hangers
• ·         Mystery, resolved towards end of film
• ·         Suspense
• ·         A villain and a hero
• ·         Urban setting

With these aspects in mind, I planned and produced my film.  For my film, I decided to challenge as many conventions as I could whilst still maintaining the feel of a thriller. This way my film would be recognisable as a thriller, yet still stand out from other films and be unique.

Although I used low key lighting in the film, a lot of the film has a brighter light level. I used the two to show the contrast between the night and the day in this new lifeless world. The film does use a range of paces as I believed that in this case, it benefitted the film to use them. The film is based over a 4 month period, the first two minutes goes through a period of about three to four weeks. The next three minutes cover about three months. The shots used also affect the pace as longer shots slow it down for dramatic parts and sorter shits to quicken the pace for parts without much dialogue to keep the audience interested. I didn’t use a cliff hanger for my film as I wanted it to have a conclusive ending and only having five minutes meant there weren’t many opportunities for a cliff hanger to be used. Although I did use mystery, I broke the convention by not resolving it during the film. Within my film, it is revealed that the human race has been almost entirely wiped out by an unknown illness. However, no details about it are given making the audience want to know more, however they are not told leaving them with a sense of longing for answers. I made sure to use the convention of suspense as this was one of the reasons I wanted to do a thriller in the first place. I tried to keep the focus on the characters as much as possible but left the rest of the film with more than one possible story, leaving the film open to interpretation by the audience creating suspense. It could be argued that my film does have a villain and a hero, the villain being the killer disease and the hero bring the main character fighting to survive it. However, I tried to leave the film without a sense of conflicting forces as this may drive it towards a more action like genre. I also broke the convention of an urban setting by basing most of the film in a rural setting (the woods) 

but having elements of an urban setting when the characters are walking through the town. The two main reasons for this were 1. To make the film stand out through the use of an unfamiliar setting and 2. To remove the difficulties of passersby interrupting the filming.

Another film of my genre and which is also a short film is the PurchaseBrothers production, “escape from city 17”. 





This is a short film based on the events of the half life 2 video game from Valve. The film uses low key lighting and varying shot types and lengths to alter the pace at different stages of the film. The film ends on a cliff hanger as the two main characters run from a helicopter that is trying to shoot them. Just as it approaches, the film cuts to black and ends without showing us their fate. There is a sense of mystery as we see people executing other people and other similar events without any real explanation behind it. The film carries an urban setting being based in a ruined city/city under attack. There is a clear differentiation between a hero and a villain, but both are a group of people rather than a single individual.

Another similar short film is the production “Portal: No escape” by Dan Trachtenberg.





This film also uses low key lighting however, the film maintains a fairly consistent pace right up until the end when the main character attempts to escape here confinement. The film ends on a cliff hanger which creates the suspense and mystery of not knowing the main characters fate. We also get a sense of mystery as we know nothing about the world of the film and nothing is ever revealed as there is no dialogue within the film. It is implied that there is a villain in this film. Although we never see them, it is implied the villain is whoever is keeping the main character contained, while the main character is the hero. The majority of the film is based inside a room leaving the setting to the imagination of the audience. Near the end we see the main character on the roof in what appears to be a city although we discover that it is an image on a screen used to trick her. 

For my production I also had to produce a poster and magazine review. Therefore I also had to look at the conventions of these as well. The conventions of a magazine review include:

• ·         The film title
• ·         A brief summary of the films plot
• ·         Basic info about the film
• ·         The review itself
• ·         An image from the film being reviewed

I got this info by analysing a magazine review for the film “push”. http://media-easden-h540.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/conventions-of-magazine-review.html

The typical conventions of a film poster include:

• ·         The main image
• ·         A cinema release date
• ·         A block of text with movie details at
• ·         Films title
• ·         Actor’s names
• ·         tagline

I analysed some film posters to get these conventions in the same way I did the magazine review. http://media-easden-h540.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/poster-analysis.html

For my magazine review, I decided to use as many of the conventions I had found. I did this as I felt using the same conventions found in professional reviews would make mine appear more professional. My review has the film’s title, an image from the film and the review itself. The info of the film and the brief summary plot are more or less contained in the review itself, where in other reviews, it has a separate section.

I took a similar attitude when it came to producing my poster. I made sure to include all the information you would typically see on a professional film poster.  I have the main image taking up the whole page with the text over the image. I placed the text, such as film title, bottom paragraph and tagline where they seemed most appropriate. I did challenge a convention in terms of placement as I placed the main title of the film towards the bottom of the poster when most films titles tend to be placed at the top. I also made the poster with a landscape orientation when most film posters use a portrait orientation. 

Finished film