Dear Moderator

My name is Isadora Spratling, Cadidate 1618, welcome to my OCR A2 Media Studies Blog. This is a record of the work undertaken as part of the G325 A2 Advanced Portfolio within OCR GCS course in Media Studies.
I worked independently to produce a short film in the drama genre. The project lasted six months, commencing in September 2017 and finishing in March 2018.
I hope you enjoy my work and find it both successful and interesting. Please use the navigation bar to access my work as organised into table of Audience Research, Editing, Evaluation, Filming, Magazine Task, Research, Poster, Preliminary Task, Rough Cuts, Story Board, Treatment, Voice over and other.
There is also a link to the school's blog hub and my other classmates blogs.

Thank you very much.

Isadora Spratling

My Finished Short Film

Finalised Poster

Here is my final poster that I have created for my short film. I took this picture in the dance studio after filming. I wanted to use the same location and costume so that my audience would identify my character and film. I wanted to edit the background of my poster, however, when I asked my audience what they thought of my poster they thought it was fine and said the the background didn't draw attention away from my actress/ dancer. They also said that it shows the location setting which looked good. I therefore took their advice and left it how it is. In cinemas march 20th 2018 by Isadora Spratling

Finalised Interview Magazine Page

Pink and White Teen Magazine Cover by Isadora

Evaluation 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation 2- How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary tasks?

Evaluation 2 from Isadora SPRATLING

Evaluation 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is vital for the creation of a new product. Through the stages of pre production, production, post production and my ancillary task I have referred back to my audience feedback, making sure that it is effective and what my audience wants.

Pre production 
Pre production was the most important stage whilst collecting audience feedback as this helped me base my narrative on their feedback. I struggled at the beginging as I was unsure whether to make a music video or a short film. I therefore decided to merge the two ideas together and create a short film but also include a dance at the end to a fitting soundtrack. Once I had made this decision I then had to come up with the narrative of the short film. This was when I listened to my audience feedback as it helped give me ideas and what they expected in my work. I did this by getting 5 people who were my target audience and interviewing them on what they expect to see in my short film and if they had any other ideas that they could give me. This was very helpful and I took all their advice on board.
I wanted to base my film on dancing as that is something I feel passionate about. Last year I made a film opening on the mental issue Schizophrenia. I really enjoyed learning about this illness and creating a product which would raise awareness. I therefore took the idea and thought about how I could merge the idea with dancing. I am aware that some dancers often struggle with their appearance and body confidence and therefore desicided I would create a short film about a dancer who has an eating disorder. I gained audience feedback on mental health when I created my treatment.
My audience thought that it would be a touching subject that is only just starting to be covered and  talked about in the media industry, making it relevant which could potentially be popular such as the recently released film "To the Bone".

Production 
Throughout of process of filming and producing my short film, my audience again was still important and useful. I filmed on two days and once filmed it, I spent time editing it. Once I had got together a rough cut I then showed my media class and teacher where they pointed out corrections which could be changed in order to make it better. For example, taking out clips that weren't relevant to make it shorter as it was too long already. I originally had a very last shot of my character getting out of bed and standing up with a positive attitude. However, my audience thought that it looked better finishing on with the last shot of my character walking to the camera and breaking the fourth wall as she finishes her dance.
This was my original ending for my short film.

An there is the shot I'm now finishing my short film with. 

Overall, I thought that the production stages were made better thanks to the audience research I collected which allowed me to fix the mistakes and create a successful product.

Post Production
Once I had finished editing and I was happy with it, I then showed it to my 15 people of my target audience, who were of the age of 16-18 years old. I did this so that I could collect some more audience feedback as they were the ideal target audience. I also got them to fill out a questionnaire so that I could get some constructive criticism and apply it to my work.

These were the questions were gave out to everyone to fill in. Overall, I am really happy with my feedback as they were very positive but also had some criticisms I could take into consideration.
Here are the results of each questions which I put into a take and pie chart.

Overall, I can see that the majority of the marks were 5/5 which I'm very pleased about, with 17 5/5 saying that my soundtrack was effective. Since then I have added my friend singing the song which I think will make it even more effective and original.
I am also pleased to see that 16 people put 5/5 for my short film being effective in entertainment.
If it wasn't for the audience feedback that I carried out, I wouldn't be getting such positive results from my questionarrie.

Ancillary Tasks
I finally created two ancillary tasks which included a film poster and a magazine review. I used my audience feedback even in this process, as I needed to make it age specific for audience when writing my magazine article and making the poster appeasing for my age group.

FILM POSTER

I decided to use this image as I think it is beautiful and captures what my short film is all about. I place the tile of the film "starved" about her mouth as if she is breathing it out and by looking up she is looking hopeful but also looking ta the title showing her starvation from food and dancing.
I got my audience to give me feedback on the text and where I positioned it. They all like it and thought it stood out where it was. I was sceptical about the black at the bottom of the poster but my audience feedback reassured me and said it looked professional and the text is able to stand out more with the black behind it.Im am pleased with the finish product and pleased I listened to my audience feedback.

MAGAZINE REVIEW

Here is my magazine review which once again I used my audience to give my corrections to make it better. I looked at the 'Empire Magazine' for ideas on how to lay it out and to make it as professional as possible. This was very useful as I got my inspiration from. Once I wrote all the text I then used Canva to present my work and make it look like a magazine review page. I played around with he texts and layout for a while but after asking my audience about the bold text they resumed me that it worked well. I also tried different fonts for the quote on the second page. I originally used the same font as the title as I wanted to keep consistency with all my fonts, however, my audience thought that it needed to stand out and thought that this font was good as it was almost dance font due to the fluidity of the words. 

Once I had made all these changes, I asked my audience again what they thought and it was very positive feedback, saying it looked neat and expressed my product well. 

Overall, audience feedback is essential for throughout the production of a product in pre production, production, post production and ancillary tasks. All the feedback I have received have been extremely useful and has allowed me to improve my work at all of the stages to make a better product and a successful short film. 

Evalution 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction of research and planning?

Voice Recording

So after realising that I wasn't allowed to use the original music by Sia for the dance, I decided to record my friend singing the song in a recording studio. So, today myself and my friend Charlotte spent 1h 1/2 recording the song. I am really happy with the out come and excited to insert it into my short film.
Here are some pictures of todays recording.

Updated poster

Updated short film

This is my updated short film which I showed my target audience at the showing. This is still just a draft as I have corrections and I need to add in my tittles and credits.
After showing this, I realised I need to change my music as I have used copyright as it isn't a music video. However, I can overcome this problem by using a friend to sing the song for me and then I can edit to the dance. This is what I will be doing next.

Short film showing

Last week myself and my class mates invited about 15 people from our target audience to come watch our short films and get their opinions. 

We gave them a review sheet where they could fill in their responses to my short film and any feedback. This was very useful and also encouraging as lots of people thought that my short filming was good and liked the moving storyline. 

Here, are the results from everyone's feedback forms, which are rated from 5 being the best and1 being the worst. 

I also put the results in a pie chart to show the average numbers I was rated. 

Overall, I am very pleased with this and glad I showed my target audience my short film, because I now have corrections to sort out to make it better. 

Reviews for my short film from Isadora SPRATLING

Photoshop research

First draft of my poster

Here is my first draft of my poster for my short film. I took this picture on the day of filming and I think it really describes my protagonist well. I created this poster on a website called Canva. However, I now need to find out how to get the text for the bottom of the poster in the style of Universal thin condensed. I also want to change the background of the picture which I will try in photoshop.

My recent rough cut

I have spent some time putting my shots together and doing a bit of editing. It is too long at the moment and I will have to cut a lot of clips down as some of them are too long but this is the rough outline of my film.
I also will be taking out all the sound and placing my voice over the top then adding the song over the top of the dance so there is better quality of sound.

Research on flashbacks

For my short film I use flashbacks when my protagonist is remembering her old eating habits and her lowest times. I wanted to create a noticeable flashback which would would represent the negative past thoughts to the audience. I used youtube to find out different ways and tricks to make my flashbacks clear and as professional as possible. This tutorial was especially useful.

Film Review of Starved

Film review cover from Isadora SPRATLING

Filming Day 2

03/03/18

Today at 10.00 myself and Emily went over to the studio to film the dance scenes. It was a successful day and I managed to get all the shots I wanted and more. However, I was faced with some problems which made it harder to film, such as the mirrors. I knew this would be a problem as the walls are covered in mirrors which makes it hard to film as my refection is visable. I therefore, had to get into different places and angles where I woulnt be as obvious. We also had the problem of the cold. The day beofore it had heavily snowed and even though this wasnt a problem for continuity as the snow wasnt seen, the studio was freezing cold and the heater didnt work. This made myself and my actress very cold and stiff. I therefore had to make sure Emily was wraped up in coats and layers bewteeen takes so that she wouldnt get overly cold as well as hurting herself when she danced. I made sure she did a good warm up before for her muscles to warm up and to prevent any injuries. It also meant that plans where changed such as I planned her dance to be in bare foot but due to her cold feet we left her socks on so she could keep warmer.

Dispite these problems, I think the morning was very sucessful and im excited to start the next part of the editing process.

Shot List- filming day 2

Here is the second shot list for day 2 of filming on the 3rd March

Planning for filming day 03/03/18

Filming day 2
On the 3rd March I am planning on filming the last part to my short film. On this day, I will film the dance class, and the dance as well as taking picture for my poster.

Location:
I am using my dance teachers private studio in her back garden to film in. In the studio it is covered in mirrors which will fit with my storyline of my protagonist constantly comparing herself in the mirror. However, this could also be a challenge filming as I will have to place myself somewhere so I wont be seen with the camera in the mirrors.

Costume:
Emily will be wear the same black leotard and ballet tights, as well as some ballet shoes and maybe pointe shoes, with her hair in a bun.  She will then have a costume change into a different leotard with bare feet to do the dance and hair half up, half down.

Props:
We will her dance bag with a water bottle and a energy bar or banana. She will also need all her dance shoes as well as her phone.