Using Conventions of Real Media Texts

Genre:

• A2- Horror therefore researched conventions of this genre in terms of setting (hotel) and costume (suit). Gained feedback about locations to narrow it down. Colour graded to fit feel of horror genre.
• AS- thriller therefore researched what shots should be used, lots of long ‘cold’ shots.

Form:

• AS- Idents feature in large films which we researched by looking at real media texts such as Se7en and Trainspotting. Looked at length and complexity of idents- eg universal. Also placed our title at the 2 minute mark as several films feature a short piece of film and then the title.
• A2- research of short films- don’t usually feature idents, often have few credits and rarely the title, however I did feature my title as I felt it was right.

Editing Conventions:

• • Found music before filming at A2 as many short films do this in order to film to the music as it increases the chance of getting the right shots. When it came to editing it was much easier to edit to the pace of the music as it was pre-planned.
  • At AS I didn’t do this which resulted in a more strenuous task of editing to the music and having to change the lengths of shots more than I wanted to.

Symbolism:

• A2- Use of costume to convey realism, dressing gown in the night scene and suit when he is arriving rather than AS where costume was very basic and casual, more carefully researched for A2 film- looked at the shining.
• Colour grading used at A2 more than AS as when researching horrors such as Insidious, the colours were very blue and cold so I replicated this feeling using the effect ‘Cold Steel’
• Use of appropriate location as a form of symbolism as the hotel is very Victorian symbolising an old, spooky setting.
• Less of this in AS however I did research how different shots could symbolise different things such as filming dark, cold and barren landscapes to convey isolation and loneliness of the girl in film opening GORDIAN.

Representation:

• Researched very little in terms of representation for AS as there was only one shot with a character in it, despite this I was able to represent their loneliness through the use of empty landscapes.
• Representation of gender was somewhat researched in my A2 as the only characters were male and the main character, Mr Walker who is staying next to the noisy room, is scared by the noises he hears and becomes deeply confused and venerable. Although some horrors show the man as being strong and confident, I chose to take from examples  where the main character is the most threatened such as  Scott Derricksen’s Sinister (2012) which allowed me to represent the man in a different light to most horror films.

 

Explain the most significant ways in which your media productions were informed by your understanding of the conventions of real media texts. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to demonstrate how this understanding developed over time.

My media productions have been heavily informed by conventions of real media texts such as the intensive research done on genre during my A2 coursework. The task was to produce a short film and so I decided to create a horror, I therefore began to research the stereotypes and conventions associated with this genre in order to make a media product that was as entertaining and professional as possible. My A2 media production ‘Disquiet’ was heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ as it was too set in a hotel that had a certain feel about it that i wanted to replicate in my own film. I therefore began to look at several hotels  and found The Petwood hotel which is very victorian and fit with the genre my film was being moulded to. I also looked at the themes that horror films had and found that nightmares, the supernatural and religion were all rife in this genre as I looked at films such as Insidious. I decided to settle upon the idea of the supernatural as it was the most prominent genre feature. My understanding of conventions of real media texts has developed over time as in my AS coursework where I made a film opening which was relatively absent of dialogue and events and therefore there was less research to be done on conventions, however I did try to research the shots that were used in thrillers, as my film opening to ‘Gordian’ was of that genre.

I took a large amount of inspiration from films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind as it features supernatural tendencies which I wanted to replicate in my own film. I originally wanted to make my film much more like Close Encounters of the Third Kind however I was not able to as the equipment needed, such as lights, was not available. I also took inspiration from the opening sequence of Se7en as it is very unnerving and uncomfortable by the use of dark images and disturbing noises. I therefore made a scene with a man being disturbed by loud noises, which is also how I got the name Disquiet for my film.

The form of my films through AS and A2 changed dramatically as my understanding developed. At A2 i paid some attention to form in terms of how films that are large features often have idents of the film companies, therefore using Motion X I created two idents, which was the common by looking at popular films such as Se7en and Hot Fuzz, for production companies ‘Framework Films’ and ‘Treeline Media’. I also found that depending on the importance and prominence of the production company in society, the length of the idents would change as Universal has a long and loud ident at the beginning of Hot Fuzz. I believed that this was not appropriate for my newly created film companies and so opted for silent and short dents. My understanding grew at A2 as I paid carefully attention to short films such as ‘Identity’ which, due to it being a short film, did not have any Idents and so I replicated this in my own work. The credits were also only shown at the end of the film, which once again influenced my own film.

Although there are many genre conventions to consider when looking at real media texts I started to look closer at the editing conventions when it came to A2. I found that many short films find the music before filming so that they can shoot, understanding the tempo of the music and fitting their shots to this. I therefore decided to use this method and it was incredibly useful as I was able to find better shots just by thinking about the music and for any crescendos in the track I would try to find bold and striking images that I would later cross dissolved to for a greater effect than if I found the music afterwards. In AS I found music after the shoot of my film opening which meant that I had to search for hours looking for the right music to fit my film. Other editing techniques such as colour grading were rarely used during my AS coursework, however I began to use them during the editing of my short film “Final Notice” for the LAFTAs, which is an award show to celebrate youth filmmakers in Lincolnshire. I used the colour correction software on Final Cut Pro X to convey the sadness of the death of the main character as the place at which I filmed was very neutral and so I wanted the film to appear colder towards its end. During my A2 coursework however, I looked at films such as Insidious which was very blue and cold in colour which I chose to replicate in my own film ‘Disquiet’ by the use of the colour correction tool ‘Cold Steel’  which conveyed a more horror-like feel associated with other real media texts of the same genre.

I researched very little in terms of representation  conventions in real media texts during the production of my AS film opening, Gordian,  as there was only a single shot with a character  in it, however despite this I was able to represent the characters loneliness through the use of several shots of a cold, barren landscape. Representation of roles within horror films was however researched during my A2 coursework as there is usually a main male character, such as Ellison Oswald in Scott Derrickson’s Sinister (2012), and so my film was informed by this media text as I too had a male main character in the form of Mr. Walker. I further took inspiration from Sinister as the usual dominant male character is not featured in this film, rather a man being scared and tormented by the events in his house. I therefore made my character appear scared by the noises from the room next door to show an atypical view of men in horror films. 

Digital Technologies

Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.

My skills in the creative use of digital technology have developed over time as I have become more able with hardware, software and online services from my AS coursework to my A2 coursework. During my AS and A2 coursework I used a Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera, which I could manually control to gain the best outcome. For AS I was set the task of creating a 2-3 minute film opening, which I called Gordian and I made a series of shots of landscape, finishing with a shot of a girl looking out of a window. I decided to experiment with different camera techniques and shots, such as a focus pull on a fence as well as using the dolly in order to create tracking and establishing shots. For A2 however, I took what I had learned from my AS coursework and applied the techniques that worked the best to my A2 short film, Disquiet. For example in my AS coursework I had attempted a dutch tilt, despite it being unnecessary and so began to think about what would give the best effect rather than trying to cram a variety of shots into my film. I did re-visit the focus pull by shifting focus from a fountain to a gate but I was much more careful, taking a large amount of time on each shot to ensure that it was just right. Another piece of hardware that I utilised was the sound equipment, which is a RODE boom microphone/pole and a recording device. At AS, I had planned to feature a large amount of non-diegetic sound, however when it came to the day of filming I decided to record some of the noises from the farm I was at in Tumby Woodside. Some of the sound was useable, such as the sounds of chickens and leaves rustling, but a large majority became distorted by the wind and was unusable. At A2 I was able to utilise the sound equipment much better as the short film was around 5 minutes long and featured lots of diegetic sound, mostly due to the vast amount of dialogue. As I was inside for most of the filming, unlike AS, the sound quality was a lot better and I realised very quickly that due to the directional nature of the boom microphone that it must be positioned so that the end of the recording equipment is facing the area where the sound is coming from. The sound quality of my A2 short film was therefore much better than that of my AS film opening as I took greater care in trying to pick up the least amount of background noise possible.

I have been able to utilise software as well as hardware in order to create my media productions at AS and A2 such as Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Pixelmator. I used Final Cut Pro X to edit my AS film opening and as my production featured a huge array of shots, I began to cross dissolve many of them together as it appeared effective. However, when looking at my AS coursework, it becomes apparent that perhaps I overused this tool in my production  and it begins to become repetitive very quickly. I chose not to do this when creating my A2 film opening as I was focused on editing in a certain way, in order to create a film that was clearly from a certain genre. I therefore used many of the stereotypical editing techniques used in horror films, such as using colour grading to make film much bluer and colder, as well as building up the non-diegetic score to lead up to a large crescendo of noise that will hopefully scare and audience. In terms of editing sound I became much more adept to creating a smooth transition between audio clips when it came to A2, as my AS film opening had audio clips that noticeably cut out whereas my short film featured none of this. I used motion during AS to create my idents for the film opening however in A2 I used Motion and Pixelmator in much greater depth, most notably to create my ancillary tasks which were a poster and a review, which required an immense level of detail and knowledge to produce a realistic representation of each.

I have been able to utilise online services very well during both AS and A2, as at A2 I used writerduet in order to collaborate with other people in order to create my script as well as using wordpress to gain feedback. At A2 however I utilised online services to a greater extent as I used an array of sites for feedback such as Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube which proved much more helpful as people were more honest and I was able to improve my short film for the better. I also used IMDb for research in order to find films that fit the same genre as my own, such as the shining. I used Audionetwork much more effectively at A2 to get royalty free music as I not only used it to get my score but also used segments of songs/tracks as sound effects.

Creativity

• Intro- Pre Production, Production, Post Production and how I have developed my creative skills through AS and A2
• Pre-Production- AS– Preliminary task; almost no creativity, Reservoir Dogs; almost none, Gordian; large increase in creativity (script writing, location was friends farm, basic storyboards, hardly no character construction-worked in a pair) A2– Short FIlm (Worked by myself, more developed script using research and industry standard software, developed storyboards, character construction to a fuller extent)
• Production AS (almost no diegetic sound, large use of score in all projects, little attention to lighting and colours, basic camerawork in first project, focus pulls in Gordian and Final Notice) A2 ( Larger range of camera angles, good balance of non-diegetic and diegetic sound, more attention to lighting in hotel, LAFTAS work tried to use all aspects of production creatively)
• Post Production- AS- no ancillary tasks,  simplistic editing, Laftas used larger range of editing techniques A2- ancillary tasks, film package,  score found before filming, use of colour grading, knowing that more isn’t always good and that using less of an editing technique may be more creative and effective such as with cross dissolves and othe transitions, poster using pixelmator, rarely used in AS, motion to be used more creatively such as creating a better title than in AS

Exam Essay-First Attempt

Explain how your creativity/creative skills have developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.

My creativity and creative skills have been heavily developed within the A level media course in all aspects of the film-making process such as pre-production, production and post-production. I have found new ways to use an array of different equipment (such as the camera) in order to become more creative over the range of media productions I have created, from my first preliminary task at the beginning of the AS course to my short film that I have created during the A2 course.

I have developed my creative skills regarding pre-production as my first project was simply a short 30 second preliminary task that required near to no planning as we only had to write a short piece of dialogue. Then during our second preliminary task which, although similar to the first, required us to plan more thoroughly in terms of where we should position the camera as we had learnt about the 180 degree rule. However my creative skills really began to develop during the main AS coursework project (Gordian) for which we had to create an opening to a feature film. This required a large amount of planning such as writing a full script, not just containing dialogue but also the types of shots we wanted to use and we also had to think about the effect each segment of our film would have on our intended audience. We therefroe had to some research on scripts however, during the pre-production of my A2 film, I researched further into scripts and found several scripts with films similar to the genre of my short film, such as The Shining. This allowed me to be more creative as I could write a script in a certain way and I also found that scripts of the horror genre not only wrote about the shots and dialogue but about the effect and feel that these shots should have once the film is finished and so applied this to my own work. The A2 coursework is where I developed to a fuller extent as I was working by myself and therefore created my own storyboards as well as animated storyboards whereas in the AS film opening I had less to do with this process and couldn’t develop my creative skills as much as I have done at A2.    

My creative skills have flourished over the course of the several media productions I have made since the start of AS as I have gained more experience with equipment which meant that the production aspect of my media productions has become more fine tuned and allowed me to be more creative. During the filming of my A2 short film, I was able to spend time carefully considering how I positioned a camera and where the boom microphone would go in order to enhance the effect that I was trying to get across to my audience. However in my AS preliminary tasks and film opening, less creative consideration was taken and rather than thinking about how we could use a range of shots and lighting to be more creative we used much more basic shots and paid little attention to including enough diegetic sound. This is unlike my A2 work as I have made sure that there is an even amount of bothy diegetic and non-diegetic sound but only for the reason of making the film more enjoyable and an improved production based on my previous AS pieces of work.  I also tried to develop my creativity by learning how to execute several different shots as during the filming of my LAFTAs project, which is an award show for youth filmmakers in Lincolnshire, I managed to use a Steadicam in order to produce a tracking shot of our actor. I developed these skills further in A2 as I was able to learned how to successfully achieve a focus pull and so included this in my A2 short film.

Post-Production is the area that my creative skills have developed the most over the AS and A2 course as I have learned how to use several pieces of software such as Final Cut Pro X during the making of our preliminary tasks. However I have since then become more creative with how I use this software in terms of picking transitions for which will be the most effective as well as colour grading in my AS film opening in order to make sure the shots don’t looking jarring and as if they were filmed at a different time. I then used colour grading at A2 for a different effect as I wanted the shots to look a certain way that conformed to the stereotypes of the horror genre. I also learned to use motion in order to create the idents and title of my AS film opening and experimented with the time aspect on motion in order for my idents to be more effective. I also found my score before the filming so that I could film knowing what atmosphere the music would create, when it came to editing this it was much easier and seemed more effective than my AS film opening, for which I found the music afterwards and it became more tiresome to edit my film to the music as I had to edit more thoroughly to make the music fit to the footage I had.

Overall I think that my creative skills have developed over time as I have learned how to create several media productions and over the length of the AS and A2 course I have used different creative methods in all three major areas of the production process in order to make projects and productions that I deem to be continuing in there development of creative pieces of work.

second attempt

My creativity and creative skills have been heavily developed within the A level media course in all aspects of the film-making process such as pre-production, production and post-production. I have found new ways to use an array of different equipment (such as the camera) in order to become more creative over the range of media productions I have created, from my first preliminary task at the beginning of the AS course with the preliminary tasks to my short film that I have created during the A2 course.

I have developed my creative skills regarding pre-production as my first project was simply a short 30 second preliminary task that required very little planning other than writing 4 lines of dialogue. Then during our second preliminary task which, although similar to the first, required us to plan more thoroughly in terms of where we should position the camera as we had learnt about the 180 degree rule. However my creative skills really began to develop during the main AS coursework project (Gordian) for which we had to create an opening to a feature film. This required a large amount of planning such as writing a full script, not just containing dialogue but also the types of shots we wanted to use and we also had to think about the effect each segment of our film would have on our intended audience. We therefore had to some research on scripts however, during the pre-production of my A2 film, I researched further into scripts and found several scripts with films similar to the genre of my short film, such as The Shining. This allowed me to be more creative as I could write a script in a certain way and I also found that scripts of the horror genre not only wrote about the shots and dialogue but about the effect and feel that these shots should have once the film is finished and so applied this to my own work. Also by watching several films of this genre I found different techniques that I wanted to use in my own film such as using music to build up tension towards a jump scare, which can be seen in A Tale Of Two Sisters. The A2 coursework is where I developed my creativity to a fuller extent as I was working by myself and therefore created my own storyboards as well as animated storyboards whereas in the AS film opening I had less to do with this process and couldn’t develop my creative skills as much as I have done at A2.

My creative skills have flourished over the course of the several media productions I have made since the start of AS as I have gained more experience with equipment which meant that the production aspect of my media productions has become more fine tuned and allowed me to be more creative. During the filming of my A2 short film, I was able to spend time carefully considering how I positioned a camera and where the boom microphone would go in order to enhance the effect that I was trying to get across to my audience. However in my AS preliminary tasks and film opening, less creative consideration was taken and rather than thinking about how we could use a range of shots and lighting to be more creative, we used much more basic shots and paid little attention to including enough diegetic sound. This is unlike my A2 work as I have made sure that there is an even amount of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound but only for the reason of making the film more enjoyable and an improved production based on my previous AS pieces of work. I also tried to develop my creativity by learning how to execute several different shots as during the filming of my LAFTAs project, which is an award show for youth filmmakers in Lincolnshire, I managed to use a Steadicam in order to produce a tracking shot of our actor. I developed these skills further in A2 as I was able to learned how to successfully achieve a focus pull and so included this in my A2 short film.

Post-Production is the area that my creative skills have developed the most over the AS and A2 course as I have learned how to use several pieces of software such as Final Cut Pro X during the making of our preliminary tasks. However I have since then become more creative with how I use this software in terms of picking transitions for which will be the most effective as well as colour grading in my AS film opening in order to make sure the shots don’t looking jarring and as if they were filmed at a different time. I then used colour grading at A2 for a different effect as I wanted the shots to look a certain way that conformed to the stereotypes of the horror genre. I also learned to use motion in order to create the idents and title of my AS film opening and experimented with the time aspect on motion in order for my idents to be more effective. I also found my score (nightmare before bedtime) for the A2 coursework before the filming so that I could film knowing what atmosphere the music would create, when it came to editing this it was much easier and seemed more effective than my AS film opening, for which I found the music afterwards and it became more tiresome to edit my film to the music as I had to edit more thoroughly to make the music fit to the footage I had.

Overall I think that my creative skills have developed over time as I have learned how to create several media productions and over the length of the AS and A2 course I have used different creative methods in all three major areas of the production process in order to make projects and productions that I deem to be continuing in there development of creative pieces of work.

Research and Planning

Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to you media production outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer.

My media productions have been shaped by the intensive research done on locations during my AS and A2 coursework. My A2 media production ‘Disquiet’ was heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ as it was too set in a hotel that had a certain feel about it that i wanted to replicate in my own film. I therefore began to research several hotels in my area  and found three that were possible locations. I then asked several people for feedback and found that an overwhelming majority believed that the Petwood Hotel was the right fit as it is very victorian and fit with the genre my film was being moulded to. I also researched the themes that horror films had and found that nightmares, the supernatural and religion were all rife in this genre such as Insidious. I decided to settle upon the idea of the supernatural as it was the most prominent genre feature. My AS coursework required some research on location as we needed to shoot somewhere that exhibited large barren landscapes with very few houses. I found a farm in Tumby Woodside that was good for our film, however it wasn’t precisely what I wanted as it was not as isolated as I had imagined. My research skills in terms of finding the correction locations have developed over time as I was persistent in finding the perfect setting for my A2 film and it has had a good outcome on my A2 media production as when receiving feedback on the finished piece, many people said that it seemed very realistic due to the ambience created by the setting.

I also researched real media texts in order to find out the genre features most associated with horror films for my A2 coursework. This had a large impact on the outcome of my film as I tried extremely hard in order to make my film as typical as possible such as using music to build tension and using editing techniques to make the film looker colder, which is evident in films such as Insidious. My research of genre features has developed over time as in my AS coursework where I made a film opening, “Gordian”, which was relatively absent of dialogue and events and therefore there was less research to be done on conventions, however I did try to research the shots that were used in thrillers, as my film opening to ‘Gordian’ was of that genre.

I researched very little in terms of representation conventions in films during the production of my AS film opening, Gordian,  as there was only a single shot with a character  in it, however despite this I was able to represent the characters loneliness through the use of several shots of a cold, barren landscape. Representation of roles within horror films was however researched during my A2 coursework as there is usually a main male character, such as Ellison Oswald in Scott Derrickson’s Sinister (2012), and so my film was informed by this media text as I too had a male main character in the form of Mr. Walker. I further took inspiration from Sinister as the usual dominant male character is not featured in this film, rather a man being scared and tormented by the events in his house. I therefore made my character appear scared by the noises from the room next door to show an atypical view of men in horror films.

My planning skills have developed well over time as in my AS coursework I created a very basic script with little in terms of dialogue, directions or shots that would be used, meaning that when it came to filming I had less of a guide to work with and as a result it took far longer than my A2 coursework to film. I then created a script for my work for the LAFTAs, an awards show for youth filmmakers in Lincolnshire, which although much better than the one I made for my AS coursework, still lacked some of the key elements of most successful scripts such as directions for actors. For my A2 coursework my script was planned much more effectively as I researched several real scripts from the same genre as my own film such as… which meant that I was able to create a detailed script which not only had dialogue but also the directions for the actors as well as shots I would use which was extremely helpful when it came to filming as I didn’t have to think about where to position the camera or what to do with it, as I had already done so during the planning stages.

Another element of planning that I have developed my skills at is the process of creating storyboards as they were very basic in my AS coursework due to the lack of colour and I had not found a location yet, which resulted in having to estimate what shots would look like. This had poor effects on the outcome of my film as I had to shoot for much longer than expected as the location I ended up finding didn’t suit some of the shots I had drawn. However, my planning skills progressed during A2 as I found the location for my short film “Disquiet” before making the storyboards, and I was able to look round the hotel in order to know the logistics of the area and where and what I’d be able to film. My A2 storyboards were therefore much better than AS storyboards as they were more detailed, featured colour and were also a better representation of what my film would look like. AS well as this I animated them, and then asked for feedback from several people so that I could finely tune my idea.

With my AS film opening and LAFTAs short film I did very little research and planning on editing techniques which resulted in my media productions looking less professional than I would have liked. In my A2 production however, I did intensive research on editing techniques such as colour grading which I then implemented into my A2 short film. I planned to use the ‘cold steel’ effect on my film which would give it a bluer  look and allow my film to become more genre specific in terms of a horror film.

 

Post Production

Post Production

Describe the most important post-production decisions you made for your different media productions and explain why these decisions were significant. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how your skills in post-production developed over time.

The editing process was a key part of my pre-production as at AS I was very narrow-minded about what techniques to use and when to use them. An example of this is my repetitive use of cross-dissolves which made the film opening (Gordian) seem stretched out and became boring towards the end. However, considering the structure of my film, cross-dissolves were perhaps the best option, but could have been used less to keep audience interest high all the way through. At A2, I once again used cross dissolves in my short film (Disquiet), however I did so to the minimum and only implemented them when trying to convey a passing of time, such as from the man arriving at the hotel in the daytime, to him waking up in the middle of the night. Colour grading is another aspect of editing that I developed my skills in as at AS I used absolutely no colour grading at all, mainly due to my inability to do so but also the two projects I did during AS, my film opening and LAFTAs short film, were pieces of film that showed realism and so I found that colour grading wasn’t particularly necessary. At A2 I researched several short films and found that the most professional-looking ones used colour grading as it conveys the mood of the film using the temperature of the shots. I therefore used a colour grading filter called “cold steel” which was helpful in displaying my genre as it brought much colder colours onto my footage. I also increased the amount of the filter to convey darker and more sinister scenes.

Idents are a feature of many films and so for my AS film opening I researched several idents and found that little-known companies created simple and quick idents with no sound, rather than a large and loud ident such as Universal. I therefore made two idents, one of which was a white window frame on a black background which slowly faded to form an F for the production company Framework Films. I used Motion to create these idents as it is industry standard software. At A2 I chose not to use idents as after intensive research I found that very few short films feature idents and therefore neither did mine.

Sound design is another key aspect of films and for my AS film opening I was unfortunate in the fact that I had to use the sound from the camera which is a lower quality of sound than that from a boom microphone. This meant more work when it came to editing the sound as I had to make sure that all the levels of sound were the same throughout. At A2 however, I used the sound from the boom, which was much clearer and as the boom was positioned in relatively the same place, or the same distance away from the sound that needed recording, less work had to be done in Final Cut Pro in order to make sure the volume was consistent.

Another major part of post production is seeking out feedback on your film in order to make corrections to ensure a film that will entertain audiences. At AS I edited the entirety of the film opening and then gained feedback from a final screening, which although allowed me to minor changes, anything major had to be left as there was simply wasn’t enough time to fix the large problems. For my A2 short film I took a different approach by creating an extremely rough cut in the first lesson to get quick feedback on the film, such as the length, score, and acting. This was useful as the acting of the hotel employee in my short film was talked about and I was able to re-film quickly. I then made another rough cut a few weeks later to gain more feedback, but on slightly more detailed elements of my film such as the colour grading, sound effects and titles. This was once again helpful as the titles didn’t flow well enough and some of the shots needed to be rotated. My final screening allowed for minor problems to pointed out that I could easily fix such as the font of the title.

My ancillary tasks that I completed for my A2 project were a large part of post-production as they had to flow with the genre of my film. The first ancillary task was to create a poster, I therefore researched horror posters which showed that the characters of the film were rarely shown, but rather the element of the film that was frightening was. I therefore settled upon a hand wrapped in bandage, which was the disturbing feature of my film, reaching out towards a door, the place where the noise is coming from in my film. I then used a horror-like font for the DIS part of my title and a more regal and old fashioned font for the QUIET part of my title to display the genre of my film as well as the narrative, in a way. The second ancillary task was to create an empire magazine style review for my film. This required me to look at several empire magazines  and research the layout and the style of writing that they used. I decided to feature my main character in the largest picture on the double page spread, as this was common and featured a picture of the rose from my film as it was a poignant image, just like the ones used in Empire magazines. I believe that my ancillary tasks, combined with my film, create a realistic film ‘package’ that link together extremely well. I have been able to do this by utilising several pieces of software such as Pixelmator, which was especially useful for my poster as I can edit individual pixels to create the perfect image for my film.