Project Evaluation question two - Erol Akin

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

The combination of our main product, review and poster have all been effective in terms of what type of product we have attempted to create. We have used many techniques which are used in the in real media products and this research is presented in different forms on our blog. We researched into a variety of real media products from posters, short films and also film reviews which helped us all to create products which were of professional quality. Our target audience was 18-35 both male and females who enjoy scary films. We believed this to be the most appropriate age audience group based on the fact that a lot of scary films are certificated 18 and above. Using this age group allows us to target the majority of people who are likely to watch this type of film.

Our poster was designed with the intention to suggest our genre - which is psychological thriller. These types of films are iconic for dark colours, lighting and mysterious characters. The combination of these three products will help to promote our film and give the audience a good idea about what it may be like for someone to have a psychological disorder. The Faceless Man challenges the theme of mental disorder and gives the audience an insight to what it might be like to have schizophrenia. Although it is never mentioned throughout the short film about exactly what type of illness Alex had it suggested that he may be imagining things which are shown through flashbacks, character expression and body language. We attempted to make the film seem almost paranormal at times, however it was never suggested that The Faceless Man was actually anything supernatural.

The main product itself (the film) is a psychological thriller. Something which helped to suggest genre throughout our main product was lighting. Lighting played a vital part in showing the more dark side to our film which also helped to create a good atmosphere for the audience. It was important to us that we created a realistic atmosphere which would make the audience feel scared at times which is something that is common in a psychological thriller. The typical conventions of a psychological thriller are shown throughout our film through post production, for example jump cutting was used to create a high level of tension and to show The Faceless Man up close. The reason behind us keeping his face covered up throughout the duration of our film was also to create a high level of suspense for the audience, allowing them to be guessing of who he is - this is a common technique used to create enigma in these types of films.

We were given the feedback that our film was effective in the way it delivered tension and atmosphere but someone mentioned the screaming added in at times were even comical, which is obviously something we did not want. However we understand how this may have been comical due to perhaps over using certain sounds or even using them in the wrong place. The sound was something which also played a vital role in making our film atmospheric, which is commonly seen throughout psychological thrillers. I believe sound is so useful in films like these because sound is something which can not be seen which allows our brains to make up what that sound might look like or even imagine who is making the sound. Our poster was carefully designed with a clear idea in mind. We knew we wanted something which would be striking to the eye but simplistic in design, which I believe we managed to achieve. Our poster is effective in the way that it stands out due to the layout of the poster and the colours used, although we only used three main colours I still believe this is effective in making it stand out amongst other posters alike.

The review is accurate in terms of the comparison between our product and other films which share similar ideas and a similar narrative. It follows a similar structure to that of a Little White Lies review. The style of writing is professional and gives the reader a good idea about what is to be expected of the film and has an overall accurate description of the short film. The layout of the review is professional-looking as we created a template on Adobe InDesign following the same layout as the well known magazine 'Little White Lies'. Little White Lies magazine uses a lot of mature media language which suits the audience they are aiming at. We have attempted to create the same level of sophistication throughout our review and have attempted to create their level of uniformity to their simple yet effective layout which is aimed at their demographic.

Project Evaluation - Erol Akin

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

Throughout the completion of our theory and practical work we have researched into short films, film reviews and also film posters which have all helped to shape our final product. I believe through using different media techniques we have managed to imitate a good psychological thriller which shares conventions of a typical thriller film. These shots below were selected to best help me illustrate my points and to demonstrate the ways in which our product has used and developed the typical conventions of real media products.

Shot one: The title 

• The shot above is crucial to the audience as it gives them an early insight into what type of genre and style the film might be. First impressions are important and this is why we decided to make the title bold and simplistic in design. This is a simple style of design which can be seen in other short films like 'Eden' (shown below). Although our design is more complex they both share a similar size in comparison with the frame and I believe this to be an important feature of the title as it creates impact to the audience. 
• However, both these title sequences are also very different in a lot of ways. We have challenged this typical style of having a shot from our film behind the title itself, like shown in 'Eden'. We have chosen to go for a classic black background which is more reflective of our psychological thriller genre, whereas with 'Eden' it has a lot science fiction characteristics as it appears there are only two people left on Earth after a deadly virus has wiped all human life from the planet.  

• The short film 'Two and Two' shares the same idea of having a black background with white text. This combination of colour allows the title itself to stand out as to be only focus of the shot. We were fully aware of this when we were designing our title and we knew this would be highly effective as a first shot, we combined our title with a creepy, scratching sound which would help to suggest our genre further to the audience. I believe our title is successful in conveying genre and style through the use of colour and also added blood splats which were cut into the title on Photoshop. Our Photoshop skills helped us to develop a title which would stick out and would be classic of typical Psychological thriller conventions too. 
• The name of the title 'The Faceless Man' has helped us to put across character and again genre too. Having a title like this helps to create impact as it would get the audience to imagine what a 'Faceless Man' might actually look like.  

Shot two: The first appearance of 'The Faceless Man'

• The first appearance of The Faceless Man gives an almost  paranormal atmosphere to the scene due to the dark coloured clothing, aggressively tall posture and the blurry edges of the frame. The character positioning is the main focus in this frame as he is placed central which is typical of any film as it shows importance. The face of this mysterious character is clearly hidden which adds an element of enigma which is a common convention of a real psychological film. 
• There are similar shots in the film 'The Smiling Man', a film which we took a lot of inspiration from which aided our decisions in our own short film. The blurriness in our shot helps to make this scene intense which is something which is commonly used in films. It also gives the impression of a dreaming state which helps to raise questions to the audience about whether this is actually real.  
• The dark coloured clothing is iconic for thriller films as it is suggestive of something evil, we knew that our character would look the best in this type of clothing because of this. Another point being dark lighting is commonly associated with danger which is something too which is frequently seen in psychological thriller films. Having the character in all dark clothing makes the character appear as if they are only a shadow, which is something we did not initially plan, however I believe it has worked in our favour. Shadows are also mysterious in appearance which will have helped to add enigma to our short film. 

• The shot above is a screen shot from the film 'The Smiling Man'. As I previously said this short film helped us to make a lot of important decisions towards the plot and style of our short film. The two screen shots above share a lot of similar qualities. Both of which are eerie and have a central character. The two characters seen are also mysteriously covered by clothing, or dark light; which further helps to add a level of intensity and enigma to the short film. 
• The dark lighting in both shots are good examples of a conventional thriller. This type of lighting is seen in many thriller films as it helps to set the mood and create dark undertones for the audience. 

• This shot above follows similar rules in terms of lighting, character position, character body language and clothing. The dark figure to the left of the central character is lurking in the background of this shot, which when creepy backing track is added gives an eerie effect. This type of stalking is seen in other short films like 'The Smiling Man'. This particular scene proves how we have thought through the usual conventions of a thriller film and what is effective in relation to the audience's reaction. 

Shot three: Disturbing close up

• Close ups are often used throughout thriller films and it was something which we chose to adopt in our short film too, it helped to show a high level of emotion of a certain character - which helps to create impact. The picture below shows a comical/ clown like character who appears to be staring into the camera with  big grin. However when combined with synical music this completely changes, therefore making it a creepy and shocking scene. 
• These two screen shots both mirror eachother in style and in the type of shot. The close up of Oscar shows the audience how much mental pain he is in through the use of mise en scene we have managed to create a shocking scene which shows a high level of mental pain for Oscar's character. This shot is added in throughout several points in the short film for a disturbing effect. We believe that both the shots below create a similar atmosphere for the audience as it would be likely to take them by surprise. 

• When both shots are compared they are closely similar in appearance and both are accompanied by scary music which helps to raise the audiences attention to the film. These types of close up shots help the audience to empathise with characters about what they might be experiences. It can also have the opposite effect when used as an example in 'The Smiling Man'.
• Oscar's expression gives away the fact that he is in a high level of stress and emotional pain which is clear to see through his wide opened motuh (with teeth showing), tightly closed eyes, messy hair and also by the positioning of his handing being on his head. This scene we believe creates a intense amount of emotion for the audicne and is likely to gain their empathy for our character. 

The Film Poster

• Both posters have a large title which takes up a lot space overall. 

• These two posters share a number of similar qualities which proves how we have used conventions inspired from real media products. This is England's film poster used bright colours, characters and a background which sets the scene of a British council estate from the 1980's/90s. The colours chosen in their title are the same colours which are used in the Union Jack which is iconic for britian. This poster uses props like the Dr Martin boots, dark coloured clothing and ripped jeans which help to suggest a subculture known as the 'skinhead' which were commonly seen in the 1980's and all these props are commonly associated to them. 
• Throughout the production of our film we thought about what our poster might look like and what colours would be appropriate to use. Colour is something which helps to suggest a certain genre, for example; using black and red would help to suggest danger or evil. This is why we chose to use these two colours as they help to suggest these themes. 

Erol's Final poster design

This is my final poster design, I have made some adjustments to my other design based on some feedback  I have received. This includes making the billing board text considerably smaller in size so that there would be enough room to add some film festivals like 'Toronto Film Festival 2016' and 'Festival De Cannes'. These all help to make the film poster look  a professional quality, as well as this is makes the film look good to the audience especially as they are well known names in the film industry. Something also I have added is a small selection of social media logos, this helps to create awareness for our film. As well as this it will appeal  to our target audience due  to a large amount of people in this age range having different types of social media platforms.

I believe this poster is effective in the sense that it is bold and of a professional quality - especially now I have changed parts of it slightly. Something to add is the colours chosen compliment each other and make the poster stand out. The three main colours (black, white and red) chosen go with our theme of a dark psychological thriller, which I think helps to suggest genre. Additionally the size of the text itself is large so it immediately sticks out which is likely to attract the audience; Oscar (our main actor) also matches in size with the text which shows how he plays a vital part in our film. The text has been corroded into using a cutting and pasting technique on Photoshop, besides this it is possible to see a silhouette of a hooded figure (The Faceless Man).

The Faceless man

Film Review Plan

Film Review Plan

Contexts: Sixth Sense, Mental Health Issues, Exorcist, Fight Club.

Summary Information about Protagonist and Antagonist: Protagonist has a form of schizophrenia, he sees another person which is a figment of his imagination. The antagonist is the psychiatrist who turns out to be the person the protagonist sees in his imagination. 

Key themes, Issues and plot: Mental Illness (schizohprenia), follows the story of the antagonist.

Narrative Devices: Non Linear narritive, Flashbacks.

Use and adaptation of genre conventions (+evaluation): Psychological Thriller, dark settings, flashbacks, distorted imagery, 

Reviewers experience of film: 

Summary Sentence evaluating:

Brighton Rock poster edit - Erol

Erol Akin Draft poster

Alike some of the posters I researched into the choices of colour were meaningful, striking and simplistic in design. I have chosen to use only three simple colours, however I believe these colours are eye catching and all work well together. These colours also tie in with our theme of a dark psychological thriller.

Secondly I have chosen to make the title half the size of the poster as I believe this to be one of, if not, the most important part of a film poster. Keeping the size of the title large helps to clarify the name of the film and gives the audience information about the film. It will help give information about the genre, type of film and quality.

Synopsis for short film

Synopsis of our short film 

Our short film is set in a dark lounge lit by low key lighting. The main two characters will be the patient and the psychiatrist although the psychiatrist’s identity will remain a mystery throughout the short film which adds an element of enigma. The main story line will be about a man who suffers with the symptoms of schizophrenia, this will haunt him so much that he struggles with everyday life activities. The audience will be able to sympathise with him due to a number of flashbacks he has which will help to illustrate his illness.

The man who haunts him on a daily basis will also be left to the imagination as his identity will be covered up. This will give an eerie approach to our short film and we believe this will keep the audience engaged throughout guessing about who this masked character could be. The psychiatrist will be asking the patient all sorts of questions about this masked figure who stalks him and whether or not he is a danger to him. The patient will fall in and out of flash backs about this character. There will be scenes of how this stalking started and how it has got progressively worse for him too. The scenes in our short film will show the progression of disruption caused to this patient. We will use a variety of different shots to keep the audience involved and also so we can use techniques like dramatic irony.

We also plan for a small twist at the end and this is why some character’s identities are being left to the audience’s imagination. We believe this will create impact and will help the audience to remember our short film. 

This table below was created before our filming but never actually got put onto the blog. It helped us a lot with our organisation whilst filming due to its detail in reference to each shot. 

Shot number	Shot time (s)	Shot type/ angle	Action in shot	Dialogue / sound / script
1	5	Black screen	n/a	‘tell me about him’
2	5	Title screen	n/a
3	4	Close up	Tapping of prop on against table (suggests being anxious	Patient is heard to be panting heavily in distress
4	3	Over the shoulder shot	Patient looking on the floor uninterested	Uninterested in conversation/ continues to tap pen
5	2	Close up	Shows how tired and sad he is	‘I can’t explain’
6	2	Close up of clock	Shows how late it is	Ticking of clock
7	5	Extreme close up of patient, side angle	Character is shown from the side still looking distressed	Psychiatrist ‘I want to help you, but you have to want to help yourself’
8	4	Extreme close up	Heavy staring	Hear the faint tapping of the pen and clock ticking
9	2	Close up	Pen slowly stops tapping. Then finally stops. Shows how his attention is drawn to psychiatrist	Pen tapping against table
10	5	Extreme close up	Patient looking down and upset/ shows extreme emotion	High pitched ringing sound (suggests he’s going into a flashback)
11	5	Two shot	Shows two characters walking together (one tired and the other energetic and happy)	‘How’s it going why are you so down?’
12	5	Two shot close up	Comparison of faces shows how miserable the patient is	Patient sighing
13	6	Over the shoulder	Shows a dark figure far in the distance behind him	Eerie music
14	6	Two shot close up	Patient tells friend what he saw	‘What! Did you just see that man?’
15	5	Over the shoulder of the two characters	When they both turn around to see the dark character is gone	‘No, what are you on about? I can’t see anyone mate’
16	4	Close up	Character looking shocked, looking anxious, looking side to side or behind him	Gasps in shock, breathing heavy
17	8	Over the should shot / high angle	Hiding psychiatrist’s face using lighting adds mystery	‘what happened, you haven’t said anything for a while, tell me about him’
18	6	Medium side shot	Patient talking to psychiatrist, although he is struggling to talk	‘I’m finding this hard, it’s difficult to describe when its someone you don’t really know’
19	7	Medium shot pans into a long shot	Patient walking at night (second flashback, indicated by fade to white) The ‘faceless man’	Patter of footsteps High pitched ringing sound – gives impression of flashback
20	8	Over the shoulder shot / shallow depth of field	Reveals faceless man following him; however with use of the camera when the patient goes to look back he is gone.	‘who’s there’ (turning around quickly) Russel of bushes or patter of footsteps
21	4	Close up	Foot tapping as if the patient is agitated	Foley sound of shoe tapping Patient says ‘why is he after me Doctor, why me!’
22	9	Close up	Psychiatrist scratches his beard (his tie and part of his lower face is shown, however none of his main facial features are shown)	‘You have to remain calm, I know this is hard but remember you have to push these bad thoughts out. We have spoken about this before, remember?’
23	6	Close up	Tapping of his hands up and down on the table. Shows his watch to show wealth	‘You need to talk to me, is he with us now?’
24	12	Series of different close up shots from different angles (a montage	Character gritting teeth looking angry	Patient agitatedly grits teeth and growls ‘grrrr’ with anger
25	5	Close up	Characters fist clenching with anger	The cracking of knuckles
26	8	Over the shoulder shot	Shows patient looking anxious trying to explain	‘Yeah he is here, you know he’s here’
27	10	High angle just over psychiatrist’s head	Psychiatrist shown to be assessing patient, scratching his head and writing what he says down’	‘tell me about other times you’ve seen this man, talk to me’
28	5	Extreme close up	Patient looking shocked again	High pitched ringing sound again fades in
29	7	Medium shot	Shows patient asleep in bed, wakes up dramatically as if he has had a nightmare	Screams ‘argghh’
30	7	POV	Shows character wanting to get some fresh air. Opens the curtains and looks out his window.	‘what’
31	6	Over the shoulder shot	Shows faceless man looking up at him through the window by the street lamp.	Gasps with shock
32	5	Long shot	Shows character closing the curtains quickly	Eerie sound with high pitched sound
33	7	Front on shot of patient	This shows the faceless man behind him in the room	Scratching sound
34	5	Over the shoulder shot	This shows how the patient quickly turns around expecting there to be something there, however he’s gone.	High pitched sound
35	6	Side profile shot / ecu	Shows character engaging more with the psychiatrist	‘I am insane Doctor or is this actually happening to me, its pissing me off’