Final Short Film - Halfbreed

Finished Poster

Magazine Article

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

Evaluation One - Part 2

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

Evaluation Three: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I found that audience feedback would be a very interesting part of my coursework. I received audience feedback throughout all three production stages which was incredibly useful in regards to the scenes I had been filming during the production stage as well as having feedback on my initial script in the pre-production and production stage.

Pre-Production

During the pre-production stage the story of 'Halfbreed' I changed both the script, characters and story at least three times before going back to my original idea and adapting it with the help of my class. Although the fantasy genre is a bit of a niche genre to have chosen my class and teacher still helped me correct some of the script and also helped me come to the conclusion of cutting out some of the scenes because it would definitely have been too long if I had included the fight sequence! We also spoke to a film director, Terry Hall, and he told me to look at costume designers such as Alexander McQueen, Eiko Ishioka and photography by Tim Walker. This helped me a lot with designing my abstract and fantastical costume based off a medieval and natural theme.

Production

Whilst I was in the production stage I received a lot of feedback from my class as well as friends and my actors. For instance, I cut a scene shorter after showing my class part of the shot when Melodie walks Sienna past the camera and you could see a bright green open field behind them. Compared to the aesthetic of the film that was located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dead leaves and wintery trees this seemed a little bizarre and almost seemed comic. I also found it very useful that my actors questioned the wording of my script or the way the lines were said. This can be seen with the actress who plays Melodie who occasionally takes the lines into her own hands, improvising whilst saying something similar to the lines which actually worked better than what I had initially asked.

Post-Production

Recently we did a screening of each of the short films made this year (see Jess and Lizzy's blogs) and asked the audience to review our films by handing out a sheet for them to fill:

How effective is the sound (voice, effects, music)? Is there anything you would add?

The feedback I received from my audience was reasonably positive although it addressed the issue of the sound being "tinny" which I later worked on for a tedious amount of time to correct. The wind sounds were also removed which may have been obstructing the voices of my actors however we were filming on a hill and I can't control the wind or weather (sadly) so we had to work with it. When it came to the soundtrack it was received well however some suggested that I should try and build tension or use part of another soundtrack. I did attempt to do this but on finding another soundtrack to use it didn't fit as well and did not seem to fit at all. Some also asked that I add a sound effect at the end when the Woodland Queen dies at the hands of Melodie that there should be a metallic sound of knife slicing or a thud of the body falling.

How well can you follow what is happening in the film?

This was received well with most of my audience able to understand exactly what was going on. After having cut out a few scenes both before creating my storyboard and after creating it, I was worried whether it would still all make sense and thankfully most of my audience followed the action and what was going on. However, one member of the audience stated that they enjoyed the film and that it was "very dramatic" which was what I was aiming for.

How effective are the actors and the setting?

This was ultimately received really well (which was a relief considering the amount of effort gone into costume design). One of the viewers commented "great costumes and actors" and another commented that the "setting is effective". This was overall very good as I wanted the setting to be unidentifiable as part of our modern world and was instead part of this new fantastical world.

What would you rate the film out of 10?

Ultimately my audience seemed to rate the film at 7/10. This was positive given to the improvements that I had to make in order for the film to improve in the eyes of not only myself as the director but also in the eyes of the audience. Looking at the rating to my improved film I'm hoping that the rating would have been higher although I think that it was also given a 7/10 because the fantasy genre has quite a niche audience and that it may not have appealed to as many of the audience as other genres.

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

To watch 'Honorbound' click here.
To watch 'Ranger' click here