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

For our short film we did use a ranger of different technologies to experiment with during the editing and production of the film. Of course we used a small camcorder which we borrowed from our college to film. We looked at all kinds of codes and conventions which Social Realism short films tend to have:

- Hand held

- Jittery/shaky camera movement

- Fast editing and quick camera movement to build up the suspense and tension. 

- Slow flash backs etc.


Because me and my partner have watched quite a lot of different short films and even some social realism ones, we have picked out quite a few important key factors to then be able to discuss them and use them in our film. Of course because this is only a short film and due to a lot of travel limitations we were not able to use typical British Iconography (e.g. London Bridge, red buses, taxis) and also because for our social realism it wasn't really necessary to show typical iconography. Although we did use some dominant ideology to show what topic our film is based on. We uses blades for the self harming scene and some of our film was filmed at a park, this is quite a 'normal' place to film a short film. Because our film did not need a lot of special effects or such because it is not of a science fiction genre we did not have to use very complicated camera or editing techniques. I wouldn't say this has made making a short film any easier because it is just as hard work making a social realism short film as it is making a sci-fi film but I feel as though the editing has come out a little easier. Our film is no longer than 6 minutes which is like a lot other shorts films which tend to be about 4-5 minutes long anyway. One thing I personally like about our film was that the ending was not all clear and this made it seem quote like a warning message or even a propaganda of some sort. I have noticed that this is a quite common thing in a few social realism short films where the ending is left unfinished. It is like another way letting the audience decide what can happen next, or a way to let the audience leave the room still thinking about what could have happened. 

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

I think that if we combine both our ancillary tasks (the poster and the review) and our final cut film then I think that this is very effective because from the responses we have received from the people who have seen  the film first and then the poster have said that our poster does explain quite a lot about our film and people who have done vice versa and have viewed the review and poster first have said that our review is very well written and that the poster gave out a strong message of what our film could be about. Although we did get a few pointers on how we could improve it and someone even said that if we had made it a little more darker or used pictures of the characters and the weapons used then this would have made it more eye catching for them personally. Over all I think that both our pieces has had a good effect on our target audience by the responses that they have given us. I don't think that our poster really gives out too much of the film or even the target audience which I believe could be good thing because this way we could gain a completely new age ranged audience but this could also be a bad thing because then our target audience may get confused and think that this may not be the film for them because it might not appeal to them if they are unsure of who it is targeted at. At the end of it both me and my partner are very proud of how both our tasks have turned out to be and like how audience has responded back to us. Their pointers and advice has been very useful to us. 

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

We used instruments to experiment with the music and then we also tried websites where you can make your own music but using the keys on the pc keypad to make a tune or even a website where you can use free music. We also used iTunes as a handy equipment because that is the app where we save all our music so that we could test and play around with it later on. 

The Apple Mac also of course played a big part in the production of and editing of our film. Without it we wouldn't have been able to edit our final film. Although there are other ways of editing e.g. using Sony Vegas but unfortunately neither me or my partner had the Sony Vegas system in our home computer drives and even so if we did go and buy a new installation disc, Sony Vegas does take a lot of time to get used to and learn how to use properly. Anyhow, me and my partner found the Macs very useful because they are easily accessible for us and we learned how to use them quite quickly. 

Also I have to say that the Internet was also a very useful piece of technology because of course without it I wouldn't have been able to do all my research about short films or about the genre of my film. I would not have been able to have this blog to record all my research and the development of the film or even find some music for it. Also by using You Tube I have been able to watch many short films which other people have uploaded and this has helped me get more inspired and develop more ideas for my own film.

3. what have you learnt from your audience feedback?

This is the video I made to answer question 3. I tend to express a lot more when I speak as it seems so. 

Editing

The majority of the editing for our film was also done by me along with the filming. We used Apple Mac Software to edit our film as this was the software system which was installed into our school systems. I did have some trouble at the beginning of the because the cord which connected the camera to the PC did not work at all and therefore I had to go through several different cords (many which had faults in them) until finally finding one which worked and let me import all the clips onto the PC. Once all the clips were on the PC I backed them all up onto my memory stick just in case anything went wrong and they deleted off the software. After wards, I put them in order i.e deleted non useful clips I know I didn't need at all and then finally begun putting the film together. Thankfully because we were making a Social Realism this meant we did not have to use any difficult editing or special effects which would have taken a lot longer. Because this was my first time editing as well I wasn't familiar with the software all that much but gradually I learnt how to use it and then realised it isn't too hard after all once I got the hang of things, which was handy. I cut scenes and put different ones together and undid some cutting to see what fit best and whether it looked good or not. It takes a lot of patience and time to edit because each clip needs to be place properly and cut to the right size at the right second and if one bit is misplaced then it looks completely wrong. I must admit some parts were frustrating but it was just as fun as well. After the film was finally put together Me and my partner watched it through a few times just to see if there was anything we wanted to change or add. We included several titles with questions on them and headings in-between the different scenes. I wanted to keep the dialogue in the film but the background sounds out of it so then with the help of my friend Jon we added the music and it already sounded much better. A few fiddling around with the music was needed, for example, fading it out and in when speech was increasing or decreasing in the scenes. After the music was done, all we had to do was turn the entire film into black and white, this is because I said to my partner that I felt if the film was in black and white effect then it would look like more of a social realism film and have that gloomy depressing effect to it. And depressing was the effect I was initially going for anyway. I was very happy with the overall outcome of the film and so was my partner. Then we made copies of it onto DVDs to hand over to our teachers. 

Music

For there music we tried at first making our own music by ourselves. We tried composing some stuff on our own on Jade's piano but then later realised that the music we were making was not sad or depressing enough but we did come up with a few catchy tunes! It was useful having a piano in hand because that way me and my partner were at least able to try and see if we could have any success from it at all or not. Even though we were unsuccessful, I am happy that we tried anyway. We also asked a friend of ours if they could write a song or compose some music for our film but disappointingly even though they were in a band they did not use any strings instruments and therefore were not able to compose anything for us. We then searched the internet for any websites where we could make or find any non-copyrighted music, this is when we came across a useful website called freeplaymusic.com. It is a website where there are a lot of free songs (vocal and instrumental) which people can use for their own purposes. Me and my partner looked through there different kinds of categories there were, we specifically looked through the depressive and sad music list. We found a few in particular which we liked but then turned out to be too bright or happy for us so we settled for one called 'Everlasting Sadness' we thought it had a touch of loneliness in it and we both agreed it went well with a lot of the features in the film.  

Actors and Filming

At the beginning of the process of the film me and Jade did struggle a little bit to find appropriate actors for the film. And as I have mentioned before that we initially planned on doing three stories for the film itself but by the end of it they final film only had two stories which was Emily's (the pregnant girl) and Jade (the homosexual) this is because for the final story we did find the right actors (well most of them) unfortunately some decided not to cooperate properly. And therefore the filming didn't go down so well and I had to cut out the last story from the film during editing. For the first story we got or two friends Emily and Phil to act as our characters Emily and Stan. We chose them both because we had known them for years and therefore we know what standards their acting skills are at (very good). I personally think that they both portrayed the character very well as they picked up the characteristics and emotions properly. After and during filming I had asked both Phil and Emily about how they felt playing the roles they were given. Phil has told me that he has never really been able to play the role of an angry character before and so he is looking forward to playing a negative role, this way even he will be able to explore different emotions and facial expressions via his character. Emily was also interested in playing the role of a pregnant girl, when I showed her the synopsis for the film she was instantly interested in it and was eager to be part of it. That was a good sign and when she agreed to playing the role of Emily, I explained to her carefully how they character should feel and how they should portray their emotions and I believe that Emily has done a fantastic job in this and so has Phil. 


The second story is about Jade who was played by my partner Jade. It is about the girl who is homosexual and has problems with her family after they find out. She self harms also. Jade particularly wanted to play this role as it related to her the most and therefore her past experiences have helped her play the role of the character well. I think she has expressed the character's feeling very well. The roles of her parents were played by her older brother and his girlfriend. We asked them how they felt about playing roles. They were both really nervous coming up on camera at first but after a few practice runs they were easing into their characters quite well. We also asked them whether they would react as badly if their own child was in the same situation as our character Jade and they both answered no, or that if the situation ever came across then things would be handled differently rather than argued over. 


I did the filming for our short film except for the hand held during the Jade's scene where she has returned home and watched her parents argue and then runs up the stairs. I used my skills in filming and out them to test, I used a lot of close ups, this was inspired by a French film director Xavier Dolan. I particularly love the fact that Dolan uses a lot of close ups in his films and I feel that because we can see the actors face to clearly and up close it's another way the audience can connect to the character and by seeing their emotions so clearly the audience then has a better way to decided how they would express their feelings for that character, whether they feel pain and sympathy for the person or anger and hatred. I Also experimented with a few long shots to show some of the background for the opening outside scenes so I could give my audience a sense of where my actors are and how they might be feeling in that environment. I used an establishing shot at the beginning to instantly tell my audience where we are that that moment. Though most of the filming was done inside a house and mostly a bedroom I feel like this is also another good factor because I wanted my audience to feel just as trapped in a small space like the way my actors/characters were feeling. I am very happy with the result of the final film and how the filming itself went through out the process. I felt that by filming I was able to express myself through the eyes of the camera. That is what I love about filming so much. 

The Title

'I'm NOT Okay' is the title of our film. I came up with the idea for the title one day as me and partner were sat trying to think of a name for the film. We had a list of different names for the film but not one of them really stood out to us enough for us to use it. (e.g  'Secrets' & 'Hidden') these were two of many we had thought of. Although 'Secrets' and 'hidden' did attract us a little we then decided that they would be better off as a name for a horror film of some sort so we scrapped that idea. Then one day I was thinking and the idea of I'm NOT Okay came to me because there is also a song which has a similar title and I feel that his song has also influenced us in the making of our film. I said to my partner 'why not cross out the 'Not' to make it look like it's been purposely cut out?' and she agreed. We thought that this was a good idea because by having the 'not' it's putting more attention on the other two words and also when people do noticed the crossed out word they will begin to question/wonder why it is crossed out in the first place. Also because within our film the characters are asked the question 'Are you really okay?' and of course the audience can see that they really aren't but the characters will lie to the audience and themselves and say 'I'm okay'. So basically it's a way to show that they characters in the film are hiding or running away from the truth.

We tried different colours for the title to see which one stands out the most:

First of all we tried doing the first and last word in blue and the middle crossed out word in black to see if it is eye catching enough for us. We thought it was good at first because the colour blue has connotations of sadness,depression or unhappiness. It can show that could be 'feeling blue' but then we realised that it's not really getting the message across properly because in our film our characters aren't just feeling blue but there is in fact a lot more to their story and background. 

Then we decided to use the colours Red and Black because we thought that the colour red stands out a lot more than blue in many different ways. When Jade changed the colour to Red I instantly could tell a difference in the title and it attracted me so much. I automatically saw how the red made me think differently about the title and my opinions on it changed vastly. Also the colour red connotes death and danger but also love. So this was great because our film covers a little bit of each issue.  

I look up on the internet for things related to our genre or our short film itself and it is amazing how many things can actually come up to relate to it. People have all kinds of ways to express how they are feeling. For example, like the picture above, a lot of people express their feelings through art, writing or even just scribbling on a piece of paper. Some people even have blogs to type up their emotions and keep them private so no one but them can view it. People can feel differently to one another and most of the time they don't tend to tell even their closest friends. This is similar to our short film where our main characters, despite knowing each other for so long still don't tell each other what is happening in their lives and what they are having to go through everyday. 

What I really like about this picture (above) is how much it looks like the words 'I'm not okay' have been tattooed onto the palm of this person's hand. Sometimes I feel that there is nothing more permanent than a tattoo and sometimes feelings are just same I guess for a lot of people. Some people get tattoos to represent an event or series of events that have happened in their lives. They are kind of similar to scars, because one of our characters in our film does self harm it helps show that scars are also permanent once they have been cut into the skin and therefore sometimes it's better to think before doing something of that sort. Of course self harm is a more serious matter than getting a tattoo done but they similarities are visible here.  

Designing the poster

As we were thinking of a design for the poster, Jade began drawing randomly to see if she could think of anything. We had bits of paper where we just drew random pictures and sketches of what we thought we had an image of of what our poster could look like.

The thing about this design is that if this were to be part of the poster then the very first thing anyone would notice is the corner where the title is because they would want to know what poster of which film they are looking at. By looking at the name they would be able to decided whether it is their preferable genre or not. Our Tagline 'Are you really okay?' would have also been underneath the title so that then the audience can look at the poster and the title and question themselves with that same question. What also would stand out the most is the fact that from the title 'Not' is crossed out to look like 'NOT' so this way someone would instantly look at 'I'm Okay' and then suddenly realize the almost hidden word which many people would not notice at first. In a way it is almost making the word 'not' invisible or hidden and therefore it is representing key aspects of our stories of how our characters have to hide their true feelings and feel invisible in society or even in their own homes. 

Our poster was designed by Jade. She tried exploring different ways she could position the pictures of our characters in order to make the poster look a depressing or upsetting. The very first example next to the picture of the logo was supposed to be a picture from the three main characters from each of the three stories. Just a simple picture of each and then in one corner we would have the title. The next idea was to have the three faces kind of faded into one another in a black background and the title fading into the background also but then we through it would give too much of and eerie effect and our other idea was to have three pictures with the faces crossed out and it saying 'I'm okay' and then they actual actors faces underneath to show that they are hiding a lot from each other and themselves. 

Designing of the logo in process

For our final logo design of course we decided on the circle with the letters inside it. Now here's how it all came together and how our final logo was produced...

We started sketching out the logo in different ways to see which one  we liked the best. As we can clearly see here that the bottom two designs are similar to the very first design, this is because we wanted to try and see if we could come up with any other idea for a design which is different or which includes both two designs, but of course we didn't and finally went of the round logo. At first we did want each letter to be clearly visible and stand out as a separate letter but then we thought, if we mix the letters around a little it is a way to see if the audiences pays enough attention to work out what the jumble of letters actually say. We did a lot of random drawing to see if we could come up with anything else, we jotted down anything that came into our minds for future use.

We tried adding colour to the letters and making them bolder to stand out. We made them into block letters (bubble writing) to see if that looked better. I suggested that the 'T' looked like an umbrella inside the circle so we then experimented to see if we could make anything else out of it. We annotated some of them making small notes or writing keys words to help us remember what is needed to be added or removed from the final logo design. I personally thought hat the coloured version of the logo didn't attract me all the much and so my partner agreed with me and we did not use that one. I felt as though the plain black logo had  a hint of dullness and eeriness to it as well where as the colour one would have just changed the whole mood, making it more happier and brighter. I didn't want bright, I preferred having something that was quite secretive and dark to have a stronger effect on the logo itself.

Our production name and logo

Me and my partner had worked on the production name for out film and then we started working on the logo for it. We came up with the name TZV Productions as our company name. This is because we wanted to dedicate our name to a close friend who relates to a few of the issues involved in our ideas. We have asked him questions about several things that interested us and how he dealt with them and his personal opinions on issues such as homosexuality, depression, abuse and others.

This is our original logo which we decided on. It spells out TZV within the fine dark blue, purple and light blue lines. We experimented with the thickness of the lines to see which one stands out the most and which one we personally agreed on and thought was the best for our film. 

1

2

3

We thought at first that the thicker the lines of the letters the better it would stand out but then we decided that there was too much colour so we stuck to the original fine lined design. We also came up with one other design which is completely different to the ones above.

This was drawn by my partner (Jade). We both liked this one as it looked a lot more professional and the style of it stood out to us. It is constructed of a large circle, which is good because I feel that the roundness of the logo keeps everything inside it need and tidy. Then we can see carefully a 'V' which stands tall in the middle of the circle and going through the middle of that is the 'T' and crossing through both letters is the 'Z'. I feel that because all the letters are almost inside one another it makes a whole new design and the effect of its style catches my eye instantly which means it will catch our target audiences attention quickly as well. We decided to go with this logo because we were both very happy with the way the design turned out. We did not choose the initial design of just the basic lines to make 'TZV' because we thought that lines were too faint and weren't outstanding or bold enough to grab someone's attention. What I did like about that logo is how simple yet effective it could have been. To kind of show that our logo will show simplicity yet our film itself will have a gripping message behind it.

Target Audience Research Questionnaire

Questionnaire

1)      What is your name?

2)      What gender are you?

Male                 Female

3)      How old are you?

17-20     20-30      30-40      40-50      50-60      60+

4)      List some of your hobbies

     __________________________________________________________________________

     _________________________________________________________________________

Film in general

1)      How often do you watch films?   Daily     Weekly         Monthly         Yearly        Never

2)      Do you watch short films?    Yes        No

3)      How often do you go to the cinema?   Daily     Weekly     Monthly     Yearly    Never

4)      What is your favourite film genre? __________________________________________

5)      What is your favourite film? _______________________________________________

6)      What is the last film you watched? __________________________________________

7)      Did you enjoy it? _______________________________________________________

8)      If yes, why? ___________________________________________________________

9)      If no, why? ___________________________________________________________

10)   Who is your favourite actor? ______________________________________________

11)   Who is your favourite actress? ____________________________________________

12)   Who is your favourite director? ___________________________________________

13)   What is your favourite music genre? _______________________________________

14)   Who is your favourite artist? _____________________________________________

15)   How often do you listen to music? ________________________________________

Social Realism

1)      Would you watch a Social Realism film? ____________________________________

2)      If yes, why? _________________________________________________________

3)      If no, why? __________________________________________________________

4)      Do you think that Social Realism films have an effect on society?  Yes         No

5)      Why? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Issues related to our film

1)      What is your sexuality?  Heterosexual         Homosexual       Bisexual       Other      Prefer not to say     

2)      What is your opinion on self harm? ___________________________________________

3)      What do you think of domestic abuse? ________________________________________

4)      What do you think of child abuse? ____________________________________________

Me and my partner handed out copies of this questionnaire which we had made ourselves to friends and family and other people we may know from all different ages groups. The questionnaire is constructed of all kinds of questions related to our film genre and the topics which our stories overview. Of course a lot of peoples opinions would be similar to others for most of the questions therefore we have asked each person to try and word their answers as differently as possible. Although the fact that a lot of the answers are quite similar to one another shows that a majority of people agree with one another on certain things. For example: 'What is your opinion on self harm' many people answered that it is wrong and should be solved or people going through it should get some help etc. 

Media and Everyday Life- David Gauntlett

During one of our Media classes we watched this video which explained and clarified how media has changed throughout the many years of its existence. Back in the days, it is believed that in order to make a film a lot of large and space consuming equipments were needed and then to be shown on Television huge broadcasting stations were required to air the media. Things have had a vast improvement as nowadays we have much smaller technology that can do a lot more. We have many different ways of broadcasting a piece of media without it needing to be aired from the large stations. Now with camcorders and phones we can make films ourselves and just simply upload them on to websites such as 'You Tube' on the internet and people can freely view them as they wish. David Gauntlett has explained the concepts of media very well throughout this video.

A mood board for each story

These are the mood boards we made for each separate story. We chose to make a different one for each story because this way we were able to label and focus on key facts that were needed so that we could make a start.

Story one; Emily and Stan:

Emily is only 19, a regular teenage girl, pretty normal, that’s what you’d think when you look at her, you would be pretty surprised if you knew what her life is really like. After Emily’s parents had gotten divorced when she was only 7, her mother soon became a heavy alcoholic and gave up on life therefore this had a negative effect on Emily’s upbringing. Her father was arrested after being charged of rape. Watching her mother move from one man to another and witnessing how badly she was treated by each one of them, both herself and her mother beaten up, abused on a daily basis, it was difficult for Emily to trust any person, let alone any man. She currently lives with her boyfriend of 3 years; she felt like she could finally trust somebody, somebody who would make her happy. She was wrong. Things started off very smoothly between Emily and Stan, he seemed like the best boyfriend ever, he was always there for her, always supporting her. This was only until he slowly began to change. Once Emily moved in with Stan she realised what he really is like. His anger was life threatening, he lost self control very easily and did things he shouldn't have done and most of all he treats Emily worse than her mother was treated. In the past year all that Emily has been through is abuse, verbal, physical and sexual abuse, but yet she still decides to stay with Stan, because he is all that she has left now and now she has discovered that she is going to have his child. After Stan finds out that Emily is pregnant, he becomes extremely angered and abuses her once again and this creates an argument between the two of them. Emily becomes upset and unknown of what do to, where to go and what is best for her unborn child... 

Story two; Jade:

Jade is only 17, but at the moment her life isn’t going as she wanted it. She’s grown up as a single child, having to live with two parents who always argue, bills, mortgage, marriage, family life, friends, everything. They will find any excuse to just argue. Her parents never got on from the beginning and somewhere along the line Jade feels the need to blame herself for it. She thinks that if she wasn’t born then maybe all these problems wouldn’t have occurred and maybe her parents wouldn’t be on the verge of getting divorced every single day. None of her ‘friends’ understand her situation all that well either, they do listen but they ignore the fact that it’s a big issue and that something should be done to help Jade and her family. Jade feels like she is alone all the time and that no one is there to truly listen and understand her problems, so she decides to lock herself in, away from the busy world, away from friends and away from any social contact, she feels like only she can understand herself. Due to loneliness she becomes dependent on things that could harm her. At the age of 13 she began to self harm herself, finding any sharp object to cut. Another problem of hers is that she is a lesbian and she is worried about how her family will come about it once they find out. What she doesn’t know is that they already have and therefore she walks into an argument which her parents have about her. She knew deep down that there are many other ways to solve her problem, councillors, doctors teachers, anyone but still she felt like this was the only way. Her parents are too caught up with their own lives and problems to notice the scars and scratches on her body, and therefore like always she is left alone, with herself as a danger.

Story three; idea one: Rabbi (forbidden love)

Rabbi, a typical 17 year old, Asian girl in a typical Asian family. She’s not a genius but she isn’t dumb either, she knows what she wants in life and her ambitions are clear and she is willing to do anything to get to where she wants. She’s that one friend that everyone thinks is always happy no matter what, the one that’s smiling non-stop and laughing endlessly. They are wrong. She may seem like the most open and free person ever but in fact inside her very own house she is restricted from doing many things. She feels trapped, like a bird inside a cage. She feels as if she cannot do anything with her own will, this is because it’s true; she in fact cannot even step outside without confirming with her parents that she isn’t going to see any boy, or going somewhere she shouldn’t. She has to show proof to her parents that she is going where she says she is and that she is going with girls only. The pressure of education and responsibilities are on her shoulders, being the only daughter in her family, the reputation and self respect of her family depends on her. Problem is, now that she has reached a respectable age, her parents feel the need to constantly pressurize her about arranged marriage, they wish to find a guy with a good earning, a house and a good family, regardless of the fact that Rabbi may not even want to get married at the moment, especially not to some guy that she doesn’t even know. Everyday she has to argue with her family to earn the right to her freedom and her life, but it gets tiring. She is sick of not being able to be with someone that she wants but instead having to be put with someone she doesn’t like. What makes things even more difficult for Rabbi is that she has fallen for a boy, not right for her, and her parents will certainly disapprove of him, because of him not being the same as them. [lover’s name ] is only 2 years older than Rabbi, he is a sophisticated young man who knows how to respect women,  he is sweet, gentle and caring with Rabbi, and he is there to support her no matter what, but they both know they cannot be together, but they just can’t leave each other yet. Rabbi wants to fight for her love but she doesn’t want to bring shame to her family name, once again she is stuck between the two biggest decisions of her life, love or family?

Story three; alternative: Imaginary Friend

Our idea for the third story had changed because we felt that our first idea was a little bit difficult to do. This story is about two characters (a girl 17 and a boy 20) each one live in two different countries. Bother characters pretty much the exact same life, both feel like they have nothing to live for any more, they both feel alone and trapped where they are. The girl lives in England and the boy lives in America. They boy is studying law and everyday he goes through different cases of divorce and watches all kinds of happy and unhappy families fall apart, this breaks him to pieces seeing how happy people can be one moment and how things can fall apart the next. The girl is still in college but she has been through a tough life, she has been through a lot of bad relationships with her family and friends which have caused her to lost faith and the ability to trust people. From a young age both characters have had an imaginary friend which they felt the closest to. the image of the friend which the boy had was a spitting image of this girl in England in real life and vice versa for the girl also. The boy one day decides it's time for a break from all these broken marriages and lost love, so he goes to England for a holiday. a few days of being in England, he is in the home town of where this girl lives always. little did they know that the 'imaginary friend' they both had been living with was in fact a real person somewhere quite close to them...

Story three; the final story: Ashley and his mother

We decided to get rid of the alternative story for number three again because we couldn't find actors who would fit the roles of our characters. We finally then thought of an idea fir a story about child abuse. This last story is about a little boy called Ashley. He is only 8 years old, his father left him and his mother when he was born and his mother (Val) became a severe alcoholic afterwards. Ashley has had to grow up so far living with his mistreating mother and her violent boyfriend. Because the boyfriend does not like children and Val is always drunk most of the time, Steve (the boyfriend) uses this as an excuse to abuse Ashley by physically tormenting him or not feeding him properly. We see the loneliness which Ashley goes through and how neglected he feels because of they way his mother behaves towards him. 

Mood board for our planning of the short film

This is the mood board me and Jade (my partner) had made nearer the beginning of our project, it includes different pictures which represent and give clues to the issues we will be portraying in our film. 

Although a lot of the issues and facts of our film has changed we have included many things from this mood board into our actual film which is why we have kept this for research purposes. 

Keywords words which related to the stories:

-Self control

-Alone

-Depression

-Being trapped

-Imaginary friend

-Lost faith

-Forbidden love

-Making a point

We have done a lot of research and taken personal experiences in hand to to then build a stronger structure for our our stories. I believe by using our personal experiences it has helped us portray the message of the stories better because we have expressed them in the ways we have viewed them ourselves. 

Deciding who our target audience would be:

(I have noticed that the dubbing is not in sync, it is quite annoying! I do apologise as this was filmed on my webcam so everything is backwards! Still I hope you enjoy the video)

An inspiring quote on the back of the 'Digital Shorts' DVD

"The UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund partners 11 strategic bodies across the UK to produce over 100 digital short films a year. The brief is simple: each film must be shot digitally, cost less that £10,000 and be less than 10 minutes in length. Digital shorts is designed to support the next generation of emerging filmmakers who are both technological and creative innovators. Digital shorts encourages the risk taking nature of film making by providing a supportive framework."