Evaluation

Prior to making our production we aimed to create a film that resembled the characteristics of the fantasy genre. We aimed to comply with the conventions of the genre and had an intended audience of young adults of a similar age to the group members and wanted the plotline to be associated with the magical realism genre. 


I believe that our film can be considered to reflect the repertoire of elements of fantasy films that I set out in my pre-production research:
Hybrid? - I wouldn't consider our film to be a hybrid which although common in the fantasy genre is not an essential element: hybrids do not define a genre, they just illustrate how it can be versatile. I learnt from my research that a common genre to mix with fantasy would be science fiction, however, elements of this in my production would not be appropriate if it was to still be considered as magical realism. 
Good vs Evil - Although not personified as two literal things the good and the evil elements in our film can be recognised. Faye, who the audience is led to sympathise with as the film follows her struggle would be categorised as good and the magic which prevents her from moving forward would be the evil as it is opposing her. 
Mystery and escapism - The mystery for the audience is maximised at the end of the film as the audience is left to their own interpretation as to whether or not she has/will make it out of the time loop, leading up to this they may be ensure as what the repetition of days was in aid of before the explanation that Faye provides when talking to her room-mate. 
Magic - Like in most fantasy films magic plays a crucial role as it is what the story is based around. The use of the spell book helps to promote the idea to the audience that it is there though it is not as explicit as in some fantasy films helping to maintain the magical realism. 


One of the texts that I came across during my research was Groundhog Day - comparing my production with this will help in understanding how well it fits in with other fantasy films. 
The basic narrative that we produced is based around the concept of a time-loop that is explored in Groundhog Day however Groundhog Day provides a definite resolution that ours doesn’t. I believe that both approaches are successful as the audiences become satisfied with Groundhog Day because a resolution to the time loop is presented whereas in our film we decided to continue the desired mystery elements of a fantasy film by leaving the ending ambiguous. 

The poster for Groundhog Day and the poster for our film production are similar in that they both infer that something magical may be occurring: in the poster above the main character is trapped inside the clock, a literal metaphor regarding the time-loop that could be assumed by an audience without necessarily having prior knowledge. In the production of our poster we didn't want to be too explicit with the magic and so presented in subtly using the forest setting, contrasting to the one above, and the font face to promote a sense of unknowing. The spell book was included in our image however it's purpose would not be obvious to a viewer. I believe that our poster could work successfully in the real market as it may create intrigue to the plot development and the vulnerability of Faye is evident as she is alone and sat down on the poster. 

The Wizard of Oz being one of the first fantasy films would have had one of the first posters demonstrating how initially fantasy films were promoted. The poster is brighter than the one my group produced however they both work on their individual basis as they reflect the mood of the films. The poster my group produced unlike the two above doesn't show all of the characters of the film, however we decided against this in order to show how Faye feels isolated.

Despite their being significant differences between my group's poster and the two above, I still believe ours could be valid in the real media world and the range represents the genre's versatility. Each of them reflect the tone of the film which is essential in the poster's aims. It would seem the poster we produced breaks the conventions of the ones above as they only illustrate one character, however in the 'real films' all characters shown play a more active role than the supporting characters in our production do. 

The review above is taken from Empire magazine which is where our review would be placed. Because they are for the same magazine when making the review we were careful to stick to the conventions of language and layout. We chose the stills in our review that gave the best indicators of the settings and characters involved to engage the readers who would be potential viewers, whereas the review above illustrates that that may not be necessary as this still doesn't reveal much about the plot. Our review didn't appear to be very innovative as it was created with the purpose of emulating one from Empire magazine, however, we were able to be creative when writing the content as this was unique to any other. 

                           

Groundhog Day is a film that in the real media world is successful in conveying fantasy genre elements and so comparing it to my own film will allow me to determine whether "Weeks of Monday" could do so as well. 
The mise-en-scène of both Groundhog Day and the film our group produced is that they both picked ordinary locations to set it in. We picked a ‘domestic setting’ to create juxtaposition with the frustration Faye had to show how insecure she felt even in her own home; the promoted the concept of good and evil that is present in all fantasy films.  The clothes she wore, ordinary like the main character of Groundhog Day served the same purpose. 

Also like in Groundhog Day we featured shots of the clock showing the same time. We did this in order to break up the days and so the audience could understand the monotony Faye felt. We coupled this with the diegetic music of the alarm sound which was parallel to the scene as again it was something that is expected in that setting, therefore enhancing the idea of magical realism.

Although the supporting characters of our film did not play as big of a role as they do in Groundhog Day, we included them to move the plot forward however I feel that they could have been developed more.

I believe that our film does reflect the qualities of a fantasy film and that the review and the poster alongside it work to promote this. A link is created through the stills in the film review and the photograph of Faye in the forest with the spell book. All three of the products are trying to represent her as someone who is confused and has been victimised by the magic while attempting to maintain a sense of unknowing. 


We posted our film on YouTube as an interactive way of gaining audience feedback through the comments posted. 

I think the comments posted are consistent with my own opinions regarding our film as I liked the plot line as well and understand that we did create intrigue and mystery like fantasy films are supposed to do as the comments seem to show that the audience found it exciting. I've learned that we should have used music in the film and insight that would have been a good method of promoting the anxious tone we were trying to achieve. The comments on the video came from our target audience, young adults, people of our own age, and so hearing their response was helpful. 


We used Serif MoviePlus in order to edit our film:

Some of the sound clips on our film were saved using Audacity. We recorded the audio with microphones of the alarm clock and the phone ringing separately and inserted them into the film with the editing software.


We used Windows Live Photo Gallery in order to edit our pictures: our images were either scanned in or transferred to the laptop before being uploaded straight to the blog. The actual poster and the review were created on Serif Draw. 


In the planning stages, the website www.slideshare.net was useful in presenting my ideas regarding the research and www.youtube.com was good for creating initial ideas by watching other short films YouTube users had created themselves.