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Lisa Beth Lisa
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Was this an important process? What did this include?
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Yes, this was a very important process as before the planning for the film even begun, I had to make sure I understood the context of the short format itself. With this, research into funding, screenplay writing, distribution sites, exhibition, success rates and the mediation around short films became a key focus and really helped me grasp an understanding on what sector of the industry I was venturing into. Besides this, I heavily analysed the work of Marilyn Milgrom and her theory regarding narratives. Her work allowed me to focus my attentions on what the audience receives from my piece, prompting audience research tasks.
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Audio An extremely inquisitive account there from Elliot Bradshaw, informing us of production development choices made from the Social Realist director Ken Loach, guiding future filmmakers. More information on the topic can be found at the website www.perspectivefilm.co.uk The time is 4:06pm and if you have just tuned in, you join me Aimee Lee here at Perspective Radio. Exactly what part do film audience’s play in the film process? Coming up later Film Weekly, we talk to director Beth Izatt about the impact her audience had on her production, Pelican Crossing. Tune in in thirty minutes for our news updates with News Presenter Edward Jessop and an investigation in the current percentage increase of women’s mental health issues and why it remains a topical issue to this current day. Again, if you have just tuned in you join us here at Perspective Radio and up next, Presenter Lisa Bartlett talks to director Beth Izatt about her newest film Pelican Crossing, a film that deals with both the physical and mental health issues faced by women of this society. Hello Beth and thank you for joining me this afternoon It’s my pleasure! Thank you for having me. So, let’s get into in, Pelican Crossing adheres to a conventional narrative as dictated by Aristotle’s three-‐act structure. Did you have any initial inspirations when constructing your film? I had a few ideas at the first writing stages regarding possible characters and storylines but I didn’t really know how to best convey what I wanted to say. How did you tackle this issue? Both me and my peers under-‐went a process of Secondary Research from the outset of the production.
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I can see you have really covered an extensive amount! Had you had any prior knowledge to this objective?
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Yes, I used my previous knowledge of the social realism genre from my AS studies to govern the direction my current film went in. How would you say you completed that task?
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From various analytical writings over both my AS and A2 studies, I have textual analysed many social realist works, noting the conventional style of representing issues and themes through micro elements that transcribe into macro meanings. A film that stood out to me this year was Antonio’s Breakfast directed by Daniel Mulley in 2005. Studying the work of social realist directors has aided me in developing my own ideas as a director and what possible creative decisions I may make regarding the developed use and challenge of such aspects. That’s very impressive! So how did your secondary research impact your primary research? By understanding the industry and the common conventions of the social realism genre, my next steps were to discover my audience’s expectation and understandings. From this knowledge, I could concentrate my questions to receive an interesting and specific response, highlighting the essential elements my film needed, all whilst developing and challenging said criteria. So, what method did you take to receive audience feedback?
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I approached my audience with questionnaires, ranging from Quantitative and qualitative.
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What did your initial questionnaire include? What were your aims? I began with discovering basic information, for example, age or gender. This gave me an idea on what kind of characteristics I would be broadcasting to. Further on, I ask my audience whether they had watched a short film as I wanted to decipher if my audience would even be interested in a short format mediation and whether there was a place for it amongst frequently streamed internet content. In response, 85% of recipients replied with ‘yes’ to watching a short film, indicating to me that perhaps I was broadcasting to a film literature group, but most importantly I interpreted that there was indeed a suitable audience for my film Interesting, did you infer anything else from this research objective regarding your audiences interest in short films? Yes, I asked within this questionnaire the frequency of them watching short films around 45% response with annually and the second most popular answer being around 15% on weekly.
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What did this infer to you? This signposted to me that there was a repeat interest in the short format amongst my audience, again highlighting that there was a placement for my work, meaning that the issues and themes I wanted to represent would be acknowledged and recognised by a demographic. Certainly, it is incredibly vital that a director’s voice is listened to by the community due to its dealing with important societal issues. I noticed that in both your works, The Space Between and Pelican Crossing themes and issues act as a strong core, could you discuss this process? How did you pin-‐point what was right to represent?
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Yeah of course. In my first questionnaire, I simply asked my audience what issues they felt haven’t been represented as much in the current media, as well as what social group. The responses were quite interesting as the top issues were bullying, disability and immigration. This was pair with a balanced response of teenagers and the elderly, giving me a refined choice of what would be the most effective narrative style to present the desired issue and social group. So how did you make the final decision? Well, from understanding from Milgrom’s works, a narrative must include a sense of dilemma that prevents the protagonist from obtaining their want, need and or obligation. I previously featured references to bullying in my previous film and thought it interesting to explore disability and how it can affect a teenager’s life. However, I included both teenager and the elderly in my film due to a warming contrast of characters. That sounds like a well-‐thought-‐out process, I must say! Did you participate in any further research? Yes, when writing the synopsis for Pelican Crossing I faced a few challenges regarding the ending and what way was best at resolving the problem is initially established in the narrative. How did you overcome this weakness? I constructed various endings as well as a form of qualitative research. From here, I handed them out amongst my peers for their own reflective opinions. Did this benefit your final choice of the resolution?
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Yes, it did, it was interesting to see from a different point of view how meaning was being generated. I settled to keep the original narrative, raising the stakes as well as conveying the issues and themes through a combination of dialogue and props. Would this be quite a significant stage of the production process then? Could you explain why so? Even from the first initial questionnaire my aim has been to record and discover audience information as they’re an important demographic themselves as what I am trying to convey in my film should be registering with them so yes this was a significant stage and it really impacted the equilibrium and rhythm of the narrative positively. If I didn’t receive this information, I think the final film wouldn’t transcribe the issues and themes as successfully Was there a differentiation on who you asked question to? Did one group of individual benefits you more than the other with their answers? It depends on the context of the questionnaire as I wanted to deliver an impact with whatever results I received. In this case, I directed the questionnaire to my peers, who I know have media and film literature knowledge. Therefore, it used time effectively and practically as they would understand exactly what I meant by the effect of resolution in the narrative than that of someone who may not be familiar with film specific terms. Juxtaposing, I also wanted to discover a variation of my audience’s characteristics so directing quantative research to this group would be more effective than to people I already know. I see, that’s very interesting. I’ve noticed that alongside your poster, you have constructed a review and poster. What were your initial aims for this objective? To promote my film, we were instructed to create a poster that almost conveyed synergising aesthetics and atmospheres to that of the film. The review on the other hand had the purpose of giving a separate opinionated account of the film’s narrative. S what were your first steps into this objective? Did you have an agenda? Similarly, to obtaining audience details, I began with a basic quantitative questionnaire to depicter whether my audience had prior knowledge to film literature posters and texts. This began with simple questions regarding age, gender and ethnicity but further on I asked more specific questions. Could you give me an example of such questions?
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Yes of course, so once the basic information was answered, I ask if in their opinion posters and reviews were easily accessible to anyone wishing to find them. In response, 100% answered yes for both questions, connoting that they were aware such mediation. From here, I asked if they read and viewed both film posters and reviews and if so how frequently. 100% of my audience responded with yes to reading film reviews and 50% answers weekly to the frequency of reading one. 50% answered weekly for viewing film posters, again signalling that there is an acute interest in this form of mediation and perhaps an opportunity for my audience to interact with the production itself. Yes, it’s very hard now-‐a-‐days to not see a film poster about or to see a review! What were your first stages in constructing the poster? Did you have a specific ideology for its look? In a way, yes, I did as I consolidated a variety of poster ideas, simply sketching them out and annotating the effects and compositional aspects which gave me a focused vision of what it could look like. Could you describe some of these ideas?
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My very first idea was placing the protagonist on a bed of fallen clothes as in the beginning of the film she throws them out of the wardrobe, trying to find the right outfit. My ideology behind this was to try and create something poetic and dynamic although as another idea I stripped down the composition to just her face leaning in a door frame, creating a realist atmosphere and aesthetic that could signify a greater macro meaning with body language and facial expressions. Lastly, I experimented with the idea of using just props to convey some sort of meaning as that’s what really drives the narrative forward and creates a sense of disequilibrium. What steps did you take in evaluating each idea? How did you finalise your direction? I constructed another form of qualitative research to give to me peers regarding each idea. It was clear that the first idea was the most effective in representing the narratives issues due to the disorganised miser-‐en-‐scene and this create more hints to the audience about possible issues within the film. From receiving feedback, how did you begin to visually construct your poster? Was there any key research opportunities in this stage? After receiving the feedback, I began to take various photos of all ideas, experimenting with lighting and backgrounds, so I was left with all three initial ideas in a visually
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photographic form. I took this opportunity to create another set of questions for my peers as I wanted to evaluate the visual aesthetics of the poster. What impact did the results have on your final product? Interestingly, once the first idea transcribed as a visual representation, my peers pointed out how difficult it might be to input various titles and credits due to an unmatched, busy background. However, the naturalistic elements of the third idea allowed not only titles but a clear visual pattern between that and the film itself, prompting me to make this idea my focus and develop best I could. Once I placed appropriate titles, my tutor gave me professional feedback regarding the page architecture and balance as well as the image itself. The feedback certainly impacted not only the look of the finalised product but the quality and linking of it to the main film. This idea gave me the most opportunity to transcribe my issues and themes successfully whilst looking like a high-‐quality piece of electronic promotion. Yes, I noticed a naturalism to both pieces of work, how does the review fit into this aesthetic?
The review acted as a separate piece of media to the film and poster so therefore it doesn’t really adhere to the naturalistic elements already established. However, the look of the review was vital as it must have a correct balancing and presentation, like that of a film review. Oh, I see, so how did you manage to navigate this process? My tutor gave me the most direction at this point due to the importance of the visual aesthetic and content. The marginal aspects of the page dictated the overall layout of the text, a point of improvement I was given between the final product and the first draft. Alongside this, I had a focus on what forms and conventions I used, developed and challenged within my work. You mentioned before the naturalistic elements of both your film and poster, how did you achieve this and did your audience response to such presentations? In the stages of editing, it was clear that the film adhered to the social realism genre both in form and style, however, my au dice could understand the issues and themes the film was representing quickly, through the uses of mise-‐en-‐ scene and character mannerisms so receiving this as a form of response was particularly encouraging! I bet! Did you receive any improvements at this stage regarding the editing of the film? There were a few scenes that simply did not work and effected the rhythm of linear narrative so my audience suggests taking said scenes out. This impacted the final production quite significantly due to the final products conveying the sense of disequilibrium and well as time and
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place. For example, the structured ending of the piece changed yet again in the editing stage as the sequencing just was not correct and due to this stage being at the resolution, it was vital this sequence was effective so therefore on the feedback I received, I managed to structure the ending more successfully than before. And a very successful ending it was, not to mention film and production! Thank you very much for joining me today Beth
It was a pleasure, thank you for having me! Pelican Crossing is in cinemas now and for more information head over to perpectiveradion.co.uk