Post 20: Ancillary Task 2 - Film Reviews

After films have been released they tend to be reviewed by a number of different people, including critics from a range of different newspapers and magazines. We looked at many different film reviews of films in order to distinguish typical conventions and how they may vary in different magazines. 
Below are all the different articles I looked at from different magazines and newspapers, highlighting different conventions.

The first is a film review from Empire magazine of the film New Moon:

Some typical conventions of the film reviews in this magazine are that firstly it always shows some of the film information, such as the release date, director, cast and plot. It has a distinct layout that is noticeably from Empire magazine and because this is consistent throughout all of their magazines when a reader is reading through they automatically know the review is from Empire magazine. This particular film review uses a dominating picture in order to grab the attention of the audience and hopefully entice them to read it. Finally at the end of the review there is a small section that gives a verdict and rating of the film, this is good as the reader may want to see this to decide to go see it or not.

As well as looking at a magazine, I also decided to look at a newspaper review in order to be able to compare and notice any differences. The newspaper I looked at was The Guardian and below is the review of the film Oz The Great and Powerful. I have annotated the review in order to highlight certain techniques and conventions:



Oz The Great and Powerful - Review
As some of my annotations show, a clear typical convention used with any review is a bold title, as this was also used in the Empire magazine review. The reason for this being when readers are reading the paper they will be able to identify what film is being reviewed straight away. Another convention for some film reviews is a dominating photo, this grabs the audiences' attention, again seen in the review about the film New Moon above. As seen in my annotations another part of the review is the use of actors' names. This allows the audience to find out just who is in the film and hopefully entice them to go see it.

The layout I decided to mimic was the layout that is commonly used throughout the magazine Empire. The reason for this being that I simply like the way it lays out the review and the use of a dominating picture. Below is a draft of how I will lay out my film review:

I plan to have a dominating picture of Sophie and Alan so that it's clear to the audience who the main characters are. Along with this in the section that says "info about film" I plan to follow Empire and put the release date, certificate, director, cast, running time and plot.

Post 19: Ancillary Task 1 - Posters & Postcards

Film posters or postcards are used by studios in order to advertise their films, hoping to entice as many people as possible, wanting them to become interested and go see their film.

Hollywood posters conventional use well known Hollywood actors to help advertise their films in the use of posters, studios know that these actors will have fan bases and therefore will use that to their advantage in order to get more people to go watch the film. Along with this the name of these actors could possibly be put on the posters for the audience to see, telling them some of the big names that are appearing in the film. The title of the film can conventionally be quite bold and easily noticeable by the audience.

Below is a picture of the poster of the film The Dark Knight (2008), I have annotated it to show some of the different techniques used to grab the audiences attention and techniques that give the audience information about the film:

British film posters can be different to Hollywood ones. There are some British films that use the same format as most Hollywood films in order to grab the audiences attention, whereas there are also some different styles. Les Miserables (2012) uses a similar technique to Hollywood films as seen in the picture below-

A British film that takes a different approach is This Is England (2006). As seen there is a dominating photo but that is of the characters, the title of the film grabs the audiences' attention first due to it being bold and big. Along with this it shows some successes of the film, that could potentially help persuade potential viewers to go and watch it.
The picture below shows how I annotated this film poster, highlighting the techniques:

Short films don't tend to have posters, instead they use postcards to help advertise their film. It can be argued that this is a more direct technique when targeting an audience.
Conventionally short film postcards consist of a dominating photo on the front that is related to the film, but also eye catching, and on the back there is a bit more information. This information could include the names of the people involved in making the film and the distribution company's that helped in getting the film out, it may also include a website that the audience can go onto to find out more information.
Below are two examples of short film postcards, I have annotated them in order to show some of the above conventions used.

The short film here is Divine;

The next short film is On A Life's Edge;

However even though most short films use postcards to advertise and sell their film to the audience, we have decided to create a poster for Behind Blue Eyes. Below is the draft of our poster:

Post 18: Pre-Production Documentation

This post is all about the pre-production documentation my group and I carried out before starting to film Behind Blue Eyes. Each of us contributed with the pre-production documentation ensuring that it was all completed before we filmed so that we knew what to do when filming began.

I created a prezi to show all of our pre-production documentation, and below is that prezi;

Post 17: Job Roles Research

I carried out some research to do with jobs in the filming industry in order to get a better understanding of the jobs my group and I will have to carry out when filming. Learning about these jobs will allow us to work coherently as a team.
The following headings show several different departments involved in film making; I found the information from the following website:

www.skillset.org/film/jobs/

Direction
Within the direction department, there are many jobs, the most obvious being director. The director is in charge of the creative vision and overall style of a feature film, guiding the crew and actors. Although it’s not just the director that makes up this department, they have help from the first, second and third assistant directors and a runner.

Camera
Camera crews normally involve people who are the most highly skilled practitioners in the entire film crew. These people work with very delicate and expensive equipment. Within a camera department, there are many different jobs such as Camera Operator, 1^st Assistant Camera, 2^nd Assistant Camera, Steadicam Operator and many more. All of these people put in preparation and hard work in order to film the action.

Lighting
The lighting in any film is a very important aspect. Often in dramas a wide range of lighting is set up in order to help create different moods as well as the perception of different times of day. Some of the lighting is essential in helping enhance how a character is portrayed. Jobs within the lighting department consist of Director of Photography, best boy and sparks.

Production Sound
The sound within a film is extremely important as the dialogue conveys a lot of the storyline and emotion of the characters. Ensuring the dialogue is clear is very complex, as the sound department need to get rid of any unwanted noise and place the microphones in the best possible positions. Some jobs within the sound department include the following, Production Sound Mixer, Boom Operator and the Sound Assistant.

Art Department
The art department set the scene for films. This department is normally the largest on any film crew and a great deal of work and imagination goes into constructing the appropriate backdrops to any story. Some jobs involved in this department include Production Designer, Art Director, Set Decorator, Storyboard Artist and many others.

All of the above departments are crucial when making a film, with each department collaborating and working in conjunction with the other. We will ensure when we film that each group member has a particular role and that we communicate effectively with one another to help guarantee a good final outcome.

The lighting department will work closely with the camera department in order to make sure the shots being captured have the right feel and emotion the director wants to communicate. The camera department will also work with the sound department as the Boom operator will want to know the best position to place the boom in order to catch the dialogue without being in shot.

In our group, the main job roles we will need to fulfil would be Lighting, Camera Operator, Boom Operator, Director and possibly a Production Designer. These are essentially the roles of each head of department and will ensure all aspects of filmmaking requirements are met.

There may be a few difficulties when dividing up the jobs within our group and getting them completed. One difficulty is that there are only four people in the group and a lot more job roles than four. This is where we will need to work together at dividing them up fairly so no one gets given more jobs than anyone else. Along with this we can divide the jobs up according to people’s individual strength so that we are working efficiently together and everyone in the group knows what their role is. With good communication and cooperation we will be able to create a successful short film.

In the group, just like all the others, I had a variety of roles. When filming outside the house when Alan gets arrested I was the camera operator, whereas when filming the office scene I was boom operator. Being able to have a variety of roles allowed me to enhance skills I already had and work to my strengths in the group cooperating well with the team.

Post 16: Why make a short film? Who is the target audience?

Task A: Why make a short film?

I decided to research into why people decide to make short films, the two articles below have helped me in developing my understanding.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-life/7593291/The-long-history-of-short-films.html#

The above article begins talking about the history of short films, and how back then it was the ‘norm’ for them to be short. The article then goes on to mention how in the early 1900’s technology developed and so did the films being produced. Films became longer and more favourable than watching a short film. It mentions how in the period of World War 2 short films were used to show servicemen actively fighting, allowing the Government to place its messages in British cinemas. However the article then goes on to speak about how in the 1960’s music videos allowed short film makers to make music videos. As technology is continuing to develop in this day and age the use of short films is, arguably, increasing as Hollywood directors are releasing their own on the internet for all to see.

I think this article has been useful as it has given an insight to the history and background of how short films developed from way back in the late 19^th century. It can help with our group and our short film as we now know short films are popular within certain audiences and can be enjoyed once made and released.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-life/7593767/Short-films-that-launched-big-names.html

The above article looks at 10 films that have helped in launching some actor’s careers and established major studios. Some of the films on the list within this article are Bottle Rocket (1996), Machete (2007) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (1994-2004). All of the films mentioned in the article explain how young people wanting to kick start their careers in the film business whether it is a writer, directors or actor and mention how they managed to produce their short films.

Personally I think most of the people in the article who created the short films did it in order to produce money and create short films for everyone to be able to watch. Judging by some of the films that were released, such as Bottle Rocket 1996, they helped in moulding the beginning of some actor’s careers, such as Owen Wilson. Reading this article has been useful as it shows my group and I that no matter how low a budget someone has or how little backing from a big studio they have, great short films can be made. 

 

 
Task B: Who is the audience for a short film?
In order to get a better understanding of the audiences that watch short films, I have decided to research into it in a lot more depth.

http://www.slideshare.net/gracew41/target-audience-3310758

The website above has got some great information on it about the demographic and psychographics of a short film audience. The demographics being people who watch a short film in order to find a potential director or actor, they can then invest in the young talent and watch them grow in their potential careers. People in this category would also watch the short films for inspiration as some of the people in this category could be young amateur film makers. The psychographics can be divided into 3 separate sections in order to divide the audience up, an audience that is completely different from a mainstream audience. The 3 sections consist of Succeeders, Aspirers and Individualists. The website gives a definition for each explaining who would fall into each category:

·         Succeeders – People who like to think they’re in control, ambitious and successful

·         Aspirers – People who strive for bigger and better things

·         Individualists – People who want to be separate from the crowd, individual thinkers

Following this I decided to research about how short films are distributed, from most of the research I carried out one main point that kept popping up is that most short films are distributed through the internet. This can be through a website such as YouTube. However a lot of short films are also distributed and rely on festivals. Most young, ambitious film makers take their short films to festivals in order to get them out and hope that someone of importance will see their short film and want to know more about the film itself and potentially the people who created it.

The use of distribution can matter to some filmmakers as whichever route they decide to go down can potentially determine the type of audience they receive. For example at a short film festival there is more likely to be people who show a great interest in short films, whereas by distributing on the internet, theoretically, anybody can watch it and not everyone knows it’s been released.

 
Film festivals are important to film makers and can help in raising awareness of the short films that are being produced and distributed.

London Short Film Festival

http://shortfilms.org.uk/ 

One major film festival is the London Short Film Festival. This has only been around for 10 years but it allows for the country’s raw talent filmmakers to showcase their short films. It screens over 220 films and the amount of people going to the festival has grown in the last decade.

Shorts International

 

 

 

 

http://www.shortsinternational.com/

Another short film festival that shows short films to America, Europe, Asia and anywhere that has a movie theatre. It’s the world’s leading short film company with the biggest short film catalogue, showing all the short films that have recently been released. Shorts International does just about everything there is to do within short films, they even have an Annual Shorts Award every year that recognises extraordinary contributions to the short film industry.

 
Both of the festivals mentioned above are just two of the many film festivals that take place every year, showcasing the most recent and upcoming short films there are for audiences to watch.

Potential target audiences I think there are for short films are Hollywood successors who are interested in the young, raw talent there is and young people who take a great interest into the short film industry. These people would be extremely interested in what types of short films are being made and would want to make their own opinion on whether they think they were successful or not.

 

Task C: How are short films distributed?

Short films have got many genres, such as Thriller, Romance, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Documentary and Horror, some say the great thing about short films is that they can be anything and the only limitation is the cost of production. According to the Internet Movie Database  website the most popular short films are animated as the top three are The Snowman (1982), Frosty the Snowman (1969) and Prep & Landing (2009).

 

However my group and I do not have the specialist equipment to be able to create an animated short film, therefore I continued researching and found out that after animated films one of the next most popular genre was drama. This immediately makes me think about how my group’s short film could be classed as a drama genre due to the fact it is about sexual grooming and is very dramatic. This will influence my thoughts on the script as we will need to add possible lines from the characters that can help add to a dramatic atmosphere that the audience will enjoy.

From the research I’ve carried out and films I’ve witnessed, the duration of a short film can range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. However, it can depend upon what the film is about and who is producing it, many film festivals can put limitations on just how long they will allow for films to be, with the very, very maximum being 40-45 minutes. The average time of a successful short film can range from 15-20 minutes, as long as the storyline can be successfully maintained throughout this time. After researching this and looking at the time limit my group and I have on our film, being 6 minutes, we are going to need to have a simplistic storyline that can be presented clearly, but at the same time can get across all the features us as a group want in our short film. We are going to have to be extremely careful of not babbling on in the storyline and showing parts of the film that may not necessarily need to be in the short film.

A short film can be structured in the 3-act structure, which consists of a beginning, middle and end.

http://www.cgdirector.com/learn-how-successful-short-films-structure-their-story/  
Having a short film structure that consists of a beginning, middle and end allows the audience to realise that there are 3 main points within the storyline. The effect that we would want on the audience is that in the beginning the audience can get into the plot and start to get to grips with what is going on. In the middle we want the audience to begin to string questions together about what is going to happen next and we want them to want to carry on watching the film to find out what does happen. Finally in the end we want the audience to have not only enjoyed watching but also to have the film stuck in their minds, possibly even continuing to ask themselves questions.
With our storyline and the way we are going to film our short film, hopefully we can have this effect on the audience.   

Post 15: Media Language: The 5 C's of Cinematography

The 5 C's of Cinematography by Joseph V. Mascelli 

I decided to read an article from the book above in order to develop my understanding of how Joseph V. Mascelli explained cinematography through the 5 C's. The article gives a short summary of the book itself and helps explain the 5 C's simply and concisely. The 5 C's standing for the following:

1. Camera Angles
"Camera placement is determined by narrative significance"
We can use the camera angles in our film to help represent the groomer as being powerful over the victim. We can do this by using a low angled shot looking up at the groomer showing authority and a high angle shot looking down on the victim showing vulnerability. 

2. Continuity
"Good continuity encourages the viewer to become absorbed in the story-telling, without bothersome distractions"
Continuity in our film could include ensuring accurate match on action as well as ensuring there is continuity with any props we use. By ensuring there are no bothersome distractions we would need to make sure that a prop doesn't suddenly moves when filming one shot to the next.

3. Cutting
"It is possible to cut away to anything happening anywhere at any time"
Putting the shots together one after the other is important as the specific series of shots will need to mean something to the audience. Therefore when we are putting together all the footage and cutting from one shot to the next we should ensure that each shot is making a point and putting two shots next to each other will have a combined effect to the audience.

4. Close-Ups
"The stronger the motive for using a close-up, the more the close-up can help make the story-telling truly effective"
Our use of close-ups when we film will be important as we will want them to show the audience specific facial expressions and points within the story that, again, help move it along.

5. Composition
"Good composition is the arrangement of pictorial elements to form a unified harmonious whole"
Good composition encourages the eye to concentrate on the important elements within the frame that help with the narrative. Not only should each frame be a composition in its own right but it should work in conjunction with the next shot so the story can be understood visually as well as through the narrative.

Post 14: Research Short Films and their use of lighting

I decided to look at some films and carry out a textural analysis of them, the main reason behind this being I wanted to explore the use of lighting in each of the short films.

The first film I watched was:

Playground by Mark Kuczewski

The lighting in this short film is very interesting as it starts off with a small light directed at the bottom right hand side of the characters face, only revealing half of his face to the audience. It then goes to a close up of the man’s face, firstly his mouth and then his eye, again only with the light coming in from the right side leaving the other half of his face in the shadow. After the title appears, there are several shots showing different parts of the car. The lights under the roof of the tunnel that the car looks to be driving in reveal the different areas of the car and then hide them again.

After this darker period, the scene becomes lighter as the headlights of a car are clearly noticeable. Throughout the journey, we only see one side of the man's face and only one side of the women's face, this is possibly suggesting that they are both hiding something. Throughout the film the storyline line goes back to the man speaking, like he was at the beginning, in these shots only half the man’s face can be seen, this again adds to the fact that we as the audience believe he is a very mysterious man. However at the end of the film, he turns his head and a bit of blood on his forehead becomes noticeable. This adds to the mystery of where he actually is and whether or not the women was the one that done it to him.
Overall the lighting effects in this film are very good as they add to the atmosphere and suspense throughout, thus helping the audience to feel as though there is going to be a twist near the end of the film.

The second film I decided to watch was:

Flung by Fiona Walton

This film is shot in black and white. However it doesn’t use as many lighting effects as the previous film did. When the young boy has his hood up his face is darker due to the small shadow the hood is causing. This suggests that there is a darker, possibly meaner, side to the young boy which is revealed when he makes fun out of an old man. Both of the characters in this film have dark clothing on which could suggest that they are lonely characters. There is obviously some natural light used as the film is set outdoors, but the use of shadows on the characters throughout the short film can help to add tense and mysterious atmospheres.