Media Evaluation on FIlm and Ancillary TAsks

Media A2 Evaluation on Prezi

This is the prezi used as a guide during the filmed evaluation. It shows the few things that i missed out in the filming.

Ancillary Task: Magazine Review 1st draft

This is a first draft of the magazine article. The content is almost finalised but the design needs work to look more professional. This is because i used microsoft publisher instead of photoshop which looks markedly better. The photoshop version needs work but will be uploaded shortly.

Film Magazine Review

I have researched much of this in physical magazines and it is hard to get this on the internet and onto the blog. The main magazines i have looked at are Empire, Total Film and The Guardian Guide. Empire is the only one which I can really show how i have used and adapted their magazine reviews as they are printed online.
Below are a couple of examples from the Empire Reviews section which have been helpful models for mine.

BH

Ancillary Task: Poster

Below is the poster I created on the photoshop programme. It conforms to many other posters of not only the genre but general other posters for films. The use of quotes from critics, the single image by itself blending with the other aspects, the white writing and the date all show how the poster conforms.

BH

Survey for film

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BH

Ancillary task

My task in this is to produce the film poster. I am using "Photoshop" which is fairly confusing to use and isn't as simple as i thought. I have completed sketches of the finished poster. It's aim is to be hard hitting and quite dark. In this day in age most thrillers and drama's appear in there own genre, but we would like the audience to question ours.

Soundtrack

Producing the soundtrack on a software called FL studio has been difficult and challenging. So far I have a rough edit of what we want to achieve, though due to the editing and sound effects completed after i had created the piece it will have to be chanegd to orientate these. As the film is also 5 minuetes long it isn't as simple as making music for a trailer, we have to create something from scratch, which is catchy and doesn't bore the audience. Using a theme for a soundtrack like the ones we hear in "Harry Potter" or "Star Wars" are of high standard and are created specificly to attarct the audience, this is what we need.

DW

Film -- 2nd Draft

This is a second draft of the film with an original soundtrack. The first draft was with a soundtrack made from the generic music-making programme on Apple computers called Garageband. It was not good at all but now Dom has made a more original soundtrack, i have stuck it on to the video and it works well. It certainly comes across as original in sound which accentuates the original nature of the short film we have produced. The contemporary sounds go with the contemporary issues being addressed in the film. This is the case in such films as Kidulthood (2006) where a mix of extreme contemporary music was used such as grime, dubstep and drum and bass to interest the target audience: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435680/soundtrack
As one of the first movies in this genre to really take off and achieve cult film status it is a good film to compare ours to.

BH

Film 1st draft

This is a first final drafting of the short film. It took a while to finish the editing (in particular the soundtrack which is not my strength). Elements of the film are very good, however there are parts which let it down such as the drug selling in the dark (around 3minutes 30secs), which came out badly when i put it onto youtube which is unfortunate.

BH

Soundtrack #2

I had to complete the soundtrack, and used 'garageband' on the iMac. Unfortunately it does sound quite homemade and samey but I think it works well enough with the film to compliment it.

BH

Ancillary Task: Poster

As i have nearly finished with the film i am making i have chosen to move onto the ancillary tasks. For one of my ancillary tasks, i have chosen to create a poster selling my short film. I am not excellent with computers, and therefore photoshop - the program i am using - is taking some time to get used to. Therefore i have decided to make a quick example on microsoft word of what sort of themes i would like the poster to show: fonts, background and rough pictures. However, this cannot be uploaded onto blogger, so when the poster is finished i will upload it.

BH

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is Dom's domain, but for a preliminary edit, i put some music from my iTunes onto the film which worked really well, but unfortunately, Youtube won't allow copyrighted songs onto their system, so i can't upload the film onto youtube, and therefore not onto the blog, but as soon as our soundtrack is finished it will be uploaded.

BH

Ancillary Research: Poster

Even though this film is of theatrical length, and not a short film, it is still useful, as it is a similar genre. The main problem/difference to what we can create is that Daniel Craig is a well known actor in this genre, and therefore brings his own expectations for an audience in that they know what to expect from an actor of his legacy. The other actors are similar (at the top) for example Michael Gambon..
The poster is so simple, one picture which is pixelated to add an abstarct effect.
The font used is also simple, block capitals which implies they dont need to use a special effect on the title as they have enough with the picture and the information on the rest of the poster.

BH

Amcillary task: Poster research

This is a poster for an independent film director based in London. He makes short films and the posters to sell the films.
This poster is very good in setting the mise-en-scene of the film. It is very clearly a  suburban setting, in a downtrodden part of town, hence the waste around and the graffitti on the wall. The graffitti doesn't seem to have any relevance to the title but it defionately adds to the effect of the rest of the poster.
The title "The climb" appears to be 'climbing' which is very clever, with the use of the shadow behind the solid capitals.
The poster is quite clearly homemade but it works very well, and wouldnt seem out of place in a bus stop, or on the side of a phone box etc.
This would be a useful one to try and recreate for the genre of film we wish to create through the poster.

BH

Postmodernism

For the exam, we have been studying Postmodernism, which has really captured my imagination. I have decided to add a postmodern element to the film.
In the first section, there is a sense of hyperreality surrounding the acting which sets up the rest of the short movie.
In the second section, it is filmed in a room of my basement which is painted red, with red handprints on the wall. It adds a very eery sense to that sense. Through a strike of luck, I passed a book i am studying for English lit called the bloody chamber by Angela Carter, and it seemed appropriate with the room, and extending the idea of postmodernism with intertextuality.


BH

Christmas Break

Unfortunately, i had a long gap over christmas, where revision for the january exams took presidence over the filming and planning. But fortunately exams are over, and the media is back on track.
BH

Target Audience

Our Target audience is strongly towards the late teenage market, showing them the consequences of drug related issues. Saying that, there is also strong drama involved with a dark culture and reality in the film. We feel that middle aged and even early adults may enjoy watching something less, non-fictionized and more real, modern and correct.

Process of Creating Film...So far

Myself and Ben have been working with the mese en scene within his basement. This will be for the early and late shots of Dom. The Panning shot which covers half the room (180 rule) works well with the sofa's and door in shot. These means we can quickly shift from motion to other camera shots like over the shoulder with dialogue.

We have thought of numerous idea's for script and i am yet to post them but will be doing that shortly. The core idea of the short film will be of a drug deal gone wrong with revenge also going wrong, leaving the audience with a sour look and feel of drug culture.

We are laying down some effective and powerful work with the hand held camera, switching to classic shots with CCTV style crane shots. It can be very difficult but we are working in the process.

The lighting mostly consists, of dark rooms with lamps, shown in shot. We also feel each lamp, kettle and piece of furniture etc. must be shown as part of the mise en scene, creating a more believable. Some of the lighting is natural, or relied on street lamps for the gritty scenes.

The editing is being done on iMovie for macs, which is helpful since we have easy access to them. We are wondering to cancel the 180 rule, with a Dogme style. It looks more open, though could effect the audiences belief. If done wrong it could look tacky and like a home video. Effects are open to use on the imovie and we are yet to decide on the CCTV shots effect, this works well with a green and dark colour.

The casting is simple to be Myself (Dom) and Partner (Ben), with help from Drama students within our school, willing to take part. We are looking at bout a cast of 7. with one camera man/director.

Costume is of stereotypical street drug dealers, with sport tracksuits, trainers, chains and rings if necessary. an angry appearance, with not much to loose is what we are looking for from each character. Giving out an idea that no one is safe in the world of this film.

Our poster is being created on Adobe photoshop, and will be uploaded shortly.


DW