My teacher will provide you with a dvd copy of the final short film.
This is the front of my final postcard
This is the back of my final postcard
This is my final film review
Writing from the film review:
UK 2012. 6mins. Director Lauren Phillips .Production companies Kings Langley Productions. Producers: Chloe Taylor, Becky Trimmer, Charley Britton. Main Cast Rewan Harper, Jane Wright, Catherine Wells
New young talent Lauren Phillips explores a hybrid of short film genres. Dumped portrays a combination of the French New Wave genre and the more modern British style of shorts. Being her first short film, Phillips has used a wide range of production techniques and took advantage of the young talented crew she had with her.
Filmed in a secondary school in a pristine village of Hertfordshire, Production Designer Charley Britton has created a great setting for the short film. It’s slightly isolated background really suits the theme of the film. The camera is suitably used and the various shots sizes and angles really helps tell the story. The high angle shot of Billy and the Teacher having a conversation in the quad is an unusual yet effective shot to have used.
Dumped really captures the heart of its audience and allows them to follow Billy on his very emotional journey. Making his debut appearance Rewan Harper shows faultless ability to really step into his role. Bringing in another French New Wave style of using less dialogue, Harper uses great facial expressions to carry the audience, proving to be a wonderful new young actor.
The synopsis of the film sums it up as well as leaving room for the audience to create their own judgement in their minds, ‘Billy is trying to cope with his non-existent relationship with his mother, coping at school with the teachers and the uncomfortable life he finds himself in. When it becomes too much Billy has only one area of comfort but when he hears news that changes everything, will this area of comfort be enough for him to cope.
Using the French New Wave genre has given this short a twist and partly inspired by Truffaut’s 400 Blows, Phillips has incorporated a sensational running scene which allows the audience to truly feel the emotional journey, the main character Billy finds himself on. This again shows brilliant acting from Harper, as there is no dialogue and the audience is carried by the audio, and his facial expressions and body language really shows the character’s emotions.
For those who have very little interest or knowledge in the short film world, it could be argued the storyline doesn’t explain itself very well and so some audience members could be left wondering what happened, and not for a good reason. However those who have more knowledge will find themselves more intrigued and engrossed and will feel the true emotion of the film. Phillips has excelled expectations and proved herself as a great short film producer.
Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? This is 16 screen grabs from our short film.
1.Screen shot 1 shows our title Dumped. It is written in white chalk on a grey piece of sugar paper. We asked our main actor Rewan to write this as we felt it would give it a better look and it suits the film quite nicely. This also was something different from the type of normal visuals of title we normally see. Usually they might be typed and so we wanted to do something different.
2/6/8 & 9. These four screen shots show Billy sitting under the stairs at various times during the film. These screen shots link to the significance of the stairs that we wanted to portray through the film. They show Billy continually returning to the stairs for comfort.
3&4. Screen shots three and four show two different angles we decided to use for our opening scene of Billy walking out of his house and up the hill towards school. Screen shot three shows Billy walking out his house and as he turns the corner the camera pans with his movement and turns to screen shot four. Screen shot four shows our second shot. This shot we made quite long to give a feel of what was happening.
5. Screen shot 5 shows another different camera shot which we decided to use. This was a lower shot through the railings in the alley way. We decided to use this shot as it fits in with the theme of Billy feeling isolated, it feels as if you can't get too close to Billy, emphasising his loneliness.
7. Screen shot 7 shows another different camera angle we decided to use. This one was an over the shoulder shot of the teacher as she was reading the register. We decided to use this shot as we wanted to use various shots other than the obvious ones throughout the film and we felt this fitted in nicely with this scene as you can see the teacher reading the register as well as Billy walking into the classroom late.
10. Screen shot 10 also shows a different camera angle. We decided on this one because we wanted to keep the theme of loneliness going through the film and we felt a high angle shot would show that the school was deserted and only Billy was around, once again on his own.
11&12. Screen shot 11 and 12, show the shot reverse shot camera style we used for the conversation that Billy and the teacher have in the quad. This was maybe a slightly more obvious choice of camera angle and shot size to use but we felt it suited the scene.
13. Screen shot 13 shows another different camera angle. We decided to use this camera angle here because we wanted to keep the mum's identity quite hidden and so we felt but not showing her face front on, and just having a slight vision in the interior mirror in the car, that this was carried out. This again shows the theme is loneliness and will help the audience feel connected and empathise with Billy.
14/15&16. These three screen grabs show our running scene. Screen grab 14 shows Billy running outside, he has just heard the bad news and the audience may be thinking why is he running and where is he running to? They may recognise the location and may assume he will be returning to the stairs. Screen grab 15 shows Billy running down the corridor, lengthing out the running scene and again helping the audience to empathise with Billy and fill their minds with questions. Screen grab 16 shows Billy running across the playing fields. In this screen grab you can see other people in the background, and they don't even notice Billy, again emphasising the theme of isolation and loneliness for Billy.
This is the front of my postcard, which I have annotated saying why I have used what I have.
This is the back of my postcard, which I have also annotated.
Here I have written about how I have used a QR code as well as a website for my audience to find out more information about the film. I have also written a synopsis so the audience are able to get a slight hint of what is to be expected from the film. There is also a cast and crew list which is used as a qunique selling point to draw in a wider audience. It is slightly harder for short films to use this so I have put it on my postcard so the audience can see who is involved and look out for furture work by them in the future.
This is my film review, which i have annotated.
For my film review I chose a slightly different style to the normal film review you may see. As our film was about loneliness and we used quite dull colours for the title of our film, I wanted to keep this feeling going throughout all my products. For my postcard I kept the same colours from the film and so I felt it would be suitable to keep this theme going for my film review as well. The second review I have entered is also quite a sad theme and I chose this particular short film to add to my review page as it fitted in with our film and the theme of black and white. I have used quite simple text styles as well as keeping it all black and white.
Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Below is a screen grab of the beginning of our film.
This shows the title of our film 'Dumped' on a grey scale background. I have chosen a screen grab of this particular part of our film as this relates to my postcard. When I was making my postcard I wanted the title to be written in the same style as it would be seen in the film. So I took the writing from the title shown here and inserted it onto both the front and the back of my postcard.
This is a screen grab of Billy sitting under the stairs.
I have chosen to screen grab this because this is the main photo I have used on the front of my postcard. I chose this picture to have on my postcard as I felt it showed Billy in his comfort place and you can tell by his facial expressions that he is feeling upset. I felt that as an audience member who hasn't seen the film yet, this picture seemed to give a hint of what was to be expected, although from only looking at the postcard they wouldn't understand the stairs, I feel that after watching the film the audience will be able to look back at the postcard and understand the significance of the stairs and why Billy is looking so glum.
This screen grab is of the high angle shot in the quad.
I have used this screen grab as I have spoke about it in my film review. When we were deciding our storyline and locations we wanted to include a range of various shots to make the film slightly more interesting and shows of our skills more. When deciding to film the conversation in the quad, we tried out a few shots and angles but in the end we decided to use this high angle one to start the scene off and we were very happy with out decision. I wrote about it in my film review as I thought it was something that a critic may pick up on, the fact we had used an unusual camera angle but felt it worked quite well within the film.
This is a screen grab of Billy running across the field.
I have chosen this screen grab because I also wrote about this in my film review. After watching Truffaut's 400 Blows, and seeing the running scene at the end, we wanted to recreate our own version inspired by this. In 400 blows, the young boy is running for a very long time and finds himself at the end of the beach on the sea bed, having nowhere else left to run, he turns and looks at the camera and there is a freeze frame. We felt this grabbed the audience as the running keeps them on the edge of their seat, wondering where he's going or where he will end up, and the freeze frame at the end really accentuates the character's emotion through facial expression.
These three screen grabs show Billy and the stairs.
These screen grabs fit in with both the film review and my postcard. Similar to the first screen grab, the main picture on the front of my postcard is of Billy under the stairs. We wanted to make a point of the stairs as Billy uses them as a kind of comfort place where he goes when he is upset. Throughout the film we see Billy as quite lonely and he seems isolated from the other people around him, we see him continually going back to the stairs. However, as i mentioned in the film review, the significance of the stairs may not necessarily easily be picked up on. I think maybe for film critics or people with more knowledge about short films they would pick up more on the significance of the stairs, whereas other audience members with less knowledge of short films may miss the significance and might feel we have just repeatedly used similar shots in film, as our feedback proved.
Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I played our final short film to one of my family members, aged 40 and she gave quite positive feedback. She told me she felt sorry for our main character and she understood the storyline and could follow what was happening. This shows that what we had hoped to achieve had worked. She had not seen many previous short films before had said she enjoyed the style of it and although it is a short film we achieved a good storyline and she did enjoy it. She said she thought it was quite an interesting choice of storyline, one she had not seen previously, and she liked the idea of using less dialogue, she felt it helped emphasise the feeling of Billy being isolated. This is good feedback as it shows our storyline was clear and the emotions we hoped that the audience would feel through Billy's character came across. This would help in the future if i was to go on and create more short films as this feedback would enable me to take in consideration members of the audience who have not seen many or any short films in the past and try and make sure our storyline is clearer.
I also played it to another one of my family members, aged 20. As he had never watched a short film before he said he did enjoy it and thought the styling and genre was quite different and interesting. He did not understand the significance of the stairs, we wanted this be seen as Billy's comfort place and unfortunately this was not picked up on by this particular audience member.
We also showed our final short film to two teenage boys and two teenage girls. We chose these four people because they were of the right age range for our target audience and we wanted to see whether they understood their film and to get their thoughts and ideas on how they felt about the film and whether we achieved what we wanted to.
This is a video showing the feedback we received from the two boys.
From this feedback we can see that both boys seemed to feel quite drawn to the film and empathised with Billy, which is what we was hoping for. The both seemed to feel that the freeze frame at the end of the film was very effective, which is good for us to know as we was not 100% sure if we wanted to use it or not, but in the end we thought it did look good and as an audience it brought you a bit closer. They thought that the storyline not really telling much, and Billy not speaking much was actually quite intriguing. It was good to hear that they both felt quite sad for Billy as that is what we was hoping our audience would feel.
This is a video showing the feedback we received from the two girls.
This feedback shows us that they didn't pick up on idea and use of the stairs as a comfort place for Billy. When we asked them about the stairs they didn't really understand what we was talking about, which made us think that maybe we didn't make it clear enough that he was using the stairs as a comfort place when he felt lonely. This has helped us, in that if we was to create another short film we could incorporate all feedback like this and make sure that if we wanted to place something like the use of the stairs again, we would have to make sure it is clear what he is doing and why. They did however, both seem to understand Billy's situation, the fact his mum was not very caring for him and that he was quite alone and isolated inside and outside of school. They also commented on the end freeze frame and said similar to the boys, as it left a kind of cliffhanger and they were left wondering what would happen to Billy next.
From looking at the feedback as a whole, I think if I was to create another short film I would try and create a storyline which a wider variety of the audience would be able to understand, whether they had watched other short films in the past or not. Also if I was going to use a significant object in the film, such as the stairs in this film, I would try and make more of it and make it clear to the audience what was going on.
I showed the front and back of my postcard to some students from my school of the age of our target audience. This is what they had to say about the front of my postcard.
From both of these feedbacks I feel quite pleased with the outcome of both the front and back of my postcard. They seemed to like the idea of using dark colours for the back and liked the idea of using the title of the film in the same way. They also mentioned the slogan and who it could carry the audience and create enigmas for them. They also mentioned the QR code which was a good thing as it is quite a modern thing that would be found on recent short film postcards.
I also showed some other students my film review. This is their feedback.
From this feedback I feel pleased with my film review as well. They all said how they liked the fact I used both critical and complimentary comments and I didn't take a personal view. They liked the layout and they thought it was a good review altogether. I also showed my film review to another group of students and they picked up on the fact that the pictures were black and white. Without me giving them hints as to why I had done it one student asked me if I did it on purpose to link in with my postcard. This is pleasing to hear as it means that my decision was recognised in a good way.
Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 'New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th that refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content.' - Wikipedia
Although new media technologies are presented in many different forms, they are mostly described as digital and having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible and interactive. Some examples of new media technologies would be internet base technologies such as websites, video games and DVDs. Old media technologies would include television programs, feature films or paper-based publications.
New Media has seen many benefits worldwide. Through technologies like blogs and social-networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, it has allowed a mass of communication all over the world.
This is a montage of images of all the new media technologies I have used whilst creating my short film.
Blogger
I have used Blogger a great amount throughout this course to allow me to portray all the work I have done over the course of my AS and A2 media course. It has also helped me to show how all my work has all helped me create my short film and everything building up to the final project. Blogger has been a very useful piece of new media technology as without it my work could have been less organised, taken a lot more time and possibly could have been at a lower standard. Blogger has been useful in that it has allowed me to post every piece of work I need, organise each piece in a good order and it allows you to edit and delete posts wherever needed. There is however the risk of using Blogger in that there is a possibility of loosing your work,as whenever you use a computer there is a risk of something going wrong and sometimes if it does not auto save or recover, your work is lost.
Flip Camera Flip cameras have been an extremely useful piece of new media technology on this course. When we came up with our original first idea and had a synopsis and a draft of the first script, we used a flip camera to record members of our target audiences reactions and feedbacks. The flip camera was very helpful in this circumstance as it made it a lot easier for us to gain the feedback we needed, without needing a tripod and recording camera, it was also less intimidating for our audience as it is a lot smaller than a normal camera. We also used flip cameras to record one us shooting one of our scenes of our main character running down the corridor as we are using a new piece of equipment that we hadn't used before, the dolly. Without the flip cameras we would have had to either wrote down everything our members said for feedback, which would obviously be very time consuming and could become boring and it would also mean that we could not present things such as our new piece of equipment on our blogs and we would have to write about it instead.
YouTube We have used YouTube quite a lot throughout both AS and A2. It was very helpful when we were researching previous short films. YouTube helped me to see more short films other than the ones students had previously made at my school, I was able to see other schools work as well as other short films. Using YouTube alongside other research tools, I was able to see some codes and conventions of short films which then helped to build our knowledge and lead us to create the final short film. Without YouTube my research would have suffered, I would have had limited resources into short films which also means my blog would have suffered and would have been at a much lower level than I could achieve. YouTube also allowed us to upload our videos from the flip cameras and so without either of these, we would not have been able to video what we needed and present it on our blogs.
Google and Wikipedia Both Google and Wikipedia have been used quite a lot throughout my coursework, especially when doing the research side of things. Google has helped me to search further into short films, it has allowed me to find new short film websites, enabling me to watch even more short films, as well as searching things such as short film festivals. When we were researching into some of the short films we had watched in class, I used Google to be able to see how much budget each film had, what awards they were awarded or nominated for, where it was filmed and how and I was able to search the producers to be able to see more of their work. Wikipedia has been extremely helpful as whilst researching it has helped me to define certain key media terms and also allowed me to research into more detail. This is similar to what a researcher working on a Hollywood film may have to do, they would have to research into certain parts of the storyline and maybe the locations around them. Without either of these it would have made my research slightly more difficult of course there are other search engines available which I could have used if necessary or I would have had to use other sources such as books from the library.
Adobe Premier Pro
We used Adobe Premier Pro to capture our footage , create a rough cut and create our final short film. Once we had recorded the footage we needed, we plugged the camera into the edit suite and used Adobe to capture each scene we needed to use, this also then helped us to create our logging rushes table, cancelling out any filmed scenes we did not need or want to use. Once we had each scene we were able to create a rough cut, placing all the scenes in order joining them together. We then went through from the beginning and went through each individual tiny detail making sure we had the perfect short film we had hoped for. Adobe helped us to do this as it has all the tools and effects we needed, and it is quite a simple program to use. Without this piece of new media technology we would not have been able to edit our short film as quickly as we did, nor would we be able to edit it as well as we were able to.
Adobe Photoshop
This new media technology helped me whilst creating the front and back of my postcard and also when creating my own film review. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to edit images and add in texts in ways which other programs do not allow you to do. Photoshop helps to produce a higher quality outcome. Without Adobe Photoshop I would not have been able to create both the front or back of my postcard as well and the quality would possibly have been much lower, I would not have been able to use the title in the way I wanted on my postcard.
Sound Recorder
We used a sound recorded to record the piano sounds which we created ourselves. From researching other short films we came to a decision that we wanted to create our own music and so we used a piano in a music room at our school and used the sound recorder to record what we came up with. We were then able to connect the sound recorder to the edit suite, allowing us to edit the sound onto our short film. Without this piece of new media technology, we would not have been able to record this sound, although we could have maybe used another type of recording equipment, this sound recorder was most appropriate and effective.
Digital SLR Camera
The digital camera was used quite a lot throughout the process of the making of our short film. We used this camera to take the pictures for our location recess for all the locations we had chosen to use in our film, just like a location scout might do in the industry. We also used the digital camera to take photographs of our main character for our postcards. Also once we had asked Rewan to write out the title of our film, we used the camera to take pictures of this so we could again, add it to our postcards. Without this piece of new media technology it would have made the process a lot slower than it was with it. If we didn't have this camera, the location recces would have been a lot harder to create and our postcards would have suffered.
Sony PD150 Camera
We used this camera to film all of our footage needed to create the final film. When on location we set the camera up on the tripod and plugged in the sound boom and used the camera to shoot the footage. Without the camera we would not have been able to shoot our film, or we would have had to use a different camera and maybe one that wouldn't have created such a high quality footage which would have impacted the way the whole film looked and maybe impacted our grades.
The first part of our post-production process was to capture the scenes we needed or final editing. We did this by plugging the camera into the edit suite and creating a logging rushes table to select which scenes we were and weren't going to use. This is our table
Once we had captured the scenes we wanted we then began editing. The first thing we did was create a rough cut, we put all the scenes in order together to get a rough idea of what the final piece would look like. Once we had done this we then went back through and looked at each scene to check things like continuity and whether it flowed together in the way we wanted it to. This is when we found that our opening scene of Billy walking out of his house was a bit too bright and didn't really fit too well. We then discussed a re-shoot and after talking with everyone in the group we decided it would be best if we filmed it again. Once we had re-filmed this scene it looked a lot better and fitted into the rest of the film as we had hoped. We also saw that some of the scenes didn't really show the type of style of film that we wanted and so we decided to use some jump cuts in order to show the style we intended. We've added the jump cuts in places like when Billy is running, and by doing this we hope that the audience will be able to feel empathy with Billy and see that he is running and running until he finally reaches somewhere where he can no longer run. Once this was completed we cut the rest of the shots together and made a final visual cut. We then went back through and made sure the sound levels were consistent throughout as some scenes when we filmed them were slightly louder than others. We also had a bit of trouble with the mum in the car scene and so we had to play with the sound levels in order to get the right look and feel we wanted. Once all this was done we then added a few effects, for example lighting. We wanted to use natural lighting throughout our film and some shots were slightly brighter than others and so we had to add a few lighting effects to make the lighting seem consistent throughout the length of the film. We had also created our own sound, we used a piano sound which we had made and the sound from a hand dryer to create the atmosphere we were hoping for. Once we had added these sounds in the correct places our short film was completed.
Our first day of filming was on Wednesday 7th March. We started with scene six, a classroom scene. We knew that there would be a class in the classroom at the time we needed to use it and so we went over before they came to allow ourselves time to set the camera up in the correct position and make sure we could get the shots we needed. We all then went through our responsibilities and what each of us had to do. When the class arrived we briefed them about what was going on and we talked to our actors and our director Lauren told them what they would need to be doing when we were filming. We had a few practice runs so our actors could get a feel for what would happen and where they had to be or what they had to say. We then started filming. We did a couple of takes to make sure we got the best shot possible. From doing this one scene I have learnt how we all need to work as a team and together to get the best shot, each of us have our own responsibilities and it helped us get a feel for how we will shoot the rest of our film. From looking back at the footage we have seen that one of the shots that we took of the teacher the lighting is quite bright and the teacher looks quite dark so we will have to decide whether we can change it to use or if it will fit in to our film.
Also on Wednesday 7th March we filmed after school. This time we filmed scene 1,5 and 8 and so we had to decide what differences we were going to make on Billy's costume, for example blazer on or off to show different times of the day. I had the roll of camera and we noticed that where we were filming the light was shining through onto where our actor was sitting and so we had to use the reflector in order to hide the light and not interfere with our footage. There was also some after schools clubs going on around us and people walking around and so we had to be careful when we were shooting.
On Friday 9th March we went down to the local primary school and used the alleyway and houses next to it. We received permission from our actors parents and teachers to take him out of school to film these scenes. Unfortunately we did not consider the times of the primary school and once we had got down there they were out in the playground on their lunch break and so there was a lot of background noise from the children. We faced some problems with lighting and sound. The lighting turned out to be quite bright in the frame and so this did not work out too well. We also had trouble trying to get the sound boom in distance with our actor and also out of the shot. We managed to get around this problem but when we came to edit however we noticed the sound was quite loud and cut out a few times and also Chloe appeared in the frame towards the end and so we may need to re-shoot this scene.
On Monday 12th March we used one of our media lessons to film the scene of the mum in the car. We used the car park at the back of the school to try and make it look more like a work place than an actual school. We faced problems with lighting as well here as the car we was using was white and the sun light was reflecting on it and so it made the car look illuminous and so we had to change the filters on the camera and managed to get the lighting how we wanted it. We also didn't realise how small the car was and so filming in the back was slightly harder than we imagined.
Also on Monday 12th March we filmed after school. We chose to film these scenes after school as our actor was running about down corridors and we wanted to avoid other students passing through. Here we also had to use the filters on the camera as the lighting didn't look how we had hoped. We also used a set of dolly wheels to film the running down the corridor to track our actor. This was the first time we had used a piece of equipment like this and we were very pleased with the result.
On Tuesday 20th March we filmed all the exterior shots that we had left to shoot. The first scene we shot was Billy running from the staff room down towards the science block. We had a bit of trouble at first as where we had originally planned for the camera to be positioned didn't work as the sun was directly facing the camera, so we had to move around to find a better position. Filming the high angle shots worked quite well, we had our director downstairs with our actors and we communicated well and we were happy with the shots. We then filmed the shot reverse shot conversation scene between the teacher and Billy. This again was a bit hard to film as the sun was shining on the actors but we managed to get around it and get the shots we wanted. We then filmed the scene of Billy running out the door and across the field, we had to film this using the car to get the tracking shot we wanted. We had to do this a few times as the field was quite bumpy and so when we were holding the camera it was moving around and the shot looked unsteady. We then had to film the close up on Billy but we didn't have a tripod so we had to do it a couple of times to get the right position.
On Wednesday 21st March we decided to re-film our scenes of Billy coming out his house and walking up to school as the first shots were too bright and a little bit tilted. We also had quite a lot of background noise as we was filming by a primary school. When we re-filmed we went at a different time so we wouldn't get the background noise. It was also less sunny and so it didn't look as bright and we managed to get the camera and tripod in a better position so our shots were a lot better than the first time we shot.
In class we have looked at many different film reviews from different film magazines. Here are some examples of what we have done in class.
This review is from Sight and Sound magazine. I read through their review of the film Frozen. I have highlighted bits which I have found to be a common factor of film reviews. For example the title is in bold and is followed by information about the film itself. It also talks about locations and gives a synopsis of the film. And at the end there is the critique. All of these were common codes and conventions I have found for many film reviews.
This review is from Screen International. Again, there is the title followed by film information, including running time, and cast and crew. It also gives a synopsis of the film and critique throughout. It also ends on a verdict and gives it a rating out of five stars.
This review is from Total Film. This one also followed the majority of the codes and conventions in which I have found throughout. This review however, has more of a humourous tone as we can see from the captions on the two pictures. The picture for Beastly has a caption which reads 'She didn't have the heart to tell him his pen had leaked', which is taking the mick. It still gives film information, a verdict and a rating out of five stars.
For my own review I think I will choose a similar style to Sight and Sound magazine. I have chosen this one as I feel the writing style is easier to understand. The writing in Total Film is quite whitty and I think for my first film review it would be quite difficult to try and write in a similar style to them. In my film review I will include information about the film, for example the location and year it was released, running time and cast and crew information. I will also try and include a synopsis of our film in the review as this is similar to the style of Sight and Sound.
Hollywood films use a range of advertising to help advertise their film to the widest possible audience as possible. They usually use conventions like a big dominating picture which is usually a still from the film, it uses star power by presenting the main actors names usually at the top, some use slogans, they usually have the release date, some awards along the bottom and sometimes they have the directors name. All of these factors join together and draw in a wide audience.
This is an example of a Hollywood film poster. As we can see the picture and the title of the film dominate the poster as well as the main actors name Tom Hanks. This will immediately catch the audiences eyes and get them wondering what this film is about. It also shows the release date in the bottom right hand corner and along the bottom we can see the awards it has one along with the names of the production companies and directors names.
This is a poster of the film Twilight, which I have annotated to show the different techniques it uses to grab it's audience.
However, short films aren't usually as widely spread as hollywood films and so instead of creating film posters they use postcards. Postcards are a more direct way of addressing with the audience. In class we have been looking at some postcards of short films and been analysing them so when we come to make our own they fit the codes and conventions for typical short film postcards. As we found commonly the front of the postcard had a dominant photo from the film, the title and a slogan. The back of the postcard tended to contain slightly more information, telling us names of crew members, who produced it, filmed it and the distribution company. It also normally contains a website for the film so the audience member can find out more.
This postcard is from the short film 'Divine'. This picture shows my annotations of what the postcard shows using most of the codes and conventions.
This postcard tended to follow the majority of the codes and conventions. for example, the front of the postcard contains a dominant still image from the film, with just the title of the film and the slogan around it. The back of the postcard then gives slightly more information, it tells us the production company and some cast and crew information, for example who the producers and directors are and who stars in the film.
This postcard is from the short film 'On Life's Edge'.
This also follows the majority of the codes and coventions I found. The front of the postcard is different to the one from Divine as it still has a dominant picutre, however it does not cover the entire front, and there are three smaller still images from the film on the left hand side. It also contains the film title, but we also see the production company name on the front. The back is also quite similar to others I have looked at, including the title and a synopsis of the film, a cast and crew list and names or production companies and other companies who are part of the film. This one also uses more bolder colours such as the yellow. Whereas the Divine postcard uses black and white which doesn't make it stand out as much.
For my own postcard for our short film I think I would like to try and stick to quite darkish colours such as black or white or grey. This is because our film is about Billy feeling lonely and isolated and so I feel using dark colours on the postcard will help portray the theme of the film, I think it would be inappropriate to use bright colours which stand out. On the front of the postcard I want my main picture to be very dominant and be the whole front of the postcard. Also on the front I only want to have the title of the film and the slogan, nothing else. On the back of the postcard I will have a synopsis of our film and a cast and crew list. I also want to put a website on there so our audience could go on and find out more about the film. In class we have also been talking about QR codes which are quite modern and useful and so I want to put one on my postcard so the audience could scan it and find the informtaion.
These are two ideas I came up with for the front of my postcard.
This one is showing Billy sitting under the stairs huddled up, holding his legs. Showing only Billy, the title and the slogan, 'What do you do when there's nowhere else to run?'.
This one is a close up of Billy and I would try and get a still image from part of footage we shot so it would be seen in the film. Again only displaying Billy, the title Dumped and our slogan.
This is all of our group's pre-production work for our short film. We each took on different roles in order to get all the documents completed for filming and some of the documentation we divdided between the group.
I made our equipment list, it shows all the equipment we will need whilst we are filming.
Lauren made these, and they show what each of our characters will be wearing.
Location Recces
Lauren also created all of our location recces. For each one we have looked at lighting, accessbility and any changes we may need to make.
This is our first location recce and this is for under the stairs, where Billy continuously visits.
This is our second location recce, this is for where Billy walks from his house to school.
This location recce is for outside the canteen, where Billy runs past to go to the stairs.
This is our location recce for the classroom.
This is our location recce for the quad, it is taken from inside the three storey block where we plan to film this scene.
This location recce is for the field, for the last scene in our film when Billy runs to the end.
This is the location recce for the bottom of the stairs, for when Billy runs in from outside and up the stairs.
This is the location recce for the science corridor.
This is the location recce for the stairs that Billy runs down before he goes out the door.
Shot List
Chloe created our shot list. This gives us a description of what is happening in each scene and what shot sizes the camera will need to make in order to get the shots we need.
Treatment
Chloe created our treatment, which tells us what is going on in each scene both visually and auditory.
Script
Here is our final script, we all came up with the main ideas and the dialogue and I wrote it out.
Storyboard
This is our storyboard, we divided this up between the group and each took a sheet to draw. We felt this was an easier and faster way to help speed along our pre-production documentation.
Technical Recce For this we also divided it up between our group and each took different parts to draw the location recces. We discussed most of the scenes together and helped each other out.
