Film Poster

For my film poster, I used two images. one of which I took myself and the other from sxc.hu - a website offering free royalty free images on the condition that you adhere to their terms and conditions, which I have done.

Original images:

 This is the image from the royalty free image site. I really loved the colours from the image and the concert set up - it was perfect for my poster.

This is my original image. I knew that I wanted a simple hand making the 'rock and roll' hand gesture on my poster and so I took a few photos. Then I came up with the idea of having a hospital wrist band around the wrist to show the main character's medical struggle - or at least, to give some indication of it. A friend of my brothers had one which he let me borrow and so this was the image I used for my poster.

I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 to create the final poster, changing all the details on the hospital wristband, putting the images together, adding contrast and text and finally, a vignette. Here is the finished product:

Film Review

After finishing my shot film I set about creating my review. I took into consideration all of my research and thought about the conventions of published film reviews: large title, big main image, screenshots, small fact file about the film, text in columns and a rating and came up with the following:

Short Film FINISHED!

So, the many weeks of research, filming and editing have come down to this, the final cut of my short film. I have made a LOT of changes since my rough cut. Firstly, I changed the title from "Keep Smiling" to "Final Chord" as I didn't like the original and I feel like "Final Chord" both sounds better and is more appropriate. Also, I've put the film into black and white as a lot of rock music videos are in black and white and so this is also appropriate considering the genre of my short. Also, the black and white looked better and covered up the fact that the shots of Harry Cadden had a strong yellow hue which i couldn't get rid of. I've also added shots of the main character playing instruments and added a vignette to these shots to enhance the aesthetic of the shots. The music has been added also and I think that it's come out rather well. Granted, if I had more time, I would probably change a few things. But we'll save that for the evaluation, so, here is "Final Chord".

Editing #2

Production Update

New idea for the ending

Magazine Review Research

After getting the majortity of my short film done and doing research into the conventions of a documentary poster, I decided to do some research into magazine reviews. Reviews come in various styles and sizes and I wanted to understand what conventions apply to most reviews, no matter what size or style. To do this, I looked at various sizes of film reviews to see what each of them had in common.

 

 

 

 

 

So, after looking at various magazine reviews, I can conclude that there are certain conventions:

1) Stills from the movie - used to make the review look bolder and capture the audience's attention.

2) Large title - the title is emphasised to capture the audience's attention and easily plant the film title into their mind subconsciously.

3) Putting the review text into columns - makes the review easier to read and doesn't look like a hard block of text to read.

4) Basic details about the film - basic details like the director and actors as well as a rating to easily convey some information about the film to the audience.

5) Tagline - an easy to remember summary of the film to help an audience make a quick judgement about the film and hopefully entice them to read the review.

Magazine Review Audience Research

1) Have you ever read a magazine review for a film?
Harrison Calaby (16) Yes

Ben Thorpe (18) Yes

Robert Watts (44) Yes

Linda Goddard (47) Yes

John Seaman (62) Yes

Alice Calaby (92) Yes

Jack Latoy (18) Yes

Sam Hitchins (17) Yes

Fletcher Watts (11) No

Beth Calaby (12) Yes
-Out of my group of ten, only one person hadn’t read a film review and this person was only 11. This shows that film reviews have a universal appeal so I will have to try and make my review appeal to all ages and both genders.

2) What would you expect a magazine review to be like?
Harrison Calaby (16) Informative, easy to read.

Ben Thorpe (18) Eye catching, have both pictures and text.

Robert Watts (44) Informative, helpful.

Linda Goddard (47) Concise, informative, easy to read.

John Seaman (62) Helpful – tells you what you want to know.

Alice Calaby (92) Helps to understand whether I want to see the film or not.

Jack Latoy (18) Informative, good layout.

Sam Hitchins (17) Lots of information about the film but with a few screenshots from the film.

Fletcher Watts (11) I don’t really know.

Beth Calaby (12) Lots of pictures and nice to look at.
- Lots of people want a review to be informative and easy to read – this means that I need to think carefully about my layout and presentation as well as the content of my review.


3) What's your favourite magazine, despite if it has a review section in or not?
Harrison Calaby (16) NME

Ben Thorpe (18) Xbox magazine

Robert Watts (44) Today’s Golfer

Linda Goddard (47) Horse & Rider

John Seaman (62) Champions

Alice Calaby (92) Sky Sports

Jack Latoy (18) Empire

Sam Hitchins (17) Total Film

Fletcher Watts (11) Ben 10

Beth Calaby (12) Girl Talk
- If I look at these magazines, I can better understand the kind of layout, writing style and aesthetic that people like from a magazine.

4) Do you read reviews elsewhere? If so, where?
Harrison Calaby (16) Yes, IMDb, Twitter

Ben Thorpe (18) Yes, IMDb, Facebook

Robert Watts (44) Yes, IMDb and on film posters

Linda Goddard (47) Yes, online

John Seaman (62) Yes, on the internet

Alice Calaby (92) No

Jack Latoy (18) Yes, IMDb, Facebook, posters

Sam Hitchins (17) Yes, IMDb, Facebook, posters

Fletcher Watts (11) No

Beth Calaby (12) No
- It is obvious that the internet is a clear leader in reviews and it is something that people actually use. A few people also said about the film poster so I will endeavour to make my poster to try and make the film look good.

5) Do you trust reviews on films?
Harrison Calaby (16) Most of the time.

Ben Thorpe (18) I’ll respect and understand their viewpoint, but I like to judge a film for myself.

Robert Watts (44) If most of the reviews on a film say the same thing, yes.

Linda Goddard (47) Yes – it is a professional critic’s opinion.

John Seaman (62) No, it’s only an opinion.

Alice Calaby (92) The majority of the time yes.

Jack Latoy (18) Not really. It’s helpful to have the insight but at the end of the day, it’s just an opinion.

Sam Hitchins (17) Not all the time.

Fletcher Watts (11) I’ve never read one…

Beth Calaby (12) I guess so.
- There is a mixed opinion about whether to trust a film review but a lot of people have said that it’s only an opinion but they will take that opinion into consideration.

Creating Music for my Documentary

Just a quick video explaining how the production of my music for my documentary is going. I gave my brother a brief, he recorded some bits and then we put it all together on Garageband and decided what worked and what didn't . One of the songs that has been finished is below:

I also needed some sadder music to convey the melancholic atmosphere and the effect that the protagonist's tumour has on his loved ones. I found a royalty free track on capoproductionsmusic.com that captured the attitude of my short perfectly and so this is the music that I will be incorporating into my short: