Post 17 Ancillary Task 2 - Film Reviews Part 1

As well as the postcard another individual task we have to complete is a film review. In order for us to create a well designed and written film review it was vital that before we do so we looked at a few examples.

In class we looked at the film industry magazine Sight & Sound. Although we will be writing a film review on our short film "Synchronicity", Sight & Sound focuses on more long feature films. But it was still a great example to get ideas and apply them to our own short film review. The film review that we read over and used as an example was a film called Frozen. Frozen was a film released in 2004 and was directed by Juliet Mckeon. Juliet Mckeon went on to feature films after previous success with short films.

Posted below is the film review on the film Frozen we were looking at:

Reading it through we broke the film review article down paragraph by paragraph and in groups we talked about the key points and conventions the film review had.

- We started with the overall layout of the film review. We noted that it had a clear synopsis of the film and was layed out into paragraphs with the key information about the film posted at the top. The article also had a picture of the main actor to give the review some visual context.

- It also talked about the casting and how good the actors were. one of the main points that it said about the actors was that the overall storyline was not the best butt the casting allowed it to be a enjoyable watch and talk about how Shirley Henderson brought it around. 

- Also the film review used exciting phrases and words in order to attract to the reader to want to carry on reading it. such as "magical, impassive and cinematic". 

- Also it compares Frozen to other films.

After we had read Frozen and analysed it we was set some independant study to go off and read some other short film reviews to get ideas to help us with ours.

I looked at two different film reviews on The Kings Speech which is a British Film tipped to be big this year. I read through The Guardian's interpretation of the film and then The Independants.

The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/06/the-kings-speech-review

The Guardian differs hugley to Sight & Sound. This is because The Guardian is a newspaper. Therefore readers of The Guardian would not only be reading The Guardian for film reviews but also for general news and devlopments in there everyday life. Where as Sight & Sound is a formal film magazine so therefore readers to this magazine will only be intrested in reading it for reading about film reviews. When reading through the film review there was a clear diffrence in language between the two different styles of reviews.

Overall I found The Guardian's review of the Kings Speech written by Peter Bradshaw a very enjoyable read. I feel that this it the type of film review that I would prefer to read as when I read the Sight & Sound one of Frozen the language was a lot harder to understand. 

Below I have pointed out some of the key coneventions and points about the film review:

- The overall layout of the review allows it to be very visual and easy on the eye for the reader. You have a picture for good visuals. It also has a information about the film half way down on the left giving information about the film certificate, running time, cast and director. This I feel is very interesting as it gives readers the key information they need about The Kings Speech.

- The Guardians review of The Kings Speech also keeps readers entertained throughout with comical phrases and words. Example being "and who pronounces the word "promise" as "plwomise"

- It also talks about the main cast and how fantastic they are, along with supporting cast and how they gave a crucial supporting role

- Peter Bradshaw also talks about the main storyline throughout The Kings Speech this gives readers a burning edge to want to watch The Kings Speech. This is one role a film review is crucial to supporting a film.  

The Independent 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-kings-speech-tom-hooper-113-mins-12abrthe-next-three-days-paul-haggis-128-mins-12a-2179616.html

The Independent's film review on The Kings Speech was written by Nicholas Barber. Comparing it to The Guardians review it was a lot less heavier to the reader. This is because the film review was a lot less in formal. Using more common language and slang for the less educated reader. 

Below I have pointed out some of the key coneventions and points about the film review:

- It gives the film great reviews and speaks about The Kings Speech is in encouraging manner. It begins by saying The Kings Speech is a definite for UK's best hopes of an Oscar. This gives it a powerful opening to the review as it talks about it positively straight away.  

- Similar to most other film reviews it has a picture of the main actor. This gives readers good comfort with visuals as they can familiarise there selves to the actors before going to watch the film.  

Post 16: Ancillary Task 1 - Postcards

One of our independant tasks during making our short film is to create a postcard for our short film. A film poster is usually used to advitise big budget films but in our case a postcard would be more suittable. This is because it is easier to distribute the short film.

Although we are not creating a film poster we are still required to know about the key conventions of them. So in class our first task was to write down a list of things we would expect to find on a film poster.

Below I have listed what I would expect to find on a film poster:

-  Name of the Film
-  A picture from the main characters or something to symbolise the main point of the film
-  A Slogan or tagline to catch the atention of people
-  A short stynopsis of the film
-  Name of the production company
-  Name of the director
-  Release dates for the film
-  Actors/ Actresses names

In order for us to get to grips with film posters I decided to independently study a few examples of some. I decided to look at one example from a Hollywood film and then one from a British film to see if there is any differences between the two and whether a film budget can have any influence on how a film poster looks.

Due Date Film Poster:
(Hollywood)

The first film poster I looked at was from the 2010 big hit film from Hollywood "Due Date". Due Date was made on a budget of $65 million. Therefore "Due Date" would have no trouble distributing there film posters to a wide audience across many different location as they would be able to make the profits back up in the cinemas. Also Due Date has well known actors that can cross the audiences and the director of Due Date also made one of the most popular films in recent times The Hangover. This is why big budget Hollywood films can have the ability to make well designed and distributed film posters.

The Conventions of the film poster are clear. It is a good visual film poster in my opinion because a nice clear big picture covering the whole poster of the two main characters. It shows them to be looking rough and looking like they have gone through a lot. This straight away gives the audience a sense of wanting to watch the film as they will be eager to find out why they are like that. It also has the names of the two main characters at the top. This will comfort audiences if they know who the actors are and will help them to getting to the cinema to watch the film. It also has the name of the film in big capital letters at the bottom of the page with other films that the director of Due Date has created above it and then the release date beneath it. It is also very colourful and catches your attention

Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels Poster:
(British)

The British film poster I looked at was Lock stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Comparing this to Due Date, Lock Stock will be harder to cross to a wide audience as it was the first film to be made therefore not a lot of people would no much about it. Also it was made on a lot smaller budget to Due Date so therefore would not be able to produce as many film posters and distribute to as many locations.

The conventions of the film poster also differ to the Due Date one. For a start there is a lot less colour on the Lock Stock poster. This may be  because it is more expensive to produce as many film posters with big graphics on them like the Due Date one as Lock Stock is made with a smaller budget. Or they are trying to create a dark eerie gangsta effect through black and white. You have a main picture of Vinnie Jones the main actor in the film being the dominant thing on the poster holding guns. This will straight away give away that this film is full of fast paced action. The title is in large lettering in the centre of the poster catching the audiences attention. It also has a review on the top left saying "This years best British movie" This will help the film get more viewings at the cinema as people will be eager to see if it lives up to its review.

Postcards:


After we had understood about film posters and why they are produced and what inflicts them. We started looking at postcards and analysing them. We looked at a few examples of postcards from short films produced by Becky Knapp who helped us with our script.

Divine

From this postcard on the short film called Divine you can see that there is a main image dominating the whole  main side of the postcard. This straight away draws the audience into it. It has the name of the short film at the top in white lettering and this goes well with the black background as it creates a sense of eeriness and engages the audience. It also has a slogan saying "Let's go to church" this is also engaging the audience as it adds to the eeriness. On the back is all the information about the director, cast, costume designer, edited and sound by and an e-mail address about any further queries.


On A Life's Edge

The postcard for On a Life's Edge differs in many different ways to the postcard for Divine. The front side of the postcard is actually quite similar to Divines one with a main picture dominating the front side. But differs as it has three more images up the left hand side of different filming locations. It also has the name of the film at the bottom. On the back it is completely different to Divines design.  It has less information including a synopsis, the casting, directed by and produced by.











My Designs  

Posted below are my postcard designs:

Post 15: Reflecting On Theory

In previous posts I have talked about three different theories. These were Genre Theory, Narrative Theory and Audience Theory. In this posts I will be reflecting on these theories and applying them to the short film that I am making. This post is also important as it prepares us for our exam in the summer.

The first theory we looked at was Genre Theory in Post 4. We looked at Robert Altman's, Neales and Hartleys views and opinions on Genre Theory.

Robert Altman believed that "Genre are defined by producers and are easily recognised by audiences. Applying this to my short film. It is key for our audience to know what genre my short film is as throughout previous posts I have talked about how important it is for audiences to understand what genre a short film is.

Ways in which we could relate to Altman's views in our short film is with our set design and lighting. For example my short film Synchronicity is a Drama film. So for audiences to understand the genre of our short film easier we need to make sure we show a drama film. With changing the atmosphere in the lighting audiences could relate to the drama that is going on in the film.