Final Texts

FILM

POSTER

MAGAZINE ARTICLE

ALTERNATE VERSIONS AND REVISIONS


Below are two versions of my magazine article. I decided to go with the first article as it seemed to obey more of the conventions of magazine reviews and had a more distinctive style

Two pages magazines:media:rufus from mediastudiesfinearts

I have tried to create synergy between my poster and my film. I have used the same title font in both. I have the pink theme running through both. The theme of love and loss ids also re-inforced in the poster. I have the main characters form the film and a strapline that again relates directly to the narrative of my film. I have followed all the conventions of film poster design and I hope that audiences will recognise it as a film poster as well as understanding that it is a light hearted post modern rom com.

Below was my penultimate version of the Poster. I wanted to add the black border to contain the poster and i also added down the sides of the image the word love and loss repeated endlessly to act as a border. These are the main themes of my film. 

Magazine ideas for my film article/ fonts for my Film poster

Hehind

Fluff from mediastudiesf1n34rts

I am beging to look at differnt fonts and magazine layouts for my Film and Film review I have considerd desighning my article by having a large still at the top at the page and text at the bottom I feel if the image was impactful it would intreage the readers intrest of the film. I would wont the font of the film to be bright pink as the colour symbolises inocnsene and romance I would the text of the title to be joined up as it reinforces the theme of romance 

Filming progress

A couple of days ago I decdied that the film we started working on didn't hold the audiences attention so I began a new film which had more characters, since I did not have time to cast a girl to play the love interset we inserted a pupet into the piece to play the love entrest, I feel this dission will susprize the audience. Furthmore since the film begins with the main protagonist having a serours and sentimrental conversation with his mentore about something he did wrong concerning his girlfriend the audience intispate who the girl is and how the narrative is going to end. I feel that they will be amoused when they discover that the lover is infact a pupet.

Filming account

On Wednesday I started filming.  I talked into the camera giving an account of my relationship. We kept pausing and changing location. In order to stop the audience getting board. We used a Lumix camera. Since the sound did not come out clearly on the camera we used a recorder and arched a boom poll to the camera to make the sound more clear. since I was nearing the deadline I did not have time to recruit a cast of actors. I feel that even though it sounds quite dull of someone giving an account of what happened and just looking at the camera I am going to insert montage sequences through tout the film as well as music from the website 'Free music archive' as well as a short clip of when I was in class and a student offered to play Chloe's voice through VO I will see if we can insert that footage into the film. I am still in the process of filming and I am  hoping that finish filming soon. I will also keep updating my progress.  

Costumes

Having done an an initial costume breakdown I have found that there are 18 costume changes for the main character GABRIEL and 5 costume changes for CHLOE. This is both challenging for the reason of acquiring the costumes as well as considering what the changes will be. I have given each costume a title and I can begin to see that their might be an opportunity to have a theme running through each costume choice. For example at the beginning he could be wearing light and colourful clothing however as the film progresses we use the costume as pathetic fallacy to mirror the emotions that he is going through

"The pathetic fallacy is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings, thought, or sensations.^[1] The word 'pathetic' in this use is related to 'pathos' or 'empathy' (capability of feeling), and is not pejorative. In the discussion of literature, the pathetic fallacy is similar to personification."

Below is a list of the costume changes:

Casting

I am at the stage where I have to assemble a cast. For I find it socially challenging to ask people in my College I used an online source called, PCR which is a website designed to help both professional  and amateur film makers to locate pro actors.

This is my letter that I sent to PCR which includes a brief synopsis of the film as well as a character breakdown for the cast. For the character of Gabriel I am looking for someone who is shy, awkward, tall, long hair, wears plain cloths. As for the girl, Chloe since she is gothic Id have her wearing black.  I am hoping through this process I am going to get a reliable cast that will engage with the project fully.

Boost Poster ideas

I have started the prossess of desighning drafts for my poster.  The intetions for this version is to express the point that the film revolves around girls and the energy drink Boost. As well as the emtions of sadness and happiness as you can see one girl smiling where as the girl on the other side is looking angery thus expresing the main themes of the peice.

I have chosen this circular  design with lines for I am brining out the repediverty  of the film the character starts off entering a romantic relationship  and ends with a romantic relationship I feel this design hints at a circular theme. I also wanted to highlight his descructive and his addictive personality as you can see their is a cigarette sticking in the circle maybe it also has a subversive edge to it, and the next a hert again revealing one of the main themes love. The wording 'I was joking.' Is a strong line in the film and I added to the poster as I feel it could bring curiosity to the readers mind. an inspiration to this poster was the scene from Alfred Hitch Cock's classic film 'Vertigo' the scene where we see the protagonist's head coming at the audience. 

Inspiration for Boost film poster

                                                    I have chosen this poster as an inspiration for my film Boost as I like the idea of having the couple on a bed as it symbolises sex and other things that a teenage market is fascinated and engrossed in. As a director I would have the boy behaving like the female lying into him and the girl looking serious and cold which changes the stereotype of the 'Hard to get' male.

Like the 'All Good Things' poster this one has the characters lying down, which again symbolises a romantic relationship and similarly the boy looks serious and discontent, which is what my character becomes, I feel if I created a poster simular to this one it would inform the reader immediately the content of the film and he will subconsciously know the narrative structure as he would have probably seen simular media products like this one.

This movie poster again suggests sexual content in a more explicit way there is no undercurrent it is being obviousluy suggested, I feel this style would attract a young audience whom are a main demographic who go to cinema complexes. I am aslo thinking about using a red and bold font since red symbolises love, passion and hate which is what my character experiences throughout the film. 

This poster inspired me to create my poster around this design since it has the sun in the background which symbolises warmth and happiness and could pick out the happier themes of my film for instances finding love as well as making it. As a director I would I like the idea of the gil looking down at the boy as though she is his gaurdian angel and his saviour, I like the idea of the stripes again connecting the glow of the sun light. 

This film poster got me interested in the idea of just showing the protagonist making him purely highlighting his dark side of him by using the same tint but possibly include the love theme by having a small yet noticeable heart or a glimpse of sunlight in the foreground. I would like the protagonist to have the same intense look as this gentleman. I have this idea of combing this picture with Blue movie (The one before Talk about Kevin) 

Test scene

We the audience are halfway through the film and the main protagoinist is constantly cheking skype to seee if his beloved is online however when he asks the question 'Have you got a boyfriend' we realise that they have broken up and he is devestated. This is reinforced through the use of non-diegetic sound of what sounds like a brass band. We also added the edditing effect of voice over, reason being we felt it would be a dynamic way to nirate to the audince what the protagoinist is going through. I created the music through the music edditing software 'soundtrack pro' this fraction of the film helped me see what happens next. Since I have written a huge treatment/script I now see that I have no choice but to conndence it, and jump to the final scene.

Short Film Audiences

Who watches short films?

How do they watch them? Cinema, festivals, online, TV, DVD, etc Which is the most common source?

Most people consume short films through film festivals, television and the internet. It is very rare for a cinema to show a short film for it would not bring enough revenue. For they appeal to a very niche market.  Most people tend to watch short films on the well known video website Youtube, Future Shorts, BBC Film Network and Short of the Week.

What are the most popular short films?

http://www.imdb.com/search/title?title_type=short
http://listverse.com/15-great-short-films/


In terms of audience, are they male/female? Educated? Film makers/fans? Social class/status?

The audience usually is, in social terms, middle class (A - C1). They are usually fanatics about films and they are interested in making or producing short films. In some cases, they are already in the business of making them. If they are viewing the shorts online it means they are educated in the networks and are knowledgeable of how to access them, they are media literate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/introduction/why-make-a-short - info here

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

From your research about short film audiences, who would be the audience for your short film?

I searched 'popular short films' on 'Google' and came across a short film Finite which focusses on some on my chosen themes - loss, love and memories of a relationship, which is reason for me to believe that my short film 'BOOST' is giving the mass audience what they want to see.  I am targeting 15 to early and late twenties that have probably experienced this situation and are stereotypically craving love and they may also think that no one in the world as ever felt this immense pain before so for them to see a character that has hit rockbottom may emotionally educate them as well. As the 'Finite' made me realise just now that break ups  happen to everyone and hurts everyone just as much and I hope to give this message to the people who will watch this film learn as well. 

Test shooting Beach Scene

I have got a scene which takes place on holiday the scene itself is on the beach. Given that my film is postmodern the use of a poster as background should work well to signify the beach and a hot day. The lighting is not good in the pictures and I will have to get the actor to sit a little way away from the poster so that it can be backlit.

Obviously the actor will be in a T shirt or topless and I will also use glycerin to create an authentic  sweaty look and atmosphere. I think the main problem here is that my face has not been lit however the background suggests bright light. So to make the cheat more believable ill need to use some careful lighting.

Test shots

Firstly, we drew a quick sketch of the scene which is called storyboarding. We did the test shot to see just how precise you have to be even to film a simple scene. We made two versions of the same scene
We used a tripod, video camera and two performers. Firstly we filmed my hand grabbing a cup, which will be a can of Boost in the final film. It was a close up that tilted up to reveal the character drinking it, which was a medium close up. Secondly, we filmed what will be a girl, looking at me and me looking at her, though for this shot it didn't really work out. It the second shot the camera didn't move and was a two shot close up.

Index Cards

Index cards - What are index cards?

Index cards are what you use after you write the treatment and they allow you to break it up into smaller scenes and allows you to see more clearly the narrative structure.

How did you use them?

I copy and pasted the treatment into these index cards and using sellotape stuck them up on a wall so I could refer to them in a more easy fashion. I had 42 index cards, some vary in detail, some of them carry about 200 words whereas others carry about 20 words.

I found these really helpful because they are small and tell me exactly what to shoot next. I may have to in the future replace or exclude some cards for the reason being they may not be relevant or will overrun the task, which is exactly five minutes.

My treatment

A Treatment is a synopis of the story line. It has helps people plan their narrative. And helps them see what scene comes next in their film
I wrote my entire past with my ex and condensed all the key moments that made and destroyed this relationship. I used the free open source software, Celtx to write my treatment. It was approximately 2000 words. It was extremely helpful for it helped me foresee the story and what how it follows. However, it also made me see clearly how to play it next time and gave me some advice on what not to do.

Rufus boost from mediastudiesfinearts

My interview

I got interviwed aboiut my film. And in it We got some really good shots of my Treatmenat which is almost completed. It also helped talking about it for it made me come to terms with the reality that even though I am making a film about my ex doesn't mean she's coming back and it's over. The interview was quite therapeutic and made it clear that it is just  with cameras and actors and not me reliving my past. I find it hard filming and writing about this but I feel that my subconscious is the director and telling me what to do. The interview in my head is still going on I keep asking my self what 'happened next?' It's quite cool because even though it is very emtionaly straining I feel as if it is going to conclude with me walking out with a good grade and Chloe free thoughts and fantasies. I feel that it is going from an idea and turning into an actual object of creativity. For the interview we used a panasonic DSLR we used various shots such as paning tilts and Close ups (CU) And the editing technique of title heading and fade in text.

We also used cut aways, which are conventional for interviews.

Conventions of Short Romantic Dramas

What short romantic dramas have you seen? List them.
Gone with the wind.
Bad Lands
Romeo and Juliet


Where did you see them?
At home

What themes are common? What's conventional? Falling in love and sycoligical objects that cause them to  break away from love.

Are there any particular camera, editing, sound or mise-en-scene techniques that are conventional? Or that you enjoyed? I enjoyed the music in Bad Lands and the locations such as there tree fort that they made out of wood and I liked the creativerty of the male prtagonists groosme traps.

How will your film look? What conventions will it use? Develop? Or change?

My film will changle the conventions of a Romantic Drma for it wont have  a sad ending orginally it was going to but I felt that it would alinate tha audinces and dissapoint them. And  I would like to delvop the idea of the male protagonist over comeing the pain and trimafe over it and not induldge it. I also think it might make audinces happy to see the character get over it and end with him walking away with another girl. I feel a sucidal ending may cause them them say to themselvs, 'That was a waste of time.' and according to some exinmers critsims is that  sucidal ending are, 'Cleachi' I would like my film to have a more possitive end.

Research

by using WEB2.0 I came across a valuble webiste page that informed me about the codes and conventuons that feature  in romantic drama which is the genre of my short film, for it is based around love and how it all fell apaart and the conflict that the protagonist went through. Knowing that audinces are board of students ending their  films with suicide, as however due to research it is conventional for tradic dramas. Since  my themes are love, addiction, heartace and anger. Knowing this  I feel that a suicdal ending would be justified to end my film.


Genre:

Romance Sub-genres:

Romantic Drama

Romantic Drama film is a genre that explores the complex side of love. The plot usually centers around an obstacle that is preventing love between two people. The obstacles in Romantic Drama film can range from a family's disapproval, to forbidden love, to one's own psychological restraints. Many Romantic Dramas end with the lovers separating because of the enormity of the obstacle, the realization of incompatibility, or simply because of fate.

Examples: Titanic, Breakfast at Tiffany's, An Officer and a Gentleman.

Demographic for Boost

Boost- Who my audience is.

I am hoping to gain a teenage audience for my film Boost.

To be more specific this film might also appeal to film students since they watch short films to get inspiration. 

To this end my film focuses on teenage love, paranoia, jealousy and suicidal heartache. With a happy ending 

I feel these themes will attract my demographic since most of them will have some experience in this area. Added to this  I am using young people and hope that the narrative will be identifiable with a large percentage of them.

The genre is romantic drama and although teen films are often focused on horror or action there are films that are attracting this demographic such as ‘The Perks of being a Wallflower’ and ‘Lymelife’ Both films deal with teenage issues around love and deceit.

Inspirations for Boost

I have selected several short film and feature length films that deal with similar subject matters and themes that my film deals with an example of this is Teen Suicide which is a drama romance with a tragic end same as my short film which is about a young boy who discovers love and goes on an emotional journey with his lover he ends up being the cause of the break up which leads him to take his own life.The feature film leaving Vegas which is about addiction my character also suffers with a strong dependency onEnergy drinks to conclude this post I feel these films follow the same narrative structure as my film.            








This short deals with unrequited love. Like my film it is about teenagers. 
The main protagonist is in love and tries to engage her but it is to no avail
She has no way of dealing with the despair she feels.
We see her high up on the school roof with a rook on her arm, possibly signifying death?
She swan dives off the roof.
It also uses the editing technique of blank screen with text. I am interested in using this for my film
I am also interested in suicidal tendencies in young people and the extreme difficulty of dealing with heartbreak.




Leaving Las Vegas deals with giving up and using and the physiology of thinking that something outside of yourself can make you feel better, which is the same theme that my film will try to attempt.
Also there is a romance connected with suicide as though it is a welcome refuge rather than self murder. 
Suicide is dealt with in this film as a final place of retreat and I want my film to try to convey this. 
However, both my idea and this film deny the truth, that suicide will not bring relief only an end to life.




Lymelife: 
This film has an ensemble cast but within it two teenagers. During the film we see the young boy try to get the girl. However for most of the film she sees him as a friend/idiot and is quite cruel to him. Some of this dynamic I would like to attempt in 'Boost' 


Bad Lands:

The Film Band Lands inspired me to make my film since it's subjects are orientated around destruction. My character is also fixated with acting out destructively but instead of physically hurting others he is emotionally hurting is girl friend and himself.  The film's genre is romantic drama which I am keen to make myself. In Badlands the protagonist goes on a killing spree as does mine, not with a firearm but with a can of 'Boost' and hurtful words which leads to is predictable catharsis, suicide. Both the characters smoke which symbolise destruction and self hatred.





Blue Valentine

The task list

 I will have to create a working title
I will have to research the conventions of my film/ audince research/ delvoment
 I will have to create a script

I will have to create a storyboard

I will have to create a cast list

I will have to find loacations
plan rehersals
I will have to find props

I will have to direct

I will have to shoot the film

I will have to find non copywritied music to go with the film

I will have to edit the film/sound edit the film