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