Vlog Update 2

Here's a little vlog update on where we are up to so far with the production of our short film.

My Distribution Company - Sundance Institute

After a lot of thinking we decided to use the Sundance Institute as our distribution company. This is due to the fact that they have had a lot of experience working with new, young filmmakers in the short film industry. We have also chosen them as our distribution company as Sundance work very closely with other very successful companies such as iTunes, Netflix and Youtube, which are major streaming sites where short films can be found. The Sundance Institute frequently use a lot of social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, which have a huge, worldwide audience to them. This means if they distribute our short film we could gain a much wider target audience and contribute the success of our short film in the end.

Update of Production Schedule 4

We are approaching the final deadline of our package consisting of a short film, film poster and a film review. Throughout the past few weeks we have been on schedule with the tasks we have had to complete and have continued to keep on track with the production of our film. We have finished all filming and re-takes of the footage needed for our short film, which means I must now focus on finishing my poster and review for the film. Over the next week I will be completing the final drafts of these and begin my evaluation questions.

Vlog Update 1

Here is another quick vlog update on one of the issues that has occurred throughout the production stage and how we are going to resolve it.

Rough Cut Feedback

This is all of the feedback we had received from our rough cut of our short film 'Decisions'. The audience all managed to successfully understand the genre of the film, which is part of the Drama genre. The audience seemed to like the editing effects that we decided to include throughout, especially the title sequence at the beginning of the film. Some of the improvements we could make from this feedback is to add a voiceover over the clips, which is what we are planning to do over the next few weeks. Also, due to the film not being entirely finished yet the storyline comes across as quite confusing so we will be completing the film process soon to make the narrative clearer throughout. Overall, we were given a Level 3 for our rough cut and once we have made all our improvements and finished our short film we are hoping to gain a Level 4 towards the end.

Decisions - Rough Cut

This is our first draft of our short film 'Decisions', which was edited by one of my other group members. We decided to use this version as the editing looks much more professional and includes many of the features we had discussed during the production stages. I really like the institution logo at the beginning of the film as it looks very realistic and fits in well with the style of the film. However, I did not agree with editing of the main title of the film as I did not think it portrayed the genre clearly and accurately. To improve our first draft we will add in the new titles and credits sequence and will have all of the finished clips needed for our short film.

Titles and Credits - Trial

Opening Titles 

End Credits

I made these titles and credits by using a software programme called 'Wondershare Filmora'. The programme allows you to have access to a free online trial and experiment with all of the features. Within the trial I managed to successfully edit and complete these title and credit sequence for my short film. However, as it was only a free trial I could not download them without the company logo appearing throughout. This is due to the fact as we are only a small independent film company we do not have a large budget and cannot afford the full access to the software, which means we are unable to use it for the titles and credits in our short film. Due to the small budget we have for our short film, we have had to continue using softwares such as WeVideo and Adobe Premiere Pro to create the title and credit sequence within our film.

Sound Research - Voiceover

After researching into the different types of sounds that are used within short films, I was really inspired by the use of a voiceover in the film 'Thomas'. The use of a voiceover throughout is very effective as it tells the story directly towards the audience, rather than having a range of different sounds, which can become quite confusing and they can distract the audience from the narrative. Within the short film 'Thomas' the tone of the voiceover appears to the audience as very calming and friendly, which can attract the audience's attention throughout. It allows them to create a personal relationship with the voice heard within the clips, which is due to the fact that the audience wants a voice that sounds authentic and genuine to them. A voiceover can be very powerful as it can create certain emotions towards a character within the film. For example, in 'Thomas' the tone of the voiceover creates a feeling of sadness and sympathy for the boy along with the soundtrack heard in the background of the piece. We have chosen to create a similar atmosphere within our own short film as it fits well with the genre of the film, which is a drama. Our voiceover artist will be recorded by the original character of Edward as we want it to appear as realistic as possible throughout.

Changes to Script

Example of a Promotional Package

This is an example of a promotional package for the award winning short film 'ReMoved'. The film is an emotional story that follows a young girl who is taken from her home and placed into foster care as a result of domestic violence. The film was created to bring awareness, encourage, and be useful in foster parent training, and raising up foster parents. The short film gained such a large audience and success that eventually the producers released a sequel to it. The second film 'ReMoved Part 2' continues to focus on the young girl in foster care, whilst exploring the perspectives on the adults involved within the case. The second film was funded through a very successful campaign, which has led the short film to go viral and gain a huge audience across the world. This is the poster from the first film, which includes the an image of the main character that reveals who the film is going to be focused on throughout. The tagline "I am unseen unloved unheard unwanted" also highlights some of the themes that are shown in the film and it can reflect the genre of the film, which is a drama. The poster also includes the awards that it has won and the credits are located at the bottom of the image.
Another part of the promotional package is a film review, which is similar to what I will creating in my own promotion.The film review overall is very positive towards the short film and praises it throughout the review by using certain language, which can persuade the audience to view it. The review mentions the names of the people involved within the film including directors, producers and actors. This can allow the reader to recognise and create a personal relationship with the film. The film review goes on to talk about all of the festivals and awards that the film was involved in, which portrays the film as very successful. The review includes visuals from the film itself and there is even a link to a full version of the film towards the end. I have decided to analyse this example of a promotional package as it has had a lot of success through the making of it up until the film was released. The film poster and review include a lot of elements that I am hoping to include in my own promotion, which will hopefully lead to a successful outcome for my short film.

Click the link below to watch ReMoved.
https://youtu.be/lOeQUwdAjE0

My Film Review Layout

This is the layout of my film review template, which is part of my promotional package. I decided to follow this layout as it has a similar design to other views found within the magazine Empire. I thought it would be appropriate to follow this design as I am exhibiting my film review within Empire. By using a similar design this will allow me to successfully attract my target audience and eventually gain an even larger audience altogether. I included feature such as the title of the magazine and the website where you can find the reviews as they are on the conventions of a film review. I also decided to recreate many of the graphics found within the reviews that are published in Empire as this is another convention. I am going to write my review using a columned layout as it is the most common style of writing within film reviews, especially within the Empire magazine. Other features that are going to be included in my film review will be a rating of the film to give the audience an overall quality of the film without having to read the entire article. I am also going to include an image of my main character Edward in my review as it gives an insight into who the film is mainly going to be focused on throughout. Finally, towards the end of my review I will be adding a small comment on where the film will be screened later on, which will be at the Sundance Film Festival as they are our distributors.

Film Review Text

Structure of a Film Review

1. INTRODUCTION

This should give a small overview of the characters and the synopsis of the film. Within the introduction it can also sum up the reviewer's overall opinion about the film. This allows the readers to form their own judgement on the film without reading the entire review.

2. MAIN BODY

This is usually made up of two paragraphs, with the first paragraph describing the plot and the action, whilst informing the reader which actors play each role. Within the main body it can also include analysis of the film, in terms of the director, cinematography, sounds and special effects. The reviewer can balance the positive and negative aspects throughout the film here.

3.CONCLUSION

Within the conclusion of the film review it can tell the reader when the film will be released and sometimes even where it can be found. Towards the end of a film review, this is also where the reader can find the reviewer's overall opinion of the film and whether they think it is worth watching or not.

A Day at The Guardian

Last week our teacher organised a trip to visit The Guardian's office in London,which gave us the oppurtnuity to practice writing a feature article for their newspaper. Our feature article was based on our own opnions of a particular topic,which meant we had to be honest and truthful throughout. This visit to The Guardian gave me a better understanding of the style and tone of our film review that we will be creating. It also allowed me an insight into the design and layout of the film review as the article was similar to the overall layout of a film review, including headings, straplines and graphics. As a feature artcile is mainly based on personal opinions this is similar to what you would find in a film review as the reviewer gives their own verdict on the film. Lastly, as the feature article was based in The Guardian the language included had to be quite formal and intellectual due to its target audience. Overall, this trip has really helped me by giving me experience into some of the important elements that I could use within my own film review.

Film Review Layout - Empire Magazine

This is a film review taken from the Empire magazine, which I have annotated in order to see what types of things I should include and think about when creating my own film review. As I have chosen the Empire magazine to include my film review within I am going to follow a similar structure to the example above. I am going to only create a single page for my film review as it is going to be written about a short film, which don't usually have a double page spread in magazines. I am going to include many of these elements within my own film review to make it as realistic as possible and successfully achieve my target audience.

Film Review Analysis

Empire Magazine

Sight and Sound Magazine

Update of Production Schedule 3

This is a continued update of my production schedule, which shows that we have completed our second day of filming and received feedback from my first draft of our short film. In the next week we will be having our last filming day and hopefully will have a finished rough draft of our short film. This means we will be on track with our production schedule and will have our short film finalised by the end deadline. 

Planning to Film - Email

This is a screenshot of an email made by one of my other group members who organised one of our filming days. The email shows that we managed to work out when everyone was available and therefore chose that day to film. It also shows the certain types of shots and equipment needed during that filming session. This worked really well as everyone knew what they needed to be doing on the day and when they were needed to help throughout the filming process. By using the email to organise this filming session, it presented us in a professional light and shows that we took our initiative to organise the group.

Poster Feedback

This feedback is for my two draft posters, which shows my average level is three. My improvements for the two posters are to add my own image and make it look as realistic as possible. All the people that gave me feedback for my film posters seem to have a general idea to what the narrative is about and the overall plot within the film. Also, they seem to know what genre film it is by looking at the poster, which is a drama.

Titles and Credits in Short Films

Decisions Film Poster - Draft 2

This is my second draft of an idea that I really like for my short film poster. I have continued to use the black, white and grey colour scheme within my poster as it reflects the themes and genre of my film clearly. I also decided to keep the same font on my poster as well as it gives quite a serious atmosphere towards the film, which is what I am aiming for. The key image of the young boy looking out towards the distance could suggest he is contemplating his thoughts and feelings, which is something our character Edward does frequently throughout our short film. As the poster could be seen as quite dramatic, this means it could successfully target our audience for our short film. If I were to improve this poster, I could include our character Edward overlooking a particular location or person as it could foreshadow the events later on in our film.

Decisions Film Poster - Draft 1

This is my first rough draft of my 'Decisions' film poster, which I designed and produced on Adobe Photoshop. I decided to use this style font as it is really simple and reflects the genre of our short film. I also chose to incorporate a black background into this design as it highlights the negative content involved within our film, such as mental and physical illnesses. The image of the boy shows he is thinking deeply about a situation, just as our character does frequently within our narrative. This poster could successfully appeal towards our target audience as it clearly portrays the content that could be seen within our short film. I hope to improve this draft by creating my own image of our main character Edward in our short film and incorporate a clearer design of the genre of our film, which is drama.

Control - Film Poster Analysis

Brenda - Film Poster Analysis

Outtakes of Filming Day 2

Editing of Short Film

This is another sample of the rough draft I have been working on during the production stages. This time I have added all the footage from our second filming day and I have added more sound effects throughout. I still need to record the voiceover that will be used within our short film, which is one of the tasks I am going to complete this week. The final stage of producing my rough draft is to add the footage that we will be recording on our third and last filming day next week, which will allow the narrative of the idea to become much clearer throughout. 

Filming Day 2

On our second filming day we was able to film two scenes, including the car and the doctors scene. We were able to get a whole range of different shots as we started filming quite early on in the day, which meant we had more hours to film in daylight. As we had so much time to film, this meant we do not have to re-take any of the shots that we got within the second day. The screenshot shows some of the footage we was able to get and I uploaded all of this onto WeVideo to continue creating a rough editing version of our short film.

Case Study - London Short Film Festival

London Short Film Festival

The London Short Film Festival has been known as the premiere UK showcase for cutting-edge UK independent films and now they accept international submissions from around the world. London Short Film Festival have showcased the very best of the country’s raw talent for 12 years now. The London Short Film Festival is a key part of the UK’s young creative talent and is a significant date within the UK film calender. Every year the festival’s huge audience come to watch screenings and take part in the events, and this network has grown steadily over the years to create an extensive network of short filmmakers. They offer 38 new programmes dedicated to documentary and international screenings for everyone who loves the short film culture. They have currently just decided to pick all of the best bits of London Short Film Festival 2016 to be screened in 19 cinemas across the UK, which allows new and emerging filmmakers to showcase their work. The audiences of the festival are also given an insight into the people behind the cameras as they share their knowledge and exeprtise with the audience.


2015 Facts and Figures:

• Over 10,000 tickets sold
• 1500 UK and international submissions
• 94% of events sold to capacity
• Over 450 films screened

I think that distributing my short film by applying for a film festival is a good way to widen my audience and get access to future contacts if I were to make another short film again. By distributing my short film through a festival it would allow me to successfully target my audience as a lot of young people between the age of 18-30 seem to attend these festivals. It also will allow me to network with other filmmakers and could be a way to find future collaborators. Film festivals can open a door to traditional distribution oppurtunities within the film industry and there is even a chance to win awards for elements within the short film. I believe that film festivals are good ways to meet a variety of different people involved in short films and could help create a much larger audience than expected for my film.

Short Film vs Blockbuster Film Reviews

Lights Out Short Film Review

As we can see from this short film review, the title is very simple and clear stating what is going to read. Below the title it consists of the date the review was posted and the website's name, which tells the reader how recent the film was released and where the review came from. It also shows who the film was directed by and who is starring within the film as they could be names that the audience seem to recognise, which could draw their attention towards the film. Throughout the review there is a frequent use of colloquial and short sentences, which is conventional for short film reviews. This is due to the fact the audience appear to be quite a young, lower class audience compared to those targeted for much larger, high-budget films. Within this review of Lights Out, particular names are highlighted in a bold text, which stands up towards the reader and these names could be popular or well-known people within the short film industry. The review includes two images from the film, one being the titles and the other being a shot of one of the characters that is seen throughout the short film. Including images within a film review, gives the reader an idea of what genre the short film is and can even give an insight into the action and plot of the film, without giving away too much information.  In this example of Lights Out, there seems to be no negative aspects of the short film pointed out in the review. The writer of this review has decided to talk mostly about the strong points and successful moments of elements seen within the film, which could be different in contrast to blockbuster film reviews as they include both positive and negative aspects of a film. At the end of the review there is a link, which leads to more short film reviews on the website. This allows the audience to continue reading more short film reviews of a similar genre and this can cause a word-of-mouth situation where the audience communicates and shares the short film review to others, leading to a wider audience altogether.

Fantastic Beasts Film Review

Firstly, the title of the film review includes more than just the name of the film but it also uses a pun, which can appeal towards the audience by adding a comedic element to it. Underneath the title of the review the newspaper article incorporates a star rating, which isn't usually seen within short film reviews. This rating for the larger blockbuster movies can be seen as a percentage or out of five stars, five being a very successful film. Below the title of the review there is also a short sentence describing the overall narrative of the film and the main character that is starring in it. The review begins by including an image of the main character with a small caption showing who they are in the film. The style of language used throughout this review compared to the short film review is quite different as it uses a lot of jargon and much more formal lexis than the Lights Out review. This is due to the fact that newspapers such as The Guardian are targeted towards a much older and upper class audience than compared to the short film reviews. This film review includes various links to different articles and themes that are common within the film, which allows the reader to read further into certain elements that are included in the film itself. Towards the end of the review, the writer has decided to add in the trailer of the film, which allows the audience an insight into what happens and who stars within the film. However, in short film reviews writers cannot include trailers as they do not exist due to the short length of the actual film. This means the audience will have to watch the actual film through before making their own judgement on it. This blockbuster review finishes off by summarising the themes and a positive sentence describing the film overall. This summary can allow the audience to skip reading the whole review and get a brief overview of what to expect when eventually watching the film.

Codes and Conventions of Film Reviews

Outtakes of Filming Day 1

Audience Feedback

Editing of Short Film

This is a small snippet of the successful footage we managed to film on day one, which I put together on an editing software called WeVideo. I decided to experiment with the software and create a small edited version of the shots we were able to get. After putting all the shots together I decided to add some sound effects and atmospheric music in the background to create a sense of drama throughout the film. Although this is not a completed final draft of our short film, it gave me an insight into the kind of ideas I want to incorporate within my film. To improve this draft I need to record the voiceover of my main character, which will then allow the audience to follow the narrative much more clearly throughout the film. I also need to add more footage from when we have our second filming day, which will hopefully show the overall idea of our film more clearly once added.

Funding Short Films

Update of Production Schedule 2

This is another update of our production schedule, which shows that we have completed one day of filming but we have got to schedule another day of filming due to the fact it started to become dark on our final scene outside. We are also going to be designing our institution logos for our short film next week, which means we will be on track with the production schedule.

Institution Logos

I decided to take on the role of creating our institution logo for the short film and I managed to make one using a free online design website called 'GraphicSprings'. The website allows you to create your own logo by choosing from a range of images and fonts that they provide. Firstly, I decided that picking an image related to film/photography would be quite relevant for the logo as we are making a short film. There was a very wide variety of images to chose from but I found a few of my favourite ones and started to work from there. I also knew I wanted to include a very simplistic font for our institution logo as short films tend to have much smaller and simpler designs. As a group we came up with the name 'EOA Films' which stands for the names of our group members (Ellie, Owen and Anthony) and agreed to include this title in our logo. This is a few of my ideas that I produced throughout the process of using 'GraphicSprings' before choosing a final design.

This is the first concept I came up with, which includes a blue and yellow colour scheme with a hand-drawn style font. I really liked the image of the camera within the design as it is quite quirky and unusual from any logos I have ever seen before in the film industry. However, I was concerned with the colour scheme as it involves bright colours, which do not correlate with the themes in our film. For this reason we decided not to go with this design as it could give off the wrong message.

This is the second design I had created on GraphicSprings, which was different to how I imagined it would turn out. I really like the font within this design as it is quite dramatic, which is significant in our short film as it is categorised in the drama genre. However, I think the image in this design could have been better if it was smaller or a different style altogether. This design wasn't exactly what we was looking for so I decided to continue experimenting with more designs on the website.

I really liked this logo because it was very simple but effective and looked quite professional for a film company. My favourite part of this design was the colour scheme within the font and image, which consisted of light and dark purples. We was considering this to be our final institution logo as it caught our eyes really well, which would be appealing towards our target audience. The colour purple has symbolism of creativity and independence, which would represent our film company perfectly. However, we still felt like there was something missing within the logo so I carried on looking for a potential final design. 

I wasn't too sure about this design but the other members within my group really seemed to like this one so it had potential to be our final design. The only problem I had with this logo was the image on top of text because it looks quite unstructured. Apart from that I really liked the colour scheme and font within the whole design. This was my favourite font on the website as it looks the most professional and appropriate for our short film. As I wasn't keen on this design I thought it would be best to continue looking for a better design that everyone agreed on.

This design was a winner with everyone as the whole group voted for this to be the final design for our institution logo. This design incorporated all of the things we was looking for such as the purple colour scheme, a simple font and the perfect image. My favourite part of this logo is the image of the camera lens actually represents the letter 'O' in the name of our institution, which was an idea that I came up with and it worked successfully. The colours grey and purple contrast really well against one another and makes the logo stand out in a professional way. I still decided to go with one of the original fonts I experimented with as my group seemed to like this one the most. This institution logo is a very simple design with minimal features but we think it would be really successful in the film industry and targeting towards our target audience.

Short Film Institutions

Planning Sheet

Tasks	Responsibility	Completed
Overall narrative planning	I created a PowerPoint of the final ideas pitch and made a mind map of all our initial ideas.	Completed
Storyboard	I volunteered to draw up the storyboard and create the animatic.	Completed
Production schedule- continuously updated	I have been nominated to be in charge of the continually updated production schedule very week.	Updated
List of Characters with character analysis	I took pictures of the audtionees and helped write the analysis of each one to show how we chose our final characters.	Completed
List of props and costumes	I was responsible for creating the list of props an costumes. Once we had chosen all props and costumes that will be used in our film I wrote a brief description of the reasons why we have chosen them.	Completed
Location recce	I took responsibility of taking recces of the potential locations we could use within our short film. Then after making our final decisions on the film I narrowed down the recces to the places we are actually going to be using.	Completed
Screenplay/script	I took responsibility of helping to write the script with one other of my team members. I also took on the role of producing the screenplay for the group in the end.	Completed
Out-takes	As I took on the role of director and camera-woman I will eventually posting some out-takes of our first day of filming.	To be uploaded soon.
Account of re-filming if needed	We have still got to film a few more scenes for our film and when we have our second filming day I will make sure we re-film any shots that we need.	Scheduled for next week.
Sound- what are you going to need and where	We are currently researching any extra sounds we need for our film, but as we are including a voiceover this is the only main sound that will be in our film. I will recording the voiceover with our main character next week.	Currently researching into.

Filming Day 1

On our first day of filming we managed to film the first few scenes of our short film, which included the montage of Edward waking me up until the scene of the rough sleeper receiving food from Edward. We successfully achieved to film some really good shots and angles throughout the day and it allowed me to create a rough of the footage we have filmed so far. Due to lighting conditions and the time of day we need to re-film the scene where Edward smiles at the woman who appears to be upset. Apart from that, as a director I was very pleased with how our first day of filming went altogether. The image above shows the process of making a rough cut of the footage we have so far and I decided to use WeVideo to create the rough cut.

Camera Shots and Angles in Drama

Risk Assessment Sheet

Locations

Costumes Mood Board

Edward

 

 

Rough Sleeper

 

 

The Doctor