Twitter Account - Promotion

I decided to make a Twitter account as part of the promotion for my short film. I chose to do this as social media is an important part within the distribution and exhibition of short films. By creating this media platform it could allow me to gain a wider audience, therefore resulting in a very successful short film. On this account I included images of my main character Edward to show the audience who my film will be focused on throughout. These images can also reveal the genre of the film due to his facial expressions and the location within. I am hoping that the account will gain many followers, which will be a success when marketing and promoting my short film.

Changes from my Animatic to my Short Film

Due to problems with our budget and incentives for our actors we decided to cut out two scenes within our short film, which were the encounter with the young woman and the bully scene. These are some screenshots of my animatic and the scenes we decided to change within the production of my short film.

The encounter with the young woman:

The bully scene:

Final Photos - Film Poster

These are my final 3 chosen images, which I will be editing on Photoshop to create my film poster.

Film Poster Photos

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.