Presenting our idea

http://www.a2medialewissurridge.blogspot.com/

This is a link of a video of us presenting our idea a class of students in our age range we are aiming for, thay gave their opinion and also gave us some ideas about how we could make it more interesting to the audience. we explained that we had decided to make it hyperreality, therefore the audiece is seperated from the film meaning they know that its just a film and it couldnt happen to them. thereofore we decided the violent scenes in the film would be either in black and white or really bright colours to make it look less realistic.

Age Rating

Finding out our target audince meant that we then knew who our film would appeal o. however we need to find out the age ratings and if our film will apply to a certain bracket. Therefore i looked on the BBFC website, ( www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15 ) From looking at this i was able to see al the different age ratings a film could have and why a film is classed as that age. Because my target audience is 15-17 year olds I looked particularly at the15certificate.
For a 15 these restrictions apply;

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

From looking at this certificate our film would be a 15 as we will have violence but not a lot. we will be mainly focusing on the context between the different characters.

analysing layout

Header; EMPIRE is an established well known film magazine: this is implicit in the example to the left -

People will know what the magazine is and what it is ahout even with the title being obscured.

This is very simplistic but effective, you know what its about and you know the actors. This is what i am aiming for in my layout.

I do not like the layout of this but it does apply to the conventions. on the other examples they are very bright and colourful, this is not, therefore my first impression would be not to read this article.

I do like how the name of the artist is very noticable.

I like how the interviewee is sitting on the text on the right, and i like the layout however it looks like there is more photos than text. Thereofre if i were to use a layout like this i wouldnt put as many photos in, or i would possibly make the photos a bit smaller.

I like the layout of this as it applies to the conventions, however

i feel that

I have had a go at creating layout ideas - see below - but they do not fit with layout conventions; i needed to look at existing examples to identify strong and weak conventions

Magazine layout

Lewis Made some Magazine layout ideas, you can see them on

http://a2medialewissurridge.blogspot.com/

Poster layout ideas

Here are some photos of a poster layout;

On all of the posters the writing is bold for everyone to see, as you have to be able to see it from a distance. It has to be clear as it is recorded at people only pay attention to the poster for a couple of seconds this means we need to get all of the information we want onto the poster and make it stand out from the others, this is why we are going to keep the poster simple but give all of the information we can.

For this poster the title is clear
And the last thing seen on a poster is at the bottom right hand corner therefore its the last thing seen.

For this poster, the title is in the bottom right hand corner because if it was in a magazine the last thing you would see before you turn over the next page would be the title. i think this is better than the web address being there as i would want people to remember the title of the film.

I do not like this layout as i think everything is too close together and too in the corner of the photo. i would not choose this either.

For this the title is clear but the website address is not. Therefore i would not use this.

Weekly update

In todays lesson we are going to;
Finish magazine review planning- layout
Magazine Layout Plan
Poster planning
Upload photos of plan
Upload photos of a magazine review




We were able to this this as we split the responsibilities, in the lesson i was able to upload examples of recent magazine reviews and explain what i think our magazine shouold look like and why. There are many different layout styles, i like the layout with equal amount of photos and writing to show the film. I was also able to create and upload some ideas of how we can layout oure poster for our short film. i think this was a productive lesson as i was able to schieve my goals set.

Weekly progress

After researching the conventions of a magazine and a poster we have then decided to create a trial of what a magazine spread and poster would look like.

Questionnaire

To find out our target audience we created a questionnaire which is shown below, from this we found out where the best place to distribute the film and to advertise it and much they would pay to watch the film. Because we have found out this information we can now look closer into the .We will be able to see why short films are age rated a certain age and how what makes it that rating.

Age

12-14 []
15-17 []
18+ []
17 x 4

Do you watch Short films?
Yes []
No []
occasionally []
no x 2
yes x 1
occasionally x 1

If no, why?

..........................................................................................................
too simple , doesnt hold interest


What genre would you prefer to watch?
Thriller []
Comedy []
Horror []
Animated []
Romcom []
thriller x 1
thriller/ comedy x 1
Animated x 1
Romcom x 1


What would you like to see in a short film?
Comedy/jokes []
Action []
Narrative []
Simple storyline []
Complex storyline []
Comedy/jokes x 2
Complex storyline x 1
Action x 1

How many characters do you think a short film should have?
1 []
2 []
3 []
4 []
5 []
6 []
7 + []
2 x 2
3 x 1
6 x 1


How long should a short film last for?
less than 5 minutes []
5 minutes []
10 minutes []
15 minutes []
50 minutes []
More than 20 minutes []
5 x 2
10 x 1
20 x 1


Where would you watch a short film?
Internet []
Cinema []
T.V []
Internet x 2
Cinema x 2

How do you think they should be advertised?
Cinema []
Social networking sites []
Posters []
T.V []
Internet []
posters x 1
cinema x 1
social networking sites x 1
Internet x 1

Where should the location be set?
Forest []
City []
Village []
Streets []
city x 2
village x 1
random x 1

Do you think its more affective to film at night?
Yes []
No []
Random []
Other ............................
No x 2
Yes x 1
Dusk x 1

What time of the year should it be set?
Winter []
Summer []
Autumn []
Spring []
Autumn x 2
Winter x 1
Summer x 1

what time period should it be set in?
Modern []
Past []
Future []
Any []
Modern x 4

How much would you pay to see a short film?
Nothing
less than 1 pound []
1-2 pounds []
3-4 pounds []
5-6 pounds []
6-10 pounds []
10-15 pounds []
other []
less than one pound x 1
two pounds x 1
five pounds x 2


Why would you go see a short film?

.....................................................................................
new experience
Boredom
entertaining
new cultural experience

Who would you go see a short film with?

....................................................................................
Girlfiend x 1
Friend x 3


How should we promote this?

...................................................................................
Bus posters
Magazine review
Radio adverts
Web advertising

What type of viewer do you think would watch short films?
.................................................................................
Teen x 4

Conventions of a poster

After studying posters from several short films i have discovered that there are many convetions specific to a poster, for example most posters have the minimum of information, they are mostly used as an attention grabber. For example they use a big picture to grab your attention and use bold colours they often have just the title above as a source of information, this is used so you look up information about the film and will often link to a webpage to the film, we are doing this with the magazine spread. On our poster we will have the release date of the film the title, the webite adress and a still shot from the film, as this is the most common convention of the poster.
the aim of the poster is to grab someones attention, it is said we only have 11 seconds, this means the writing has to be bold

Magazine review

here is a link to the conventions of a magazine review.

http://www.a2medialewissurridge.blogspot.com

Todays planning

We have decided that Lewis would find out about the conventions of a magazine review and I would research posters, but we will then discuss the possible ideas for both.
We decided to allocate us different taks to make sure that we were able to complete all of the tasks. This means we can Research as much as we can in the time allocated for our short film. However because we are splitting the roles we will need to make sure we are able to discuss and show each other what we have come up with and how we can change/improve them. Therefore at the start of the lesson we shall present to each other what we have done that week.

Genre Research

As Research for short films we watched the film Colin as the genre was a thriller/horror as our initial idea was to make a thriller/horror film. However me and lewis both made a thriller last year we decided against this and decided to make a drama/comedy. After watchiing colin we did however realise that using too many long clips would bore the audience as we felt this during the film so we are going to use a series of short clips. We are also going to make it in colour as this suits the convention more.
We decided to watch Colin directed by Marc Price as it was a short film and it also had a very small budget, they made the whole film on just $75. We looked at this because this gave
us ideas about how people could produce short films on a small budget but were still able to make the film look good.
In the film there was alot of longer scenes rather than lots of different clips. we thought this is a common camera angle in within short films.
Also the film focused more on the issues of the zombies and how they are affected rather than hitting them and having gorey scenes.

Short film Research

From researching Short films we have learnt there are many conventions of a short film that are needed, we watched Cinema16 which featured lots of diffrernt short films which helped provide background information and devices we could use in our own film.
We watched a short film called terry tate that was comedy based by the director of dodgeball, this film was made by a series of short clips and we thought this could be a possible way of making our short film. we also watched another short film called carmen, this was a comedy which then later on turned into a short drama, we realised this was a common thing with short films. We decided this was a good genre to recreate. We also thought about the idea of using dialogue inbetween scences as this also appeared in carmen, however we havent decided yet but we think this will make us stand out but still appeal to the conventions of a short film.

We also watched paris je t'aime this was a collection of films all about their love for paris, there were films about love, fear and other emotions. This showed me how people can come up with different ideas but all based around one thing, paris.

Potential Blog titles

Storyboard
Planning
Research
Audience feedback
Target audience
Conventions
Sound
Editing
Camera angles
Techniques used
Marketing
Media terminology
Presentations
References
Progress reports
Film
Design
Layout
Script
Character development
Influences

What I am aiming for

Level 3 12–15 marks

There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience.

There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.

There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.


Time management is good.

There is a good level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.

There is proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.

There are proficient communication skills.


Film/Television/Video
Level 3
The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

shooting material appropriate to the task set;

selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.



Print
Level 3
The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

use IT appropriately for the task set;

show understanding of conventions of layout and page design;


My post above called anaylsing layout helped me to understand the different layouts of a magazine spread.


show awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;

accurate use of language and register;

appropriately integrating illustration and text;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

shooting material appropriate to the task set;

selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including within text, within particular IT programmes, cropping and resizing.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.


Me and lewis are working together well in a group, however i think that we need to write more comments on each others blog and discuss how to improve our work we have already done.

Group Work

I have decided to work with lewis surridge, we have decided to make a short film. Our secondary taks are to design a double page spread in a magazine and create a poster to market the film. We decided not to make a radio advert as we are not familiar witht the conventions of a radio advertisement.