Film Review Draft #3

To improve my film review I followed my previous feedback. When doing this I thought to include the typical 'IN CINEMAS' header that Empire uses, but as my short film will be released on YouTube this isn't needed.

Film Review Draft #2

Film Review Layout

After making my first draft, I realised that I had tried to design the layout for a one-page review based on the layout of a two-page review. Because of this, I decided to construct my film review again, using a typical one-page layout found in the Empire magazine. My layout is based on the film review for 'Joy' (2015) in the December 2015 paper issue.

Photoshop

I had the task of producing a film poster and a film review. When doing this, I had to become familiar with the different tools and effects of Adobe Photoshop.

As an introduction to using Photoshop, my teacher set me a task of creating a film poster. When doing this I practised importing images into Photoshop and removing unwanted areas of an image (e.g. background). I also discovered the different layers you could add onto text to create eye-catching titles.

To expand my knowledge of Photoshop, I watched the following video;

From watching this video and completing the task, I understood what tools I needed to used to achieve the desired effects for my short film poster. Here is a video of how I used these tools, showing a segment of the process of creating my ancillary texts.

Film Review Draft #1

After studying the layout of the review of 'Daddy's Home' (2015) from Empire (both the paper issue and the online issue) I produced the first draft of my short film poster.

Film Review Content

In lesson, I was able to analyse this review for the film Bad Moms (2016) and examine the language used.

Using these resources and my knowledge of the style of content of the Bad Moms review, I was able to make a draft of my film review for my short film.

I gained feedback from this draft and understood that I had to expand on my opinions and explore all aspects of the film.

Film Poster: Second Drafts & Feedback

Responding to the feedback I received for my first drafts, I developed my four posters and gained feedback from my target audience on these.

Film Poster: First Drafts & Feedback

Logo Animation

This animation was achieved on Serif DrawPlus X6.

Short Film Music Composition

Listening to the feedback I received about the incidental music within my short film, I decided to study my narrative and compose some melodramatic music. This was done using the Sibelius software and an available piano. The piece begins very slowly, but gradually builds and becomes quite contrapuntal, replicating the thoughts going through Lucy Merrill's mind and her deteriorating state as many cyberbullying occurrences fragment her mindset. This piece is unfinished, however, an extract of it will be used towards the end of my short film.

Credits

Opening Credits

Upon watching many short films, I wish to have brief opening credits. This will not be a title sequence as a complete sequence will take up 2-3 minutes of the short film, making it unconventional as short films typically do not have long openings. Short films are made to get a point across to the audience and therefore begin almost immediately. Typically, opening credits to short films should last up to 1 minute. Additionally, the production of a short film commonly includes a small cast and crew, so the making of a title sequence would be unsuccessful.

While every film production is dissimilar, the most common order of the opening credits to a short film consist of the distribution company name, followed by the production company and the filmmaker's name. Short filmmakers often include their institution logo at the start of their opening credits. The majority of the time the opening credits finish with the title of the film. The way the title is displayed is dependent on the genre of the product. This is in terms of font, sizing, colour and animation. For example,

Closing Credits

On the other hand, the closing credits of a short film should take longer to view than the opening credits and should include companies' names who have work under copyright embedded in the product. Usually, the closing credits last up to 30 seconds, but can last up to 1 minute depending on the scale of the production. This is identifiable in the closing credits of 'The Snowman' (1982).

Credits are displayed in order of importance. The general order of opening credits consists of the following;

• Name of the film studio(s)
• Production company(ies)
• Possessory credits
• Above-title billed actor(s)
• Film title
• Main cast
• Last billed actor(s)
• Casting director(s)
• Composer(s)
• Visual effects supervisor(s)
• Costume designer(s)
• Film editor(s)
• Production designer(s)
• Director(s) of Photography
• Producer(s) and/or Executive Producer(s)
• Screenwriter(s)
• Director(s)

Sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billing_(filmmaking)

If there are no opening credits present at the beginning of the film then this order is reversed in the closing credits.

Composition of Closing Credits

Regularly, a film's closing credits transition from the bottom upwards with the text in a fixed position across the frame.

Some filmmakers believe this technique is very effective in terms of continuing the theme of the film. so they include an unofficial closing sequence, this may be a brief animated sequence showing the roles that are higher in the production hierarchy before displaying the typical closing credits.

Short Film End Credits from August Miller on Vimeo.


Filmmakers can also construct closing credits where unseen footage/outtakes ('bloopers') is positioned around the general transitioning text. This is seen in 'NADIA' (2017). The outtakes in the closing credits of this short film are used to provide actuality as characters from the film are still in character, keeping the audience engaged in and aware of the real-life situation that the protagonist experiences.

The font of the closing credit text should be plain and clear, making it easy for the audience to read the different roles. Conventionally, the text is white, displayed on a black background. The official closing credits have no relevance to the narrative of the media product and should signify the ending of the short film. Without any research, my credits would appear very unprofessional, lowering the standard of my short film.

I was able to formulate and idea for the structure and layout of my opening and ending credits.

Reviewing this, I need to reorder the list of job roles in my ending credits.

Making Production Logo after second draft

We chose to name our production company 3/4 Productions as there are four members of our filmmaking group and we enjoyed the idea of having our logo split into four with one quarter of the logo disappearing. This animation will be applied to the logo once I have strengthened my film composition and made another edit. Here are 2 logos we created on Serif DrawPlus X6.

Conforming to the typical short film company logo, this logo has a small area, allowing it to be displayed on media products with limited space (i.e. a poster).

As well as the disappearing quarter, this company name in this logo would flash as if the camera is projecting it onto the viewer's screen.

Unable to make a decision on which logo to choose, I conducted a questionnaire for my target audience to decide which logo is more effective for an independent company.

The majority preferred the smaller logo rather than the larger logo. Because of this, I will be adapting this favoured logo and incorporating it in my short film as well as on my film poster.

Refilming Update

After reviewing the feedback from our first draft, we put a list together of shots we needed to refilm and the costumes needed for these shots. I have emailed our actress to inform her of when we would like to refilm.

Refilm

Shaky/ Out of focus shots

Costume 1 - BLUE TOP AND LEGGINGS

Close up - reading book in bed

Close up - receiving text

Close up - text message on phone

Medium shot - getting out of bed

Aerial shot - lying down on bed

Costume 2 - RED TOP AND LEGGINGS

Close up- text message

High shot - emily on bed

Close up - emily

Costume 1 - BLUE TOP AND LEGGINGS - RED SCRUNCHIE

Book throw

Medium shot - needs to cry before close up

Close up - crying

Close up - getting stuff out the cupboard

Tracking - walking back into the room

Record her on her bed after she has taken the pills

Filming dates

Wednesday 15th - leave at lunch and film period 5.

Filming: Plan for the Day

Prior to filming, we decided to conduct a schedule for the day of filming. We were able to film ourselves going through the filming schedule and explaining what we hope to achieve at certain hours of the day.

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Sound Research

Non-diegetic Music

Organising the sound for our short film, I decided that each flashback should have different soundtracks of different genres, to really distinguish between each flashback and indicate a new day occurring. Besides this, there are also melodic piano tracks on WeVideo, where our short film will be edited, that we can in case we decide to portray more of a mellow feel throughout our short film.

• Pop music

• Indie music

• Indie/rock music

• Slow paced indie/rock

• Slow/pulled back rock

• Abstract pop/rock

• Subtle/relaxed electronic

Some of these tracks can be heard here;

Sound Effects and Foley

Here is a list of sound effects needed to convey actuality within our short film and convince the audience of the protagonist's reality.

• Page turnings

• Phone notification sounds (beeps)

• Phone vibration

• Tapping of phone screen (clicks)

• Atmospheric sound (white noise)

• Muffled music

• Scratch noise

• High frequency noise

• Thump (on wood)

• Screen clicking

• Phone vibration

• Static noise

• Footsteps (on wood)

• Wooden door opening (creak)

• Wooden door closing

• Bottle cap removal

• Movement of pills

• Bottle hitting floor

Samples of a few of these sound effects are present here;


I made a folder on Google Drive to contain these sounds and share them with members of my group for easy access, if each person were to create their own edits of our short film. I will be updating this folder with other sounds that I believe will develop interest in our short film.

Practise shots with our actress

In preparation for our filming day, we took some brief practise shots with our actress to get a feel for the environment we will be filming in and to strengthen the composition of our shots. We applied a mellow soundtrack to this clip to see if the actress' emotions and expressions illustrated the serious and upsetting tone of our short film.

Risk Assessment

My group and I sat down and thought about and problem we could encounter when filming. By doing so, we were able to draw a list of risks that could occur on the filming day, assessing them and finding solutions to the problems.

Camera angle development with practice

We took it upon ourselves to practice filming our short film using available camera equipment. We were able to work out how to use the tripod and dolly to effectively frame our shots and practice our camera angles. Here is a brief video displaying the shots that we were able to shoot.

Auditions and Casting

My group and I took the liberty of holding auditions as part of our casting process. Four females between the age of 16-18 were auditioned for the role of Lucy Merrill, aged 17. We were only able to film one audition (Emily Mellows') as equipment wasn't available to us when the other auditions took place.

Emma-Louise Edgell-Reeves

Emma-Louise is 17 years of age. We selected Emma as a potential actress as she has studied GCSE Drama and is currently studying A-Level Drama. She takes part in a weekly drama club where she mentors children, allowing her to perfect her performance skills. She also performs in productions inside and outside of school, such as school drama production Treasure Island, and the current school musical Big Fish where she has an exceptional role.

Unfortunately, we have decided that Emma-Louise is not suitable for the role as her height exceeds that of Lucy Merrill's, so we would have trouble taking certain shots such as a high angle (as our equipment is restricted). Also, she wouldn't be able to give up the time to be committed to filming our short film.

Emily Mellows

Emily is 17 years of age. We selected Emily as a potential actress as she has previous experience acting in a GCSE Media film. Because of this experience, she is familiar with the commitment needed to successfully shoot our short film.

Emily Mellows' audition was very well done, however, we decided that she is not suitable for the role as she appears too young to be the character.

Elizabeth Reynolds

Elizabeth is 16 years of age. We selected Elizabeth as a potential actress as she studied GCSE Drama and is currently studying A-Level Drama, where she has to act using different emotions on a regular basis. She has also performed in previous school productions and has achieved a successful role in the current school production.

 

We have chosen not to cast Elizabeth Reynolds as it is finalised that our main character will be a blonde female. She also appears too young to fulfil the role.

Emily Styrka

Emily is 18 years of age. We selected Emily as, similar to Elizabeth, she has also studied GCSE Drama and is currently studying A-Level Drama. Emily is also the Drama Captain, as leads a weekly Drama Club for younger students. Her mentorship allows her to gain experience in working with others and develop her understanding and performance of acting. She enjoys taking part in drama productions inside and outside of school, as has had main roles in both last year's drama production and this year's production.

With much thought, we have decided to cast Emily Styrka as Lucy Merrill. This is because we felt that she suited the description of the character the most, and her many experiences have allowed her to perform emotions exceptionally and cry on command - saving us time when filming.
We also know that she will be a reliable actress as she has free time to dedicate to filming and has a passion for drama.

Animatic Feedback

After presenting our animatic to members of our audience, we were able to receive some constructive feedback, to which we responded to in this video. We wish to take this feedback on board and adapt our short film so that it reaches its highest potential.