Evaluation

My Evaluation:

Lewis Underwood's Media Evaluation A2

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Final Cut: Short Film

This is my short film in its final cut:

Ancillary Task: Poster and Film Magazine

These are my two ancillary tasks.
My final film poster:

My final magazine spread:

Extra Scene

With the addition of the extra scene I'm shooting I've seen it as an ideal opportunity to give more depth to my short film. Instead of getting the protagonist to take just any picture, he will be trying to take a picture of a white lily he has found. The connotations of a white lily are known to be of death which is relevant to my story. This isn't obvious but it is known to be related to death and I can include this to give a clue as to what has happened to the protagonist. Furthermore the flower is aesthetically good looking and will be believable that the student will try to take a photo of it.

Rough Cut + Feedback

Rough Cut:

Feedback:

Seeing as my conceptual idea was a bit too abstract to understand within my short film and wasn't executed as well as I would have liked, this has led to some changes to make it a bit easier to digest and watch.

• The protagonist needs to be seen taking more pictures to solidify his role as an 'art student' etc. Furthermore shots of him looking frustrated is slightly confusing. Perhaps emphasis on trying to take a good picture and failing at finding one, may support his attempt to climb out and take the lake shot.
• Need to see protagonist drowning, visual pleasure and understanding of what the plot revolves around. Currently the screen cuts to black and you hear the audio of the fall. Initially my plan was to film him 'drowning' but my actor wasn't keen on the idea and i've had to work around it.
• There is no audio in the shop scene to relate that the protagonist is not really there. The shop assistant is seen on his phone talking to someone "It's been dead in here all day, ..." etc. This would help to support the plot.
• Remove the car scene at the end, it gets too surreal and is confusing. Also bring forward the bystander saving him section to keep the narrative simple and easy to follow.

To do list:

• Film: The protagonist taking more pictures,
• Film: The drowning scene,
• Record: The shop assistant audio for background sound
• Edit: Re arrange the order of some sequences in adobe Premiere.

Marxist Film Theory

What is Marxist film theory?

Marxist film theory is the opposition to traditional Hollywood narrative structures in which it shuns featuring a singular protagonist and promotes group decision making. Essentially Marxist films will promote marxist ideas through film such as far right political views and believe Hollywood narratives promote capitalism.


How I think it has influenced my work.

When reflecting upon my rough cut I found it interesting that I had structered my narrative in a very Hollywood style in the sense it revolved around one protagonist and his represented the story from his perspective. I had also used shots of the character eating the well known "snickers" and drinking "Coke".
Furthermore I used the ultimately original male protagonist... These aspects generally popped into my head whilst brainstorming and I didn't question their relativity.

Initially I generally regarded myself as a independant thinker, whereas this research revealed to me how much my ideas can be influenced by what i've been watching and also as a result of advertising. Hopefully I will be able to consider these factors next time im going through the brain storming creative process, as this was quite a scary revelation.

Shoot 4

This is hopefully my final scheduled film shoot to gather the required footage for my short film.

This shoot included reshooting the panning shot which I felt went well, the only issue I had encountered is that I was unable to get the same SLR camera and had to settle for a slightly smaller version which means I will have to try to mitigate this during post-production.

The filming went well and I felt I was well prepared with props and shooting schedule regardless of the SLR camera issue. I employed the same technique which had worked well in previous shoots in which I prepared a small list of shots I needed and had sketched some of them out.

This helps me to get straight down to shooting the specific shots and angles I needed.

A further problem I had when filming was that I needed a shot of the mobile showing the protagonist receiving a text from his father. When I was filming the close up it was reflecting a lot of light which resulted in not really being able to see the text and also showing me in the reflection. To combat this I may try taking it again with a polarising lens to reduce this negative effect or perhaps I will animate the phones screen into a full screen shot. This would be an interesting extreme close up and should work as it follows a shot of the protagonist taking out his phone and looking at it.

Feedback

I received some feedback on some of my filming:

• A pan on one of my opening shots had a judder about mid way. I could either reshoot it or cut it into two shots. I will try the cut too see what it looks like but I will reshoot the scene in my upcoming final shoot, so I have both to choose from.
• I was suggested about adding in a final shot of wiping away the water from the shop counter. This could symbolise the end of the ghosts existence and is a nice way to end the short with a meaningful shot.

Ancillary Text: Film Poster

Dimensions: (width) 11'' by (height) 17''.

birds - mindil beach markets - dusty walk off.. end of short.

-slightly eerie, but funky and summery.

Ancillary Text: Film Poster w/e Image

Shoot 3

I've filmed at the Colne Valley visitor centre this time with my second actor and I feel it went quite well, I had followed example from my second shoot and created a shoot schedule so I knew what I needed to shoot and what angles I required so I wasn't left unsure of what I had to do.

I still feel that I'm not taking control completely in the sense I feel I have to rush to get the shooting completed quickly and get out of their hair. Due to this I often don't have a majority of shots or reshoots which means I may have missed or made a mistake with a shot and wont have many takes to choose from.

To improve I think I will just have to take control more and slow down the process to ensure that I get the best camera takes. I think I've filmed about 60% of the total amount of footage needed, my next shoot is once more at Black Park, so ideally I will shoot the remaining bulk in the coming few weeks due to my actor going away on holiday relatively soon. 

This gives me a good opportunity to really fine tune the shooting schedule and also work on my other ancillary tasks.

Ancillary Task: Film Review

People often say less is more, and in the art of film too subtle or too much can be the making or breaking. Perhaps director Lewis Underwood took this too literally in his upcoming short film "Cloudy Skies" with his plot line, somewhat falling short of sense. Regularly left wondering what it is you are watching the film struggles to portray its meaning to the audience. One major flaw in the film is that it doesn't accept that one major rule cant be broken, "all films must have a beginning, a middle and an end." As the film doesn't manage to establish a strong meaning in the early stages it's left struggling to pick up the pieces as it moves on at pace.

That said its plain to see the film has good intentions; with the easy to digest screenplay and a strong onscreen presence with actor Paul Scicluna, "Cloudy Skies" is a film to watch with an active mind. The short follows art student Paul as he attempts to get to grips with what it is that is happening to him. Think of a slightly skewered, darker influence from "Ghost Town" (Ricky Gervais 2008.) The fleetingly poignant camera work will allow viewers to absorb snippets of close emotional breakdowns as Paul comes to realisation that he might be unable to see the people he loves ever again.

When we spoke to Lewis (director/editor/producer) we realised that he himself was also unhappy with the final product, "I see myself as a perfectionist, and what Ive created isn't perfect - a lot of blood, sweat and frustration went into this project and although there are parts I love; the entirety of the piece is missing a few key elements." We recommended him to not beat himself up too much as he himself said their are masterful snips throughout, a constant mental relay race relating focused points throughout the film.

The velocity of pace is the definitively unique aspect, as CS attempts to divert from a traditional editing structure, with shots often cut seconds short and the pace always quickening. It definitely adds to the intensity of some scenes, which makes the film worthwhile as it showcases some of Underwood's finer film making qualities. These speedy increments allow the pace to peak alongside emotional feedback from Paul, to really come across quickly and effectively.

Verdict:
Its frustrating to see that this is a film that was undertaken without laying down the groundwork, however it excels in its editing sequences and thus doesn't cease to keep the viewer interested. We hope to see improvement and big things for Underwood in the future, however "Cloudy Skies" remains a sail short of a boat. ***

Film Review Research

I've looked at "Empire" film review and "Rotten Tomatoes" both online reviews. I picked these two because I wanted to experience two types of reviews, as Empire have a print based magazine version coexisting with their online counterpart and will have a more professional style of reviewing than R T as they are based off user reviews and casual critic reviews.

Empire:
Empire use a very sophisticated language style; the pace of the writing is swift and smooth whilst always referring back to film throughout the review. However although the language is at a high level in generally steers clear of film terms such as mise-en-scene etc as it knows that their target audience may not understand these terms.
"In a way, the story is practically a Biblical parable, since it involves many of the elements you might find in the scriptures: hubris, repentance and deliverance."

This is an example of the level of review that Empire exhibits as it delves deep into the plot. Empire succeeds highly in portraying when a viewer will watch the film what its likely they will think and feel.

The review looks over the entire plot line and highlights the better and worse points of the film. Empire writes in a respectful way, always complementing where deserved and not mocking too much when a film is rated low. Although a pun here or there is always present.

Overall: Empire writes in an elegant manner so its easy for the reader to trail through whilst getting a good understanding on what the films about and if its made well. Humour is sometimes used to engage the reader into an laid back, social manner.

Rotten Tomatoes:

It can be seen from looking at the main web page for RT that they do things a little differently, detailed by their rating system (Rotten or Fresh.) Although I'm a little unsure of what details a good film, with the two sub ratings I'm pretty sure a rotten 10% for Little Fockers isn't great. Especially with my first hand experience of that film being that upon exiting the cinema feeling somewhat deflated and wincing at the thought of the ticket price, a rotten 10% seems to sound fairly accurate regardless of its ambiguous nature.

Almost instantly my first thoughts are is that RT is a website to engage viewers, with various polls, picture galleries and film news floating in and around various sub-sections, I root around to find what their take is on the new and highly rated "The King's Speech." (Below)

RT tends to conducts their film reviews to be very much publicly controlled as users are allowed to post their own thoughts on films in little snippet quotes. Furthermore they incorporate the views of top critics and other film reviewers giving it a very collective and perhaps reliable rating base. However it doesn't quite help me in as it wont directly fit to what I have to produce for my ancillary task.

Rotten Tomatoes:

(Click to enlarge)

Magazine:
Due to Rotten Tomatoes not really fulfilling one portion of my research I've decided to look at Total Film magazine. I bought a copy of their latest film review magazine and jotted down some notes about how they write in a informative yet informal manner. It's as if they are having a conversation about the film with you.

Furthermore I've noted how TF lays out their bigger reviews on double page spreads and carefully position images and certain chunks of information in and around the main article and image. This gives the article a layered depth whilst not cluttering it too much so that its overpowering.

Shoot 2

Shoot Two completed. Putting aside the minor HR difficulties, such as getting a text at three in the morning saying that they wont be able to film today. Which I managed to sidestep, just - as I managed to pull in a favour to get a similar role fitting actor to fill the part. The second shoot was succesful, as I managed to compile all of the shots I needed from today.



I also managed to stick to my schedule which I had constructed to minimise filming casualties and to also organise different shots. Which resulted in not filming the scenes in a linear order but in a way that reduced the waiting times and kept continuity. This means I will have to sort out the shots during post production but this isn't an issue.






I feel that I've learnt from my first initial shoot and have since taken a more direct approach to directing; this was much easier thanks to myself knowing what shots I wanted to get, as seen by the above image. I feel that directing possibly wasn't my strong point seeing as last year we did our short film project as a group and I was able to take a behind the scenes role, in the sence I did a lot of the editing and shot construction but was with another person when directing our shooting.

Ancillary Text: Film Poster Mock

Title: The title will consist of... the title of my film which at the moment is "cloudy skies" but I am undecided. Im not sure if this will be the final title because ultimately I want something relative and memorable, "cloudy skies" doesnt currently fulfill this for myself at this point. Coexisting in this area will be the main actors name at the top of the page, if it was a famous actor then his name would be the first thing people read, however in my case my actor isn't famous but I am treating the film as if he is a recognisable actor.

Main Image Body: The main image for my film poster will be something along the lines of the main characters face, with a dull, whitened background of the forest to juxtapose the clarity and colour in the main characters face. This is to hint towards the plot, in the sense he dies and comes back in a sort of limbo, ghost phase.

Furthermore a close up shot allows the audience to understand what sort of character the film has. A distant, questioning look will be on his face.

Film Information: This section will contain information such as the film company and release date etc.

This film poster shows me that these aspects and sections can be blurred for aesthetic and practical reasons to create an appealing and quick/easy poster to read.

Shoot 1 Rough Cut

I've changed my main actor since this shoot but I thought it would be worthwhile to put together a rough edit of the clips together to get feedback and see where I need to improve. 

*Feedback - how to improve* 

Shoot 1

The first scene I shot was from about halfway through the film. The shop scene, this was because I wanted to get it done and out of the way as I didn't want to make the owners wait around since I achieved permission awhile ago.
Unfortunately the location was covered in snow - but seeing as I was unsure whether the snow would be staying indefinitely I decided to give it a shot nevertheless. If the snow is here throughout the short film it shouldn't affect the continuity. Thus the next shoots will need to be fairly soon.

The filming went reasonably well, however I discovered a serious flaw - I can't direct very well. I need to voice myself more to gain more control - it seems this concept doesn't come naturally, seeing as I do feel much more comfortable in the editing suite. To improve upon this I'm going to have to make sure I know what I'm doing 100% before I head off to shoot a scene. This way I will be able to take control of the shots with more confidence.

I've decided to change my main actor because of reliability issues in the sense I can work better with the other actor I will use and he is more readily available to film during my time frames. Furthermore he is older and fits the role more accurately in terms of his look. In real life he works as a internet designer, hopefully this will dispel some of the student film affects.

Furthermore throughout the process of the first shoot I felt I rushed myself and the actors - taking too few retakes of each shot and generally not taking my time and getting the best out of myself. To improve in this aspect I have to worry less about taking up too much time and just get the work done to the highest standard I know I can achieve.

I'm going to edit together this scene and post it in the next post, I will go through some feedback so I can progress on where I went wrong and what I need to do to improve. Hopefully this has provided me with a valuable learning experience I can move forward from.

Film Posters, Codes and Conventions

Short Film Posters
The Dark Knight
The colour scheme used is eye catching because it is predominately just dark blue, black and red, which has resulted in a image that draws the eye to the centre. The batman icon emblazoned in fire creates a interesting disposition against the background and thus stands out. Due to this intelligent use of colour the poster becomes easily recognisable because of its different colour scheme.

The poster is shot at a low angle, with Batman standing tall. This connotes power as Batman is standing strong above the viewer, furthermore this effect is amplified through the use of the contrasting background. Through the chaos and destruction he stands tall and powerful, the batman icon burning behind him exemplifies his dominance of the shot. As a result, the image provides a empowering portrait of the protagonist. The poster seeks to draw the viewers eye in whilst connoting positive and relative meanings of the narrative.

The font inside the poster is sans serif bold text which could be connoting strength and power whilst dennotes a clean and easy text to read for people passing by. The title is positioned towards the bottom of the poster and is in white to stand out against the dark background. The light beams coming from behind the batsign also draw attention to the title whilst relating to the way the symbol is beamed out by a giant light in the narrative. The title is also in a slight 3D which brings attention towards the name which is of importance to stick in peoples minds.

Black Out
The main focus of the image is the protagonist centralised in the frame. This draws the viewers attention into his situation. The camera is at profile with the character but is positioned close to the ground. This connotes desperation and weakness, both relevant to the plot. Furthermore the use of a black and white colour scheme connotes an emotional situation and this is reinforced by the expression of the character.

The background is out of focus and predominately dark which further directs the attention to the protagonist. Furthermore it connotes that he is alone and his expression will lead viewers to think he is scared or confused. This infact ties in with the plot of the film as he is unsure of his surroundings and why is he laying next to a dead girl when he awakes from a black out.

The serif font is unusual as it looks slightly out of place with the film genre and poster as a whole. This may be an intention of the creator as it coincides with the plot of the film. The font is made to stand out with a white glow however the inside is dark which makes it harder to read. Possibly making the audience look harder into the poster to read the title. However whether that is a desirable effect I am undecided.

I'm Not There

The poster is using strong contrasting colours of black and white, which is similar to Black Out in that sense; the character is almost a silhouette which brings the viewers into the poster as they can see some details on his face.
However the side on portrait of the protagonist smoking gives a different affect on the audience. The smoking and pensieve expression connotes a thoughtful and slick persona whilst the colour scheme dennotes a bleak and boring tone.

The font is in bold sans serif text which makes it easy to read and the white is contrasting heavily against the black background, furthermore the positioning of the text is in the bottom right corner which is interesting as it will be the last thing viewers will read after looking at the text in the head. The affect of this is that the audience will read the actors names and see that they are all playing one role and then read the title.


Short films Conventions:
. Title positioned either at the top or bottom of the page in a font that will stand out and be easy to read. This is often in a clear contrasting colour.
. Colour schemes relative to narrative. Can be used to contrast varying colours to bring attention into an image or character/title.
. Scene represented in poster often relative to plot of film.
. Strong colours can be used to define empty spaces with meaning.
General Analysis:
Image: Short films and mainstream film posters both share similarities and differences, however they both seek to advertise their film in a relative and smart way. Some of the film posters seem to build upon plot relative to the narrative and build a poster that is interesting or mysterious so as to draw in viewers. This is more common with short films and art house type mainstream films.
Another popular style within film posters is to create an image based around just the protagonist or a few important characters and set them within a narrative derived scene. This is often used more towards the drama, action or thriller genre.

Font: Relative to narrative and context of poster whilst attempting to provide a clear way to stick the title in peoples minds.

Colour: Colour schemes are often used to either bring out an individual aspect of a film poster or to create an interesting poster to catch peoples eyes.

Ancillary Texts

•a poster for the film.
•a film magazine review page featuring the film.

Organizing Filming and Actors

Haydn Morgans: Thursday 9:30-12:20, Saturday 9:30 - 6:00, Sunday 9:30 - 600
Tom Urquart:Thursday 9:30 - 12:20, Saturday 9:30 - 6:00, Sunday 9:30 - 6:00
Andy Gryzstar:Thursday 9:30 - 12:20, Saturday 9:30 - 6:00, Sunday 9:30 - 6:00