Film Posters Analysis

When choosing film posters to analyse, I went for posters from a variety of areas, to compare and contrast any codes and conventions. These have included:

1. The Blunt Diaries - A short, independent film released in 2009. I chose to analyse the poster for this film as it relates to my project through being a short independent film.
2. Pulp Fiction - This feature film was released in 1994 and I have chosen to analyse this poster and see if any of its codes and conventions vary from present day.
3. Batman: The Dark Knight - I chose to analyse the poster of the best selling film to this day; seeing if I can take any codes and conventions for my own project.
4. AdULTHOOD - A film which is recent and has similar themes to our short film.
5. The Machinist - The poster for this film has a similar design to the idea I had for my short film poster. It is also a recent film and may have its codes and conventions to suit a modern audience.

The Blunt Diaries has a fairly simple design. It includes the title (which has been edited onto a cigarette/spliff), the most memorable quote from the film and credits toward the director and production companies. Due to not having any well-known actors in the film, the poster relates simply to the theme of the film with an extreme close-up of a person smoking.

The editing of the paper and title onto the cigarette/spliff also connotes that the film is independent as it is not completely realistic. Keeping in mind that my film also has a small budget, staying away from a large amount of difficult editing and sticking to simple realistic frames would be more suitable as we cannot afford professional help with our poster editing.

Pulp Fiction has a poster in the style of magazine. The title of the film as the title of the magazine, a list of actors as a list of featuring articles in the magazine and one of the main characters on the front, a well-known actress to help sell the film. The poster is similar to 'The Blunt Diaries' in the way that Uma Thurman has props in front of her which represent themes included in the plot.

With Pulp Fiction being released in 1994, this poster could be considered as not a valid way to design a poster in present day. However due to being so unique and break the generic film poster conventions, and presenting itself as magazine cover, it has been remembered and recognised worldwide for over 10 years.

Batman: The Dark Knight is currently the best ever selling feature film and is the second in the series, following Batman Begins. This poster has Heath Ledger as the Joker, which draws in the audience who want to support and view his performance, as this was one of the last films made before his death. The poster also includes a number of the leading actors in the film, and Gotham City in dark rubble in the background. The title has the Batman logo behind which the audience will easily be able to relate to as a well known symbol.

Overall, I felt this poster is giving the audience an subtle idea of what is to come in the film, with the Joker as a villain. However, it has left it open enough so that the audience is left asking questions such as 'Where is Batman?' and 'Why is the City in ruins?' From seeing my film poster, I would like my audience not to have all their questions answered and feel intrigued to watch the film.

AdULTHOOD is the film with themes most similar to our short film. These include both the dissolution of family and friend relationships along with gang and street crime. This film poster is simplistic, with a group of young adults, (one being Sam, a main protagonist from KiDULTHOOD), and a large bold, block title with the director's name in small underneath. Like the rest of the posters, the bat could suggest some of the plot.

Due to not having a large budget for our short film, I am considering creating, as a potential design, a simplistic poster with a dark shadowy image of Leon with the title and additional information in block lettering.

The Machinist film poster has a very simplistic design. Although the film is starring Christian Bale, unlike other major feature films, the poster does not have the main protagonist on, breaking away from the conventions of a Blockbuster poster. However, the post-it note which is the primary feature of the poster is a main prop and theme of the film. This keeps the audience curious to watch the film to what the rest of the letters in the game of hangman will be along with block letters including the title, a plot sentence and the name of the main star of the film.

Due to having the girl playing a game of hangman with herself in our short film, I was contemplating a design similar to this poster, considering that our film has no well known actors. The gritty feel of this poster makes you suggest that the film is going to be quite dark. This is a convention I would like to take and potentially use in my design, to give an audience an idea of what sort of themes could be included in the film.

Film Review Analysis

For this project we have been asked to write a film review for our short film. Before writing my own short film review, I decided to analyse various existing products in the media so that when it comes around to writing my own, I can chose a specific writing style and layout to format my review.

Sight & Sound film review:
The first film review I decided to study was from the film magazine Sight and Sound. Sight and Sound is a monthly magazine and I have chosen to analyse 'Get Rich or Die 'Tryin'.

Starting with the layout, Sight and Sound has a simplistic theme using red, black and white. By being simplistic it is readable and user friendly, with it's easy to follow columns, larger and bolder fonts for titles, and smaller fonts to represent the credits to the film. As Sight and Sound is aimed at a higher intellectual film audience, the layout is not of the greatest importance as the main focus is on the piece of writing.

This leads onto the language and layout of the article itself. Reading through through the article I felt that it was constantly giving off a sarcastic and cynical feel using dark yet visual descriptive words such as 'drawls' and alliteration such as 'adolescent amazement'. By using the word 'drawl, you feel that the writer of the piece is potentially bored by what 50-cent has to say.

The review then goes to compare the film against fellow rapper Eminem's feature film '8-mile', which suggests it 'suffers in comparison' as Eminem chose to create his own music for his piece unlike 50-cent. This connotes to the reader that 50-cent has been lazy with the creation of his film, shining a negative light on the film, also suggesting it is 'all about the money'.

Even though, as suggested, this magazine produces articles for high intellectual readers, I still follows the simple layout of a generic film review with an introduction, then points in the middle explaining any 'high' and 'low' points of the film, then resolving the article with the final opinion of the film. In this case the the conclusion is 'given the understated effectiveness of such scenes, it is a shame the film is crowded with otherwise generic moments of gang violence'.

Empire film review:
Similarly to Sight & Sound, Empire is also a monthly film magazine. The article I have decided to analyse is 'Remember Me' starring Robert Pattinson, Pierce Brosnan and Emilie de Ravin.

Again, starting simply with the layout of the page of the magazine, compared with Sight & Sound it has a more youthful and modernistic feel. This potentially comes from the big bold blue titles and hoe the page layout is stylistically 'crammed'. Similarly to Sight & Sound, Empire follow the convention of columns for the larger articles, however breaks away from this with the small and snappy reviews. Also similarly to Sight & Sound it has a small section before the article giving the release date, run time and other main information - however unlike Sight & Sound, it gives you a brief idea of the plot before reading the review. I feel that by giving the basic plot before reading give you more of an understanding of what you are about to read about.

Moving onto the language of the piece, it seems marginally more relaxed than that of Sight & Sound, which could potentially broaden the target audience of Empire. One of the main reasons the article seems more relaxed is through it's approach of humour. Instantly this includes the first line of the paragraph "mooning about in goth face paint", which is referring to Robert Pattinson's previous role in the Twilight saga.

The review also follows a similar written layout to Sight & Sound. It compares against other films, however only briefly, as it suggests that Remember Me is a resolved drama without the 'guessing game' unlike Shutter Island. It also remarks of potential 'highs' and 'lows' of the film - How it is a 'clichéd' film but is 'played with conviction'. It breaks away from Sight & Sound with it's conclusion. Due to being aimed at a wider audience, Empire resolves the review with a simple one sentence verdict and a star-rating system.

Www.shortfilmreviews.com film review:
Due to our film not being a full length feature film, I felt it necessary to analyse a review of a short film. The website www.shortfilmreviews.com is a blog that has a separate blog for each film review.

The layout of the film review is simply that of a blog post, with the title of the film as the title of the blog. It also has an embedded video of the short film at the bottom of the blog so that after (or before) reading the review, it will make sense. I feel that this is a suitable way to post short film reviews as it is a form of marketing for the short film itself. The mass majority of the world are on the internet these days, it is of higher chance that the film will be found on the internet than be read about in a magazine. Although I agree with the blog reviews, I feel that the layout of the text and it's paragraphing could be more spaced and more appealing to the eyes.

As for the review itself, it starts with a rhetorical question, which intrigues you, leading to you reading on - "Do you feel like everything in the world is somehow related?" Unlike the reviews of Empire and Sight & Sound, this review feels as if it is 'hot off the press' and straight onto the blog, using simply a couple of lines to describe the pro's and con's of the film. It starts with a negative, "the quality and montage is not so great", however it then outweighs the singularly large negative with positives such as "I rarely find a good film" and "It can suck you in, just like that". By pointing out more positives than negatives you conclude individually that this is a review in favour of the film, leading to you wanting to watch the film, even though negatives have been stated.

After the snappy review, credits are given, followed by a one like description/plot. In a sense, the way this blog post has been set up is completely backwards to that of Sight & Sound and Empire.

Promotion & Distribution of Independent films

Distribution is one of the final stages in the filmmaking process and refers to the circulation and marketing of films. I decided upon researching into the distribution and promotion of the film East is East, which was released in 1999, due to the difficulties with promoting the film as a product for a large target audience because of the actors cast and the fact it explored British Asian experience making it potentially niche film. This issue was resolved by promoting the generational conflict, which appeals and appears in all cultures. Along with changing the approach to target a larger audience, East is East also had a range of advertising and publicity strategies.

For the advertising side of East is East’s film promotion involves reoccurring and common campaigns in and on media such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and billboards. With this media available, the advertisements were intentionally placed at specific times, knowing that a large majority of their target audience will be reached. For example with television, which attained 26.5 million views, they set their commercial between shows such as Hollyoaks, Frasier, Home and Away and Ricki Lake. The media type that had the biggest impact, with 33.4 million views, was the newspapers. The Sunday prior to the film opening, page dominant advertisements were included in mass-selling national popular papers, such as The Sun and The Mirror, who also supported the film exclusively.

Although East is East had quite standard advertising techniques, the methods of publicising the film were, however, more inventive. One of the main publicity stunts that the film pulled was tying itself in with Supergrass’s new album. At Supergrass shows, on the tour when promoting their new album, large quantities of leaflets about East is East were handed out, along with a chip van serving free curry and chips with East is East branded forks. This fitted with the casting and themes of the film, and giving away free goods helped give the film positive word of mouth before the release date. The film also aimed to show 100,000 people the film, with free screenings, before the release date to generate further positive word of mouth. Other publicity strategies included, the premiere of the film being tied in with the Royal Court Theatre charity, which focuses of helping playwrights make their break; cast interviews, with different age and class members of the cast addressing different types of media. For example, the younger cast promoting the film with the music and teen press, where older members of the cast were used with upmarket, and broadsheet press. This was used to try and draw in a wider audience, due to the public holding interest and self-relation to the characters and cast closer to their own age range. Customary publicity techniques included a website, and a press pack, which contained plot summaries, character profiles, actor’s biographies and five selected clips that ran well together.

East is East apparently had a lack of commercial potential and received a staggered, platform release. It opened gradually into more cinemas over a five week period, going ‘wide’ by its third week with 246 screens. In a sense, having a staggered released helped the film more so, due to good reviews and word of mouth suggesting it was a non-commercial film that was worth seeing.

From researching into East is East, I have learnt that non-commercial films need to think more strategically about their promotion and distribution, due to competing with large and expensive films. Also entering a film into film festivals such as Cannes, like East is East did, would be another way to help gain the film recognition, and potential studios wanting to buy the rights for your film internationally.

Relation to my project:
Even though East is East was an independently promoted and distributed film, it was also a full length feature film. This is where is differs greatly from our project, suggesting we would have to promote and distribute our film in different ways. This could include sending our film off to a number of different short film festivals, or applying to screen our film at Cinemas interested in independent films (like the Rex in Berkhampstead).

Textual Analysis of Short Films

Before creating our final product, we researched into already existing short films. All the films we watched had a simplistic theme and worked a detailed narrative around the subject/situation. In our film, like About a Girl, we focus souly on one character, both young girls; both facing a form of neglect from a dysfunctional family. The short films we watched also contained a variety of creative styles. In About a Girl, the gradient and the coldness of the shots gets more apparent through and through. With our film we wanted to use and adapt this by having scenes including the boy to be lit with cold blue filtering.

Gasman (1997):
Gasman suggests themes of dysfunctional families involving infidelity. The plot was simple; the father of two children taking them to a communal Christmas party where, on the walk there, he meets a woman with her two children. These are also his, and he takes them to the party also. This is all in the perspective of the innocence of children’s eyes, as the film starts with you barely being able to see faces, Lynne (the young girl) quoting Wizard of Oz, “there’s no place like home”, and her brother Steven crashing a toy car in the sugar. However, the fact that Steven is representing a morbid occurrence of everyday life suggests that he’s lost some innocence; having knowledge of the adult world, and his other family. By the end of the film, Lynne has lost a sense of innocence by knowing the secret ‘other family’. This is presented through the walk and from the party. First the two girls are holding hands happily, whereas on the way back Lynne is crushing her half sister’s hand.

Within the film, the director used primarily dark and shadowy shots, which could connote anything from the time era of poverty in Scotland to the theme of dysfunctional families. Along with the shadowed effect over the film, there were also shots that were slowed down. These were shown for emphasis, also being from a child’s perspective, that the children are picking up on the actions that adults may not pay attention to: for example, when the dad runs his hands through the hair of the ‘other woman’. The director also decided on capturing the party as an improvised scene, this was to try and present the hyperactivity of the youth in comparison with the tiredness of the elders.

Gasman was produced with the help of four companies, BBC, the Scottish Arts Council, the Scottish Film Production Fund and ‘Holy Cows Films’. ‘Holy Cow films’ is an American based company that also produced the director, Lynne Ramsay’s, first feature film Ratcatcher. Along with Ratcatcher, Gasman was distributed by Criterion Collection, on one of a series of DVDs which includes both important classic and contemporary films. The Criterion Collection has had work from directors such as Hitchcock and Kubrick.

Throughout its journey as a short film, Gasman has also won four awards: The Prix Du Jury in 1998, after being shown at Cannes film festival, ‘Leopards of Tomorrow’ at Locarno International film festival, best international short film at Atlantic film festival and a Scottish Bafta for best short film. Winning these awards gave Lynne Ramsay more recognition and funding, leading to her now have releasing two feature length films, Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar.

About a Girl (2001):
About a Girl is a 9 minute short film, with a short plot: a girl walking down a canal documenting times in her life. At the end of the film, the girl throws a bag in the canal, which contains a dead baby. Themes throughout included dysfunctional families, the seclusion of child pregnancy contrasted with the innocence of youth. The lack of normality within the girl’s family is presented in a number of ways. One example is a cut scene where she is sitting with her dad. Her parents are separated and she asks to live with her dad; he says no, leading to her questioning whether he loves her: his response “Stop being silly”. The fact that he can’t assure her that he does love her suggests that there is a lack of concern for his daughter. It is also presented with the girl’s mother, who is documented not to have noticed the girl’s puppy dying and being thrown out. Along with this, the mother also failed to notice her daughter growing gradually more pregnant again connotes a lack of care for her child.

The second theme, of child pregnancy contrasted with the innocence of youth is also presented in a multiple amount of ways. One of the main models throughout the film was the use of Britney Spears. The girl would be singing Britney Spears songs of her early era, which suggested a sense of irony, as Britney Spears was known as a ‘famous virgin’ compared with the child’s pregnancy. Another illustration of this theme is shown through the whole style of the film, where the girl is talking about her life. The topics the girl is discussing are quite dark subjects; yet she still talks about them in a light-hearted tone, as if she does not understand the seriousness or the morbidity of it all.

About a Girl was the director, Brian Percival’s, first short film. Before making About a Girl he learnt his way with directing television commercials: wanting to divert from this style, Percival worked with a plot and script that would give him freedom to create a gritty feel; promoting, what he hoped, to be a bigger reaction, also giving himself more of a challenge. One of the ways he tried to make the film seem more gritty was by through his gradual filtering of his images, making them increase in coldness, the closer the girl reached to her destination. Another example of where the director worked towards his style, was through his documentary style, with fast cuts, setting realism with a prominent pace.

After being entered and viewed at film festivals, About a Girl came away with many awards within 2001 and 2002. These include the Jury prize at both Manchester International short film festival and Radiance film festival, TMC prize at London film festival, best British short at Edinburgh International film festival, and a BAFTA award for best short film. Throughout his recognition from these awards and About a Girl, Brian Percival went on to direct a number of episodes for TV shows and a film called ‘A Boy Called Dad’, which is out this year.

Lighting Experiment

Within our group we decided to conduct a lighting experiment before we went through with our final film outcome. By doing this, we have broadened our knowledge and options as to what lighting fits what mood/setting etc.. For example we could use the blue gels gradually as Leon becomes more and more distant from his family, as this suggest that his life is getting 'colder'. If we were to use the Red Heads at all during our project, they will have to be bounce off walls as they create a lighting too strong for a naturalistic home environment.

Pro-light - Half Blue gel

Pro-light - Quarter Blue gel

Pro-light - Barn Doors

Pro-light - Black Wrap

Pro-light - Diffusion

Pro-light - Orange gel

Pro-light - Plain

Pro-light - Red gel

Red Head - Plain

Red Head - Half Blue gel

Red Head - Quarter Blue gel

Red Head - Bouncing off Ceiling

Red Head - Closed Barn doors

Red Head - Diffusion

Red Head - Orange gel

Red Head - Red gel

Red Head - Tin Foil

Toaster - Reflecting

Job Roles

Within our group we have separated ourselves into four separate job roles, each of us choosing the role most relevant to our interests. These four roles included:

1. Direction
2. Camera
3. Production Designer
4. Lighting & Sound

Once being assigned as the director of our project, I decided to research into my job role on http://www.skillset.org.uk/;

Director's responsibilities:
-Write the script

-Develop a vision for the finished film with most practical route to achieving it

-Selecting the right cast, crew and locations

-Directing rehearsals and performances of the actors

-Managing technical aspects of filming - including camera, sound, lighting, design and special effects

-Work closely with editors through post-production

-Keeping the team motivated to produce the best possible results

Director's skills:
-An artistic vision and creative skills

-Committed and passionate about filmmaking

-Strong and confident leader

-Able to make decisions but also able to collaborate with others

-Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

-Able to remain calm and think clearly under pressure

-Understanding of the filmmaking process

Tips for directors:

http://actioncutprint.com/film-directing-tips/#10 - Advice on making short films/Communicating to the crew/Dealing with actors who change dialogue:

-Know your own script: structure/characters/space/plots

-Know the message you want to speak with your film

-Know methods and approaches to presenting your message: Attention to every little detail

-Understand the camera functions/acting techniques/costume and make-up designs to communicate better with your team in their terms

-If an actor wants to improvise the dialogue, you need to make sure that they understand fully the emotion and the detail of the scene

Personal input to our production:

Narrative: Our short film has a linear basis, which we decided to use to keep the story simple and flowing. I felt that if it was made non-linear, in the time we have, it would be too complex and not make any sense.

We have also followed conventions of short films, such as 'About a Girl', with our characters. In About a Girl the film focuses on the life of one singular character and how her life is affected. We decided use this convention in our film with our character Lily, as the breakdown and dysfunction focuses on the affects on her life - moving from a student working hard to a child with her mind, lost and elsewhere.

Creative style: With being the director of the film, there were many creative aspects that I had to take into consideration. These have included, giving my characters a clear enough idea of what sort of emotion we need to present the message, giving an input on designing lighting and costume: For example, what colour gels we would need for particular shots - Shots with Leon including a gradual darker and darker blue gel. Creative styles that we decided upon in our film, using camera work and editing, included our jump cuts. We planned on using jump cuts to add emphasis to certain shots - For example when Leon is picking up his knife.

Genre: Our short film would be classed in the genre of Drama, which includes realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Again, I would compare our film genre to About a Girl, this is because it plays on the dysfunction of families, similarly to our film. Dyfunctional families is a contemporary issue, which many teenagers may find themselves self-relating to: suggesting that the characters are realistic and that it is a hard-hitting emotional theme.

Independent Study Sheet 1:

The research on this post has helped me gain a better personal understanding before we go into the process of creating our own film. By looking into camera techniques, lighting styles and continuity, I am more aware of the variety of styles we can use and how now to break them.

Technical:
Camera:
• Coverage (The five shot rule and jump cuts)
Jump cuts are transitions between two shots which appear to jump due to the way the shots are in relation to each other. Jump cuts are caused by framing which is quite similar and can be used to add impact and tension.
- Jump cuts within our project could be used where the girl is looking into her brother’s room through the partially open door. Any tension added by jump cuts would make the audience more curious and concerned for what’s behind the brother’s door.

• 180 degree rule, also known as crossing-the-line
This refers to an imaginary line which cuts through the middle of the scene. Filming from both sides of this line would break the rule and disorientation and confusion for the audience. A typical example would be filming a person walking in a straight line from one side of the line, then cutting to the other side of the line; the person would be walking in the opposite direction.
- The 180 degree rule needs to be kept in mind throughout the filming stage of our project, especially in scenes where you see the girl walking through the doorway from one room to another, and scenes which include some form of shot-reverse-shot.

• Rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is a concept in film production that uses 9 imaginary lines to divide a frame. These lines create reference points which act as guides to help framing the image. Points of interests should occur at 1/3 or 2/3 or the way up or across the frame.
- The rule of thirds will also have to be kept in mind whilst filming. Unless impossible to do otherwise, our main point of interest (which will usually be our character in the shot), should not be placed directly in the centre of the shot.

• White balance
White balance sums up the colour balance due to white light being made up of all the colours in the spectrum. On consumer-level cameras, automatic white balance is usually featured; which can become unreliable.
If wanting to perform a manual white balance, the procedure should be done at the start of all filming and every time light conditions change.

• Depth of field (include pulling focus)
Depth of field refers to the range of distances from the camera at which an acceptably sharp focus can be obtained. By understanding the concept, you will save yourself time by not creating out of focus footage and will open up a massive range of creative possibilities.
Iris settings control depth of field. For example, the smaller the iris aperture, the greater the depth of field; this suggests that the more light you have on the subject, the easier it is to focus.

A focus pull is a creative technique where the camera changes focus during a shot. This usually involves changing focus from one subject to another.
Throwing focus is another technique when the shot loses focus completely, and this can be done by turning the focus ring completely until full focus is lost.
- Focus pull could be used in our project again on the doorway shot with the girl looking through the brother’s door. It could start with the focus on the back of the girls head, slowly changing to the main focus being the brother’s room and its content. Shots could also be concluded with the focus being lost completely.

• Exposure (Iris, and ND filters)
The iris of a camera controls the amount of light coming through the lens. The more you open the iris, the more light you let in. Consumer cameras will occasionally have automatic aperture settings, but can be switched to manual where you can usually use dials and buttons. The iris needs to be set so that the main subject is correctly exposed.

ND filter stands for neutral density filter, which reduces the amount of light coming through the camera lens.

Lighting:
• Location lighting (3 point lighting and colour temperatures)
3 point lighting uses three lights called the key light, fill light and back light. The main is the key light which is the strongest and has the most influence on the scene. The fill light is the secondary light which is placed opposite the key light to fill any shadows that are created by the key. The background light is placed behind the subject to define and highlight the subject. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

Colour temperature is a standard method of describing colours using a range of situations and with different equipment. Colour temperatures are normally expressed in units called Kelvins. In practical terms with video this usually means selecting lights, gels and filters which are most appropriate to the prevailing light or to create a particular colour effect.
- Throughout our project, we wanted quite a dark and ‘gritty’ effect. This could be achieved through the editing stage, or through the lighting we choose to use. Like the short film ‘About a Girl’, we could gradually make our film appear colder and colder until the morning the boy isn’t home, where the temperature could be warmer, suggesting a change, a new start.

Additional:
• Continuity
Continuity is a term that suggests that a series of shots should appear as physically continuous. Throughout the filming of our project, we need to keep our eyes open for continuity issues. For example if we’re shooting scenes, which are meant to be one after another and one is in daylight, one is at night. Another example, if filming on different days, we need to make sure everything is placed the same as it was on the last day of shooting.