Audience Feedback of complete short film

First draft of review page (template)

· Large images

· A3 spread

· Border on image

· 1 main image, 1 small image

· Text box overlap on image

· Consisten font size, except of title nd tagline

· Colour schemes

· Highlighted quote

Typical codes and conventions of a film review page are to have large images, that are eye catching so the audience wants to read it. The images usually consist of one large primary image then one smaller side image. The images usually don’t overlap the text as they have a border round it so it has no bleed. This is done to ensure that it is rigid and easy to read. A conventional film review page is a double page spread, almost A3 size.

The text of the typical film review is quite consistant. Font size and colour stays the same other than the title and tagline which has to stand out. The colour schemes of review pages are also consistant we a typical ¾ colour scheme. This doesnt usually relate to the text, but of the image and borders. In most review pages they also have a couple pulled quotes which are embedded in the text, with a rap around.

Style sheet draft sketches

Review page style sheet

I have taken inspiration from Empire magazine for my review page for my short film. I did a couple of rough sketches and detailed sketches plus showing it to my class for audience feedback before I came up with this my final template for my review.

My Aim:

For the audience: I want to create an eye catching layout, with a large title and large image to entice the audience to read my review of a possibly unknown film and even want to watch it.

Font: I will use a 1 space column rule/gutter between each column of the main article. As Empire says...

"We only use 3 fonts in the entire magazine which are variations of Jack, Alvar and Farnham-

The Talking point font is Alvar bold and the text after it is Jack bold. The Verdict uses the font Jack Regular and the text after it is Jack Bold."

As I do not have the facilities for these font's I will be using Ariel, Baskerville Old and maybe Times New Roman. I will have justified columns as I have 4 quite tight columns of writing and I don't want it to be confused while having 1/2 spacing between the lines. If it has enough space I will change this to ragged right like the typical Empire Magazine, with using a drop-capital to start the main article. And all text written in black.

Pictures: I will have a main image and a secondary image with details of both of them placed in the bottom right hand corner describing the image, just like Empire magazine. I am going to use images from my short film (still from the film). My main image is of the couple sitting on the tube both looking out the carriage window. My secondary image is of the man at the end of the film on a bridge looking just right of the camera.

Colour Scheme: My colour scheme would be blue, red and white with the text being black (to stand out). This is because it relates to my film as it is tube colours. This will add continuity to the main image and give the idea of the film (commuting) to the audience.

Quotes: I will have a teaser - a pulled quote - that is going to be a different colour from the usual text, different size and font. This will attract the audience to read the review as it will grab their attention and if it is an interesting quote, they will want to read the review. Which is my main aim!

Audience Feedback:

- Based on Empire magazine really works... but state why it would be Empire? Maybe ass an award that it won, such as Virgin Shorts? This would give it a reason to be in a prominantly feature film magazine.

- Audience? How to make it really eye catching?

- The layout is interesting and well spread out to ensure easy reading.

Magazine size and dimensions

A standard magazine size is set approximately about eight by 11. But if you do a little research, you may be surprised to see other various magazine sizes produced and marketed.
Perhaps, its size may depend on whatever type of magazine you prefer to read and take home, or scan on the Internet. Perhaps, it follows a standard size.


Ad Unit Size
Width
Depth
2 page spread 17 3/8"- 10 3/8"
Full page 8 7/16"- 10 3/8"
2/3 page (vertical) 5 5/16"- 10 3/8"
2/3 page (horizontal) 8 7/16"- 6 1/2"
2/3 page (horizontal spread) 17 3/8"- 6 1/2"


From the internet site : http://www.dimensionsguide.com/magazine-sizes/

Audience Feedback of first edit of short film

Audience Response: Our Concept

Research and Planning: Inspiration

We were inspired by many things; pictures, other short films, feature films (old and new), and music videos. We have been looking at effective camerawork, editing, shots, casting, pace, soundtrack and more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjHSiQLPmA

This is a short film called 'Strangers' about two men on a tube crossing paths and coming together at the end to form a kind of union. We were inspired by the camera work and the use of the tube. As they used handheld camera when on the tube and the tube doors are used effectively as wipes between shots, the close ups on the characters faces to show their emotions and the use of the diegetic sound of the tube, we immediately knew we wanted to involve the tube or public transport in some way, to bring our two protagonists together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfg

After discovering our concept, we remembered seeing this music video, 'Bad Day' by Daniel Powter, as it uses the quick pace of the characters lives, day by day by day, this showed us what type of thing we wanted to come across. We didn't want to make ours a music video, but as we had thought before, we did not want dialogue, just a soundtrack over it, and through this video we could see it would be effective.

Research and Planning: 'Brief Encounter' feature film analysis

After coming up with our concept for our short film, of a romance where two strangers meet, we did more investigation into the genre and films quite similar to it.

Deema and I watched 'Brief Encounter' after being recommended by our teacher. The film made in 1945, seemed like just another black and white boring film that we wouldn't necessarily be interested in, or find inspiration from, but we were quite wrong.

The old film directed by David Lean and stars Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, is about a woman meeting a stranger in a railway station, then tempted to leave her husband, because she has fallen in love with the stranger. The similar concept to ours, it should be obvious where we can get our inspiration from.

I was inspired by the music in the film, which seemed to capture the strangers emotions effectively, which I then came up with the idea of having no dialogue, and just using the soundtrack to tell the story. After watching it, I realised that finding true emotion between two actors will be hard, so to ensure we will do it correctly, we used an actual couple for the emotional kissing scenes, to capture true love!

At first we were inspired by the 1945 setting, and the use of black and white, but as we thought more about it, we realised this would prove hard, as the modern trains we would be using, there would be no way to make it look authentic. That, and the costume and props would be just too complicated. So that is when we decided to set it in the modern, with two strangers, just like in 'Brief Encounter' but have them on their commute to work everyday.

Codes and conventions of short films

Production/Exhibition/Distribution - Most of these films were produced in Hollywood (if the films were American) because of the resources, use of actors and being the best studios to shhot locations in the film.and therefore dstributed in the US first before the rest of the world. Many films are either exhibited at a film festival ( a majoirity in Cannes) during the summer before the release date to get reviews etc.



Music - To nearly all of the films, music seemed to be a key part, whether it be an action or romantic by gradually making music faster and louder. In horrors, the music dips from being very fast to very slow and to create a scary effect toward the audience sudden sounds are very loud.



Camerawork - There tends to be a variety of camerawork in trailers to make things look more interesting, therefore many extreme long and close up shots were used with extreme high and low angle shots also used.



Acting - The main characters are always featured often and mainly are famous.



Costume - Tends to signify the wealth of someone or their style eg: in many trailers that are set in medieval times, the use of armour represents their power and age it was set in etc.



Editing - Scenes tend to start of being quite slow, but gradually as music becomes faster and more of the scene is revealed, attempting to grab the audiences attention, when scenes will either be in a random order or chronological as the story unfolds but leaving the ending out of it.



Brief Points

• Short films normally start with there being a situation that needs helping/solving.
• Usually only show a few (main characters) because there isn't enough time get to know the secondary ones.
• Most short films are very low budget, normally because Hollywood films don't tend to create them and most short film companies aren't part of one of the 6 conglomerates.
• The directors/editors usually aren't famous in short films so not alot of focus is on their names or at the start say introducing...
• Tend to only last around 3 to 10mins.
• Narrative enigmas are often used so the audience doesn't undersatnd fully the starting point, that sometimes is uncovered during the middle or end of the film.
• Short films in Britain are often shown or distributed by British companies eg: Working Title. These films aren't very promenant in the US.
• There is a lack of CGI (special effects) probably because of lack of money.
• Short films aren't really shown in main cinemas, mainly just at specific film festivals. The most famous is Cannes.
• Short films can also be documenteries and music videos.