Magazine Review...First Draft

This is our first draft of our magazine review. It includes a picture of the main character, Paul, a still from the short film and the production company logo. It also has a bold title, release date information and the article itself. However, after recieving feedback, we have decided to make several changes to that layout. This is because our own personal opinions mixed with the feedback of others concluded that the layout didn't look much like a magazine. This is because, to start with, magazine layouts seldom include a background any other colour than white, so this will be one of the changes we make. Another issue we picked up on was the images involved. The image of Jacob (Paul) includes him wearing an outfit than is not seen in the film, so this may confuse readers. The production company logo is also unneccessarily large and covers up part of the title, which will cause a reader, who does not already know the title, confusion. There is also little emphasis on the supporting characters, so this will be added in to the article.
Once these changes have been made a newer version will be uploaded.


-KW

How we are constructing our magazine review...

We are about to begin our contrustcion of our magazine review for our short film. We are planning on using the software 'Adobe Illustrator'. This is the best programme for us to use as it will allow us to use professinal layout and will give us more freedom in the design. We could use easier programmes such as Microsoft word which would save time, however we felt it better to use Illustrator as it looks more professional and is overall better quality.

 

 

 

 

-KW

Film Poster...Final Version

 

Here is our finished film poster. I quite like the poster for a number of reasons:

 

Strengths:

-It is fairly minimalistic as to avoid giving too much of the story away

-It follows the conventions of a typical film poster

-I feel like it is quite intriguing

-We shot the image ourselves

-It has relevance to the story

 

I do however believe that there are some improvements that could be made if we were to have more time to reproduce it.

 

 

Weaknesses:

-It could be more interesting/have more images

-More reviews could be put on to draw in more viewers

-There is no production company logo

 

 

-KW

Examples of magazine reviews...

 

Below are a few examples of real magazine reviews of films that have appeared in magazines such as Empire, which is dedicated to film. These reviews all follow the conventions of typical magazine review layouts, but they are all slightly different as to make them unique.

This magazine review is one done by A2 students. They have closely followed the typical layout and their outcome looks effective and realistic.

This is a magazine review layout which I could follow in the creation of my own magazine review of my short film.

-KW

What do I want from my poster?...

What I want from my film poster is what any film company/creator would want. I want my poster to act as advertisement for my short film. Other than the obvious, I also want my film poster to intrigue and attract my target audience and maybe a wider market to want to watch the final film. I feel like so far this could be the case as the film poster doesn't give too much away but it still references socks, which is what the film uses as a stimulus. I feel like it does target our desired audience as the writing stands out and is fairly simple, so it is likely to draw in a younger audience who would consider themselves as Mainstream film viewers or Mainstream plus.
I also want people to admire the poster and agree that it does not give too much about the film away but that it is also effective it attracting an audience to watch the film who have no prior knowledge of the film.


-KW

Magazine Reviews...What, Where, Why?

The concept of a magazine review is fairly simple, it is a review of something- a book, a film, a song, an album, a TV show, that is displayed in a magazine. In this instance, we will be looking at magazine reviews of films, so that we can create our own one about our short film. Reviews like these appear in pretty much every magazine. But they will have their own categories. For example, the latest Paranormal Activity isn't going to be reviewed in a magazine such as 'Go Girl', which is aimed at pre-teen girls. At the same time, a film about Barbie won't be reviewed in a mens magazine such as 'Nuts'. Theres a place for all.
However, there are several magazines that dedicate themselves to all things film, such as Empire. Most genre's of film will be at least mentioned in magazines like these. These magazines may not shift as many copies as popular magazine genres like fashion or sports, but they are crucial to the film buffs and aficianados in discovering new films.
Magazine reviews can play a vital role in the advertising and the marketing of a new film. This is because people can read a review of a film that is soon being released, and then make a decision right there and then as to whether they want to see it.

Film reviwes in magazines usually include several things:
-a bold title of the film
-an image or two from the film, usually a still
-a synopsis of the film's plot- but without giving too much away
-a rating out of 5 (sometimes 10, depending on the magazine)
-a cast list
-details of the film (running time, release date, certificate rating, country of origin)
-name of director
-an honest overview of the reviewer's opinion of the film

Here is a magazine review of the film, 'Up', with the conventions clearly labelled.



-KW

Does a bad review ruin a film's chances?...

In my opinion, it would. The majority of people are influence on reviews, whether written or heard through word of mouth.
A trailer of film is there to attract a target audience. If one was to be intruiged by the trailer and later hears that the film is underwhelming from more than one source, then they are likely to not go to watch the film. This is because we are influenced by other poeples opinions.
If one reviewer badly rates a film and a collection of others highly rate it then the audience are likely to take the majorities opinion. It works vice versa.
However, a review also requires an unbiased opinion. If the reviewer was to review a film by a director they have a negative opinion about then this would represent a bias opinion. It is the fault of the audience to research thoroughly into a specific film's reviews to make sure they recieve a full evaluation.
An example of a recent film with a bad review is Grunge Match by Nick de Semlyen from Empire Magazine. They gave the film 2 out of 5 stars (poor under their ratings).
Plot: Two old boxing pros (De Niro and Stallone), long-time rivals now in the autumn of their careers, are lured back into the ring for one final glory bout.
Review: Sylvester Stallone is the old paunchy, grumpy one and Robert De Niro is the other old, paunchy, grumpy one in this big-screen adaptation of the classic Balboa-versus-LaMotta pub debate. As a couple of washed-up stumblebums training for a rematch, they gamely send up the movies Grudge Match is inspired by (Rocky via a meat-punching joke; Raging Bull via a puppet show in a dive bar), but unfortunately, despite the dream-team pairing, this is a dreary, spark-free affair that seems to take forever to get into the ring. Alan Arkin’s dick jokes are as good as it gets.

Our Film Poster...Draft #2

We have updated our film poster. In this newer version, we took the photo in the poster of the feet ourselves instead of taking one from the internet. We have also added more conventions of a film poster, including the production company, actors and a rating (in socks to represent the film's title).

 

However, this is not our final draft of the poster. We have decided to change the positioning of the 'Synergy Films' so that it is not hidden behind one of the feet, as a production company would pay lots to be clearly displayed. We have also noticed that a couple of the socks in the rating are visible when they have been rubbed out, so this needs to be fixed. We also need to make the reviews look more realistic- which they don't at the moment.

 

 

 

-KW

How much information do posters give away?...

Film posters are designed to attract the audience for the film's target audience without giving the story away. Most posters will follow the typical design of having the main character with perhaps a hint of the story or an element of the story line. This could be on object or a quote. An example of a film poster that effectively does this is Jack Nicholsen in 'One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest'.

In this poster, the only image is of McMurphy (Jack Nicholsen, the main character) looking up. This doesn't seem to give much, if anything away about the story or the ending. This could intrigue audiences as they don't know much about the film at all. However, the creators of the film have placed a couple of clues in there to indicate elements of the story. The character is standing in front of a wire fence, typically used in institutuins where you're not allowed out. He is also staring up at a broken padlock, which could imply an escape. Of course, anyone who has seen the film knows its about Nicholsen's character being sent to a mental institution for sexual abuse, and he plans an escape. The film poster doesn't give any of this away to begin with, but once you know the story it becomes fairly obvious. This is the type of effect I'd like to create with my poster.



Some film posters can give a little too much away however. The famous poster 'Jaws' is a very good film poster as far as contruction goes, but the image chosen may give the story away to some extent. The image is of a large skark about to catch a swimming girl in a bikini. It may not give away the ending, but it does however pretty much say what happens. The writing is also in blood red, which could itself be a hint to the story. The poster does still leave the audience guessing as they do not know the circumstances to the shark attack, they do not know any of the characters (other than the shark) and they are unaware of the ending. So it is quite clever the way they have done it.



-KW

Our Film Poster...Draft #1

Here is our first draft of our film poster. It is quite a simple poster, with an image of a man wearing socks that we found on the internet, with just the title, our names and release date. This is just a mock up poster and many improvements will have to be made before the final poster is made.

 

 

 

 

-KW

Film Posters in Popular Culture...

Film posters be used to advertise films, but they have become a pop culture phenomenon in recent years and some have become iconic, appearing on merchandise, T Shirts, album covers and posters on bedroom walls.
 These are usually the case for older films where their poster has become an iconic image, such as 'Jurassic Park', 'Star Wars', 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Star Trek'. These film posters have become so iconic probably because the films are described as a cult classic, and have large followings even today, despite the age of the original film.

 The fact that some film posters end up of merchandise demonstrates the importance of a good film poster because they can help the film to become iconic and increase the gross of the film. It can also help films to remain popular years after they are released because of the exposure of the film poster in popular culture.






-KW

Examples of Film Posters...

The 'Mean Girls' film poster is targeted at teenage females. This is apparent by the excessive use of the colour pink, as this is a stereotypical 'girly' colour. It also follows the conventions of a film poster as it has a large, bold title, names of the main cast members and director'producer credits. It also has a memorable slogan and displays the release date.

 The film poster for 'The Shining' follows typical conventions of a horror film as it contains scary and critical stills from the film and also has a vold, black title that is memorable. There is also a slogan that also advertises the film, as well as promoting the terror of it to attract its target audience of thrill-seekers. As well as this, it also contains cast names, directors and producers and the release date.

 The film poster for 'The Dark Knight Rises' is aimed at young people and adults. This is depicted by the use of dark colours that wouldn't attract the attention of children. It contains the lead actor as the sole image in the poster, in an image that looks as if it could have been lifted from a frame. It also has the conventional features of a film poster. as the posters above do.

 'The Little Mermain' is a Disney classic aimed at young children, mostly girls. The fact that the film is animated already tells us that the target audience is children, but the image of a mermaid will attract young girls as girls dream of being mermaids and princesses, so the image will make them want to see the film. The soft blue colour also entices young children in to want to see the film. Along with these features it also follows the typical conventions of a film poster. It also clearly displays the film company as it is a well-known company and they will gain audience members on brand-awareness alone.

The 'Jurassic Park' film poster doesn't follow the convention of having the main character/cast member on the poster. This is because the film centres around dinosaurs and there is no real 'main' character as the film focuses on the dinosaur. However this has worked to the producers advantage as the silhoutted image on the dinosaur has become iconic. This film poster is fairly minimalistic as it has a plain black background and white writing which stand out. It then shows the credits of actors etc, but not very clearly in dark grey writing.

This film poster for the blockbuster 'Avatar' only follows a few conventions of a typical film poster. It has one of the main characters displayed on the front and the title. However it does not include any names of actors/producers and the director. It also does not say the release date. This could be to not distract attention away from the picture and the title.




-KW

Film Posters...What influence does a film poster have?

A film poster is there to attract the film's target audience. There are several conventions of a film poster. These include:
-A large, eye-catching title
-An image either displaying the main caharcter of the film or hinting at the story line
-A release date
-Actors and Producers names
-Sometimes reviews
-Possibly a slogan
All of these elements help to attract the film's key market. For example, a Disney film starring a Princess, such as Cinderella, is going to have bright colours and themes of beauty- this is to advertise to little girls and female audiences. They will use gender specific stereotypes to attract an audience they believe suitable.
A horror film, such as The Shining, will include graphics suitable for a 15+ audience e.g. blood or common phobia items (needles etc). This is to appeal to an audience seeking for a thrill. It will probably also include dark colours to insinuate horror.

On our poster we have aimed to be minimal. As it is a mockumentary, there must be details left to the imagination, this is why a set of legs with socks standing out is key to keeping minimal - it gives key insight into the context of the short film and attracts an audience who is seeking humour with realism.



-KW, HM

Confessions of a Sock-a-holic: Rough Cut #1

We have now finished filming all of our scenes and have now begun editing for the final cut. Here is a rough cut of what we have done so far. This edit shows the whole film, but we still need to add in opening sequences, idents and end credits.



-KW