FEEDBACK: FILM POSTER/ DECONSTRUCTION

I have completed my film poster  on Photoshop the completed product is below:

When working on my poster I asked for feedback from the rest of my class and their comments were extremely helpful and helped me achieve my finished product. One of my main difficulties was where to put the social network icons as I originally had them stack up on the side, however my class mates said they preferred them being along the bottom. 

Also when creating my poster I experimented with 'puff' lines, I was not sure as to if this made my poster to crowed and I didn't want to over do it. I choses to use ASOS Magazine for my 'puff' because it. 

DECONSTRUCTION OF MY FILM POSTER:

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING

This week my partner and I filmed our final scenes of our short film Dreaming Daisy. 
These scenes were the therapy dog scene ( when our protagonist Daisy is in her final few months and her last dream is to have her own pet, although due to her situation is not possible). 

This scene involved us using two dogs, this took more time than we anticipated as we had to work with the dogs to get the perfect angles and shots. We used a special therapy dog lead to drop a subtle hint to the audience that Daisy is not well. 

We used a variety of different shot types that show Daisy petting and playing with the dogs, yet not showing her face as we did not want her condition to be the main focus until the end. 

Next we filmed the 'Make up' scene, this scene is capturing Daisy's dream of making friends all over the world by posting online make up tutorials. This is the modern version of having a pen friend. Here we used a over the shoulder shot, this keeps Daisy's face hidden but clearly shows her filming herself doing her make up. 

Next for one of the still pages in our scrapbook we wanted to take lots of stills of Daisy collecting and using her make up, then when we put them together it looks like it is moving. 

FEEDBACK: FACEBOOK PAGE/MARKETING USING SOCIAL MEDIA

Movies and Social Media: Marketing films with new media

After reading the Movies and Social Media Article By Caitlin Neely  I understand the importance of using social media to distribute my short film. One of social medias best aspects is that it is 'lucrative for movie marketers' and also for the same reason it appeals to many. Furthermore from reading this article I understand that interacting with your audience is a two-way street. If you can convince fans to talk about your movie on social media your audience will expand. 

I have created a Facebook page for our short film Dreaming Daisy, this way we can gain feedback from our fans as well as keeping them up to date with any advances of the film. It is extremely important especially for a low budget short film to use social media to promote they product as it is an really effective way of getting to word out about your film as well as gaining fans, but most importantly its free!! 

 I hope that this fan Facebook page will allow us to connect and engage our audience, also as our target audience is teen to young adults this strategy is perfect for us. 

CONSTRUCTION: FILM TITLE FONT

Today my parter and I visited the DaFont website in search of a font for our title of our film. We saw it as very important that we chose one that we liked as to create synergy it would be used in both our film and on our posters. Although firstly I thought that it was important to look into popular fonts used in other films before looking at my own. I visited the Just Creative website that shows different types of fonts used in major Hollywood films and how they related to their genre. 

Originally we liked these fonts:

In particular we liked the font called Daisy Mae, however when I tested it out on my poster it did not stand out enough against the colourful background.

After noticing this when looking at more fonts we had a better idea of what we needed, something that would be bold and stand out on a strong background. We then chose these three and have decided on Flowers For You.

CONSTRUCTION: FILM POSTER PHOTOSHOP

Today I continued to work on my short film poster. After photographing our main character Daisy I opened it into Photoshop. 

The first step was to use the lasso tool to cut out the figure of Daisy, and transfer it onto a new layer.

Next I chose a background colour and made sure that the image and the background were blended together.

Next I created a new layer and inserted a text box. In this text box I wrote the word dreaming multiple times. However I then decided that would look more effective if I changed the size of some of the text.

EVALUATION: WHERE MY SHORT FILM SITS IN THE MARKETPLACE

After reading an article by Mark Kermode in the Guardian on cinema 2015 (audience admissions) I noticed that many parts of the article are relevant to my own production. the article discusses how by only looking at the box office revenues it dose not provide a reliable idea as to what has progressed in cinema in 2015. The points made can link with some of the evaluation levels in the syllabus. 

"My short film, like many short films, is a low-budget, independent production. It is very much less likely to enjoy cinema release than full length feature films. Short films have a set of genre conventions, including their brevity, that make them suitable for internet consumption. In this, they are similar to other independent productions that are mentioned by Mark Kermode in his review of 2015 film releases. 

'Like it or not, simultaneous distribution is the future. We are moving towards an environment wherein audiences will decide whether to watch a film on the phone, their laptop, their television or projected on the big screen in a cinema. With more films – and, hopefully, more varied films – vying for our attention, the keyword for audiences in the 21st century is “choice”. In releasing our short film Dreaming Daisy for internet distribution, I am following in the footsteps of more major films, a trend that for Kermode may well be the future model. The article mentions that recent advances have  allowed films to be viewed at home as well as in theatres. For example in 2013, Ben Wheatley's Beats Of No Nationreceived a theatrical release as well as being streamed on Netflix. For short films in particular this kind of internet release is a really effective way of reaching audiences as the small budget normally makes that very hard. However some exhibitors demand that there should be a 'defined' window that the film can only be viewed in cinemas. Althoughdue to technical advancements but also the determination from the distributors of short films platforms such as Curzon Home Cinema and the BFI-Player have been used and  make it very difficult to only be able to watch films in cinemas

For Kermode, it was not only the blockbusters, franchises and superhero sequels that drew audiences in 2015; independent cinema  held its own in the marketplace in 2015: 'Look at the evidence. Among the movies that have played the UK independent or “arthouse” circuit this year are: Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood, a vibrant evocation of Parisian banlieue life; Carol Morley’s The Falling, a sublime tale of mass fainting …; Debbie Tucker Green’s Second Coming, a suburban British drama with a boldly mysterious quasi-Biblical twist; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the attention-grabbing monochrome first feature from Ana Lily Amirpour, which was billed as “the first Iranian vampire western” …; and Suffragette, Sarah Gavron’s adaptation of Abi Morgan’s empowering script.’”

For Kermode, a key theme of the London Film Festival 2015 was the role of women in film. In my own production my partner and I have clearly established that the majority of our audience will be female, as both of our main characters are female and it is a chick flick/ romance. The festival director Clare Stewart expressed the need to support women directors but not only during the development but also making sure that their are equal opportunities for the screening of the films. Furthermore the short film that we are creating is being pro ducted strictly by a completely female production team. 

FILMING

The beach Scene:

During this scene our main aim to do show the audience Daisy’s adventurous side and get across the idea that she is not afraid of living her life. We went to West Wittering with the goal of shooting a scene that looked as though Daisy was ‘skinny dipping’. Of course we had to think cleverly about how we would capture this with out revealing inappropriate body parts, our solution was a low angle shot showing only her bare legs as she ran into the sea.

What worked well?

The low angle shot worked well, it captured exactly what we needed to make it look realistic. We shot a few pans of the beach that also include a few local people wondering on the beach.

What did we find difficult?

Firstly the weather deemed a slight problem as it was a very windy day. When filming the background sound of the wind was over powering the rest of the soundings. Also the due to the rain and wind the lighting was then very dark that almost contradicts the light hearted feel.

However I am confident that these few issues that we encountered can be resolved when we come to edit the footage.

RESEARCH: ANALYSING FILM POSTERS

I have researched into different types of short film posters and analysed them by looking at, textual codes, design and layout and visual codes. 

High Maintenance:

The first key feature of their poster is its theme and its main colour being black. I think this is immediately suggesting the genre of the film to the audience. 

Secondly, the extreme close up picture of a women's face then shows and suggests the type of characters that appear in the film. This image could also result in both men and women. As a young women would attract the male audience and the female audience would be able to relate to the women on the poster. 

The Crush:

I have also been investigating into the short film 'TheCrush'. Straight away the audience are shown that the young boy shown in the picture on the poster is a key character in the film.The photo shows a young boy in an empty classroom, this implies that the boy is in a dreaming world of his own, this is shown by the boys relaxed body language. Furthermore the lighting creates a light, dreaming effect. This poster is useful research for my partner and I as our short film is called 'Dreaming Daisy' and this poster shows features that suggest a dreaming theme. The text that the title is written in is also very important in expressing that the boy is in school as it looks as though it is written in white black board 

However, when reseaching short film posters I realised that many short films due to the low budget do not have film posters. But I wanted to analyse some posters that were more of the genre that I am trying to create ( chick flick/ romance). This resulted in me analysing The Fault In My stars poster and Love Rosie. 

The Fault In My Stars:

Love Rosie:

CONSTRUCTION: CHARACTER PROFILE

The creation of characters in a short film is very important, but also making sure that your characters have depth and are interesting. A clever way of doing this is 'hot seating' your characters, I got this idea from the FilmEscape website.

I started by creating questions for our main character Daisy to answer, this way the audience can gain a greater understanding of what the characters background and interests are.

Daisy:

1.     Daisy what are your main hopes and aspirations in life?

2.     If you had to describe yourself in three words what would they be?

3.     What is the hardest or most challenging thing that has ever happened to you?

4.     If you were stuck on a desert island what three items would you take with you?

5.      What are your hobbies and interests?