Pete's Media Blog

I explored Petes media blog and came across a powerpoint that was helpful and shaped my blog.

Presentation nov 4

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Preliminary task

I have drafted my preliminary task primarily, to create a film poster for our short film, so when it comes to the production of it, I will have an idea in mind and act accordingly. I have tried out a few ideas to see which I think would be the most effective and then I will make my decision based upon this for which film poster has the desired conventions and is the most attention grabbing for our desired audience. Jono and I created a film poster with a striking initial image of a girl in a night gown (as used in many previous films, eg The Ring). We used this typical costume convention as we felt it conveyed the correct messages of horror. The audience assume the antagonist is therefore young in age and also dead due to the bed clothes. She has her hair over her face to make her appear more enigmatic as she can't be seen. This is also emphasised by her silhouette being entirely dark all bar the light streaming through the night gown. There is also  a dramatic contrast in the two sides of the image. We felt this represented "good" and evil" and the antagonist is leaning more towards the evil with her head cocked to one side. This also could represent her not understanding the world she is trapped within. Her arms are held out slightly as though she's reaching forward towards the audience. This adds for the desired effect of her "coming to get you". The silhouette also adds to the possibility for her coming from the afterlife as she is walking away from the light and towards the audience. We chose not to show her face, by making this decision we felt it made the poster more striking as it was more enigmatic. The colour scheme is also very similar to that of "The Poltergeist", which we previously looked at and admired.

 

Initially I had the release date in the right top corner, but after asking my audience they agreed it spoilt the "clean look" of my poster. I was also comparing my film to a similar low budget film The Blair Witch Project. I decided to make the changes seen below, to blacken the bottom and add the necessary information in there. I used a white simple font to contrast with the background and stand out. White also has the connotations of purity and therefore contrasts with the protagonist seen behind. Finally I added my 18 certificate sticker to the bottom right corner as i felt it balanced the page out well. I followed the rule of 3rds in my poster, as the black, body, and white are vertical columns and the texts follows a horizontal rule. I edited the image on photoshop also as the background was previously not all black and you could see the stage's (where we took the photo) wings behind the person. I also upped the brightness and contrast to give it more illumination and stand out more. I chose universal studios in particular as this was a conglomerate commonly used to create horror films.

I then went out to our target audience and asked them for their thoughts and views on the poster. The overall response was positive. The audience admired our "appropriate use of font" saying it conveyed the correct messages and fitted the genre effectively. The "good use of colour" was described to be "cold, blue tinted" which was said to "add to the chilling horror effect". The image was strongly liked, saying the "glowing body was scary and ghost-like", "the tilted head really adds to the effect making it intrusive and chilling". The caption "is enigmatic and gripping. It makes me want to know more"
Throughout our audience research we found our poster well liked by all. The only criticism received was that the genre was not liked by all of the people I surveyed.

Film Review Deconstructions

In order to prepare for the preliminary tasks we deconstructed some existing film reviews and decided what  works and what we we intend to recreate in our own preliminary film review.

Lighting Experimentation

The Poltergeist is a 1982 American horror film directed by Stephen Spielberg, which was iconic for its powerful and efficient use of lighting. The simple, single source lighting was used to create incredibly dark silhouettes of characters in the film, creating a sense of mystery to the audience. This is a convention we plan to use in my short film, the antagonist will, at some points, be filmed with a strong light force from behind. We chose this method of lighting because it creates a heavy contrast between light and shadow. As you can see in the picture below, normal characters are made to look slightly terrifying, just by using simple but

powerful lighting.
Jono and I went out with a camera and our chosen actress, and took some pictures whilst we were experimenting with a single light source. The results were pleasing, as we achieved the desired result and subsequently, we are prepared and fully capable of using this type of lighting.
The three pictures below, were taken on the main stage at The Kings School with the main curtains closed, so the only light source would be from a high window. After recently watching 'The Ring' I wanted the pictures to vaguely represent the film, with the thin white ring almost present at the head of the character, and the character in the picture herself looks slightly like the antagonist in 'The Ring'. Jono and I have decided to use this method to create our preliminary tasks and have an image similar to the ones below.

Preliminary Filming Worries

Within our lesson we discussed issues we may encounter and the worries we had about starting the filming process. As a group we had similar worries concerning the editing software not being something we were used to and a fear of failure after creating the film that we had visioned, therefore not achieving the grades we desired. Another issue we discussed was the sheer lack of time and organising the cast and location. To overcome these anxieties we put eachothers minds at ease by complimenting and cstructively critising eachothers ideas. Miss then showed us some Preliminary filming from another group of students and we critqued them, this helped us to see how to improve our own ideas but also realise other peopel mistakes and learn from them. The mistakes being made more often were lighting, costume, empathy with characters and timing.