Ancillary Task: Film Review Layout

After looking through several film magazine I began to notice certain common features within the reviews. Above I have mentioned some of the most important aspects of the layout of a film review so that I know exactly what my own film review will need to include. This scan does not contain some features which other magazine do, I have seen some that also include a synopsis of the film, so this magazine alone does not give me enough details to base my own on. Now that I have researched existing film reviews I know exactly how I plan to set my own out so that it will look professional.

Genre Research

One of the genres that my film could fall under is horror. Horror films tend to take place in an isolated, and often dark, location with few people involved in the narrative, the characters being the protagonist (usually a victim) and an antagonist (some form of evil). This then creates an effect of tension and fear as the characters are completely seperated from the rest of the world which the audience are most comfortable with. The camera shots used within the films also add to the horror effect as quite often they will be handheld which immediately puts the audience on edge as the shot will be quite shakey and they will not completely understand what is happening in the scene.

This is then closely related to another genre my film could be associated with and that is supernatural/paranormal. From my knowledge of this genre it usually contains a distorted or twisted view on reality in some form. The genre tends to feature supernatural beings or other situations that the main character/s find themselves in that breaks away from our knowledge of the world and makes the audience think about the possibilty of these actually existing or happening. A genre like this is there to directly involve the audience as they are drawn in by such abnormal situations and are then completely engrossed in the storyline.  

Audience

The audience is a key factor to consider while planning my film. I need to know exactly who I am aiming this film at and what to include that will appeal to them. The audience I will be aiming my film at is teenagers and young adults. I set up a survey online and asked people within this age range (late teens-early twenties) to complete it so that I could see exactly what they would like to see in a short film and also some of their other interests which I could possibly incorporate. 

The first question in my survey was "how old are you?" This then told me whether or not those completing my survey were in the correct age group and, thankfully, most of them were. As the majority of people who completed my survey were within this age range I knew that the results of the rest of the survey would be an accurate study of my intended audience. 

I then asked "what is your gender?" The reason I have asked this question is because it is an important factor to consider when planning a film people of different genders will most likely expect different things from a short film. 

The next question I asked was "what film genre most appeals to you?" This is obviously an important question as I need to make sure that my film appeals to my target audience. I can see from the results of this question that the majority of people who completed my survey are interested in the horror and supernatural elements of films. This then tells me that my idea for a short film will appeal to my target audience as it does contain supernatural features.

I also asked my audience questions about their other interests in both film and television to obtain a greater understanding of what it is that my audience seem drawn to in the media. I received a mixture of films and television shows, as expected, but there was still certain films/shows that appeared more than once in the results. Being Human and The League of Gentlemen appeared a couple of times and they also both link into the idea for my film, Being Human being a supernatural show and The League of Gentlemen being heavily influenced by horror films.

Ancillary Task: Poster Research

A Deadly Silence

This poster has been created in a way that successfully conveys the genre to the audience. The fact that the two characters on the poster are silhouettes creates mystery around them which would intrigue the audience making them want to watch the film to find out about them. The image as a whole helps to introduce the horror elements of the film as it quite dark and not showing the characters adds to the uncertainty. This aspect could be quite unsettling to the audience before even watching the film which would attract them to it. The tagline "a dark secret kept hidden for too long is in danger of becoming..." is a clue to the events which will unfold during the short film. It is placed near the top and in the centre of the poster so it grabs peoples attention and also adds to the dark nature of the film. The fact that the title is in red also signifies that it is a horror film and it is most commonly associated with danger, anger and blood, all of which feature in the film.

Chasing Cotards

Chasing Cotards is a short film about an artist's life after the death of his wife. The actors names feature at the top of the poster, as they would on feature film posters, which would interest fans of the cast to the film. The colouring and blank expression of the character in this poster conveys the idea of him believing himself to be dead (Cotard's syndrome) which is the plot of the film. The flower pattern on the poster is used to show the artistic nature of the character and is also the wallpaper in the character's house where a painting of his wife is hanging which is a prominent feature of the film. The tagline "sometimes believing you're dead is easier than knowing you're alive" is an obvious link to the characters feelings within the film as he is dealing with the fact his wife has recently died.

Examples of Short Films

Inseparable
Inseparable conforms to many of the conventions of short films. This film features an extremely small cast with two main cast members, Benedict Cumberbatch and Natalie Press. This is quite common in short films as it deals with one plot unlike feature films which would have subplots with a variety of characters. Another way this follows the conventions of short films is the way in which the story is told within the film. The plot of the film is about twin brothers, both played by Cumberbatch, who lead completely different lives switching places after one of them finds out they have a terminal illness. It relies more on the camera shots and the details within them to put across the plot of the film. An example of this is when the main character visits his doctor, there is no dialogue in the scene but the images shown tell the audience that he has a terminal illness. This then allowed the filmmaker to be a lot more creative in the way they shot the film than if it was a feature film.


Sebastian's Voodoo from Joaquin Baldwin on Vimeo.
Sebastian's Voodoo is an animated short film about a voodoo doll trying to save the other voodoo dolls from being pinned to death by sacrificing himself and has won several awards from a variety of film festivals. It is a good example of a short film as it has a relatively simple plot which allows the animator, Joaquin Baldwin, to have a lot more creative freedom with the images he chooses, for example the use of voodoo dolls instead of simply people.


Day Of The Braindead from Si on Vimeo.
Day of the Braindead is a short film made for Tridentfest in Cambridge and involves a group of characters in a zombie-like state with the desire to annoy anyone they come into contact with. This film was shot and edited in four days with a small budget and it is quite common that short films would have relatively small budgets. The film also uses quite a bit of humour so it is like a parody of a zombie horror film.