Post 21: Production Report

Whilst filming my group and I kept a record the filming process and any alterations made.

Post 20: Ancillary Task 2 - Film Reviews

After the release of a film many of them are reviewed by different kinds of publications, for example, magazines, online reviews and newspapers. I have looked at different style of film reviews in order to distinguish the conventions used in the majority of magazines. I will then use what I have learnt to write and present my own review of Behind Blue Eyes.

The first review I looked at was in Empire magazine and it was about Cosmopolis. 

  

 

Some of the conventions in this film review that I picked out were that the review itself and how it is written in a conversation style and isn’t overly serious about what its writing. This jokey style is continued with the description of what’s being shown in the picture. The picture is the main thing that the eye is drawn to as it features the main character, who is also a well-known actor. At the end of the review there is an overall opinion of the film and a ranking out of 5 stars which would be what most readers would focus on and use to make their decision about seeing the film.

The second review I looked at was from Sight and Sound which was also about Cosmopolis. I decided to look at the same film in a different magazine as it would show me the different ways in presenting and reviewing one thing rather that looking at a different film that may be in a different genre, have a different target audience or not have the same kind of reaction about it.

 

The main thing I noticed about this review was its more serious style of reviewing than Empire Magazine. Sight and Sound is a film review magazine aimed at a different kind of audience than Empire whose audience are perhaps younger or less serious about the film industry and just want to enjoy reading about the latest films.

For my own review I have decided to follow the style of Empire Magazine because the layout is more appealing to the eye and the photo is larger so entices readers through not just the subject of the article. Empire Magazine also has a wider audience as it is a friendlier publication whereas Sight and Sound is aimed at a more niche market.

 

Above is the design for my layout of Behind Blue Eyes review, I have tried to base it as much on Empire magazine as possible keeping the title of the film bold, four columns of writing, a large image taken from the film and similar boarders. I shall keep the title bold so it grabs the attention of the reader, keep the verdict as this can often affect a readers opinion especially the star rating. I have made my image the focus of the review as I believe this often interests the reader and entices them to read the review,  I however have included a lot of writing as I believe this will convince the reader to go and watch the film.

Post 19: Ancillary Task 1 - Postcards

Film posters and postcards are commonly used by studios to help advertise their films to a wide range of people that may not learn about it in any other way.

Hollywood posters are conventionally large and eye catching using the large budgets that they have been given. They often the well-known actor or actress in the centre because the studios know that they have a large fan base and so will attract audiences. Along with an image of a well-known actor there will often by the names of all the larger and better-known actors names to entice more people. As well as this the title is central to the poster and in promoting the film so is always in bold and in an obvious place so people can see what the film is called just by glancing at the poster.

Below is a picture of the poster of the film The Dark Knight (2008), I have annotated it to show some of the different techniques used to grab the audience’s attention and techniques that give the audience information about the film:

  

British posters are typically different to American ones; however, there are a few British posters that have the characteristics of American posters. An example of this is the Les Miserables (2012) film poster which can be seen below.

A British film that takes a different approach is This Is England (2006). As seen there is a dominating photo but that is of all the characters not just one main one, the title of the film grabs the audiences' attention first due to it being bold and big. Along with this it shows some successes of the film, that could potentially help persuade potential viewers to go and watch it. The picture below shows how I annotated this film poster, highlighting the techniques:

 

 

Short films don’t tend to have posters to advertise them but rather post cards. Postcards are considered a more direct technique when targeting short film audiences.

Conventionally short film postcards consist of a dominating photo on the front that is related to the film, but also eye catching, and on the back there is a bit more information. This information could include the names of the people involved in making the film and the distribution company’s’ that helped in promoting the film, it may also include a website that the audience can go onto to find out more information. These are two postcards that I have annotated to show some on the conventions used in promoting short films.

Divine

On A Life's Edge

However even though most short films use postcards to advertise and sell their film to the audience, we have decided to create a poster for Behind Blue Eyes. Below is my rough plan of what I think our poster should look like.

 

Post 18: Pre-production Documentation

To show the use of different media I have done this post on Prezi which also makes it simpler to understand and see the different sections.