Post 17: Ancillary Task 2 - Film Reviews Part 1

Film Reviews

Film Reviews are an essential part of advertising for all producers. Reviews explore the ideas of the critics, and can be what makes or breaks a film. In some cases, reviews are used for advertisement purposes, such as leaflets in cinema's. These leaflets are made by the management of the cinema's themselves, and usually provide positive reviews about films. This is so usual film-goers will read the leaflets, and will be encouraged to see more films at their cinema. Other reviews can be honest, un-biased reviews. Websites such as FilmCritics.com provide a fair view on films, and usually mirror what the public are thinking. These can be considered more efficient than websites such as RottenTomatoes, as the site has become more of an advertising site, rather than a public review site.

Industrial film reviews

'Sight and Sound'- This is an International film review magazine. This magazine is aimed at a niche audience who prefer independent or 'gritty' films, and people in the industry, including the filmmakers themselves. The magazine is very analytical, and gives a high quality review on a range of films. The website is full of descriptive literacy and a wide range of difficult vocabulary and the critics uses conventions, clearly that of a Film Studies level. The layout however seems simple and easy to follow. They start with the good, then with the bad, and then wrap it up all in one last paragraph. Despite this, it seems near to the impossible for the general public, looking for a quick, easy film review.

However, as Sight and Sound is an industry based magazine, it is important for film-makers for their film to get featured in the magazine.






The typical conventions of a Sight and Sound review are as follows:

• Introduction
  



• The characters in the film
  



• Locations in the film
  



• Short overview of the film

• What type of equipment they used in filming




• Comparisons to other well known directors and actors




• Critic points out the negative points, and then the positive.

Newspapers:

The Independent- A British newspaper, also available online. This provides simpler film reviews, usually those that are British Independent, 'gritty' films, or heritage. Their target audience are the general public, yet still provide a higher quality of vocabulary and there is a evidence of a slight knowledge towards film conventions. Therefore possibly an audience who know more about the conventions of films, and appreciate a critics opinion.
Through this, the reviews on this website and in the newspapers, show signs of a conservative opinion. Overall, it provides the reader to a personal opinion, and if the audience are regular Independent readers, they wouldn't mind the odd Conservative ideal here and there.

Conventions that are typical of a newspaper film review:

• Use pictures from the film, rather than a promotional photo shoot




• Tells most of the storyline rather than focusing on small parts of the story




• Reinforces hegemonic ideals
  



• Likes to review British films or Hollywood feature films

Online and public magazine:

Empire- An online website, which arguably, reaches to the widest audience. Their target audience tend to be teenagers and young adults, typically reviewing the biggest movie at the time (i.e. Harry Potter). their vocabulary and layout are extremely easy and simple to quickly read. The website provides the audience with a selection of options. The first is choosing the 'most recent' films. As you click on which film to read on, there is a short plot description, and a small verdict with a star rating. However, the reader can then choose to read a full review on the film. This is far easier than the hefty and long reviews that readers from Sight and Sound must sift through for a long time.

• Modern, easy to read language, perfect for the target audience
  



• Praises the plot and story line
  



• Writes more positive comments rather than critical ones
  



• Easy to use website, giving the audience a choice of length in review
  
  

Film reviews for Short Films are difficult to find. Short films reviews potentially could feature in industrial review magazines, as a 'short film review special', I researched on short film reviews.

I found a few online websites that featured Short Film film reviews, however they were difficult to find. A website such as 'FilmGuru' has a 'short film' category.

This is an example of a film review for 'Via Dreams'.

http://www.filmguru.net/2011/01/16/via-dreams-review/

Finally, for my film review, I have chosen the Sight and Sound layout to be the basis of my review. I prefer the exploration of conventions and meanings behind the film, rather than a typical, short, advertising scam. Despite Sight and Sound only reviewing feature length films, laying out my review as a 'special edition'. This would be my preferred layout for my film review.

Final film review.

I took this layout from an original Sight and Sound magazine article. I used Photoshop to edit my article over the original copy of a 'Frozen' article.

Writing my film review in the style of 'Sight and Sound' has made me identify the slight flaws in our film, including continuity and some of the typical conventions that we have used that may have come across as 'cliche'. However, this task has encouraged me to expand my vocabulary for the rest of my blog, and has made me more aware of similar critical points in other Short Films that we may have given feedback on for other classmates Evaluation tasks.

My film review:

Shot on a Sony PD150 in and around the charming village of Kings Langley, Jenna Pridgeon , the director of the film, works alongside her cinematography colleague Rachael Davis, and her cast of aspiring actors to be, to create the latest short film debut ‘Bruises’.

‘Grace’, played by 17 year old Zoe Fletcher, is an innocent, frightened adolescent, desperate for her bruises to be noticed. Her unidentifiable father, Martin Pridgeon (Pridgeon’s real life father), gives Grace an unexpected present of make-up, to cover up the distressing evidence. Or not.

Pridgeon creates an unpredictable twist to the story. The audience is left questioning whether Grace is being abused by her father or if she is inflicting the bruises on herself, with help from her make-up set, and clever shots suggesting drug use.

As Pridgeon’s film is a short, we are propelled into the mind of Grace at the quickest of paces, darting between fear-happiness-love-depression and her extended creativity. But where other shorts typically fail in keeping the audience conversant with the rapid changes, Pridgeon successfully balances each mood and feeling, with help from blue gels, forcing a cold emotion in Grace’s home, creating the oddest of comforts in the distressing situation that is Grace’s life. With its dark implications, distinctive camera shots and musical interludes, ‘Bruises’ feels much indebted to a Mike Leigh masterpiece.

However, due to such quick paced action, and time limit’s, there are noticeable continuity problems that are evident in the film, including Grace holding a make-up brush in her right hand in one shot, and the brush laying on the bed in the next. Not only this, due to low-budgets and limited editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, the scene where Grace immerses into a world of her own, the obvious slow motion effect can seem on the verge of ‘cheesy’. However, with the resources Davis and Pridgeon had, they prevent this scene from being an unmitigated disaster, with clever acting directions, snapping Grace back into reality.

Unique camerawork and lighting from Rachael Davis, such as low tracking shots and the intimidating shadows of the father on Grace’s painfully bare walls, dangerously immerses you into a terrifying reality. Nevertheless, it is the denouement which really shows Pridgeon’s and Davis’ collaborative efforts.

It is consequently up to the audience to make the inevitable decision they are left with in the end. This use of narrative closure forces the audience to question

This in itself is a unique style that Pridgeon has adopted from some of her most admirable influences of ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’.

Exceptional as a first time short film-maker Pridgeon may appear, ‘Bruises’ borders on the cliché, with our main character being fully engaged in the arts, expressing her clearly immaculate creative skills, in colouring a grape. Pridgeon’s suggestion of art acting as a form of escapism for Grace isn’t explored nearly as much as it should have been. However, Pridgeon allows the audience to digress with the ending, exploring Grace’s attachment to her art and make-up sets in the fatal conclusion.

A great start for a promising new director, ‘Bruises’ is worth a watch.

Post 16: Postcards

Posters use codes and conventions that appear in their film, in order to advertise a film. These conventions include:


A Title: The title of the film. This is important, obviously, in order for the public to see what your film is, and what you are advertising. The title is normally bold, as it is important for the public to know what the film is.


A Tagline: Posters tend to have a tagline underneath a picture, or the title, as a marketing technique, to draw the audience in. This tagline should be quick, snappy, and relevant to the film itself.


Visual codes: On posters, this usually comes in the form of a picture. This picture can be taken from the film itself, or can be an arranged photoshoot of the main characters, locations, props, anything that's of main importance to the film. For a high budget film, the poster may include a character who is of high star rating, in order for people who recognise or like the actor/actress, they would be encouraged to see their latest feature film. This creates more revenue for the film, and so this is a typical marketing technique for high budget films.

This is an example of a poster from the film 'This Is England'. It is clear from this poster that it follows the typical conventions of a high budget film poster, despite this being a British Independent movie, funded by the national lottery. The title uses the colours from the British flag, which suggests to the audience the importance of Britain in the movie. The picture is of all the main cast, which is unusual, as posters would normally only show a few of the protagonists from the film. We can assume from the location and the mise-en-scene that it is set in a working class situation in the 1980's. This is an important historic era for Britain, as it was the rise of Thatcherism. Therefore the conventions in this poster suggest to the audience how the film revolves around this era, the clothes, the location, the poses they are all standing in all suggest a the struggles of the working class in this era. This poster doesn't provide the names of the cast, as it is a low budget film, there aren't many well known actors/actresses in the film, therefore it may not be as important as say the Directors name, or the focus on the social realism, which is suggested by the mise-en-scene.

What is different here however, is how they have included what awards they have won, and quotes from various different papers and magazines, and star ratings they have given the film. This is typical for a British poster, as it reaches a wider audience than it may have originally, as critics opinions and star ratings provide a 'second opinion' for a different audience than the film first intended to reach.

This is an example of a new American Hollywood film release, called 'Source Code'. Unlike 'This Is England', it provides the audience with the names of the actors/actresses, this is because they are of noticeable status. The tagline is at the top, which is similar to the 'This Is England' poster, and by doing this, catches the audiences attention quicker. The picture of of Jake Gyllenhaal, a well known actor, who is surrounded by pictures of the events that occur in the film. This is typical of a high budget film, and develops a character profile in the poster. He is clearly distressed, which suggests a genre to the film, maybe a dramatic action film. The pictures are typically made up of white, middle class citizens, usually consisting of the woman who is heavily involved in the plot too. This may suggest a more high-budgeted, hegemonic views, which is completely different to the views in the 'This Is England' poster. High-budgeted films, compared to low-budgeted differ in a number of ways. It is mainly the casting, and the importance of well recognised actors. It seems as though, in these examples, the British film give more away, in a sense of plot and character development, and provide the audience with a sense of what the film is about, rather than the high-budgeted conventions of the American poster, who chooses to portray a high-quality edited picture of the protagonist.

Short Film advertisements:

In terms of short films, typically, there is a different approach to advertisement. As Short films are small, and usually made for a niche audience shown in one cinema for a number of days, film posters like the ones used for high-budgeted, feature films, can be expensive and unnecessary. Therefore, usually, Short Films tend to advertise with 'postcards'. These postcards are literally a typical postcard, a picture on the front with the information on the back.

The front follows the typical conventions of a film poster. On the front is a picture of the protagonist and other important characters if they choose, the title of the film and a tagline. On the back is where you will find contacts, distributors, the cast and crew names, and any other important information. These postcards are useful for small Short filmmakers, as they can hand out their postcards to anyone and their targeted audience, with half the price and with more efficiency than film posters.






For my short film, I will follow the conventions of a postcard.

When Jenna and I sat down and thought of a company logo, we wanted to stress the fact that we would be focused at a small, independent production level, primarily making shorts and independent films. We wanted our logo to suggest that our target audience is a niche audience, interested in shorts, independent and art house films.

When we decided on what we wanted our logo to say, we got to thinking of names. After much deliberation, we decided on 'Small House', as it combines the idea of 'small' or short films, and an 'Art House' movie. Once this was decided, we started to think of a design.

We sifted through many designs, including pictures of real life houses and cartoon houses, yet none of them seemed to incorporate our ideas. All the pictures looked to colourful and happy, while Jenna preferred the 'gritty' look.












So in the end we googled 'Small House', and we found a picture that seemed perfect for our ideas.


This is our Production Company Logo that I made in Photoshop, which will appear next to our short film information:




We found the image of the house on google images, under 'Small House'. Then I took the design further and adapted it in Photoshop. We made the colour of the house a little darker, and we added the words 'Small House' in yellow, sideways, on the door, so that the words stand out on the house.




Overall, I am pleased with our production company logo, and I believe it follows all the conventions that Jenna and I wanted to incorporate.

This is the back of my postcard:

I took the main idea's of the back of my postcard from the 'Living on the Edge' postcard (as seen above).
I chose the back of my postcard to be more informative compared to others, that just give the information about cast and crew involved in the film. I wanted to add a short review of what the film is about. This is so our target audience are drawn in, as our short is gritty, so I wanted to make that very apparent in the picture, and in some information. Not only this, I believe it broadens our preferred target audience. Because of the short synopsis, it doesn't leave too much to the imagination, without giving much of the plot away, I prefer this to no synopsis at all, as a member of the public may not pay much attention to the postcard if the design isn't to their taste. As with my design, if the design on the front isn't to their taste, they can simply read a quick synopsis and decide for themselves after that.



For the front of my postcard, I mainly focused on the 'Divine' postcard layout. I liked the idea of just a picture and the title of the film on the front, and the information on the back. These are some designs of what will be on the front of my postcards:

First Design: I liked the idea of contrasting the red with the black and white. The font is Veranda, a simple and clear font. I prefer fonts such as these to the Lucida Handwriting, as it is sometimes too difficult to read, and I like how simple the overall look with the font and the picture, as our short film explores the idea of the loneliness felt when experiencing child abuse. I believe this breaks away from typical conventions of a postcard, as it doesn't have a full cast photo, and it doesn't show the main girls face, leaving suspension to the audience.

However, this design is unusable, as the girl in the picture isn't the one we chose in the end for our short film. I do however like the colours, and may choose to incorporate this in another design.

Second Design:

This is my third design of my postcard. This is my favourite design so far, as it has the most relevance to the film. It has Grace's name, along with the title of the film in the foreground, and everything that is associated with Grace or the film in the background. It includes an art set which is centered around Grace's life. the drawing is of a grape, which is what Grace is drawing in the film in the art scene. In the back ground, there is also a phone, which I think is also relevant, as the scene where Grace's father has the school on the phone is one of the scene's where Grace's father's true self is revealed. I like the colouring of the picture as well, as it has many colours, which appears happy, which Grace is when she is drawing, but it also has a cold feeling to it, which is the underlying feeling Grace feels throughout the whole film.




Third and Final Design:

This is my final design for my postcard. On the front, appears the actress who is playing Grace, holding her knees, covered in bruises. I think this is the best of all my designs, as it gives the audience an idea of what the film is about, however I think that it follows typical conventions of a postcard. To break away from it, I didn't use a full cast picture, or had any information on the front, instead, I decided to use just the protagonist with the title of the film, in the font we have used for the titles in our short film, and the colour is a deep purple, which is the typical colour of a bruise. I also chose to not have a tagline, as I believe it gave my postcard more mystery to it, although this is extremely conventional for Postcards, I believe that by not having a tagline on my postcard just sticks to the theme of minimalism and mystery that is seen in my film.

Overall, my postcard designs have been helpful in my learning of my target audience. I have come to recognise what professionals in the film industry look for. In my research of different promotional advertisements, I have realised what is conventional for a Postcard/Poster. This has encouraged me to use some of these conventions, but to try my hardest to challenge most of them in order to make my Postcard original and exciting.