Group 8: March 2016

Unsurprisingly, we made countless errors when shooting our film. So many in fact that I decided to include many of them in a compilation of bloopers and outtakes from our film, which can be seen in the video below. These range from forgetting our lines to forgetting the camera was recording. This video also presents some behind-the-scenes footage, as well unseen or cut parts of certain shots seen in the film.

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Viral Ad Idea

My idea for a viral advertisement was a fake newspaper article concerning Lily's abilities. It gives a brief overview of the film without unveiling too much detail; thus intriguing the reader. It would be distributed to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where it would be quickly circulated and acknowledgement of the film would increase exponentially. This idea was inspired by the viral marketing campaign of "The Dark Knight" (2008), which involved a fake newspaper concerning "Harvey Dent Day" (seen below).

The image of my viral ad idea seen above only shows part of the full article. At the bottom of the paper, a link can be seen saying "www.lilythemovie.co.uk", which will then take the reader to the film's website; thus revealing the article's true intention. Much like its inspiration, the ad would help to create hype for the film and thus encourage a larger potential audience.

2nd Audience Questionnaire Responses

Radio Trailer - Script

Before creating our radio trailer we decided to write up a script so we were aware of which clips from to film were to be used and what additional sounds would be needed. This also gave us a clearer idea of what would be included in the trailer and thus editing and mixing the trailer became much easier. Most of the dialogue heard below are sound clips taken directly from the film. Music and sound effects heard are also used in the film itself.

Radio Broadcaster: Local doctor Alan Walker was found dead in his office yesterday evening. The cause of death was believed to be a stress-related heart attack... [FADES]

Lily: Brett! Oh, God! Did you hear that? ... I knew he was going to die!

Narrator: Coming this June. April Carr is Lily Ashton - the death foreseeing psychic phenomenon.

Brett: I know you've been through a lot, but you're being delusional.

Narrator: Does she have abilities the likes of which the world has never seen?

Lily: I know what I saw! I know what I keep seeing every time I touch someone!

Narrator: Or ... is it all just in her head?

Lily: I'm not crazy.

Narrator: Lily. Coming to a theatre near you.

Individual Viral Marketing Idea

My Viral marketing idea is to release the radio broadcast used in our film featuring the web link www.lilythemovie.co.uk at the end across social media platforms. This will hopefully attract audience attention and cause a moral panic similar to that created by the 1938 Orson Welles 'War of the Worlds' broadcast. After listening to the trailer the audience can then find out more by following the link given at the end (www.lilythemovie.co.uk).

Monday, 14 March 2016

Film Poster analysis:

Below is our completed film poster for our short film titled 'Lily'.

In order to advertise our film we created a poster. Through research into film posters we noted important aspects which posters needed to include in order to successfully advertise the film and link to it, these were:

The films title, we also used the same font featured in our title sequence as shown below, this created synergy across our media products. Here is the comparison:

The films age rating, we chose a 12a as although there are themes of violence it is never shown in the film.
Film posters also feature credits so we added some also, this caused the poster to look professional.
We featured the release date of the film, key information that must be featured on the film poster so audiences are aware of its release.

We also featured a link where people can find out more information in regards to the film.

Theory:
In order to achieve a preferred reading of my poster I used paradigms and indexes.

The index of shadow and chiaroscuro used in the image of the girl relates to the idea that there is a darker more twisted side to her, a key theme in our psychological-thriller short film.

We also used anchorage to fix the meaning of the image of the girl, the tagline "In her eyes she can see death, In her hands she can prevent it." demonstrates the importance of visions within the film and theme of death throughout the film

Paradigms are a set of signs that each relate to something in common. This is present in our poster design:

The image of a girl;

Combined with the image of a boy;

Together convey a couple/relationship, this combined with dark desaturated colours;

Reveals that they are a young couple and darkness enters their life causing a disruption.

Sunday, 13 March 2016

Reshoots

While we were eventually able to gather all of the footage we needed, a few shots and scenes needed a second attempt to make sure they were as good as they could be. We also managed to correct a few errors in the process. Details of the shots and scenes that were redone can be found below.

In the example seen above, Lily wakes from her coma and sits up on the hospital bed. In the original shot, shallow focus remains on the medical gloves in the foreground throughout the entirety of the shot. However, we decided during editing that it would be better to implement a pull focus as Lily sat up to signify her regaining consciousness, which is the reshoot.

This example is the opening of the first scene in Lily and Brett's home. In the original shot, we had a panning shot that tracked Lily as she walked from the staircase to her chair at the table. However, during editing, we were not satisfied with this shot as the framing was inadequate, and it seemed rather out of place. Instead, we decided to create a sound bridge from a shot outside the house (which was present in the original shoot) to the radio (using non-diegetic to diegetic sound). This is then followed by Brett sitting at the table with Lily already there (it was the other way round in the original). He offers her a cup of tea, and the scene continues as normal. We felt that this allowed the scene to flow much more smoothly.

Our third and final reshoot was of a majority of the final scene, in which Lily attacks Brett. In the original, a tracking shot follows Lily into the kitchen. We disliked this shot as it didn't seem as cinematic as we had intended. In the reshoot, we replaced this shot with an over-the-shoulder shot of Brett (from over Lily's shoulder), which we felt worked much better. The next part of the original shot was a direct address of Brett from Lily's point of view which I (Ross) personally disliked. I felt it seemed out of place and unnecessary, and was also slightly out of focus. Ergo, we replaced this shot with a shallow focus shot of Lily holding the knife (with Brett out of focus and the knife in focus). As in the original, Brett still calls Lily out over her unusual behavior in this shot, only this time, it can be heard over several shots rather than just one, which I felt was a much better alternative. For the part in which Lily actually attacks Brett, the original was a handheld shot from over Lily's shoulder. As with the first tracking shot, we felt this looked rather unprofessional. In the reshoot, this was replaced with a still shot in which Brett can be seen backing away, after which we see a close-up of Lily before she drops the knife to the floor. This seemed far more cinematic and professional, and proved to be the superior of the two shots.

Saturday, 12 March 2016

Audience Questionnaire - Refined Rough Cut

Before submitting our final film, we wanted to gather some more opinions on what people thought of what we had so far. We therefore, uploaded our film to YouTube in its current state as a refined rough cut. There wont be any drastic changes between this version and the final version. We wanted to get some audience feedback so that we could add the finishing touches, and make the film as good as it can be. As before, we created and submitted the questionnaire using Google Docs. The questionnaire itself can be seen below, or by following this link.

Radio Trailer Research

Radio trailer conventions

Facts – A radio trailer needs to contain facts and statistics to make it informative and provide knowledge for the audience. These facts should convince the audience to want to watch the film as the information given should make the film sound interesting. We have met this convention as throughout our films radio trailer the audience is given information about the film and its release
Voiceover – A voiceover is important and evident in most radio trailers. The reason for this is that the voiceover guides the listener through what is being portrayed. The voiceover also explains what the film is about, gives a professional feel to the trailer, informs and entertains the audience and sets the mood for the film.
Music – music in a radio trailer is used to set a steady pace a sets the atmosphere for the audience. However it is vital to ensure that the voiceover of the trailer can still be clearly heard over the music. For our film we have used music we have also used within our film. This links the trailer and the film directly.
Length – A radio trailer should last around 30 – 40 seconds long. This is the suitable amount of time for a film trailer as it is long enough to engage the audience and include all of the necessary information the audience needs (release date etc.)
Sound effects – Sound effects are used to interest the audience, create the wanted atmosphere and indicates to the listener what they should expect from the film. This is seen in our radio trailer as we have use many sound effect from our film. This includes multiple sound effects and also multiple lines of dialogue. This as aid above indicates to the audience what they should expect and sets the atmosphere we wanted.

There are other conventions that are not essential to a radio trailer but is they are met the quality of the trailer increases, such as

The trailer should be formal
The release date of the film should be clearly stated
The trailer should intrigue its target audience
The trailer should include more than one person speaking.

When creating our film we tried to meet as many of these conventions as possible. We did this by using dialogue from the film as well as the voiceover to have more than one person speaking. We also kept the release date to the end of the trailer where many of the sound effects we have used have finished to make sure that the date can be clearly heard.

Below is an example of a successful film radio trailer -

Research Into Radio Trailers

A radio trailer is a form of advertising for a film that is distributed (as the name would suggest) to radio. Given its nature as an advertising product, the intention is for the trailer to persuade the listener to see the film it is promoting. Ergo, it must be memorable, noticeable, and alluring. Typically, a radio trailer is likely to include some, if not all of the following:

A voice-over or narrator providing information
Dialogue taken directly from the film
The film's slogan (if it has one)
Appropriate music and sound effects
A persuasive and enticing tone

We plan for our radio trailer to adopt as many of the above points as possible, as well as incorporating a rather sinister and unnerving tone (as the genre should). For this, we will need the person with the role of voice-over/narrator to adopt a rather ominous and eerie tone of voice to add to this effect. We will also need to extract certain lines of dialogue from the film that will entice the listener without giving away too many details. This might include the radio broadcast confirming Dr Walker's death, or some of the dialogue between Lily and Brett. They will need to give insight into the film without being too specific. We will also need to include sounds and music to create our desired tone. These may also be taken directly from the film.

The line "Relax it's only a movie" is a reference to the radio broadcast of Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' in 1938; a war drama that was mistaken as a real broadcast.