FILM: Reserch into Target Audience

When researching into a target audience we firstly had to bare in mind what genre the film was and who it would appeal to, Drama as a genre can be seen as a universal genre and people of all ages usally watch dramas. With this in mind we thought that our age range would be anyone from Young Teens onwards, this is because at this age the people will understand what is trying to be shown in the film. Also, when looking at the genre of our film we researched how other short films which are dramas were met.

Our target audience could also reach out to people who are in the same situation of that in our project, I think that this will show that the viewers who are in the same shoes are not the only ones. Mostly I think that the target audience will be filmlovers, other media students and adults although I feel that mature young adults would also enjoy the short film.

When looking at the ideology of the genre this could help us bare in mind the camera angles, costume, props, type of camera shots and mise-en-scene.

FILM: Developing a Pitch

When thinking of the motive for our Pitch we had to bare in mind the plot and storyline and that it is not a huge hollywood movie. With this in mind we had to keep our budget down and to stick with the conventions of a short film by not giving it such a complex plot. If this was a feature film we would be looking for major funding from investors but as we are creating a short film product we have decided that we don't really need funding. We also had to think about various other things such as camera shots, scripting and music. It was important as we thought about this early in the project as we had everything needed for a sucessful pitch.

FILM: Scripting

The script is essential to the making of any film as it tells Actors, Directors and most of the crew what is needed to film the project successfully. Also, it gives us more time to shoot the film as most decisions of what is to happen in the film have already been made through the script. Our script seems to include more stage directions than diolouge, this was intended as some of the short films we have viewed have hardly any diolouge and I think that this sort of scripting is highly effective. This is why I have choose to limit the diolouge in our film.

FILM: Storyboard

During the creation of the storyboard we thought that we would bare in mind certian things such as the setting, props and lighting. This is the reason that we have involved this particular stuff in the storyboard so that we know what is needed for when we are filming. As you can see in the picture below you can see that we have included bannisters in our first scene as these are important so that the little girl of our film can look through them.

Furthermore, as a group we thought that it was important to say what kind of shot were in each scene. This is important so that we know what camera angle to shoot from.

FILM: Organising Locations, Actors Etc

When thinking about the locations for filming during planning we brought into consideration which house would work the best for what we have wrote in the script. Also, when planning we had to look at who could play the part of the characters in our project. This was an important process as we have to find people who are commited to the project and also don't mind being in front of a camera. As Rebecca has acting experience and we could not find anyone who could be suitable to play the child in our film we decided that she would play this part, also when trying to find 'adults' to play the parents in our film we had no success therefore I took it upon myself to play the role of the father and we asked another student in our class, Emma, to play the role of the mother.

Props that we needed for the film mainly included photos and the heart shaped cut-out of the collection of photos, therefore these were the ones that were most important to make before we filmed. Other props that we needed included a paper, blankets, a mug, keys and scissors.

FILM: Shooting Schedule

When we were creating a shooting schedule I found that it was important to bring into consideration times when everyone was busy. For example, I myself am busy Monday to Wednesday evenings so at these times it will only be Rebecca and Rose who will be filming. I also think that a shooting schedule is important to the group as it gives us a rough idea of when our film we be complete. Also, a shooting schedule is important to a filming company as it is guideline to make sure that companies do not go over time or over budget.

FILM: Researching Other Short Films

To prepare for the making of my short film I did some research on YouTube by looking at other exsiting short films, I thought that this would give me a good idea of what a short film should be like and what it should consist of.

The first short film I viewed was Broken.



This short film showed me that diolouge in a short films is not all important, I think that this also help me in writing the script for our short film as our project is at times going to be short of diolouge and I thought it was important to see how this has worked in other short films as in feature films, there is alot more diolouge used throughout.

Another, short film that I researched on YouTube was Strangers.



This short film was also short on diolouge but more importantly I think that the message conveyed in the project was brillantly done and worked effectively. Messages are also shown in feature films but I have found that in shorter projects it is shown in far less time.

POSTER: Analysing Conventions of Film Posters

When loooking at the conventions of film posters we looked at major feaure film posters but also past media A-Level students film posters. When analysing these film posters we looked at the conventions which are portryed in them. For example, we looked at the film poster for 'The Silence Of The Lambs' and at first we looked at the message we thought was conveyed from it but on a closer look we found that there was more to it than we thought. We found that on the face of the butterfly was a skull, but on a closer look we found that the skull was conveyed of the bodies of women. I think that this was a great use of conventions on film posters as in the film there is a running theme of women. Another convention shown on the 'Silence of the Lambs' film poster is the use of a women as the main figure and the red colour of her eyes. The redness shown could suggests some kind of death or danger that this women is going to recieve.

I think that researching the conventions of a film poster was very interesting as it showed me that more thought goes into developing these posters than I thought i.e the Silence of the Lambs poster. Having seen 'The Silence of the Lambs' I now believe that this film poster could show the public what the film would be about if they looked closer at the poster.

POSTER: Pitching Ideas for Posters

When pitching the ideas for our film poster, the things that we decided to bare in mind were the genre, the message being conveyed by the film and also the overall feeling of the film. With this in mind, we each drew up our own film posters and then analysed each others. After this we decided that Rebecca (other group member) had the best film poster as we felt that it conveyed sadness and also related to the film via the sciccors and shards of paper.

We found that Rebecca's idea of a film poster also made the audience think, Why has the girls got her back to us? Why is there paper everywhere?. This is what we wanted the audience to think so that it could convince them to watch our short film, we also thought that our poster would not be to hard for a child to understand or too simple to not appeal to an adult.





Overall, I feel that we made the best decision concerning our film poster.

POSTER: Sketching Possible Images/Fonts

The image shown above is a rough idea of what our own film poster is going to look like. Everyone in our group talked about what we would like to see in the film poster and what we thought would be conventional to the film. Overall, we thought that we should have a little girl in the middle of the film poster as the girl in our film the girl is highly important to the plot. Also, we thought that if we could only see the girls back on the poster it would adds some sense of vunerability and suspense, making the public think why has she got her back to us? Why can we not see her face? Is she crying?. We wanted to make the public think when they would look at our film poster.
Also, we felt that a frame would add to the theme of the importance of the photos in the film and also that the shards of paper and scissors seen, would also make the audience think why.

When thinking about the font and the title, we felt that the title should be in a child friendly kind of font but that the 'o' in the word 'Torn' would be replaced with a broken heart. I feel that this would work well as all characters feel some heartbreak in our film, for example the parents are both arguing and the daughter is sad and fears the worst for her mum and dad.

POSTER: Setting Up Mise-En-Scene

When we were drawing up our film poster, I thought that it was of importance that we conveyed Mise-en-Scene well as this is an important convention of film posters as things such as props, body language, lighting and costume can have a vital importance to telling a story through our poster.
Firstly, when we were thinking up our idea for our film poster we all thought that we should keep the theme of insecurity and shyness running on to the film poster. Therefore we decided that we could have our little girl in our poster with her back towards us which shows that she doesn't want to talk and is scared to talk to us. I thought that this would work well as in the film she is scared that her mum and dad are asking therefore in the poster it could show that she is scared, also it gives the audience something to think about.
Secondly, when thinking about costume we had to think that the girl in our film poster was going to be a young girl therefore we thought that if we put her in pyjamas this would be conveyed as 'cute' along with the red bow that we placed in her hair.
When thinking about props we thought that it was essential that the scissors were used in the shot that was going to be used on the poster. This is because I think that it makes the audience think 'why has a young girl got scissors?', this is what I wanted to aim for in my poster as I would like the audience to be drawn in by the poster. I think that the little girls body langauge in the way she's holding the scissors says that she is unsure at what she is doing with which could make the audience nervous.
When considering lighting we thouhgt that it would be good to have good enough lighting to show the little girl but also so that it was not light enough to light the room putting more emphisis on the girl.

POSTER: Exploring Fonts

When exploring fonts for our poster with my group there were a quite a few things to consider. For example, we had to bare in mind the genre of the film and what the film id trying to convey. Our film is about a rocky relationship and a vunerable girl therefore when looking at fonts we decided that Centery Gothic was a suitable font to use as it looks slightly mysterious and edgy. This also may draw in the audience as they may want to find out what this film is about.

This is why we did not want to use a 'happy' font because this does not work with what the film is trying to tell the audience.

POSTER: Choosing Most Appropriate Images

When we shot images for our poster, as a group, we conferred at which kinda images should be shown on our poster. This is an important decision to make as a group as people could have different feelings towards different images but also the image on the poster may be the convention that convinces the public to view our short film.

My draft of our film poster showed the little girl standing on her own in the middle of a room which did show the vunerability of the girl but we felt that this was not good enough although when we saw Rebeccas draft of our film poster we were positive that this image would work with what the message of the film was saying. It showed the little girl with her back to the camera whilst holding some scissors and this image is shown within a wooden frame, I straight away felt that this image would tell the story that we would want our film poster to convey.

POSTER: Drafting/Editing

When we were going through the processess of drafting up a film poster for our project, we each decided that after all drafting up a film poster each, that we would pick Rebeccas film poster draft. Rebecca, Rose and Myself felt that the draft contained all the conventions needed for a successful film poster. Our draft can be seen below:

At first sight, us as a group felt that one of the most important things to take from the draft into our final film poster was the frame in the picture. We felt that the frame and placing the child in the middle of the poster showed that this little girl was of importance to the film but also we thought that having a frame in a film poster was slightly uncoventional and was a sign of independence as not many film posters contain frames, we felt that using this in our final product may make the audience think that it is rather mysterious and wierd.

Below is our final film poster:

As you can see many of our original ideas have been replaced although their are some conventions and parts of out rough draft that have made it to the final product. I'd like to firstly talk about the main image of our girl, looking back at the draft we have stuck to the same idea of keeping the girl in the middle of the frame as we felt that this projected the fact that she is of a certain importanct to the film. Although, unlike the original we have not followed up with the concept of the shards of paper in the image. We felt that this would make the whole poster a bit too busy with paper everywhere which would take the focus off of the main image of the girl. When we were taking the image for our poster we thought that if the girl was to hold the scissors up instead of the scissors being copied onto the image, it draws in the audience as it is not usaul for a small, young girl to have some scissors also we felt it will make the audience think why has she got them? What is she going to do with them?. Blurring out the rest of the image around the girl on fireworks we felt was a good move as it again puts the main focus on the girl and the scissors.

REVIEW: Researching Different Film Magazine Audiences

When researching film magazines I found that there are a huge variety of different magazines which in turn all have different audiences.

For example, when looking at FHM, we found that this magazine's film reviews were clearly aimed towards men and this was noticable due to a collection of things. Firstly, the language used in the review is informal, evidence of this is shown by the use of slang such as 'textbook' and 'shit-eating'. The langauge seems to be quite manly which obvisouly makes it easier for the men reading FHM to relate to. The use of subheadings such as 'Where', 'Who' and 'When' gives the reader a simple explaination of what the film is about and also other important facts are spoken about in a trivia box. A comic spin on the review also hints that it is meant to be funny and is not a 'serious' film review.

Next, I looked at Empire. Empire is a well- known film magazine and when I researched this magazine I felt that the type of audience that would buy this magazine would be film lovers of both sexes as it talks seriously about films but also inserts the odd comic turn to a review. The language is straightforward and an easy read. Therefore I feel that this is why Empire has a variety of audience.

The third magazine I looked at during my research was Sight and Sound, which I felt was a individual magazine. This of all the magazines was the one which was solely focused on speaking about the film. Evidence of this in the magazine was that there was far more text reviewing the film than stills from the film. Also, the presence of the credits along with the review shows they are very focused on giving the reader as much information about the film as possible. Unlike FHM and sometimes Empire, the language is very analytical and very formal throughout. I feel that the type of audience that this magazine would attract would be the type of film lover who would solely like to know information about a film and not bother with the old joke.

REVIEW: Analysing Design & Langauge Conventions of Magazine Reviews

When analysing the different conventions associated with film reviews it was important that you analyse the language and the design used in the review. The magazines i looked at were Empire, Sight and Sound and FHM.

When analysing the first review I looked at, Sight and Sounds review of 'The Final Destination', there were many conventions that had been used. For example, the convention of a trivia box was present in all three review that I looked at and also all three followed the conventions of columns in displaying the review in columns. Although, when looking at the language that all three magazines had used, it was clear that Sight and Sound was the most formal and analytical of all of the magazines as the other two magazines, mostly FHM, were for more straightforward with there review which can be seen as when they are giving their film review they follow a structure of What, Who and Where. Where as with Sight and Sound they go into depth with their review and Empire does the same.

Empire and FHM also use the same language convention when they both insert comic phrases and puns into their review which can offer the reader a break from an otherwise quite formal review, especailly in the Empire review.

All magazines use the design convention of a text to image ratio although they all show it in a different way. For example, Sight and Sound's text to image ratio is roughly about 80/20 and when comparing this to Empire's 60/40 and FHM's 70/30 it is clear that they are more focused on expressing what the film is about through it's text rather than images.

REVIEW: Drafting Text

When drafting the text for our magazine review we thought that it was of a importance to talk solely about our short film and not to introduce such things as comic phrases or puns. We took inspiration from such magazines such as Sight and Sound and Little White Lies. Little White Lies was a magazine which we very much liked the look of therefore we aimed to base our text and design on the magazine. Below is a sample of what we have wrote in our review:


'Torn is the debut film of the up and coming independent production company, RJ Films. It’s emotive nature alongside it’s un-romanticised take on family life behind closed doors is a breath of fresh air.'

Above is the first paragraph of our film review, I myself am happy with this as it get's straight to the point of the film which I think our audience will like as we feel our review would be shown in a magazine which would focus on film reviews, like Little White Lies.

REVIEW: Choosing Most Appropriate Images From Film

When choosing appropriate images from our film for our review, me and my group felt it was important to use a still that did not give too much of a story to the audience. Another dilemma that popped up when we were in the choosing process was that we didn't know whether to pick a picture of the child of the parents as they both have stories throughout our film.

After some consideration we decided that we would settle with a still which shows both parents looking rather uncertain, which could incidentally be because of many things such as their daughter production or their own relationship. The still can be seen below:

I think that the picture has a rather enigmatic feel to it as to a reader of a magazine it could seem quite puzzling and ambiguous. This is the feel that we wanted to go for as I feel that if the still and also a film poster is shown quite mysteriously it has the tendency to catch a readers attention.

REVIEW: Drafting Layout

When drafting the layout for our film review, together with the rest of my group, we felt that it was important to follow the conventions of many other review pages in magazines especially film reviews. Therefore we thought that it was important that we included such things as the columns, good text, images and a trivia box. Our film review layout is based on the look of the reviews in the magazine Little White Lies as when researching the conventions of magazines, this magazine was one that really caught our eye.




We liked the fact that they were clear, straight to the point and set out superbly which were all factors which persuaded us to base our own review on the style of Little White Lies.

REVIEW: Editing Final Product

Editing the final product was a process of which I found challenging but enjoyable. The process of editing our film was a lengthly one but this was nessescary as the result of editing would be our final product. There were many different editing tools we used when creating our film such as cross-cutting, using different camera angles and also adding a soundtrack to our film.

When I first started the editing of our film, it was fair to say that it was a bit tough to work with but within a few weeks of editing I felt that I comfortably knew how to edit and the different tools associated with editing. The first thing I did when we started editing was get rid off all the unnessescary footage and make sure we kept the scenes we wanted to use in our film.

After this we used Adobe Premiere Elements to put our film together so it worked in motion. This is when we decided to experiment with different types of edits such as cross-cutting and quicker cuts, we felt as a group that these edits worked with the message that we were trying to convey. Therefore after experimenting with these edits we decided to use them in our Advanced Portfolio.

Using a soundtrack in our short film was something that we did not apply till the editing process as we had a list of songs that we felt would work well with our genre but we needed to view a roughly finished version of our film to decide which song to use. We decided to use Adeles' 'Make You Feel My Love' and more importantly that it would start once the mother in our film dropped her head after the father leaving, this was easy to achieve using Adobe Premiere Elements and as a group we found that this timing would make the song more hardhitting due to the pace and lyrics.
Editing the film was a process I throughly enjoyed as I am very proud with our final product.