Drama Buddies

Monday, 25 January 2016

Individual Film Poster Idea

My poster idea for our short film "Unknown".

For my own poster idea I decided to use a hallway with a door at the end with some light boarding the door as to let it be seen. With this I also added a silhouette as to add a eerie quality to the poster. I included a picture of India's character from the film as to link it to the film and put the title in red as it is associated with anger and danger.

Thursday, 21 January 2016

Title sequence story board

The font on our story board is just a general idea of the spooky and chilling font we will use.

'Unknown' Typography

As part of our film, we must have a title sequence that illustrates the title and the cast and crew behind the film. Here, we have to think about typography and how it can help create a tense and chilling atmosphere for our film. Here we are going to pick a font that will run throughout our short film. This will act as a form of iconigraphy that will be immediately associated with our film 'Unknown'.

This font is effective as it immediately connotes horror which is what we want to portrayin our film. Its good as we want to give off a false sense of horror which will then help create a sense of surprise when there is a comedic ending to the narrative.

This font isnt as effective as the first font as it doesn't connote horror as well as the first font however it is very bold and would stand out during the film.

This is a very effective font as itis quite deformed and this connotes the idea of something strange going on and this once again creates a false sense of horror which ultimately leads to an anti-climatic ending.

This font is very effective as it gives off a sinister vibe to the audience. This is connoted though the thin lettering which is usually associated with grand houses which are associated with being haunted

This font is also effective however I feel it isnt as good as some of the other fonts as it doesn't connot horror like the others however the bold properties of the font give a subtle hint to the audience that there will be a comedy element to the film

Marketing

The most popular ways to market a film are posters, trailers and radio trailers. Many people listen to the radio on their way to work, making it a prime way to reach adults with your film and, as I stated in my radio trailer analysis, they give just enough information to get their audience hooked and then leave them wanting more. Television adverts are usually longer than radio trailers as they have more scope with their being picture on it too. They are even longer when shown in cinemas before other films as they often have extended editions in cinemas to entice people back to the cinema. Posters are usually large and in public places in order to catch the attention of passers by and they give a small amount of relevant information along with either a logo or a still from the film.

"The dark knight rises" used a viral marketing campaign where they stuck bats around the world in big cities and aske people to tweet pictures of them when they found them. There were lots of these bats all around the world, but people were so involved that they were all found within twenty four hours. Viral marketing campaigns such as this are a good way to get your film out there and have people talking about it./ Furthermore, getting the audience involved like this makes them feel like they're a part of the action so they are more likely to see the film.

Practical Log: Day 2 of filming 'Unknown'

During our second day of filming, we filmed a lot of footage that helped contribute to our final product. During this shoot, we filmed from where we left off (From the moment the protagonist makes her way to the door). This was difficult at first as we had to maintain everything that we ended with during the last day of filming. This included things such as costume, positioning of characters and props, lighting and setting/location. The most difficult aspect was maintaining the same type of lighting as we filmed at the same time of day but the weather was slightly cloudy and this therefore changed the natural lighting within the house. However, we hope to resolve this issue through use of colouring during the editing process.

One thing that we thought went really well was the conversation between the main character and the pizza man. We thought that once looking at the footage, it was well framed and we know this gave us the oppurtunity to use shot-reverse-shot within our film to show the conversation between the two characters.

However, during filming, we decided to add a part to the storyline where the main character decides that, after all the hassle, she wants to order a pizza. So we decided to film this addition to the storyline. After doing this, we looked at this section all together and we decided that we didnt want to incorporate this into the final film and will find a way to fill up this gap during our next day of filming.

Below are some of the shots we filmed during this session:

Thursday, 3 December 2015

Audience Questionnaire Feedback

As part of our research and planning, we decided to carry out an online audience survey based on a summary of our narrative for 'Unknown'. After we gathered the responses from our audience we formulated charts and graphs to illustrate what our audience think of our narrative and what sort of mise-en-scene, sound and other relevant elements they would expect to see in our film. Firstly we used a rating scale to help us find out what our audience though of our film.

The chart above illustrates four questions we asked during our survey. These relate to narrative, character and other vital elements to film in general. From our survey we came to the conclusion that our narrative came across clearly (mostly 4's and 5's), it was enjoyable (mostly 4's), our characters were moderately relatable (this varied between 3's, 4's and 5's) and had a relevant title (mostly 4's). After the results for these questions were collected and looked at, we came to the conclusion that our film idea was successful in appealing to our audience.

As well asking questions about the idea, we also asked about regulation and who they felt were a suitable audience to view our film. The pie chart below illustrates what age certificate our audience felt was reasonable for our film:

From the pie chart, we can see that the majority of our audience would give our film a 12/12A film certificate which is great because this is what we were aiming for. However, PG was also a popular choice with almost a quarter of our audience thinking that our film should be rated a PG.

As well as using multiple choice or scale rating systems in our questionnaire, we also gave the audience an opportunity to offer feedback in how we make the film and below show some of the questions we asked and the answers we received. Not all of the answer were helpful to us but we did get a variety of helpful answers that will help us make a better film.