Short film poster draft 1

Applications that will help me

Sound Short Film

As I decided that I would not have any dialogue in the short film it was easier for me to mute all of the clips so there was no diegetic sound in them. I found that it was hard to try and create my own music for the short film so I decided that I would find my own music to use in the background. I was watching a youtube video in which I heard some music which I liked, luckily they had listed the artist in the description box so I researched them. I found that they had a sound cloud and that I was able to find her music for free. Therefore I decided to download one song called The Falling, this was only a minute and  a half however so I would have to replay the song. It would work though as there is only one verse and this goes well with story behind it as the lyrics say that they have lost something which she has. I have put the song over the title to create a sound bridge, the song then lowers in volume when my voiceover comes in.

I recorded my voice in addition to the music and this is only in certain places in the short film. I created a script in which I read from I did try to pick the best places to record my voice so it works well however this was harder to do as I couldn't quite get to grips how it counted down before hand so I did have to rerecord some of the voiceovers. I am glad that I didn't do it all in one take as I think that it would have gone wrong and then I would loose a lot of time. 

Overall I think the sound works well for the short film, although I do not have any special sound effects it's ok as the music has a particular style and as most of the shots are indoors it would be hard to find different effects that are realistic to use.

Draft 2 Of short film

Here is my second draft of my short film, the clips have all been put together but there is not any dialogue yet which is what I will add on later. I have rearranged all of the clips to make it longer and have added some various effects to make it more engaging a run smoothly. I have also added the music that I have looped throughout as there are only some lyrics and it works well with the style of the video. I have also added some more videos before the scene outside to show more of how she is living and what she goes through daily.

Jacques Derrida's theory

Jacques Derrida's was a French Philosopher known for developing a form of semiotic analysis better known as deconstruction.  Deconstruction is a philosophy form of philosophical and literary analysis that derived from Jacques Derrida's work of grammatology. 

During his career Derrida published 40 books, he had a significant influence upon humanities and social sciences, Jacques work also influenced architecture in the form of deconstructivism.

Deconstruction denies the possibility of a pure presence and of essential or intristic and stable meaning, therefore there is no absolute truth to 'reality'. A famous quote from Derrida stated "From the moment that there is meaning there are nothing but signs. We think only in signs."

But how does deconstruction relate to films and how can it be used with my short film?
In films people suggest that there are always more than one meaning and that there are many ways that you can perceive one thing. Some people believe that the literal meaning of a particular item in a shot or how it has been editing etc has been done in that way for a reason, however Jacques Derrida says that there could be multiple reasons for why. He believes that when you destruct a film you should look for more specific meanings. 

My text is open to variable readings and your intended, preferred reading is only one of a multiplicity of readings. But is this really true? I think my short film is because the part in which she is dreaming could possibly look as though she is actually living it in real life, some people may change the idea of the original and can have different readings. 

There are three positions:
-objectivist: meaning entirely in text ('transmitted') 
-constructivist: meaning in interplay between text and reader ('negotiated')
-subjectivist: meaning entirely in its interpretation by readers ('re-created')

The constructivist meaning is the most important and truthful. 

Apparatus theory and Screen Theory

Apparatus theory, derived in part from Marxist film theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema studies during the 1970s. It maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are ideological and because the films are created to represent reality. It mechanics of representation include the camera and editing. This theory also suggests that within text's perspective, the central position of the viewer is ideological. This effect is ideological because it is a reproduced reality and the cinematic experience affects the viewer on a deep level. Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature and it shapes the way the audience thinks.

Screen theory is a spectacle that creates the spectator and not the other way round. The fact that the subject is created and subjected at the same time by the narrative on screen is masked by the apparent realism of the communicated content.

REECE

I needed to do a very detailed REECE for my short film as the different locations had very different aspects that could harm my actors. It will allow me to see what things could be dangerous and how I would need to change them to make it ok to film in. I have a various locations from indoors to outside so I will have to do a REECE on all of them and also the different technological things I will need to check to make sure they are safe. As I am indoors for most of the time it will be easier to do a Reece as there will not be as many restrictions and dangers, also as I am filming in my friends house she can tell me what it the best thing to use or if there are any dangers. 

Firstly where most of the filming was done was in the bedroom, there are some photos on the left which was where the filming took place. As you can see the space is rather small as I took the photos in the doorway of the bedroom. Therefore I will have to be careful when filming close up as there is not a lot of room for more than one person so I will have to make sure there are no obstacles in the way. Also as the storyline states the girl is rather messy so the room has to look a bit cluttered therefore there could be things on the floor that people could trip over. I also need to look at the different spaces available to put the camera in the room. 

I need to make sure that all the wires for anything are out of the way so that I can make sure that there aren't any trip hazards, as my camera is battery operated I do not have any wires that this needs to be plugged in. However I wanted a light in the room to make the lighting look a bit brighter so I will have to be careful with this wire and I will have to celotape it down to the floor so nobody trips over it.

When outside I will have to look at the different types of flooring as my tripod will have to be placed on it so it can not be uneven because then it might fall and my camera could possibly break. If there is uneven flooring I will have to tell my actors so they can avoid it as I don't want them to trip.

I will have to have a look at the weather before hand so I can see if the conditions are ok to film in. As it is getting darker at night I will have to make sure the lighting is ok so my continuity editing will be ok. Also the temperature could be an issue, although most of the filming is indoors I will have to make sure that they are wearing appropriate clothing for the heat. I don't want them standing around whilst I sort out the camera for the next shot so I will make sure I am filming close to somewhere that they can stand in the warm if it is cold. 

This REECE will help me look at the different aspects of danger whilst filming and allow me to change anything that could be a possible hazard. I will talk through the hazards and dangers of each location with my actors to make sure that they have got a rough idea of what to do incase any thing goes wrong.

Research into film posters

I have chosen a few posters in which I will research the different ideas behind them. Some are students work and some are professional short films however they all work well and it will hopefully give me some inspiration behind my own. I have already completed two textual analysis on a conventional and non conventional short film posters however I need to do some more research behind the ideas of short films and how the stereotypical features of the posters work well and how the different features could work with my short film.

Purge is a professional short film directed by Brad Kammlah, struggling to mask the pain from years of sexual abuse, Joy finds herself trapped in a secret addiction. But when her mother refuses to believe the truth about her father, Joy tries her own way out.
The short film won multiple awards including Best dramatic short film and three awards for the best actress. 
The poster for this short film to me works well with the synopsis of the film as I have yet to watch it however to me it looks quite amateur. The font doesn't really stand out for me as the film is about a girl who has been struggling for sexual abuse so I find that it could be bigger. Also the bill block could be bigger as well, for the amount of awards they have won and the directors name being on the front it must be well adapted and produced so I would have thought that the manes could be bigger. I like the white as it represents her innocence however the background that it is on makes some of it hard to read. The title of the film is good as Purge means that they get rid of their impurities and that is obviously what she is trying to do in the film. I think the picture works but it is not the best as I think it looks like an a level students work because of the blur in the background, the green in the background as well looks as though it is grass and the story is about how she is trapped in a building. Overall I like the effect that it has given me but I don't think I will use anything like this. As I have already chosen my picture which is of her face the eyes are the most important especially as the title is about her eyes, I feel as though this poster is showing her eyes most so that is the only thing that I will probably use from this poster.

Frankie is a short film that was written and directed by Mike Pappa, when a watch repair man acquires an antique pocket watch that can control time, he decides to use it to achieve his dreams. His plans soon become sinister when he learns he isn't the only one with the knowledge of the pocket watch.
The poster for this short film is animated and it shows another way of creating a poster. I will probably not be doing this as I can not draw however it is good to get some research about the other ways of how people are creating film posters. This is one of my favourite posters that I have seen because they have especially paid attention to detail. The shadow of the man works as the two hands of the clock which I think is very clever because the story is about a pocket watch, also the fact that he is looking at his watch signifies how the storyline is about this. I like how the bill block is at the bottom of the page so there is more emphasis on the photo, however I am not very keen on the font because it is too spaced out. There could also be some space between the title because it looks as though that could be someones name who has taken part or helped the short film. Overall the colours are very effective because the black in the background allows the audience to look at the the main elements more. Also the geometrical lines allows the picture to look like the hands of the clock. 

Saturday is a short film about the Hillsborough disaster that took place on April 15th 1989. Mike Forshaw who is an independent filmmaker from Liverpool needed to receive some money to make this so he tried to persuade companies and individuals to donate and he managed to get over £25,000 to make this short film. It has been chosen out of thousands of films to be shown at the Sundance festival. Therefore creating a short film about a situation or an event that people can all remember is very popular. He created this short film on his perspective of that day and his documentation of his feelings and his own memory. This short film was finished this year however because the event has been in the press recently they have not yet allowed anyone to see it. 
The poster is one of my favourites as it is so simple but yet very effective, the two boys in the different football shirts which have been placed backwards from the date of the disaster. The lad who has turned around is significant to all of the people who watched the event unfold, also not being on the location that you would expect makes it look as though it is very thought provoking and the two boys shows the innocence at the young age. Having a small line about the events makes it easy for people to understand what it is about and gains some viewers. Overall I like the fact they have thought about the fact that the image represents how the short film will make you feel.

Editing Short film

When I created my short film I looked back at all of the shots and decided that a lot of them were too dark, therefore I had to edit all of the clips to make the saturation higher so I could see all the clips. The good thing about this was that I could hold down all of the clips that I wanted at the same and then edit it all together to get the same effects through out so the film is consistent. I then also added various effects such as fade to black and white to make it look as though she is dreaming and have changed the amount of time that they are on for as they were currently to short so I had to make it longer to make the effect work well with the next clip. In addition to these I added an iris and a horizontal wipe to make sure I had various editing techniques. 

I have made sure I have a match on action as well as some slow motion clips; all of these show that I have developed my editing skills from my prelim task.

As well as the obvious techniques I have edited my voiceover to make sure that it is clear and fit to the specific video clip, in addition to this I have muted the sound in the clips to make sure that any diegetic sound that I didn't want was not heard. I have also had to change the level of the background music whilst my voice over is on to make sure that it can be heard. 

Finally I have had to create my title and end credits, this was the most difficult and time consuming part of creating my short film. As I decided to have images from my protagonists past I had to scan them onto the computer before uploading them onto iMovie, I then had to edit them to make them look crisp and that the photo didn't look old and would work on the film. Some of the images were of different sizes so I decided that I would use kens burns to make them all of the same size at the end. I also made them all of the same length so that it ran smoothly together. I then added the final image of her now and put the title across this. The only problem that I had with this was that I to try and use the same writing for the end credits however I created the title credits on final cut pro and they had different fonts than iMovie so I had to change the font at the end however it is not as different as I thought.