Poster Research

A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface, or sometimes are even put online in order to advertise something. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster can just contant just text or just graphics. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. They're used for many purposes;they're frequently a tool to advertise events,films, protests and other groups trying to communicate a message. Posters are also used for reproductions of artwork, particularly famous works, and are generally low-cost compared to original artwork. Another type of poster is the educational poster, which may be about a particular subject for educational purposes. They're quite easy and cheap to produce and are great ways of introducing things to people; they're particularly good for informing people on new films that will be coming out and is one of the most common ways of advertising films alongside television advertisments.

some posters are very simplistic but
very effective, like this poster 'the birds' the feather is effective because it is a common attribute that is related to a bird, the colour red could signify danger, or it could signfy love and passion, it makes the audience curious of the story line, because it doesn't give a lot away but makes people intreged, it has the title of the film on the poster, and the maind characters name; it also has a bit of writing at the bottom, this bit of writing usually involves the makers and associates of the movie.
If we were to use this sort of poster we would have to put something on associated with the word 'misguided' something like an arrow, and the colour red would be significant because i could represent the danger of the rape.

some are really complex and involve a lot of graphic photoshopping, this poster is intregueing because it makes people wonder about the story line because the man is running, and the floor is coming up, it has a sort of fantasy theme to it. this poster has dark colour and a matalic coloured text; which suggest an action film, it includes the tag line 'MAKE EVERY SECOND COUNT' which gives a little away about the storyline, but not a lot, which is a good way of attracting the audience because they want to know what is meant by that.
If we was to use a poster like this we could have the geek in the middle running away from all the thing in the party, which would be photos of people and bottle of alcohol and drugs, etc.
we could also have a tag line that says something along the lines of 'NOTHING IS EVER AS SIMPLE AS YOU THINK' emphasis the fact that the geek thinks she's been invited to this party on nice terms, but its really because of the planned rape.

 

some posters dont work as good as others, this 'x-men' poster for example doesn't look as attractive as the 'source code' one above as it clearly hasn't has as much work put into it. the design is fine for the film 'x-men' but its not a design that could be changed to fit others, the sillouette of the man suggests a dark side to the man in the heart of the poster, it is simple but wouldn't personally attract me as an audience.

 

others posters involve a capture from the film itself and have the main characters, which attracts the audience and makes theminterested; the poster has the main characters name at the top and the title 'inception' is in the colour red to make it stand out from the rest of the film; the poster has a lot of blue colours to suggest a dreamy type world in the background.

if we was to use a poster like this we would have Robyn Making's at the top as shes the very central character of our film, and we would have the character; alice, fiona, emily, chris and kieran on the front of the picture, in the background could be a picture of the party room; we could again put the title in red to make it stand out and emphasise the danger of the rape scene.

IMPORTANT CHANGES

Due to work commitments and illness, we had to work around things in order to make sure we got filming done with plenty of time to edit.

We have changed Holly and Robyn's roles around. Robyn is now Fiona and Holly is Emily. 

Practice Editing

this video includes:
practice on opening credits.
practice on how we're going to piece it together.
practice on hard shots such as the glasses pulling focus.

However, when putting the video together, we noticed a lot of problems with the filming, such as the quality and the bounciness of the video, as we'd forgotten to put it on manual focus.
when putting it together we learnt that we needed to put in shots between the long making the bed part; and that we needed to film more of the girl trying on her outfits, to make it look like its took her a long time to find a suitable outfit.

Short Film Analysis: The Crush

After spending a considerable amount of time researching the type of film we wanted ours to be, I came across 'The Crush'. Upon watching the film, you may not understand why I believe it relates to our film, but after I watched the film a second time the themes similar to the film I had created became more prominent.

'The Crush' follows the life of Ardal, once he realises that he loves his teacher. The film starts with Ardal giving his teacher a ring, in theory proposing to her, which the teacher says she will think about. With Ardal being at such a young age this makes him feel wanted and special. He believes that he is going to marry this woman despite the obvious obstacles. The story continues to see Ardal's obsession with his teacher until the point where he threatens to kill her fiancé because he isn't treating her good enough. The tension builds throughout the film as you watch Ardal struggle with doing what his heart wants, ending the film on a high note as he walks away with his teacher.

Titles

The film starts of with a black screen showing the name of the company that created the film before heading straight into the start of the film. The story continues without the use of any title sequence apart from one shot where the name of the film is written onto the screen. The music behind the shot of the film title is rather soothing, much like the music used to relax. This allows us to see that the boy in the shot is currently in his own world thinking about something else which relaxes him. This being the teacher sat at the front of the class. While this shot is on we hear some diagetic sound of Ardal's friends packing away and leaving school.










Characters
Ardal
The main character within 'The Crush' is Ardal, who is the love sick boy, having a typical crush on their teacher. Ardal seems like the typical teachers pet, he believes that because his teacher is nice to him, that it means something more. Ardal is easily led by his feelings and desire to be with his teacher, resulting in him threatening her fiancé because of how he mistreats his favourite teacher. Ardal is portrayed as an outsider, who finds friendships with those older than him, the ones he spends most of his time with, which is evidently his teacher.


Miss Purdy
Miss Pardy is the object of Ardal's love. She is the typical teacher, being nice to her students because it is her job. She makes Ardal feel comfortable and loved when she talks to him like he's an adult rather than the child he evidently is. She may not intentionally lead Ardal to believe that she loves him, but the innocence boy takes her communication with him as a sign. Something she does unknowingly, yet leads to the turning point of the film. 


Pierce

Miss Purdy's fiancé receives the full brunt of Ardal's love for her. Pierce is threatened by Ardal, but shrugs it off as the young boy joking around. He doesn't take Ardal seriously making him feel like a child again. Pierce makes fun of Ardal's threat, claiming there's nothing to worry about. He is portrayed as the evil partner that doesn't really care how other people feel. He's like the popular guy in high school who gets everything he wants.


Cinematography
Throughout the entire film, the music varies, however mainly focuses around a calm and soothing tempo. The film starts with the simple calm opening music, however is quickly cut off and replaced with the diagetic sound of the school day. The film has a higher level of diagetic sound overall compared with that of the non-diagetic sound. Although most of this is due to the conversations the characters have, some points consist of mainly background noise and no speech. When we do pick the music back up after our long gap consisting of conversation, it is at the end of Ardal's conversation with Pierce, telling him that he wants a fight 'to the death', we see Pierce laughing at this comment and thinking nothing of it, even joking about it when Miss Purdy gets in the car. When we next see Ardal walking home from school the music quickly reappears, however it isn't calm and relaxing, its sinister, giving off a high pitch squeak within the first five seconds of being on.
The editing for the film compliments the music throughout the entire story. Like previously stated the balance between diagetic and non-diagetic isn't equal, but it works. Having little non-diagetic sound enables us to focus on the story more. When we get to an important part within the story, the music usually picks up for a couple of seconds before being cut off again and replaced by a different scene and a conversation. We know that whenever we hear music rather than speech, something monumental to the story has occurred. The scenes involving the gun before the battle to the death, leave an underlying sinister feel, where we believe that the gun in the shots is actually real. The fact that we see Ardal's father with the gun first, gives the impression that it is in fact a real gun, due to the job he has. When we later see Ardal sitting in front of the wardrobe we know contains a gun, after having a conversation about a battle to the death, you are led to believe that he is going to kill Pierce because he wants Miss Purdy to marry him and not Pierce. The dark scene which this is shot in makes it even more sinister and emphasises the fact that Ardal wasn't joking around when he made the threat. The next time we see the gun, it is in Ardal's hand pointed towards Pierce. The dialect in this scene only encourages the suspicion that the gun is real. Pierce questions the fact that Ardal has a real gun on him, only to receive an answer of 'yes it is' referring to it being real. The use of these three shots misleads the audience, resulting in a higher tension when watching the battle scene. We are all led to believe that he is going to kill Pierce making you want to watch the film further so you know what happens.
The film focuses mainly on the dialect of the characters, resulting in a small variation of shots. Close-up's and Medium shot's are favourites in this film since they emphasise the emotion on the characters face. The only time we see long shots is to introduce a new character into the scene. The battle scene at the end uses one to show that Miss Purdy has followed Pierce and is now watching the scene unfold in front of her. The only other time long shots are used, they are to show Ardal walking home from school, like a filler scene to show how our characters got from one place to the next. The first one of these shows Ardal happy, since he has just given Miss Purdy the ring, however the second time shows Ardal as angry, he has just had the battle to death conversation with Pierce. The last part of the battle scene appears after a quick blackout, which represents that Pierce is supposed to be dead. The scene then involves a medium shot of Pierce laying on the floor, eyes open, a position related to that of someone who has been shot.


Morals/Themes
'The Crush' has many underlying themes, going from how easily someone can become jealous about another person, resulting in uncharacteristic actions, to the fact that people aren't always who they seem, they do things to please others in the hope that they themselves will achieve a better outcome. This allows any type of audience to relate to the film, without considering the moral of the film itself. Many people can relate to how easy it is to become jealous, or how people sometimes hide who they are, since these are everyday situations. I believe that the moral is that no matter how old you are, looking at the bigger picture helps you to understand things easier. Ardal had a school boy crush on his teacher, wanting to marry her, however by the end of the film Ardal has changed his mind because he has seen that he can't provide her with what she wants due to the age difference. Which is something he never took into consideration before meeting her fiancé.


Credits
The credits within this film are extremely unusual since they act as a title sequence but at the end of the film, appearing over the scene rather than going to a black screen. The scene isn't of any importance, just of Ardal and Miss Purdy walking away from the school, only their backs visible within the shot. Yet it isn't what a normal credit sequence should look like, these usually entail the black screen covered in white writing which scrolls up as the music continues to play. The unusual credit sequence only makes the film more unique and memorable for the audience.


Conclusion
Studying this short film has allowed me to have a better insight of how to portray things using various shots. This will be helpful when creating our film since we need to hint at the idea that the girl has been drugged, without giving away who it was. Also hinting at the idea that she gets raped without knowing who until the end of the film. This makes the gun shots helpful since we are led to believe it is real until the very end of the film, we want to ensure that we keep the audience guessing and wondering what is going to happen next, to be shocked by the outcome when it is revealed.

Viral Advert Research

Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives like product sales. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the internet. Viramarketing may take the form of video clips, interactive flash games, e books, brandable software, images, or text messages.

- An example of a viral advert is for the film 'Inception'. A mind crime game was released online which kept most of the film unknown and produced a series of real interviews with scientists who specialize in dreams, which made fans even more interested for the films release.

- 'Paranormal Activity' film makers encouraged fans on twitter to tweet their screams and write reviews on the film which was hugely popular creating even more success for the film.

- Another example of a successful viral advert was for the film 'The Blair Witch Project' the low-budget horror film created massive hype for the film by posting found footage and police records from the film before the film was released.

Short Film Analysis: New Boy

After finding and watching the short film 'New Boy' on Youtube I decided to analyse it as I think it draws in on a few themes that are present in our own short story, for example: representation and identity, fitting in with your peers and personal struggles.

'New Boy' follows the story of a young African boy, Joseph, who's moved to Ireland and is starting at a new school. The story opens immediately with Joseph's own struggle as he's immediately rejected by the rest of his classmates, and as the story progresses we see other struggles that he's had to overcome within his life. Although the story begins with a struggle, towards the end some of the weight of this struggle seems to have been lifted from Joseph and the film finishes on a more upbeat note.

Titles
The film begins with a dark screen and happy, upbeat, bright music playing, which creates a sort of contrast, but overall gives a joyous, energetic start to the film. The opening titles of the film which include film companies, writers, producers, film name and other necessary credits then play, and are displayed in an odd, distorted font, which again contrasts with the mood that the music sets to perhaps suggest some sinister element within the film. As these titles appear and the music continues to play, the sound of voices slowly fade in until the titles disappear and cut to a close up, over the shoulder shot of a young black boy sat in a classroom while the sound of the voices, which is the diagetic sound from the clip, continues playing.

Characters and Representation 
All of the characters within 'New Boy' are very different and help to represent the diversity that can be present in a classroom through both personality and race. All of the characters come together to create an overall realistic impression of a classroom and they all work together to create a certain sense of hierarchy and social balance. 


Joseph
Joseph is the first and most important character that we are introduced to. He immediately stands out as an outcast from the rest of the class as he is the only black child, showing already that he's a potential misfit. He is represented as a quiet, timid character in the first shot we see of him: a medium shot of him standing at the front of the class with the teacher looking down at the floor and slowly up to the class with a scared expression and eyes that dart around the room nervously. This timid look is kept throughout the whole of the film as his stiff body language suggests discomfort throughout all of the classrooms scenes and throughout the break time scene as he spends it isolated and wary of the other children. His refusal to speak also reflects his shyness and his constant upset expression suggests a hard past that has made his life a struggle and has left him unable to interact with others easily. I think that Joseph is successfully portrayed as the outcast of the group and any audience will be able to detect this based on his expressions and body language.

Teacher
The teacher is introduced to us around the same time that Joseph is, and although she has a fair amount of control over the class, it's apparent throughout the story that she struggles to keep this control as instances such as the children swearing and disrespecting her seem to startle her and the children take advantage of her shocked state by further mocking her and giving her back-chat. The teacher's role within the story is to keep some kind of peace between Joseph and the other children in the class, but she also brings a humorous element to it as she uses the phrase "Now," which is mocked by the children and gives the whole story a slightly humorous tone. I believe that the teacher within the story reflects one that may teach at a working class, local school, and so they will be exposed to working class children and may have to deal with attitudes that are perhaps rude and disrespectful, so I think this classroom scenario is perfectly believable as it sticks close to a common reality.

Seth
We are then introduced to Seth who is portrayed as a fairly unlucky character that gets into trouble due to silly circumstances or his lack of intelligence. Instances such as when Seth sees the teacher's knickers suggest that he may be the 'class clown' and doesn't take his education very seriously; although these aren't good acts, they're light hearted and joky which once again reinforces that he isn't a bad character. Seth easily succumbs to his teacher's commands and seems to be picked on a little by his teacher which shows that he isn't a bad child and makes the audience pity him slightly. We pity him once again when Christian confronts Joseph and Seth tells him to "Let him go" but gets called back by the teacher with the two boys anyway showing that he perhaps gets dragged into unwanted trouble frequently. Seth is representative of the child in a classroom that jokes around in class, gets involved with the wrong crowd struggles with work but generally means well and adds to the characters that would be found within a classroom to once again give the story a feeling of reality.

Christian
Christian is very quickly introduced to us as the 'bad guy' as he taunts Joseph by calling him 'Live Aid' and asking him if he knows it's Christmas; this is a very malicious comment for a child to make and it once again enforces the gritty reality children nowadays have to live in and highlights the shocking attitudes that children so young can hold as this comment raises issues such as racism and poverty.  Christian's bad attitude is reinforced throughout the whole film through his snide comments and rude attitude towards his teacher and his constant pursuit of causing Joseph distress. His hard facial expression and harsh tone of voice also add together to help represent him as a nasty, malicious individual. Seth is representative of the nasty, cocky school bully that can be found in most classrooms.

Hazel
Hazel is introduced to us as the 'good guy' as her first line of speech is sticking up for Joseph. We then see her represented as a stereotypical 'geek' as she wears 'jamjar' glasses and is seemingly very anal about her work as we see her taking particular care with her pencil case occasionally and is also called upon by the teacher to show the class how to do sums. Although Hazel is a stereotypical geek, personality wise she deviates slightly from this stereotype as she has several lines within the story that show her confidence and wit whereas geeks are usually portrayed as being quite withdrawn and shy. This shows a play on social expectations of what a geek should be appearance wise, but it then shows an audience that just because someone looks a particular way it doesn't necessarily mean they'll act in a way that society expects them to based on their appearance, ultimately telling us that we shouldn't judge people based on their appearances.

Storyline
The storyline within 'New Boy' juggles both a linear and non-linear narrative as the story starting from the boy's arrival in the classroom until the end of the day runs in a linear fashion, however, it is broken up by the boy's own memories to give a sense of a non-linear narrative and the audience an insight into the boy's background.
The flashbacks of the boy's memories create a contrast between his current life and former life as his old life is portrayed as being very warm, loving and uplifting, whereas the classroom scenes are very lonely and uncomfortable for the boy. This contrast helps the audience to sympathise with the main character and I believe it works well because it helps an audience properly engage with the story as they become emotionally involved and are concerned about the boy's wellbeing, meaning the audience develop a greater interest in the storyline and become more concerned about what happens next.
The storyline also has a very clear beginning, middle and end and so runs in an order than an audience will expect and be able to understand, meaning that the story is very clear and fluent and an audience won't become disinterested due to their misinterpretation of the storyline. This set up of the storyline also means once again that an audience stays interested as they know that something significant will happen towards the middle of the story and will want to see the resolution at the end of it, making for an all around successful storyline.

Cinematography
The sound throughout the whole of this short film is fairly simple as it mixes a nice balance of both diagetic and non-diagetic sound. The main sound within the film is ambient and dialogue meaning much hasn't needed to be added in in post-production, however, non-diagetic sound is featured over Joseph's memories to emphasise a certain emotion, for example, an airy, light hearted feel for the positive memories, and an eerie, sinister one for the bad ones; this mixing of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds works well to create a smooth out moments of silence and merge them with other, louder sounds.
The editing works alongside the sound to give an edgy consistency to the film, for example, when Joseph is reliving his memory, the picture and sound are cut out by Christian talking to him and the clip cutting back to the classroom; this cut could also be representative of how easily Joseph can be snapped out of his own dreamworld, therefore putting you into the main character's shoes. Another nice use of sound is at the end of the memory where Joseph's father is taken away and we hear Christian saying "You're dead" like he had done previously to Joseph in the classroom; this creates quite a sinister irony as when it was said to Joseph it wasn't meant seriously, however when played over the clip of his father being taken to his death it gives it a sick, twisted feel as it presents to us the memories and feelings that Joseph could've relived after hearing this comment. Shortly after this speech snippet is played over the scene, Joseph is once again snapped out of his memory by the sound of a water balloon bursting, and with how it's edited, the sound of this can be interpreted to be the sound of guns after Joseph's father being taken away, once again suggesting his death and giving a sinister feel to the scene.
The film is mainly made up of close ups and medium shots as the film focuses on dialogue and emotion more than scenic, decorative shots. There is also a lot of pulling focus from one character to another during dialogue to capture different characters and their emotions and personalities. The colour used within the film also varies between the classroom scenes and the memory scenes as the lighting and colour in the classroom and playground is pretty standard, whereas the colour in the memories is very saturated and bright and there is a lot of light; this once again reinforces the contrast between the boy's former and current life.

Credits
The credits are quite boring in the sense that they appear standardly rolling over a black background with a white font, however the music that was playing at the beginning of the film is playing once again, and this time, rather than any fonts suggesting anything sinister, the music creates an uplifting, relieving mood to reflect the positive end of the story and leave you with an overall positive feeling of the film as a whole. Although visually boring, this is an effective way to end a film and a clever way to make a lasting impression through the credits as it leaves the audience with a definite emotion that will have an impact on them.

Morals/Themes
I believe that the film 'New Boy' aims to tackle issues that most people face, for example, being the new person in a group, but also issues that minorities face such as racism and poverty, meaning that the film is something that perhaps everyone can relate to and become emotionally involved with, but it also aims to educate them to be aware of the difficult circumstances others may face. I believe it also tackles the subject of stereotypes as in this we're presented with the character Hazel and she turns out to be a lot different to how we'd expect her to be. Continuing with the theme of stereotypes, we're also taught to not judge a book by its cover as the group originally reject Joseph because he's different to them, however, towards the end of the film he finds balance and a place in the group, showing us that people may not always be who we expect them to.

Conclusion
I think that studying this short film has been helpful in regards to creating our own short film as it has given me ideas to consider when portraying characters such as how they'll act as well as look, it's made me consider how to combine sound and editing to create an overall better motion picture, and to finally think about a message our film may be sending out so it says something as well as showing something.