3 more ideas after audience feedback

After carrying out audience research people said they liek the second and the thir idea the most. People said that what was missing from the third, was some sort of prominent feautre, such as the birck wall or face. So i have re edited the third version twice, with these features in. I like all three ideas a lot as i feel they all have an impact on the audience. The first, could be slightly creepy, but i do like the way the character is completely animated. The second is good as I feel it suits the indie feel my target audience may like. And the third is goo as it has all the detail from the original. Below are my 3 final ideas for my poster. i have also put a poll that people can vote on to tell me which one to use.

Poster 1. Simple with brick back ground.

Poster 2. Simple with face detai.

Poster 3. All details.

Which Poster should I use?

• Poster 1
• Poster 2
• Poster3

Acepolls

More polls: over 60 dating Hotel Atlanta Hotel Gran Canaria

4 Final poster ideas

After playing around with the tools on photo shop I have four different ideas to use in my video. They kind of go inorder of simplicity.

Poster 1 (original)

Poster 2 Cartoon with facila features

Poster 3 no features

Poster 4, most simple

I Now just need to make a decision on which one i will use. i will carry out some feedback to m`ke this decision.

Editing my poster

Andy Warhol print

As I said earlier I want to edit my poster photo, to make a bigger impact on the audience. The poster needs to stand out so people notice it. I decided to keep to the super hero theme and edit the photo into a screen printing style photo. Similar to an andy Warhol effect.

layers

There is some automatic effects you can use to make a cartoon style on your photo. But none are very good for altering to your needs, so I had to do this manually. I found a tutorial on youtube (at bottom of post) that taught me how to do this.
It required me firstly to alter the saturation of the image in black and white, to make the black and white contrast more. I than had to create new layers for each feature (face, cape, hair) and color these in the color I wanted. I than had to multiply the layers, so the black and white contrasted appeared under neither.

layers

screen shot of editing screen

When I had finished doing this I had than to perfect it. Making more layers to fill in the small bits of color missing from the photo. This whole process was a challenge as I have not used photoshop very much before. But I did, in the end, manage to get the effect I wanted.

First draft of poster

I have completed the first draft of my movie poster. I completed it using photoshop elements which I am not very familiar with but i have managed to get the hang of a bit now.

Although finishing my idea for my poster their is somethings I do not like so am going to re design some of it.

• I like the font a lot, but feel it does not match the style of the photo
• The photo does not have the impact that I want for my poster to have, but, I do like the pose
• The photo is slightly pixelated
• I feel that the bad quality of the photo along with the brick wall in the background is too stereotypical of a low budget film. The brick wall background is slightly over sued in my opinion.
• Due to color the billion block is not very visible

To fix my issues with the poster i do have some ideas. I am going to try putting some effects on the photo to make more of an impact, and to also make ti match the font a bit more. 

Some last minute insperation



fictional newspaper from film



I was just watching the pixar cartoon 'The Incredibles'. During the film their is some sections whre the antagonists, who are super heros, are intervewied. The film also shows fictional newspapers headlines about the super heros. Although already almost finishing my film, this was helpful as it showed how super heros mnay be represented in the media if they were real. The opening sequence which I have posted is the section I am refering too, and I feel that it is a great paqrt of the film. This discovery has given me some inspiration for the final push of editing to meet the deadline.

Billing Block

I am currently making my billing block for my film poster. The billing block is a vital part of  a film poster. It is at the bottom of the poster and shoes the audience all the main people involve in the film,although very small and discrete, it is still vital that a film poster has one. I found an example of a billing block online that I could base mine on. In this billing block it uses a particular font so I searched online on dafonts.com for a suitable font. I found a font called Tall Films which looks right. On the billing block the production companies are listed as well as the actors and directors , etc., the names are in a larger font, whereas the connective words are in a smaller font. At the bottom there is a website address and also a logo for the production company. Below is the example I looked at. 

Example

My billing block will have less names on, but I have put fictional producers and writers names on it too make it look more realistic. Due to it being low budget it will not have as many names on it anyway. I have used my production logo at the bottom right and also put a fictional website address on the poster.

My billing block

Final title idea

After looking at the poll results I Have decided on Micro Force: Caped and Crawling. I have combined two of my title ideas. In my poll i got some feedback saying that Caped and Crawling would make a good tag line. So I have decided to use this as a second part of the title using Micro Force as the first.

Title Poll. Please read description before answering .

I have come to the point where I now need to finalise my title for my film. I have thought of a number of different titles that I feel would fit the genre of the film and capture the audience’s attention. Although within the story my main character is a global star with a lot of media coverage, in reality he is not, so I need a title that will make people question and wonder what my film is about.  Please could you pick the title below that you think would most appropriate for my film? To help you, I have written a short synopsis of my film below. One option, Micro Force, I have chosen to fit the convention of superhero films. When a film is about superman it is called Superman, and the same with Spiderman etc.

My film is a mockumentary (fake documentary), that is an inside scoop into the life of a three year old super hero. Prior to the documentary being made he has huge media coverage and everyone wants to know about him. Until now no one has been able to secure an interview with him. But I have finally managed too. The documentary is an inside look at his life, involving sections of him, his side kick, and his fan club.

List of things too do

1. Perhaps film 5-10 establishment shots for opening sequence of film
2. Make 5 more news sites or blogs
3. Upload video to youtube
4. Film 30 seconds more Of Micro Force
5. Finalize title
6. Finalize poster idea

More Editing

I have now finished editing about half of my film. I have edited the last half completely, and will now start from the beginning before joining the two parts together. I am slowly running out of filler shots to use so their is the possibility of having to re shoot some scenes but even if ti do this will not be a lot of work, as it will about 30 seconds of footage needed.

Layers of my editing

In the editing today I carried on with what i was doing from last time, but i am find the amount of layers I have created quite hard to handle. Due to timings, it is easier to create layers, rather than trying to fit everything in perfectly, if I want something to come in at the right point, rather than trimming it I just put it on another layer. When editing the other half, I may try and do this less, as it is hard top keep organized with that many layers.

First Edit Feedback

I have carried out some audience feedback on my first edit in the from of questionnaires. The questionnaires are needed to help em make final decisions about my edit and make sure I make it fit my audience.  Although my first edit was only two minutes long I did receive some helpful feedback.

• Change actor of fan club section as voice is too similar to voice over woman
• Make last third of the appearing shot darker to make the switch less obvious
• Add more shots of the characters daily life
• Add some music
• Make shots of fan club slightly brighter

Although my first edit was not very longer, some of these targets are applicable for my entire film so will be helpful whilst finishing the editing period. 

Editing: Next Part

The editing stage I have reached is the start of the special effects I want to use to show Micro Force's powers. His main, power, making clones of him self, is something that i am using editing techniques. This has taken me through a few different stages:

the 4 different layers

1. Taking 3 different shots of my character, keeping the camera still so the frame is the same, the character needs to be in 3 different places in the shot
2. When editing, I put there different shots in the same place on the time line, on three different track layers
3. When this is done, I must crop the second two shots, so the first is the longest shape and son on.
4. When cropped I than change the timings, So each shot becomes cropped one at a time.
5. This was successfully done, and I felt that it looked good.
6. One problem I am having is due to the shots being outside, their is a slight change ij light, so on on of the changes, their is a slight line visible where you can see that their is more than one shot in place.
7. To solve this problem, I added a new track and in this track i added a blur to the small section where the line is visible. 

the effects menu

 a still of the edited section

Editing

As I have started the editing process, I am now finding my self wit a lot of problems. The biggest problem is due to sound. I am having to re record some vocal sections with the camera rather than the microphone on the mac, as from the mac the sound quality is too different. With these clips I than delete the image, and save the sound clips, naming them a name that means I know what is what. This process is very lengthy, and repetitive. This has showed me that during the editing process, before I can even start edition. I need to organize everything I have got, it is very hard to edit when I have so many different voice clips that have no name, and trying to cut all of them down is proving impossible. So in a way I have taken a step back and started the editing process all again.

Another thing I realized is that I nay need to film some more footage of Micro Force. At the moment there is not quite enough footage for me to fill up the voice over sections.

Filming Day

I have now completed the second day of my filming. I filmd all scenes that included my little brothe,r and also some location shots for filling up time whilst editing. The filming all together went very well, and my actors were all very helpful and topok direction well. One thing I found whilt filming is that rather of taking lots of shots, I would just keep the camera tolling form a long time and in that time my actor would play thr part. i found this easier due to the age of my actor, this was an easier way to get eevrything out of I wanted, Otherwise it would of been easy to miss some good improvised actions that he created.

Script

Click this link to see my first draft of my script

Due to using scipt buddy, i was finding it hard to post my scipt on my blog as i could not download it. But I managed to post it finally, by print screening it than converting it to a pdf file, uploading it to google docsm, and than uplaoding it to my blog. I hope the format is okay.

Preparing for Editing

For the final product I need to prudce about 5 blogs that look like internet news blogs, with a story about Micro Force. these blogs need to lo0ok realistic, as they are going to be used to show the amount of media coverage Micro Force is getting. I will make the blogs on blogger, with my current acount on the site.

Blog one is called Tredning News. This blog is a story about Micro force. http://trendingnews-bse.blogspot.com/

Bloge two is Comicon News. this blog is focusing on the fan side of things, shwoing the interets by comic book fans in the story. http://comiconnews.blogspot.com/

Change In filming Dates

Due to my main actor falling ill over the last week I have pushed back the filming dates to allow for him to recover. The first filming date will now be on the 31st of october. The last two filming dates will be on the 5ht and 6th of November.

title

I am having a lot of trouble thinking of a title for my film. At the moment I am finding it harsd to think of one that fits the dodumentary theme. The following link was also helpful, it is a short article I found on naming your documenrary. Althouhg some aspects are not rele ant to me this website was helpful.
http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/how-to-choose-documentary-title.html

I have been thinking about having a documentary company title and than a sub heading. Such as channnel 4 documentary company Dispatches do in their documentarys. Some ideas I had for the company name were:

• Inside
• Exclusive
• Insight
• Close Up
• Big picture
• TrendDocs (I like this idea because it links to the internet side of things, because of the craze of trending topics)

Schedule Sheet and Risk Assessment

Attached is my scheduling sheet and my risk assessment. For the two second filming dates these are not set in stone. My actor will be available the whole of that week, so although I aim to finish filming on these days I have reserved a period after those days incase I do not finish.

Interesting article and TV programme

An article on the BBC news website has told the public about a pepper spray attacking america. The attack was done by a man called Benjamin Foder who goes by the name of Phoenix Jones. The man is a real life super hero who although going to court to be charge has voweled that he will carry on fighting crime. This article links to a program that I found the other day named 'Superheroes in suburbia'. It is a documentary tat follows different 'super heros' who fight crime in their towns. Although being normal people, they all take there job very seriously. These two pieces of media are both about people who are not actually super heros, which is different too mine. But the documentary pacifically, links to the tone that o want to have. the comedy used is very effective, they have dry comedy, not obvious slapstick. Both these pieces of media also helped with my character development I found that way all the characters took them self very seriously, So this is something I want to try with my character.

Link to article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15301830

Choosing Actors

Micro Force

For my main character I needed a 3 year old white male. I wanted a child that was 'cute' but could also give the impression of being moody, to give a comic element to my character. The actor would also need to be close to where I am shooting or easily available. This could of been difficult as when shooting with children i would need their parent their, which my be difficult to arrange round there schedule as well as mine.

The actor I choose because of this problem is my little brother, Malachi O' Neill Gallagher. When developing my idea I had him in mind, as I feel he fits the look of the role well. Because he is my brother, this means I can have responsibility of him, and therefore i will not need a parent to be there. Him being  a relative is also helpful because this means I know him well. And therefore know what he can do, and will be able to improvise sections with him. Being a child, it will not be as straight forward as to give him a script, as he will not be able to read or learn his lines.  But by prompting him, and in some ways turning the super hero element into  game for him, I should end up with funny, and authentic footage. 

photo of mally

Voice Over

For my voice over, which is a large portion of my film, I wanted a female, with a classic documentary style voice. Their voice needed to be clear and well pronounced, but I was also looking for a certain style. I wanted a classic voice, a sort of 'BBC style' voice. As I feel this serious voice could add comedy to my film. The voice I choose is that of Hayley Murrow. Hayley is a student at my school. Hayley is currently studying Theatre studies at A level, so she has a lot of experience in acting. She is able to put on a range of voices well, and after doing a sound test of her reading my opening section, i think she suits the role very well.

Sally (Head of the Micro force fan club)

Sally is the head of Micro Forces fan club. She needs to be a geeky girl, who is very enthusiastic about the club. She also needs to be someone who takes her role very seriously. Although using Hayley Murrow my voice over role. i also decided to use her for this. Although I was at first worried that this may not work as the voices will be to similar. I feel that her voice for Sally's character is different enough so the audience will not notice.  She is a very good actress. particularly at comedy roles. And when reading over Sally's lines she caught the tone perfectly. She was also very good at following direction when I asked her to do different things.

photo of hayley

As well as these roles there is a small role of being the interviewer. The interviewer is not seen but his voice is heard off set. In true documentary form, I will be taking this role, as I will say my lines whilst filming (I will be off set asking the questions). The other small roles are the rest of the fan club. They are only in one shot, and have one unison line. For this I am casting several people from the a level theater class at my school. I will ask them to dress in a  slightly nerdy way, to fit the role. These people will not have to come to location. This is because They are in an establishment shot from outside the fan club building. the rest of Sally will be inside, but these buildings do not actually need to be the same. 

Art Fun- Micro Forces logo

Below are the three designs of logos for my fictional super hero. The logo is important as this is the image that stays in the audiences head when watching a super hero film. Click on the images to enlarge.

Currently Story boreding

I unfortunatly decided to re start my story bored. As 1/4 of the way through i decided that i was not going in the direction i wanted it too. As I have now restarted story boreding I am feeling a lot better about my idea. I am finding story boreding hard due to the long duration shots and my lack of drawing ability. The long shots I have whilst the voice over is being read make the anamatic look very boring and static, but i will have too look past this and use the aamatic too my advantage as much as I can. I have bee researching my genre more closely lately. One popular prgramme I found that linked to my genre was Misfts. And E4 super hero, comedy, drama that is very popular weith veiwers. Although a TV series. The E4 website has recently released a 10 minute short film to promote the new series via their website. This short film was useful to me as the purpose of the short film was intorducing the charcters new power to the audiece. As I am intrducing a brand new super hero to my auidoience in such a short space of time this was very helpful. The comedy aspect of the show ios also similar. Rather dry and british humour, rather than a more american style of comedy. 

Update

I have almost finished the script writing process. I am using an online script writing programme named scriptbuddyd.com. This programme allows me to create an easily excessable script with the correct layout and format. As well as being able to add directions and transitions.

I have also started the story boreding process. This process at first was quite difficult as the style I am doing does not allow for as much planning, as I need to see what kind of footage I get whilst interviewing my character. Also because of the age of my actor, a lot of improvisation will be used, as he ill not be able to follow insrtuctions as well as a more mature student would.

Whilst story boreding I decdied to use a lot of establishment shots. In documentarys a lot of shots of the town the documentary is in are used between sections. or just ambient shots of streets or fields. These shots are useful as they create a fluid editing process. I have decided on two very high angle shots of bury st edmunds ( the town my super hero lives). I have found two appropriate high up location that i could take these from. As well as shots of streets, and just general hustle and bustle. Also because I am using the fact that it is a small town to dramatise how famous he is. I will do shots of rural settings that surround the town.

example of some documentary tecniques

One more thing I have started thinking about is costume. Do to my character being a super hero. I want to have very bold costume with Micro Forces Logo on his outfit. I have bought different small colour samples and am working with a friend who studies art to develop an idea and than with the help of a textiles student will be making my costume.

Audience Research

I have carried out audience research to try and help me aid my ideas and explore my idea more fully. I wrote a questionaire focusing on the theme of super heros and the genre. I sent the questionaire to 10 members oa comic book and super her ofan forums that i found whilst researching on the internet. The questions invovle some that will help me make full decisions and some that allow the interveiwees to give me their vewis on my idea.

The first question focuses on the super hero powers that the charcter would have. As well as choosing things that would be entertaaining, I also chose powers that I felt would be excesibly displayed using the avaiulabvle tecniques that I have on final cut express (the eiditng programme I will be using).
The awnsers to this question were quite evenly spread. With no selcetion having a significantly larger popularity. After this reuslt, I decided that I could than use various different powers- therfore alowing me to display more skills when producing my short film.

The second question focused on the name of my super hero. I felt asking thsi was important, as involving the audience here will create more of a brand. Which is important in this genre, and a catchy name for a character is veyr important. The vote was completly unanimouse, and everyone selected the Micro Force option.

The next three questions, 3, 4 and 5, were all questions that were specific. Helping me to fine tune certain details. And also to make sure that my idea would be popular, otherwise I would have to re think a lot. To questiuon 3, I gained a mixture of awnsers.  But some expalined there awsners more fully in the last questions. People made comments that although the 'exclusive' content of the documentary would be maximised my showing the identity. In a super hero film, keeping the secret identity is always of the most importance, therefore I should do this, to keep straiught to the trends of this genre. Questiuon 4 was asked, as I did not want comic book fans to feel that my idea was making fun of them in any way. As I my self am a comic book fan, I actually want my audience to be comic book fans. Luckily the awnsers were all yes's on this question.  In awnser to question 5 I had mostly unanimous responses. With the 1 person saying no, not giving a reason to their awnser.

To questuion 6 I recieved lots of very helpful ideas:

1. Involving a side kick section
2. Involving a Fan club section
3. Involving a interveiw with the childs parent/s
4. A side story on how he gained his powers

I found all these ideas very helpful, and although I have not finishes the planning of the stroy compeltly. I will defintly use one if not more i these ideas in my short film.

I'm Still Here poster

I'm still here is a mockumentary by Casey Affleck about and staring the Joaquin Phoenix. The mockumentary follows Pheonix as he decided to leave the world of acting to become a hip hop artist.

The main feature of the poster is Joaquin phoenix;s face in the centre. He has a large beard and sung;asses on. Hiding most of his face, fitting the tile and the theme of disappearing from the acting industry. The outfit and expression of Phoenix, makes the poster look serious, not fake. Which is what I aim to do with my poster.

The simple grey background on the poster is fitting of the simplistic style of the poster, and also draws all the attention to phoenix.

The font of the poster is really good. It is slightly disappearing in some parts. This fits the themes of the film, and the title.

The very simplistic poster here is very fitting, and I feel markets the film,m very well. Fits the target audience, who are probably going to be very interested in films.

I feel the way that this mockumentary poster is presented as serious and not as a joke, is very good. This is something I want to do when I make my film poster.

Analysis Kick Ass Film Poster

I chose to analysis the Kick Ass poster as it links to the child super hero theme of my short film. The film was very successful in the box office, and I think the poster is very successful in advertising the film. Although a super hero film, the film does have some parody moments, sort of making fun of super hero films.

Features
The main feature of the poster is the main character in the centre. He is wearing an obvious super hero costume, but he is than wearing worker boots on is feet. This small touch of normality in his costume adds comedic value, and also gives hint of this story line- the fact he is  not a super hero.  This gives me ideas for my poster. As I want to add comedic value by adding hints to the fact that this is a fake documentary (e.g. giving my super hero a homemade looking costume).

The back ground of the poster is a red back drop with a blood spat directly behind the character. The crimson red back drop gives a heroic feeling to the poster. The blood stain makes the character look more like a super hero and fits super hero connotations.

The font of the writing on the front cover is very traditionally super hero style. fitting the themes of the film. The fact that such an obvious super hero font is used gives hint that this film is a sort of parody. As a serious super hero film in modern day would not use such an obvious font.

There is a small tag line above the title saying 'on april 2nd, get ready too', this than leads into the title of the film. This tag line grabs your attention and also gives you the release date of the film.

Conventions of Documentary film making

The following are some leading conventions of documentary making:


Aim-The aim of a documentary is to inform. Also to record important recent events, to broaden opinions, and to gain interest from the public.

Voice over-Many documentaries involve voice overs. The film maker, or interveners voice that narrates the action. This voice can be spoken whilst filming, or recorded and added in the editing process. Through this voice over, the film maker can explain tot he viewer, the events and opinions on the seen action.

Interviews-An interview is very common in documentary making. It allows the main person in the documentary to give there views, and professionals opinions, prompted y the interviewer (weather or not the questions are heard by the viewer is down to the style the film maker pursues).  The interview in a documentary is important, as it adds realism to the documentary, and backs up the points the interviewer is making. To involve appropriate interview sections, the film maker may interview their subject for an hour, and only show 10 minutes of interview footage in the film. Making sure the footage they show is appropriate and needed to fit the them of the film.

Archive Footage-Some documentaries may involve archive footage, used to show the viewer the events that the documentary is about. Archive footage is valuable as a start to the documentary, especially if the documentary is about a current event, or current phenomenon.

Reconstruction-A reconstruction may be used to show the viewer about events that have happened in the past-such a documentary about WW1.

Montage-A montage sequence is sued to link word to action. Such as in an interview section. Whilst the subject is answering, the film maker may edit a series of shots the viewers can see, linking to the sound. A montage can also be used to show a change in time or location. Montages are also effective in triggering emotion.

Exposition- Exposition is a part at the start of a documentary that highlights what the documentary is going to be about.

Blurring faces

Due to the documentary style of my film i will be exploring new techniques in editing.

My character, being a super hero, will have a secret identity. I will use this aspect, to use blurring faces in my short film- when the character is not ion his super hero costume, as to keep his 'secret identity'.

Blurring Still faces

I have explored how to blur still faces using final cut. I used a youtube tutorial to teach me how to do this suing final cut express.




This youtube tutorial was very helpful and I succeeded in blurring the short video of my face that I filmed. I did face some problems whilst doing this, and the tutorial highlighted some problems- such as how much blur I should use to make sure it is still obvious it is a face. I also realized a problem- I can not blur moving faces. below is my first video- blurring of a still face.

Moving Images

time line with time marks (green dots)

I have decided to try and now blur moving faces as this will make my documentary look more professional. I have found another tutorial on youtube, which was very helpful. The technique is similar, but it takes longer as you need to make time marks. These let you adjust the positioning and size of the blur for every second of the clip. This can take a long time, but is not to hard as long as the movement of what you are blurring is not to erratic.

Below is my attempt at blurring a moving object

Final Idea

My final idea is to make a mockumentary.

The Mockumentay will focus on a 3 year old super hero who has become an international sensation after someone filmed him stopping crime and posted it on youtube.

The purpose of the documentary is an exclusive inside look into this super hero's life, something that would be in demand, as my audience would be very exited to see what my characters life was like.

The Mocumentary will be half interview based, and have other footage. The other footage will include the original youtube clip which was the reason for hsi rise to fame, clips of him in his house and 'base'.

The main character is a child vigilante, similar to Hit Girl in Kick Ass. But the differences are that this character will be portrayed as non fiction character, and that this character also has actual super powers rather than just fighting skills.

One of the reason for this idea is that i feel doping a documentary style film, and due to the super hero content. This will allow me to explore a lot of new techniques whilst editing.

Mockumentary style

On the wikipedia page for mockumentary it says 'A mockumentary (a portmanteau of the words mock & documentary), is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format.'

The type of mockumentary I will be doing is a sort of  'cinéma vérité', meaning a documentary that follows a eprson through certain events.

One of the earliest examples of a mockumentary style film is the 'Swiss spaggheti harvest', a news report that panorama brodcastest on april fools day in 1957. The news report fooled audeicnes that sphaetti grew on trees, after the broadcast the BBC received hundreds of calls, some asking where they could buy a spaghetti tree.

One example of a mokcumentary is Brass Eye- Cake. A TV show from channel 4. The Tv show was a mockumentary about a new fictional drug named Cake. The mockumentary, like most, are displayed a s a comedy. The comedy aspectis important as to make something funny, i want to make sure Iget the humour right. Normally mockumentary have a more dry style of humor, presented in The Office and Brass Eye which fits the older audience that I would like to aim my short film towards.

Mockumentary's also normally have a voice over (the interveiwer), for this I could use my own voice or I could audition several different voices to find a voice that suits the style. Finding the right voice is important, as it needs to fit the style and audioence of the film.

Some initial ideas

I have done a small amount of research into short films.

The first two i looked at both had strong story lines, whereas the third was abstract. i feel that between those two choices I would rather do an abstract short film.

there is also another genre I had thought of looking at, Mockumentary.

before deciding i will need to research into short film mockumentarys, and look at conventions before making my final decision.

Textual Analysis- SURFACE

Narrative Context

Surface does not have a strong narrative trail, there is no story to the short film. The film is an abstract piece which follows the daily acts of people, but from the grounds perspective. it is an experimental piece which uses sound and movement to create a very interesting watch for the viewer. The use of an under ground view is effective as it gives the audience a different perspective, and is also very interesting and enjoyable to watch.

In the film there are no characters that the audience form a relationship with, this is due to the view point,  this is useful, as it separates the audience from the characters- through being under the ground. The film is less about story and characters and more about aesthetics. There is one unknown character at the end, that forms the climatic moment. The character gets hit by a car, and the audience see it from beneath the road.

Although know location is obvious. What the audience can see give an urban feeling to the film, matching the music, and sort of festival this film may be entered too. The urban feeling, is created through the things you see being dropped on the ground, such as cigarettes and cans. And the hustle and bustle that goes on, such as lots of people walking, biking.   One part of the location that i thought was used particularly effectively, was the section where children are drawing with chalk on the ground. This part looks particularly good to the audience as the drawings out being drawn over the ground, therefore are closest thing to the camera.

Although the camera does not do very much changing in the film due to the odd view point, as some points the camera is used very effectively. Towards the end of the film, the shot is of a park, there is there jump cuts between shots getting further and further away, from  close up to an extreme long shot. This is effective as it matches the music, as well as gives a very impressive view of the park above.

The editing in the film is used brilliantly to add a fast pace to the film. The editing is is used to create an in since feeling with the music. Sounds such as cans crunching and footsteps are edited to link with the music, to create a beat-boxing style of song. Suiting the urban feeling of the film. The part when the boy gets hit by the car is edited very well, to from  quick series of events. The audience see a boy running, than year car noises, than there is a spot of blood on the screen. All these are e4dited quickly together to show a chaotic turn of events. The music than stops suddenly and you see the boy lying there., The music and the editing work together to create a section that is very visually interesting to the audience.

Due to the music and style of the film , I feel that the audience would be older teenagers, who are interested in film. The grey colours, and ambient music, create a style that would suit the younger generation more than the older generation.

Textual Analysis: Post-it love

Narrative Context:

Post-it love is a 3 minute short film that follows the flirting of two office workers. The film starts where the two catch a glimpse of each other in the photo copying room. They than start to leave the other small pictures made of post it notes to prove there affection. The film ends with the female preparing to make big post-it picture for the male, but walks out to the lobby where the man has made a hugely impressive post-it portrait of the pair together.

Characters

The male and female characters are not delved into a lot by the film makers, due to the lack of dialogue. But the audience do find the characters both very endearing. both characters are quite shy, and this suits the very subtle and sweet nature of the film. The characters are both wearing office style clothing. But both also fitting a style that suits the film- slightly quirky, with bold pastel colors.

Location

The location is an office. The office seems very calm. At the start there is a photo on the wall of the office, the photo is of a tower block. This photo is well placed, as it gives the reader the impression that the tower block is in fact where the film is set. At the start the audience see a photocopying room. the room is basically symmetrical, with the girl on one side, and the boy on the other, the symmetrical room is effective here as it makes an obvious bond between the male and female. The film is set in several locations in the office- hallway, toilet, supply cuboared. the small areas that the characters are inj are effective, such as the supply cuboared. They add to the sweet coy feeling of the film. When the female is leaving the supply room with lots of post-its there is a sign on the wall saying 'Can you please make sure the stationary you take is solely for work purposes. Thank you' This adds comical value to the film.

Camera

At the start of the film there is a birds eye shot looking over the girl as she is using a photo copyer. The camera than moves across the room, staying in the birdseye postiton to reveal the male using a photo copyer. This is effective as it shows the similarities of the characters just byu there actions, and the camera form a sort of flirtation between them before the action has even begun. There is than a long shot, showing both characters from behind using the photo copyers. This shot is very simple, and suits the style of the film. the next two scenes start similarly, they are both shots of an empty office desk. Than one of the characters walks in and sits down, in the first the man, and in the second a woman. I found that the way that both scenes start similarly is effective. And they way the camera keeps a similar distance and frame for both is effective. At the end when the woman discovers the huge art the man has made for her. The camera is tracking the woman from in front, so she is walking towards it. When she stops walking, the camera zoomz out a lot. This shows the magnitude of what she has seen, before the audience actually see it.  When the woman goes into the supply room and see's another post-it art work, there is a close up of her eyes. This shows the reaction again- before the audienc see's the art.

Sound

There is no dialoige in this film. But I feel this aids the awkward flirting, as it makes the whole film more endearing. There is musicn throughout the film. The music sounds like marching music, manly played on brass instruments. This is really effective with keeping a steady pase throughout. It also suits the way the characters move and act. At one point when the female walks into her office, the musicm changes slightly, becomeing more light, and high pitched, this changes to show the sweet nature of the woman. The diegetic sound, such as the photocopyer at the start is very effective in setting the scene. Those noises, very much linked with everyday office work, emphasise how this romance is happening in such an average place.

i feel, that through the overall styling of the film, as well as the music, this film fits in a genre of awkward films. Not overally emoional, or funny. This film fits in a niche that is beocming very popular, the awkward comedy.

Textual Analysis: Blind Luck

Narrative Context

The Narrative begins with a young man (Matthew) sitting at a till in a small shop. he looks noticeably bored with his job. the Shop door bell than rings and an older man (David) with a walking stick walks in- showing the audience he is blind. The Man walks to the till and both characters greet the other by just saying the others first name. David puts a one pound copin on the till and pushes it towards Matthew. in silence Matthew than sells david a scratch card.  David than scratches the card and gives it to matthew to check for him. matthew looks at the card and see's that it is a winning card- of fifty thousand pounds. Matthew looks at david and says 'better luck next time', as Matthew leans in to take the card, David, thinking it is worth nothing grabs it and leaves the shop. Leaving matthew in the shop, behind the till.

Characters
Matthew- Matthew is the character who works in the shop. Instantly at the start of thew film it is obvious he is bored with his job. He looks quite scruffy, and he is showing that he does not want to be there. When David walks in, he doesn't greet him in a very customer friendly way, he just goes about the motions of doing his job. When Matthew realizes that David has won on the scratch card the audience see that he is faced with a dilemma. This dilemma is ultimately the point where Matthew proves to the audience if he is a good character or a bad character. When Matthew lies to David, we than see his shock when David destroys the card. This is a sort of karma for Matthews character after lying to David. Matthew represents an average young person living in the UK at the moment, and I feel that this film shows that a lot of people in his position would do the same as him.

David- Davids character is the vulnerable character in the film. Like Matthew, he seems to have a very routines life, shown when he does even need to ask for a scratch card at the till. Davids character is oblivious to what Matthew and the audience know in the film, but when he rips up his winning scratch card I found i felt more remorseful for Matthew than David, as David never knew what he could of won.

Location

The location is very simple, in a shop. The shop looks like an average newsagents or corner shop. I found that nothing in the shop stood out more than anything else, it was very neutral. If you did try and pay attention ti the background, you would see normal things such as batteries and magazines. There is also an england flag, messily hanging up on the ceiling, perhaps showing the audience about the class of the characters, and the area the film is set. The lighting in the shop is all very artificially bright, giving a very mundane feeling to the shop. linking with the attitudes of the characters.

Editing

I found in this short, that the camera work is a lot more effective than the editing. When the two characters are at the till shot reverse shot is use, and over the shoulder shorts to show continuity, i found the slow continuity of the film, how everything is very long, adds to the 'everyday, normal' theme of the film. Showing the slow pace of the characters, The editing when both character are reaching for the lottery ticket is also effective. You see two hand reaching, but it is not un till the cut to next shot that you realize which man got the ticket. The slow pace of the shots, draw this out, and it is very sudden when you realize David tore the ticket up. the editing of the ticket, is effective when the camera goes from £50,000 to the next £50,000, the movement of the camera gives the section quite a novel feeling, similar to when you see casino's in comedy films.

Camera techniques

At the start of the film, the camera is out of focus on the wall behind the till. Than Matthew comes in view of the camera, himself on focus. The way that the camera keeps still is an effective way to reveal the character, it gives the start quite an awkward feeling. When David enters the shop, the shot is a low shot, just showing his feel and his walking stick, this is effective as it shows the audience straight away that David is blind, and it gives the film a slow pace. When David puts the coin on the counter, the camera is strongly focused on coin, and the background is blurry. The coin is on its side and the audience can see the Latin word decus on the side of the coin. Translated, this word means dignity and honor in English. This clearly links with the themes of the film, so the close up of the coin there is very effective. When Matthew realizes it is a winning card there is few straight close ups of the characters faces, firstly Matthews showing his reaction than Davids. the close up of Davids face is effective because it shows Matthews point of view, and the audience can see Matthew's decision making, deciding weather he can trick this old man. The medium shot of the tow hands reaching for the card is also effective, as it adds suspense to the film.

Sound

At the start and throughout there is ambient noise in the background. This Background noise, gives the shop a more realistic setting, as you can hear the sounds of the street outside. It also teams with the lighting to give an artificial feeling. The door bell at the start and at the end of the short, is effective for framing the story. You hear it at the start when David enters, and also at the end when David leaves. This is effective as at the end when you hear it again, it emphasizes how Matthews life is not going to change and it link's to theme of repetition. The lack of dialogue in the scene adds to the slow pace of the film. both characters only having two lines, gives the film an awkward feeling. some small sounds in the film are emphasised. Such as the coin, and the scratching of the card, and the card being ripped up. Emphasizing small sounds like that makes the silence in the shop more prominent. There are some non diegetic sounds in the film- all from Matthews point of view. When Matthew realizes that the card is worth a lot, there is a till sound (used a lot in media when there is money involved), there is also a whooshing sound when Matthew counts the £50,000 marks on the card. Than at the end when David rips the cards and shrugs there is a low trumpet sound, showing how badly things have gone for Matthew. All these sounds are quite obvious sounds to use, and they give the film a comic, parody feeling.

I feel that because of Matthew's appearance the target audience id young males. The colors, and awkward feeling, suits a younger audience, and the comical sounds at the end, also suit a younger audience.