Oscar Martin Evaluation Q4

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Oscar Martin Media Evaluation A2 Q3

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback

Audience feedback is very important for improvements and to understand what your target audience really wants, I am lucky enough to have a large family so during the christmas period I asked for their honest opinions on the faceless man. To do this without confusion I wrote a survey with three questions to answer after everyone watched the film I gave them a sheet with these questions asking them to tick which answer suited them the most.
Our target audience was 18-36 years olds, therefore I only asked those in the relevant age bracket concluding in 25 people answering my survey across the Christmas period.
I told my family and friends that honesty is key in this survey so there could be no bias thoughts or feelings attached. As you can see above is the results of the survey.

Question 1 was a simple question just asking if they enjoyed the film and the results were mainly positive with 6/10 being the most common result appearing on the survey, I believe this is a good result if you take into consideration the zero budget and short time period to make this film but it does also show that there is room for improvement which leads nicely to question 2.

Question 2 was a question on how to improve our short film with seven available options to pick. As the survey portrays the confusing ending option was the most ticked option on the survey with 18 out of 25 people agreeing with a confusing ending 6 people saying better acting and 1 person wanting an improved soundtrack.
I'll start with the sound improvements, I asked why they wanted to improve the soundtrack and they said it was too loud and hard to hear people talk, I explained it was meant to be loud as it would drown out the dialogue making it seem only Alex really remembers the Faceless Man and the conversation was irrelevant but its a valid point none the less.
People who said improved acting is totally understandable and I was surprised more people didn't go for this option as no one who performed in the film were actors as it was a zero budget production we couldn't hire anyone. Therefore the six people who said acting needed improving are completely correct.
Eighteen people said it was a confusing ending and I can understand why to a certain extent. The film was always meant to create enigma therefore being interpreted in different ways but I can also see how this is confusing. The three main interpretations we thought we would have on the film is Psychiatrist being the faceless man and actually hunting Alex, The psychiatrist having a brother who is hunting Alex and he's in on it as well for an unknown reason or the real ending we wanted and hoped everyone would understand is that none of this is real and all in his head.
I spoke to a few of these people after and a lot of them understood it was to do with mental illness but felt it wasn't clear between the psychiatrist and the Faceless Mans connection.
This is something in the future I will definitely learn from and look to improve in the future as the ending to a film can be the most important part to the whole film.  

Question 3 was simply asking if they would ever choose to watch it from looking at the Poster, This was the most positive question where 22 of the 25 people said from looking at the poster I made they would watch the film. This is good to reflect on the positives and tells me that the poster was something that was a huge success.

Then as a group we asked other groups if they would write what they thought of our film on the blog allowing us too take their feedback and further improve.

This is from another group in our class where they are listing positives and negatives, the positives show that we took time to think of filming location and that we spent a lot of time in the post production of editing too but here they talk about the title where they say the title sequence looks as if it was used to fill time. We did indeed make the title a bit longer just to fill time but we tried making it still seem watchable with the numbers counting down before the title appears on screen but yes in the future we should of planned everything more precisely so the audience don't have to sit through a long intro. They speak about how the ending is confusing but effective. I believe this is a positive as that was the idea of the film all along to confuse people into thinking multiple alternative possibilities for what the ending means.  

This group like the others gave some positives and some negatives about the film. They start off by talking about the Soundtracks which they thought were excellent, which is nice to know as it took a very long time for me to find the appropriate soundtracks and then layer different ones over existing sound to emphasise a specific scary moment in a certain scene. Its good to know people understood this was about mental health and insanity and like the way we showed that with the editing and that they appreciated the storyline as that is a very important element. 

Here they also spoke about how the dialogue in the first scene was unclear this was possibly because during production we realised our voice recorder wasn't working so we had to use the camera's mic to pick up sound. We know this isn't very good so in the future we will check the mic the day before and also bring multiple microphones if possible but under zero budget that can be quite difficult.  

The scary laughter being funny is a point I was surprised by but none the less I have tried to find out why, I believe it could be interpreted as funny because it was a scream from garageband and not done first hand but we will next time watch over a scene excessively if we included a scream as laughing ruins the whole feel and eeriness of the film and thats the main aspect.   

In this feedback the group tell us how they found it interesting throughout but like the other groups the dialogue contrasted with the sound was their biggest issue. How it was originally intended was to be like that on purpose as during the flash back Alex is so consumed by fear and can only think about the faceless man everything else becomes a blur hence also with the disorientated filters but because multiple groups have picked up on this we will not use that technique again. 

  The Last post from the last group was a positive one and spoke about how they liked the soundtrack and editing because of the tension it formed as well as the concept behind hiding the psychiatrists face which is a major concept of our film so I'm glad it paid off. 

Overall My family Members and friends found the ending the part which needed the most improving and my classmates overall decided the dialogue most needed to improve.

I Believe my family chose the ending and my class mates didn't is because we are media students who are taught to dissect films so its easier for us to understand. The media students could tell we didn't use a microphone for our dialogue so made that one of our biggest negatives because they can tell the difference just like we can. Both points equally valid and further proves how important audience feedback really is. 

Oscar Martin Evaluation A2 Media Q1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Originally The faceless Man was to be a short film designed to develop and combine traditional forms and conventions of real media products. In the end we didn't use many of these conventions as we agreed the best way to create a good film in the short amount of time given to us was to construct it from a diverse range of other short films, therefore looking at the elements which already exist in other media products. The narrative of our short film is organised with a non-linear platform with certain elements of circular narrative, mostly driven through our diverse imagery. A good example of circular narrative is the blurred face of the Faceless Man through out the whole short film then concluded by the final shot where we see the faceless mans face revealing his true identity. 

The Conventions of a film are key for success and we knew this well, therefore for genre we really tried hard to include an eery psychological thriller feel towards the film as well as include some scary post productive non-diegetic soundtracks and filters at the end to really emphasise this effect, but we didn't want to be stereotypical making the mise-en-scenes settings dark and fearful we believed the biggest fear of mental health is 'insanity during normality' with the concept that schizophrenia could happen anywhere anytime. 

None the less we still decided to use darker lighting with disorientated and low key post production effects on the flashbacks to emphasise the fear for our target audience.  

With our short story its hard to find time for character development therefore to try and tell the whole story we relied mainly on flashbacks and visual effects for people to understand the character and what he is dealing with.

Frame Analysis

As a group we decided these were the most important frames during our short film as each frame has an individual role essential to the idea of the Faceless Man.

The first frame is the title of our film and the title is important for the obvious reason that it tells you what the film is called but it also does more than that, straight away even without hearing sound the white font combined with the black background creates an eerie effect along with the slightly crumbling letters at the end is a convention of horror, furthermore linking with a fragment of someone's face straight away gives the audience an idea of the sort of film The Faceless Man will be. 

The second frame shows us the main character called Alex as he starts fidgeting whilst spinning the globe in front of him. For this specific scene we decided to use the technique of low depth of field as well as a focus-pull in order to pull the attention of our target audience towards the globe. We chose to use a focus pull in this scene to demonstrate the fidgeting that 'Alex' is doing. For Alex's costume we decided to use smart clothes complemented with a nice watch to show that Alex is a wealthy young man and not some stereotypical rough looking gentleman as we thought this would be good as it shows mental illness can happen to anyone including the rich. The room we chose to film this scene in was deliberately laid out to look like a psychiatrists home office with the big comfy chairs, wooden table and book shelves as the décor of the setting. Even the globe prop was designed to look like it would belong in a psychiatrists office. 

The third frame is showing us the faceless man during one of Alex's flash backs, the reason why this scene is so important is because it shows how Alex is seeing the faceless man. This frame and overall scene from the short film is demonstrating that the Faceless Man can be seen anywhere at any time even during the day and even with someone else. During this frame we used jump cuts to make the scene distorted as it shows fear and confusion. We also implemented filters with the whole flashback scene making it darker in lighting and almost blurry so people know its a flash back, we used the same technique throughout each flash back. During this scene we layered non-diegetic soundtrack over the scene drowning out a lot of the sound, its easy to understand the dialogue but the idea was to use the music to almost erase the dialogue in order to show that in Alex's flash back the faceless Man sighting is the only thing he really remembers. 

The Fourth frame is a subtle image of the Faceless Man. This same frame features in the short film multiple times at random points whilst talking to the psychiatrist. This shot uses the same filters as the flashbacks but has an added reddish filter. The same sound an eerie squeal happens every time the Faceless Mans face comes onto the screen, this can be interpreted in two ways that its added effect for the viewer or the character is hearing this in his own head due to his mental health, either interpretation makes sense but to create enigma the viewer can decide for themselves. The reddish filters and short duration doesn't indicate another flash back but insanity which is what the short films about.

In this fifth frame You can see the protagonist Alex's hand on the arm of a leather chair. We decided to use this leather chair as a prop in our film as it suited the psychiatrists décor. This yet again is a demonstration of Alex's nervous and fidgety nature showing he is constantly on edge. The Background for this scene is the same as the second frame. The constant in the setting and costume shows the audience its the same day and they haven't moved from this spot. 

The sixth frame is from the second flash back. It features all the appropriate flash back techniques we maintained throughout our flash backs including the filters to make it distorted, dark lighting and layered non-diegetic sound to emphasise the fear but we also used a technique of using camera movement and timings for our actors to make it seem as if the Faceless Man disappears once Alex walks past. This technique along with the new crescendo non-diegetic soundtrack makes this flash back eery and one of my personal favourites to film and edit. This whole shot is trying to show that The Faceless man is all in Alex's head as he simply disappears once Alex turns around. 

The seventh Frame is another nice scene. The red filter and distorted effects shows its another demonstration of insanity except this time its of Alex himself. Before this scene we used some small second clips of the same frame throughout the sequence but they had natural filters and no non-diegetic music. We did this because we wanted to show constant insanity, that throughout every situation and everyday that short frame is how Alex feels in his head. The reason that didn't make the top nine frames is because the longer filtered variation of this frame (the one shown above)has a darker meaning. 
It still is a symbol of constant insanity but now it consists of not just filters but non-diegetic soundtracks and a possibly diegetic or non-diegetic scream. We wanted to reveal that the Faceless Man and Alex are the same person in the sense that its all in Alex's head; The end shot revealing the psychiatrist to be the Faceless Man is the conclusive finale of our short film but if you look into the comparison of this frame and the Faceless Man red filtered frame you will realise they are identical further explaining even the psychiatrist isn't real as he is the Faceless Man, therefore concluding in Alex talking to no one in reality showing he is well and truly insane. 

The Eighth Frame is a tracking shot from the third and final flashback this flashback consists of the same techniques used in the other flash backs with filters and non-diegetic sound but in this flash back its set at night and in his own bedroom. The fact its set at night makes it even more scary as night time is associated with fear and the thought of the unknown. During this shot we see the protagonist wake up about to open up his window. 

The Ninth frame happens straight after the end of the eighth and features the last part of our film, in this scene we see the Faceless Mans actual face as a new crescendo of non-diegetic soundtrack plays over the original flash back soundtrack as it jump cuts closer towards the Faceless Man, it then cuts out of the flash back instantly to reveal that the Faceless Man is the Psychiatrist. This then causes people to think that the

psychiatrist has been hunting Alex all this time when in fact as I said in frame seven its not quite as it seems. 

The Smiling Man Influences         
        

The Smiling Man is a short film our group took inspiration off, we thought the sense of fear in normality (just walking down the street at night) is one of the aspects of this short film we really liked, I researched some of my own short films but they have no relevance to our actual film. It was when we all watched this last minute did we decide we wanted to go down this route.
The Smiling Man is about a man who dances towards a random teenage boy whilst constantly smiling its a basic yet excellently delivered short film which concludes with the smiling man catching up with the teenager coming face to face with him just like you see on the photo above.
The things we took from this short film was the use of just two actors we thought it was effective just having two actors on screen as it maid in feel as if the protagonist is well and truly alone as that in itself can generate fear on its own.
The second inspiration we got was the feeling of when the Smiling Man disappears as we thought the feeling of the un known is also very powerful and for a psychological short film like ours that can effect someone severely as the anticipation can drive someone insane (our character Alex is a good example of that.)
The third emotional influence we got from The Smiling Man was confusion. In the Smiling Man we are unaware to why the Smiling Man has chosen to chase this teenager and that's shown in our short film with our protagonist Alex being confused to why he is being 'hunted' by the Faceless Man, confusion is an emotion that can drive people mad and we thought with Alex's schizophrenic health condition this could increase the effect of his schizophrenia.

The Faceless Man LWL Review

For our review we copied the layout and the way Little White lies is written perfectly. We used Latinate Lexis in our review to make it sound more sophisticated and formal whilst also hoping that it reaches beyond our target audience of 18-36 as an older generation may read this and therefore entice more people to watch the short film. We all developed and produced this short film so it was difficult to write a review as someone watching it for the first time so we used this review as a good way to talk about what we thought was good about the film and what could be improved for example the insight into mental health was a good aspect of our film but the acting didn't justify it as none of us who made this film are actors so it wasn't easy to portray the characters in the ideal way we intended.  We included techniques Little White Lies used in their review with comparisons to major films like Fight Club where brief millisecond frames of the faceless man pops up throughout the film just like in Fight Club. We also spoke about essential things outside of the actual films like our zero budget and time to make this film and how that has potentially damaged a great short movie.
Because we thought the flashbacks were key to our film we spoke a lot about how the narrative of the movie is used through the use of flashbacks and without these flash backs it would be a very confusing and boring film for the audience.


My Film Poster

This is my finalised film poster that I made for my film. The black and white theme of colours makes it seem more eerie and dark. The patchy background and hood of the Faceless Man gives a representation of the disorientated and almost crumbling reality of Alex's life.

I used Photoshop after I did a photo-shoot in order to create this poster. Its a simple poster with a unique title at the bottom left to make its stand out and with the patchy contrast of white to black background it shows a sense of good versus evil or in this case sanity versus insanity. The Faceless Man is slightly bigger than Alex to show that he is controlling is life and consumes Alex's identity, his face is rubbed out but looks distorted, this effect was to yet again show the direction in which this film was heading.  

I had ideas off some other Posters that I looked at and the one that gave me the most inspiration was the short film The Pig Child, although it doesn't look anything like mine I took inspiration from the simplicity of it yet the pragmatic complex it implied was vast. Every detail on The Pig Child poster told almost the whole story in just one picture, even the Text font gave away the genre of the film which is why I copied it as we both had a thriller conventional film.

I liked the fact it had hardly any colour to it as dullness doesn't always mean excitement it can mean despair which for both The Pig Child and The Faceless Man wanted to imply.

The Faceless man

Film Review Plan

Film Review Plan

Contexts: Sixth Sense, Mental Health Issues, Exorcist, Fight Club.

Summary Information about Protagonist and Antagonist: Protagonist has a form of schizophrenia, he sees another person which is a figment of his imagination. The antagonist is the psychiatrist who turns out to be the person the protagonist sees in his imagination. 

Key themes, Issues and plot: Mental Illness (schizohprenia), follows the story of the antagonist.

Narrative Devices: Non Linear narritive, Flashbacks.

Use and adaptation of genre conventions (+evaluation): Psychological Thriller, dark settings, flashbacks, distorted imagery, 

Reviewers experience of film: 

Summary Sentence evaluating:

Little White Lies-Oscar Martin

Language and mode of address style conventions

Little White Lies Consists of complex language and sentence structures, also includes a variety of techniques varying from similes, adjectives, metaphors, nouns, complex nouns, language code (film talk, adverbs, rhetorical questions and so on...
These techniques make the article more formal but also more enjoyable as its a far more interesting read. I'm going to be looking at the film review of 'The Impossible' written by Jess Holland.
Like many other Little White Lies reviews its starts off with some history and information about the film where it explains it was based on the real 2004 tsunami which separated a Spanish family. There's an example of a film by the director Juan Antonio Bayona during the first paragraph with a complex verb 'revelling' describing the directors previous film further.
The second paragraph consist of the strongest scene in the film which also happens to be the opening. The scene where the wave hits is described as `enveloping us' and 'the money shot' further explaining to the readers that this was a very good scene.
A paragraph later the review states that Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts both acted well with 'robust,' 'convincing' roles starts decribing how Naomi Watts character looks as if shes about to whither and die (here they also use a reference to the hit series the walking dead to describe appearance) whereas Ewan McGregor just walks around with a 'sexy' scratch across his cheekbone.
The next paragraph is where the review starts saying what went wrong with the film where the lines said by the child actors like Tom Holland (who was aged 16) having 'creaks' in their dialogue alongside poor deliverance with lines like, "Mum, look at you, we need help, we cannot risk it." Little White Lies described his emotional deliverance as the 'emotional torment of a golfer who's just hoofed one in the bunker.'
The last Paragraph talks about how the film is based upon a sensitive topic where 300,000 people lost their lives and the films effort to use CGI more than show emotional aspects can be seen as slightly offensive, hence the reason why they gave it a 1 in retrospect and an explanation of it being 'quite offensive when you think about it.'       


      

Oscar Martin Draft Poster

This is my film poster for 'The Faceless Man.' I decided to use a black and white colour scheme too really emphasise our psychological thriller genre. The shadow casted on the protagonist face on the left combines well with the background and the faceless man having just a face with no features suits the title well. I used my research into consideration and decided to go for a simple kind of poster just like 'The Pig Child' and use the same sort of font for the title as spaced out text is very typical of a thriller. The positioning of the two characters is key as well with the faceless man being bigger than the protagonist on the left shows control which is exactly what's happening in the short film. I decided to give the poster a Sundance winner rating to attract viewers as Sundance is a respected and well thought of film festival. The background is one of my favourite parts of the poster with the white in the middle gradually getting darker until its consumed by darkness. Yet again this is a representation of the film with sanity being tainted by insanity.      

Photos for the Poster

These are the chosen pictures for our poster, individually we will decide which photos we want to use on our Poster. We attempted apropiate poses for the characters persona whilst also considering how we'd position it on the poster itself. The equipment we used was an hd cannon camera complemented with some lighting to create the high definition images.
Using our own fist hand footage and creating a mini photoshoot shows initative and determination and we hope these photos will benefit all of out Posters allowing it to be an impressive final product.

Snatch is a UK independent Guy Ritchie Film which was released almost 17 years ago, Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond. So without hesitation lets get started. 
The First thing I noticed is the Hazardous sign next to the title, I suppose the sign could be interpreted as danger which would go very well with the whole plot and how dangerous the diamond is for all characters in the story. 
There is a way we can tell the story is to do with diamonds. Cockney slang is used in a phrase underneath the title, "stealin' stones and breakin' bones" stones rhymes with bones so the use in this phrase makes it flow nicely but it also links perfectly with the plot of Snatch as stones means diamonds and breaking bones means hurting people which is basically the synopsis of the film.
'Snatch' is all in lower case which is unique in titles making it noticeable and eye catching to the public but it also seems quite laid back which in a way suits the film. Snatch is cockney for stole therefore links with the film very well and I also like the fact its connected to the hazardous sign as if its implying 'steal this diamond at your own risk' its a nice touch. 
Now lets move onto the people on this poster. They cover the majority of the Poster itself and have a nice dark red tint over them which can be a representation of blood, violence and anger. Their facial expressions are all scrunched up and looking menacing and 'hard'. They all have modern day jackets or coats on allowing you to realise its set during the modern day. I would also like to mention how they have identification above them, this and the plain white background creates the effect that they're criminals being identified in a police line up.
There is a nice quote from The Sun saying "movie of the year" this is very important for sales as the sun is a popular newspaper in Britain and this type of reference on the film will be very beneficial for Snatch.
Several aspects of mise-en-scene tell us about the characters personality and time period. The costumes on the characters tell us its set in the modern day and suits with long coats combined with the facial expressions looking fearce and hard is a clear indication that these are gangsters. If we join this with the title and quote beneath the title we know that these are british gangsters further helping us understand the origin of this movie.    
When you link everything together the genre of the film starts to become clear, yes its a form of thriller but the title and the sign are slightly comedic, also the quote "stealin' stones and breakin' bones"  is almost humorous if you think about it, but thats not an error, thats intended, the film is exactly that, an action packed thriller with a lot of very funny aspects, making it a very good and enjoyable film. 

Stardust is a UK independent Matthew Vaughn film which was released in two thousand and seven almost ten years ago. 
Its very hard to write about the synopsis of Stardust without writing half a page due to the load of things going on but its basically about a fallen star which turns out to be a person and a man who falls in love with her whilst those who want to kill her or take something from her pursue them. There is a lot going on in this poster so without further ado lets dive in. 

The first thing I see is the women in the top right corner, she has the facial expression of a mysterious and sexy women whilst staring seductively at the viewer. This is a perfect example of sex appeal or as I like to call it eye candy. 
Although many would argue saying this is bad publicity and representing women in a sexual way is wrong you can't say it isn't effective.
Lets move more central where we begin to see the two main characters, the reason how I know they are the main characters is simply because they are central of the poster which is stereotypical of many posters, also I've seen the film. Another way you can tell they are the main characters is through the fading sun in the background. It acts as a spotlight highlighting the two characters whilst the other characters are circled in shade. 
The sun is also a star which links nicely with the title 'Stardust' and the sun is fading which is a foreshadow to the film itself and what begins to happen to the star. 
The costumes are unusual, they don't look like the type of outfits people in any of the historic ages would wear especially Ricky Gervais' costume concluding the audience into thinking this must be an alternative world or reality. 
The lighting on the poster of the sun and the darkness around it is as if the light is consuming the two main characters, this along with the gold stardust title below and sparkle indicates a romantic film. We are not done there, sword props, pirate ship in far left (which we will get too) and fantasy characters makes this a romantic fantasy.
Facial expressions and body language are different on each character with the main protagonist in the middle turning his head whilst facing the girl in the middle shows hes protecting her along with the pirate looking fierce etc...
Now its time to talk about sales and a sneaky input on the poster which would increase sales.
These will be the use of Ricky Gervais in the poster and the size of Robert De Nero's picture. 
Ricky Gervais is only in Stardust for around five minutes, its a hilarious scene but does it change the story? Does it impact another character significantly? The answer to both those questions are no therefore he doesn't really deserve a spot on the poster. Those who haven't seen the film yet don't know this and using Ricky Gervais on the poster is very good for publicity as he's very popular. 
Robert De Nero deserves a place on the poster as he has a big role in this but he should swap places with Mark Strong as Mark's character had more screen time and was quite important yet he is on the far right of the poster looking rather small. 
Robert De Niro is an iconic actor who is known for his roles in films like 'Good Fellas', 'Heat' and 'The GodFather' so being in a romantic fantasy is a very alternative role for him attracting not only his personal fans but those curious to see him in this type of film this will bring in a lot of revenue and is very smart of the poster publishers. I must say he is brilliant in Stardust. 
Stardust also has a little quote below the title saying "this summer a star falls. The chase begins" which is exactly what the film is about.   

In conclusion stardust has a detailed and good poster with some good techniques to make the poster shine as much as the film intended too and I must admit the film is an underrated gem and a must watch.   

  

2 UK independent Films

Snatch is a UK independent Guy Ritchie Film which was released almost 17 years ago, Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond. So without hesitation lets get started. 
The First thing I noticed is the Hazardous sign next to the title, I suppose the sign could be interpreted as danger which would go very well with the whole plot and how dangerous the diamond is for all characters in the story. 
There is a way we can tell the story is to do with diamonds. Cockney slang is used in a phrase underneath the title, "stealin' stones and breakin' bones" stones rhymes with bones so the use in this phrase makes it flow nicely but it also links perfectly with the plot of Snatch as stones means diamonds and breaking bones means hurting people which is basically the synopsis of the film.
'Snatch' is all in lower case which is unique in titles making it noticeable and eye catching to the public but it also seems quite laid back which in a way suits the film. Snatch is cockney for stole therefore links with the film very well and I also like the fact its connected to the hazardous sign as if its implying 'steal this diamond at your own risk' its a nice touch. 
Now lets move onto the people on this poster. They cover the majority of the Poster itself and have a nice dark red tint over them which can be a representation of blood, violence and anger. Their facial expressions are all scrunched up and looking menacing and 'hard'. They all have modern day jackets or coats on allowing you to realise its set during the modern day. I would also like to mention how they have identification above them, this and the plain white background creates the effect that they're criminals being identified in a police line up.
There is a nice quote from The Sun saying "movie of the year" this is very important for sales as the sun is a popular newspaper in Britain and this type of reference on the film will be very beneficial for Snatch.
Several aspects of mise-en-scene tell us about the characters personality and time period. The costumes on the characters tell us its set in the modern day and suits with long coats combined with the facial expressions looking fearce and hard is a clear indication that these are gangsters. If we join this with the title and quote beneath the title we know that these are british gangsters further helping us understand the origin of this movie.    
When you link everything together the genre of the film starts to become clear, yes its a form of thriller but the title and the sign are slightly comedic, also the quote "stealin' stones and breakin' bones"  is almost humorous if you think about it, but thats not an error, thats intended, the film is exactly that, an action packed thriller with a lot of very funny aspects, making it a very good and enjoyable film. 

Stardust is a UK independent Matthew Vaughn film which was released in two thousand and seven almost ten years ago. 
Its very hard to write about the synopsis of Stardust without writing half a page due to the load of things going on but its basically about a fallen star which turns out to be a person and a man who falls in love with her whilst those who want to kill her or take something from her pursue them. There is a lot going on in this poster so without further ado lets dive in. 

The first thing I see is the women in the top right corner, she has the facial expression of a mysterious and sexy women whilst staring seductively at the viewer. This is a perfect example of sex appeal or as I like to call it eye candy. 
Although many would argue saying this is bad publicity and representing women in a sexual way is wrong you can't say it isn't effective.
Lets move more central where we begin to see the two main characters, the reason how I know they are the main characters is simply because they are central of the poster which is stereotypical of many posters, also I've seen the film. Another way you can tell they are the main characters is through the fading sun in the background. It acts as a spotlight highlighting the two characters whilst the other characters are circled in shade. 
The sun is also a star which links nicely with the title 'Stardust' and the sun is fading which is a foreshadow to the film itself and what begins to happen to the star. 
The costumes are unusual, they don't look like the type of outfits people in any of the historic ages would wear especially Ricky Gervais' costume concluding the audience into thinking this must be an alternative world or reality. 
The lighting on the poster of the sun and the darkness around it is as if the light is consuming the two main characters, this along with the gold stardust title below and sparkle indicates a romantic film. We are not done there, sword props, pirate ship in far left (which we will get too) and fantasy characters makes this a romantic fantasy.
Facial expressions and body language are different on each character with the main protagonist in the middle turning his head whilst facing the girl in the middle shows hes protecting her along with the pirate looking fierce etc...
Now its time to talk about sales and a sneaky input on the poster which would increase sales.
These will be the use of Ricky Gervais in the poster and the size of Robert De Nero's picture. 
Ricky Gervais is only in Stardust for around five minutes, its a hilarious scene but does it change the story? Does it impact another character significantly? The answer to both those questions are no therefore he doesn't really deserve a spot on the poster. Those who haven't seen the film yet don't know this and using Ricky Gervais on the poster is very good for publicity as he's very popular. 
Robert De Nero deserves a place on the poster as he has a big role in this but he should swap places with Mark Strong as Mark's character had more screen time and was quite important yet he is on the far right of the poster looking rather small. 
Robert De Niro is an iconic actor who is known for his roles in films like 'Good Fellas', 'Heat' and 'The GodFather' so being in a romantic fantasy is a very alternative role for him attracting not only his personal fans but those curious to see him in this type of film this will bring in a lot of revenue and is very smart of the poster publishers. I must say he is brilliant in Stardust. 
Stardust also has a little quote below the title saying "this summer a star falls. The chase begins" which is exactly what the film is about.   

In conclusion stardust has a detailed and good poster with some good techniques to make the poster shine as much as the film intended too and I must admit the film is an underrated gem and a must watch.   

  

2 Short Film Posters

The Pig Child is a short film about a scientist who performs illegal surgery on herself. I chose not to watch this movie as I wanted to judge the poster with no knowledge whatsoever, so without further a do lets dive into it.
The first thing we see is what looks like a green silhouette of a pregnant women. Linked with the title 'the pig child' this indicates that perhaps this is about the birth of the child instead of just about a child we need to bare in mind this is only a short film, because this is a short film there is no bold writing of actor names or out of place pictures just to increase publicity its a simple picture with a title but just because its simple doesn't mean it doesn't tell us a lot. When a poster is bland the little things like colour, text size and format can be very important.
The human mind is amazing and colour can trigger emotions making colour in my opinion one of the most important aspects of identifying the genre of a film, this is why the background is grey and dull, it creates a visual aspect of mystery, sadness and sometimes isolation. In media each colour can mean a different thing and this is my interpretation of the colour grey.
Moving onto the text size and its format. The short films simplicity with white bold font, spaced out letters and all capitals are very common of thriller films with the title for the major movie with Ben Aflek 'Gone Girl' looking almost identical some may link them two together and that could always spark an interest.
The last thing I'd like to bring up is the picture inside the the pregnant women. Its clear as day now its been mentioned but its also very easily ignored. I believe the image to be of an embryo being spliced with two separate DNA components and linking with the title one half of the DNA could be human and one of a pigs, either way I think this is a simple but effective poster showing that not all posters need to be full of detail, to have great detail, I for one will defiantly check out this film.

 Emotional Fusebox is about a women named Anna who despite what her mother says wont leave the shed in the garden where she lives and makes videos with he thumbs (IMDB synopsis.)
This poster looks bold and happy so lets jump into it.
The first thing you notice has to be the giant writing of the title, its white on light blue and very hard to miss. The light blue can be associated with comedy, joy but also sometimes freedom (I personally think this one if we link back to the synopsis) as blue contrasts with the vast sky and sea but going back to the title its so big its controlling and almost silly, it takes up the whole poster. I think it wants to be silly, instantly without looking at anything else I don't think this film wants anyone taking it seriously at all. On the flip side it could be seen as controlling but I'll talk about that later for now lets move onto the image. Here we see a women in underwear, coat, bright blue socks, bright blue trainers whilst holding a steaming mug. Without looking at the quotes surrounding each object we can tell that this is an unsusal women just by the fact she has no trousers on, its making us laugh and smile.
Before we indulge on the core of this poster lets talk about publicity. This short story has clearly won two awards they are reasonably big and located at the bottom of the poster this is an example of publicity to increase sales as people will tend to trust the quality of a film if its one awards.
Now lets talk about the core of this poster where we start to see what the true nature of this film will be before we watch it, look at the words surrounding her, "fear of dying alone, existential crisis, fashion malfunction, in explicable anger, bad hair." Three of the five sentences doesn't even involve physical appearance but more a mental perspective.
You may of laughed before as you expect this to be a typical tragic comedy but with the colour meaning freedom and the big title in my opinion being controlling its about a women who feels controlled by society and wants to break free, I still think there will be comedic aspects but overall will have a more spiritual meaning about not caring how you look breaking out of these social norms society has placed upon you. The facial expression on the women seems emotionless which is another reason why I think there is more to this film than comedy but thats just a theory.
Overall its a compelling poster with decent features for specific effects, its eye catching and spiritual with aspects of comedy, I would defiantly check it out.

Second Animatic

The second Animatic with Oscar trying to explain roughly whats going on in each scene.

First Animatic

The First animatic showing the duration of each clips, some clips are longer or shorter than what it says on the post-it notes and we re used one of the post-it notes in the sequence becasuse we want to use the exact same shot and emotion, when you watch you will see what I mean.

Table 7 Short Film Research

Table 7 

Table 7 is a short film about a couple having a heated unknown argument whilst a mysterious chinese individual is listening in on the conversation. 


 Genre:

Table 7 starts off with a thriller vibe, with blocking being used which is iconic of a thriller genre, it includes dark lighting and cuts back and fourth between the heated arguemnt and the unknown chinese man, the first time it cuts to the cinese man listening in on the convesation the soundtrack starts with an eery and mysterious vibe to it really setting an emotion in place, this makes us think hes some sort of spy listening to a some valuable information as he starts writing down what they are saying in a type of stranscript. 
At this current mommet in time we beleive this is a thriller and the chinese man works for the chinese government, it then begins to play out further as the music takes a slight crescendo and we start to beleive somethings big is going to happen when the chinese man gives someone the transcript with urgent manor but nothing is really revealed which cretates further enigma. 
It then concludes the man made fortune cookie quotes and actually had asnwers for the couples questions and in the end they make up; even though we never knew the real issue it makes the audience content and we realise the chinese man wasn't a spy or anything like that but just the maker of fortune cookie quotes that can relete to further situations it then ends with a little smile from the chinese man who has now gone from possible antagonist to protagonsit. 

Narrative:
The story is told through the chinese charcters eyes or in this case his ears as the story begins it includes blocking and the start of a heated convesation between a couple, at this point in the plot we aren't aware of anyhing but the fact this couple have some issues, the film then takes a turn for the weird as a mysterious chinese man is listening in on the convesation he starts writing a transcript translating what the couple are saying with a variety of close ups on the chiense man, his equipmet and the transcript whilst you hear the couple speaking from his headphones allowing you to straight away indicate the man is listening to the couple; this is furthermore evidence that we are seing through the chinese mans perspective although we know nohing of the chiense mans backstory we can hear friom his headphones which only he can hear in the film and he knows as much of the couple as us the audience seem to know. 
The heated argument continues as the couples voices start to crescendo and both are getting more annoyed at each other, the chinese man then gives someone else the trascript urgently and it makes us think perhaps he knows something, but we dont know anything and if we are in the chinese mans perspective surely he knows nothing either which then develpos barthes theory of enigma keeping the audience on edge. 

It then cuts to a two-shot of the couple and then a close up of fortune cookies being put on the table they both end the convesation negatively saying they 'dont know what to say' too each other but once they open the fortune cookies a subtle answer to their question is in each cookie and it helps them reslove the arguemnt, then the start of a more jolly soundtrack begins to play as it cuts straight back to a close up of the chinese mans face who now is our clear protagonsit as he smiles for now we know he isn't a spy but a fortune cookie note maker and listens into convesations on the table to write the best fortune cookie. 
This is a good example of Todorovs theory of equilibrium disequalibrium and new equilibrium as the couples relationship before the short story is equilibrium and the plots heated argument is the disequalibrium and the making up and forgiving at the end is the new equilibrium as they are on good terms now but they will never be exactly the same. 

Audience:
The audience for the short film can vary as it ends up being a 'feel good' film anyone who's in the mood for a happy film could pick this up and watch it but the main target audience has to be couples especially younger couples, both the actress and actor are young adults possibly late twenties early thirties so its obvious this will defiantly attract that audience but this film is about a young struggling relationship which is trying to deliver a message to its viewers that sometimes you need to jus say you are sorry and sometimes you just need to forgive and even if it gets rough and you aren't use or don't like arguing it happens and you shouldn't break up from it sometiems you just need to apologise and forgive. Thats why I thik this films target audience is young couples that might be in a situation and hopefully this feel good film can help resolve the situation there in or at least help them undertsand couples fight but there is always the right things to say to resolve the problemand return to a new equilibrium. 

'Snap' Short Film Research - Oscar

Snap

Snap is a short film about a guy who steals a variety of different peoples cameras and lets them chase him so he can take some good photos, he also has help from other people that try and make the photo look even better. In the end we find out he never actually wanted to steal the camera he just wanted some good phtots for his gallery and you see him friends with the people he pretended to steal from at the end of the short film, so in the end it is a happy ending and a jolly film. 
 



Narrative:
The structure of the story follows Todorovs rule of equalibrium dis-equalibrium and new equalibrium to perfection as the begining we see an unknown guy having a drink in a cafe, he then leaves walking towards a family who are taking photos of each other he tricks the family into thinking he wants to take a photo of them and runs off with the camera and the father of the family chases him.

This beginning sequence tricks us into thinking this will be some sort of thriller as he runs off with a non-diegetic chase soundtrack playing in the background. after a bit of running he goes behind a wall and appears again with different clothes on and a different person chasing him.
This is when the middle of the narrative really starts to make sense we then see it fluxtuate to another character and the same thinng is happening and random people are doing weird things to the people running after who we beleive is either the protagonsit or antagonsit.
At this point we still dont know whether this guy is good or bad? We still beleive he is a thief but perhaps for a good reason seeing that a majority of people are helping him.
We then get to the end of the narrative the original character in the white shirt has cornered the thief and we think a fight will possibly happen but then it cuts to the pictures he took in 

a kind of gallery, it then becomes clear that this was the 'thiefs' intention the whole time to get some good photos of the chase and the reason why people helped him out.
It then cuts to a longshot where we see the people who chased the man taking photos and smiling with him in the gallery which must mean he gave the camera back and infact he is the protagonist not the antagonsit.
This is an example of linear narrative as the story has a clear begining, clear middle and a clear end. 

Audience:
The audience for snap seems to be young adults and teenagers, the main character who steals the cameras looks like he is in his early 20's which would be a good technique to draw that target audienec in, it is also a light hearted and at times funny which could be seen as childish making it appeal to teenagers but also hasa  relativey serious message which stops the audience from being particualry young.
I beleive snap has a hidden agenda yeah it is a light hearted short film but at the same time its telling us two things the first is 'dont judge a book by its cover'; at first we all thought this was a thief trying to steal a camera but it turned out being a normal guy thinking outsdie the box trying to get some pictures for his art gallery.
This follows up nicely to my second point. Snap is directed to young people (its target audience), which means its trying to give a possible message to younger people who are starting work etc, I beleive the message is to think outside the box and if you want to make it in life its to do things that make you rememebred, things that will get you the best results. The protagonsit may of been at risk in getting beaten up or in trouble with the police but he risked it and it turned out to benefit him he got some quality photos and his own gallery at a young age which prooves that if you do whatever it takes you can make it. 

Genre:
Snap is a perculiar film with aspects of a mild thriller and a mild comedy it isnt intense and it isnt very funny but it does contain aspects of them. At the begining you see three consecutive shots of an unknown foreign man at a cafe spying on this american family, its all very sinister as it begins to look like the begining of a stereotypical thriller film. Its not until the chase begins and the incidents with other people throwing water or getting in the way when we start to see the attempted comedy side of the sotry, there is also a close up at the end when the protagonsit is cornered and he says 'I've ran out of film' and it just confirms this was all a bit of a joke in the end. The lighting for snap is also very colourful and bright indeed it is a sunny day and that firthermore confirms this is abroad but it also is an aspect of a jolly film as a proper thriller would usually contain a darker hint. It then has a jolly happy ending which is a strong aspect of a comedy which furthermore confirms indeed Snap went from a potential thriller to a comedy in the matter of minuiutes.