Choosing Music for Short Film

I have chosen to use instrumental pop music for my short film as it makes my film up to date but the lyrics of the song can distract the audience. I have chosen the song 'Stitches' by Shawn Mendes. Shawn is a rising pop singer in his teens, which works well with my genre as it is aimed towards teens. It is a upbeat happy song which goes well with the plot of my film. I bought this on iTunes:

My Film Rating

In the UK the 'The British Board of Film Classification' rates all the film released in cinema. 
They have 8 different ratings for films:

• 'U' symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. 
• 'PG' stands for Parental Guidance. A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. 
• Films classified '12A' and video works classified '12' contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child.
• No-one under 15 is allowed to see a '15' film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.
• Films rated '18' are for adults. No-one under 18 is allowed to see an 18 film at the cinema or buy / rent an 18 rated video. No 18 rated works are suitable for children.
• The 'R18' category is a special and legally-restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults.

 

I have chosen the 'U' film rating for my short film as it doesn't include anything explicit or unsuitable for children. I think my film is universal, therefore everyone can watch and understand it. I don't think my film needs parental guidance as it has a good message throughout the film.

Film poster- Fonts

I wanted to experiment with the font of my film title as I want it to be interesting and catch the audiences attention. Therefore I used the website 'Pic Monkey' to see what fonts they had to choose from. Below are my top 12 favourite fonts.

  Number 1 (Eraser Dust)is nice because it looks like someone has sketched it and this will suit my film because my main character likes to draw and loves art. 

 Number 2 (mossy)is a good font because it s simple but looks effective, this would be nice to use for the smaller font on my film poster as it's easy to read.

 Number 3 (budmo jiggler)looks like it has spotlights in it and I like the look of this but I don't think it matches my film very well.

Number 4 (lobster two) is a girly style of font which could suit my film but isn't so easy to read.

 Number 5 (amatic small caps) is similar to number 2 as it is similar but easy to read.

Number 6 (rye) is an interesting font but I don't like it enough for a film title.

Number 7 (bangers) is a very bold font and would suit a comedy as it is a loud and big font. 

Number 8 (shadows into light) is a nice font in lower case but I don't like it in upper case. I want my title in upper case.

Number 9 (Quentin caps) is a very fancy font and would suit a cowboy/western film but not my genre of film.

Number 10 (play fair display) is another simple font and goes well with numbers 2 and 5.

Number 11 (leaning curve) looks like someone's handwriting, but doesn't read very well in upper case so I wouldn't use it as my main font.

Number 12 (smash) is similar to number 7 in it is very bold and are very big which wouldn't suit my genre of film.

 

After this experimentation of fonts I have 5 possible fonts I would like to se on my film poster. I like number 1,2,5,10 and 11.

 

 

Art Scene in the film

Feedback from Target audience about raw footage of art scene:

• Alice said 'I like the point of view shots of Beth drawing it makes it effective.                                    
• Jess said 'I like the use of different angles of her drawing as it is more realistic but could have got more'.

Friends in London scene in the film

Feedback from Target audience about raw footage from the friends scene filmed in London:

• Katie said 'You can see Beth and Friend are having genuine fun without it being staged.'   
• Billy said 'I like the clips of what  Beth can see, its like you are sharing her memories.'

Dog walking scene in the film

Feedback from target audience about the raw footage of dog walking scene:

• Emily said 'You shouldnt use any of the clips where Beth is looking at the camera'.         
• Lewis said 'I like the various clips of her walking from different angles like your following her'.

Dance Scene in the Film

I decided to post all the raw footage from my film in sections. I have made a youtube video of each hobbies raw footage. This was one of the ways I got audience feedback as I showed the audience to see what clips they thought I should and shouldn't include.

Here is some of the feedback I took on when editing my film together:

• Ella said 'I like the clips of Beth turning and the different clips of her feet'.           
• Chloe said ' I would cut out all of her standing still and cut all the dance moves together'.
• This helped me understand what my target audience wanted to see.

Holiday scene in the Film

Whilst in Lanzarote I filmed Beth getting up to different activities e.g. in the pool and at the beach including one of Beth's friends she went on holiday with and this leads to the topic of being relaxed and distressing. 

I collected all the clips together and wanted to play around with them all with the editing, therefore I used iMovie and montaged them altogether to experiment with it before putting it in the final film. 

I decided to add some pop instrumental music to the background to give it a relaxing feeling and I uploaded what I did to youtube.I found it difficult to get it on youtube to 720p/1080p (hd) without the quality of he video going down making it blurry. On iMovie none of my clips are blurry but some on the video don't look the same and give the same effect. 

Feedback from target audience about the raw footage:

• Donna said 'I like the underwater clips and makes you look professional'.     
• Sophie said 'The beach clips of Beth and her friends is nice as it is natural and not acted out.'

3rd Scene of my Film

I have now started editing my 3rd scene. I used a long take of a birds eye view angle of 'Beth' doing school work. In this scene I am going to speak about what GCSE's she is taking which appear on the screen as I say it. I say about 4 subjects she's chosen as a GCSE e.g. dance, media, art and history. I added the font 'typewriter' again as it matches with the rest of the film.

I experimented with the position of the font and transformed it to be on an angle. I did this to each word on the screen. I made the font white as I played with colour but as there is a lot of colour in the shot anyway, I didn't think it was needed. 

I added the 'computer keyboard' sound which I have used already in the film as I think it looks creative. I had to adjust the lengthy of the sound to synchronise with the letters on the screen. I added a cross dissolve transition at the end of the clip as it is a subtle simple way to go to the next scene. At the same time as the first subject appears, 'she studies...' appears at the top to help the audience understand.

2nd Scene of my Short Film

The plot of my second scene is to show my target audience my character and what she looks like and her personality. I had the idea to have no speech from my main character but just show it  visually. I did this through filming 'Beth' pulling different faces to the camera, I thought this was a quick and simple way to convey her personality. I chose to film her pulling 5 facial expressions. I wanted it in a collage on the page. Here is an image from my storyboard and what initial idea I had.

I then had to think about the set up of the scene and where I was going to film it. I decided to use a blank pale pink wall in my sisters bedroom as the background. I wanted it plain as I didn't want it to distract from 'Beth'. Using her bedroom makes it visually more personal and she felt more comfortable. As my film is a teen realistic film I thought it would be a good idea to use my characters real bedroom than stereotypical locations which aren't realistic. I was unsure on what I wanted my character to wear as the scene is about introducing her naturally. Therefore I thought I would film her in school uniform to help the audience understand her age and life quickly. I used a mid shot for all 5 shots and struggled to keep them the same as I didn't have a tripod.

I wanted to use natural lighting to challenge the conventions of
Hollywood teen films,but as its winter when I'm filming this it turns dark extremely quickly. Therefore I used a small light to help keep the scene bright to match the other scenes previously filmed.

I wanted 4 shots to be placed on one screen I had this by choosing each clip individually and pressing 'transform' this helped to adjust the size of the clip on the page. I did this to all 4 clips and found it difficult to keep them the same size and to have no background showing through. I had to move some of them after watching it as her head would go out of frame which didn't look professional. I did have the idea of all 4 either appearing in unison or coming on the screen one after the other. But putting the clips in unison was difficult as it would show a black screen behind. I stuck with all 4 clips coming on in unison.

After doing this for the scene I felt I needed to add something else, therefore I added another clip in the centre of the page which is a clip of 'Beth' just smiling. I 'transformed' the clip again and made it slightly smaller so you could still see the other clips better. I was unsure whether I wanted all 5 clips on from the start of the scene so I tested it both ways. I came to the conclusion I wanted the centre clip to appear slightly later to make I more interesting.

 I thought this scene would be a good time to give information about who the main character is. As I only have one main character in my film. I used the 'information bar' word transition which pops up on the bottom left corner, which doesn't detracts from the meaning of the scene. I chose to have the words on the scene until the last clip pops up to give the audience enough time to read it. This is what the scene looks like altogether.

First Scene of Short Film

For my first scene of my short film I wanted words appearing on the screen about my main character. I wanted three different short sentences appearing on the screen in canon. I chose to gave a blank black screen, I did this by selecting one of my film clips and highlighting it and deleting it to make it blank. I experimented with font and transitions of font for the first scene. Then came to the conclusion I wanted to use the font 'type writer' for all three short sentences. 'Typewriter' has the transition of each letter appearing after each other. I wanted the look of someone tying on the screen therefore I needed to find a computer keyboard sound. I found one and trimmed it to match the words on the screen so it was synchronised.



 

First line:

Second Line:

Third Line:

Next I need to decide whether I want the voiceover to start from the first scene or the next scene. I will test this by doing it with and without to see which has the best outcome. I don't want my character to be saying the voice over parts as it's in third person and wouldn't make sense. Therefore I am going to record all the voice overs and talk about 'Beth'.

Making a Production Company Logo

I used a free logo website called design manic to make my production company name. I used my initials as it is my production company. All you do is add the name and category to make a company logo. I clicked the media and entertainment industry to get a image to make the kind of company. 

My Film Slogan/Tagline

When constructing my film poster I realised a film title wasn't the only vital section. I needed a slogan/tagline to sum up and not give away my film. I thought I'd try use a quote from the film script but nothing would have fit. I then brainstormed off the word 'Stress' and came up with a few slogans. As my film is about the relievement of stress through hobbies. My film title makes people think its about someone being stressed but it is actually the opposite, which will attract people even more to watch it. Here are some possible slogans:

• 'the relievement'
• 'relaxation is the solution'
• 'keep yourself busy but relaxed'
• 'relaxation is key'
• 'stress, the problem solver'
• 'relive the key to success'
• 'relief is the key to success' 
• 'the relievement of stress'
• 'distressing is key'
• 'stress relief is the key to success' 
• 'the alleviation of stress'

I couldn't decide by myself therefore I made a questionaire to see what everyone in my media class preferred  I asked 20 people, which also fit in my target audience.

The result of the questionnaire helped me choose the slogan to suit my film. In the end 6/20 chose 'the relievement of stress' which I thought was to obvious and gave away the film, but it doesn't give away too much. Number 7 and 9 had 3/20 but the runner up was number 1 'the relievemnet' which is very similar to number 8 but doesn't give away as much. My target audience said it didn't give away any information about the film but number 8 gives enough away.

Final slogan/tagline for my film is number 8: 

'the relievement of stress'. 

However after researching more I wanted to replace the word 'relievement' with 'alleviation' as it would make more sense. Therefore the final slogan is...

'the alleviation of stress'.

Initial ideas for my Film Poster

Below is an initial idea I had for my short film poster. 

• TITLE: I want to use a font called 'eraser dust' as it looks as if someones sketched it and goes well with my film idea and my main character loving to sketch.
• SLOGAN/TAGLINE: (I have made a blog post on slogans/taglines) I want to use the font 'typewriter' as it matches the font I used in the film, which gives the same style to the film poster.
• PHOTOS: I want to use 6 screenshots from the film, from different parts of the film. I don't think this gives away what the films about. Each photo is a different hobby my main character does to relax and destress.
• BACKGROUND: I don't want a distracting colour, therefore nothing too bright. I am choosing from white, grey and blue. As its a social realism film and my character is real, I wanted to use 'Beths' favourite colour, which is pale blue.
• CREDITS: I am going to write the credits in upper case therefore I am using the font 'Amatic Small Caps'.
• FILM RATING: I have made a blog post on how I chose which rating for my film, but the film rating doesn't go on the film poster.
• RELEASE DATE: I have done research on teen and documentary front covers and most of the successful films have the release date on the bottom in the middle in a different colour to make it stand out. It can either say its 'coming soon' or a year and season or an exact date, but the post goes up on billboards before its released so I am choosing to have 'coming soon' to attract the audience and create excitement and anticipation.

I wanted to test the idea of having screen shots from the film together to see if it worked. Personally I think it will look better with spaces between them because it looks like a border. My screenshots are clear and professional enough and need to choose 6 to have on my final cover.

Editing Research

Editing is all about how your use cuts or transitions to 'position' the viewer to show them what they want to see.

Walter March

He says there's 6 main criteria for evaluating film editing, in particular a cut or deciding where to cut. Editing can portray different ideas to contribute to the film.

The most important idea is...

• emotion being 51% out of 100, a cut/technique can reflect to what's happening in the film and show a emotion.
• story being 23% out of 100, a cut or transition can help move the story along.
• rhythm being 10% out of 100, it can be effective to cut to the rhythm of the background music.
• eye trace being 7% out of 100, the cut respects the location and movement of they audiences focus of interest within the frame.
• Two dimensions plane of the screen being 5% of 100 and if the cut respect the 180 degree rule.
• Three dimensional space of action being 4% of 100 and if the cut is true to the physical/spatial relationships.

I am going to use this research and experiment with the editing to portray different ideas and make it more interesting.

Film Poster Textual Analysis

  'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen' was released in 2004 as a teen comedy and the production company was Walt Disney Pictures.

IMAGE- there is not a main background image like my last textual analysis. There is 9 photos in a collage side by side. All the different photos are of the main character 'Lola' wearing different clothes and pulling different facial expressions. I like this idea as it is similar to my second scene in my short film as I use my main character and have pull different faces to show her personality.

COLOUR- All the backgrounds of the photos are different colours which is perfect for teens as they are attracted to colour.

FONT/LAYOUT- Above the photos is 'Lindsay Lohan' as she is the main role of the film and will attract an audience. The font is in capital letters which will make it stand out. Underneath there is a small 'Walt Disney Pictures' logo which shows the production company. I like the title of the films layout as there are  different fonts used but go well together to make a font family. The words 'teenage and 'drama' are in different colours, the word 'teenage' makes teenagers want to watch it as they are interested in their own age group. Underneath the title there is a little slogan making you want to watch the film. The writing underneath is all in grey but the date the film releases is in pink to make people go and watch in cinemas.

I like this film poster as it reminds me of my own film as I use the idea of a montage of clips. The colour scheme is of bright colours which attracts the teen audience.

Film Poster Textual Analysis

'Under Fire, Journalists in Combat' is a documentary film which was released in 2011 and production company is JUF pictures.

Textual Analysis

IMAGE- there is not one main image as a background. There are 9 small screenshots from the film and cast interviews, this gives an insight into the film and the characters.

COLOUR- The background of the film poster is plain black. The colour scheme is grey, black and red which goes well with the genre of the film which is war/action.

FONT- I can't tell what the title of the film is, therefore I make my title much more obvious. I think the film is called 'Under Fire, Journalists in Combat' which is in grey courier font but because 'Under Fire' is in bolder font (capitals) and a bright red it distracts the reader to think that is the title. Personally I think it would look better if it was all in the same colour and font. I would swap the position, font and colour of these two slogan to make sense.

LAYOUT- there are 3 grey outlined comic strips layered in the middle of the film poster which draws attention of the reader. At the bottom of the poster there are 4 different company logos which shows they have worked on the film.

The reason I used this as film poster inspiration was because of the three layered comic strips with screen shots of the film. As this is an effective way to show the film, the characters and the different scenes. I also like the use of the 'courier' font as it unusual font to use. I like how they haven't just used one main background image because that can not always work to attract the audience but as the images are in the centre of the page it works.

Film Poster Inspiration

I like the example of a documentary film poster as it uses three film strips overlapping each other of screenshots of the film and is centred in the middle of the poster to stand out. This gives a subtle insight into the film of different scenes. I like the block background colour as it doesn't distract to audience from the film strips. I want the colours to be brighter as my film is a positive film and I want the audience to get this from my film poster as it a teen documentary.

This reminds me of my short film storyboard and how I decided to use a montage of 'Beth' (main character) pulling different facial expressions to show her personality quickly to my target

 audience. This would be a good idea for my film poster as my film evolves around one character.

Script

I'm using voice-over narration throughout my film and silent narration is on scene 1 and 2.

Scene 1: 'This is Beth... She's 15...'

Scene 2: 'And preparing for her GCSE exams.'

Scene 3: (no narration)

Scene 4: (no narration)

Scene 5: 'Stress is a big factor when it comes to doing GSCE's and can lead to bad outcomes. To stop being stressed Beth stays active doing several hobbies.'

Scene 6: 'Beth's favourite hobby is dance as she finds it enjoyable and relaxing. She becomes more confident when dancing and feels free.'

Scene 7: 'Another way for Beth is to hang around with friends.'

Scene 8: 'She enjoys art and drawing different people and things she's saw.'

Scene 9: 'Beth finds going holiday every year very exciting and distracts her from her GCSE's. This year she wen to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote.'

Scene 10: 'Her last hobby to stay less stressed is walking her dog.'