Wednesday 28 March 2012

Teachers notes

I have now been through my rough silent film through with my teacher. His notes were:
- The beginning sequence when the girls are driving in the car is too long and to try and shorten it down to about 25 - 30 seconds.
- The begining of the sequecne is also very rocky and dis-orientating
- The text in the titles is too bold and modern
- The text is vague as to what is happening within the scene
- There are several blinks on the titles
- There could be more close-up shots of the girls faces to make it more direct
- The titles that say 'bitching' has to be changed to sound more sophisticated
- The tranistion between music tracks could be smoother and lead into eachother more

I then went and made changes to the film itself making the tranistions smoother and also adding in soe more effects to make the film seem more intense.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Audience feedback

Questionnaire analysis

Music choice

As I have been working on a silent movie teh music is the most important factor in the maing of this short film. I wanted to create emotion through the music as the dialogue has been taken away, this then made me think about the music in more depth.
For the introduction to my short film i ahve chosen a track called :
'Attention Everyone' ironic as the introduction of the film is souly for grabbing the attention of the audience watching it. This music track has a number of musical instruments all contributing to the one triumohant track. The mix of drums, saxaphone and trombone gives the acid jazz feel to the beginning of the movie which is similar to the music that would have been in 1920's silent films.
The next song that i chose was called:
'Mr five by five' this is 

Audience feedback questionnaire

Audience Questionnaire

How do you feel about the music accompanying my short film?
(1)   Went well with the action
(2)   It could have been better
(3)   It didn’t work with the piece
Why do you think this?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Did you want to be led to the murderer through the storyline?
Yes [ ]      No [ ]
Would you rather the murderer been un masked at the end?
Yes [ ]      No [ ]
Did the effects suffice would you rather have seen more dust and scratches over the material?
Yes [ ]      No [ ] 
Was the storyline easy to follow?
Yes [ ]      No [ ]
Would you say this has changed your views on silent movies?
Yes [ ]     No [ ]

 I have created this questionnaire to get some better feedback instead of friends commneting on facebook saying that it was 'really good'. I ahve however got some useful feedback from facebook. This questionaire specifies the information I need to know to make get some ctrical feedback both good and bad to see how effective my short film was on my targett audience of 16- 25 year olds.
I wanted to know if their opinions had changed on shrot films and when given a stroyline about modern teenagers and the dangers of alcohol and seeing this on screen maybe openined up a new demogrpahic of silent films being based in 2012 so that the youth of today can relate to the narrative and make it easier for them to understand.

Film review research

This magazine review has many features I could use for my film review the dvd front cover with various bits of information in a bitesize format make this film review seem more digestible to the mass audience. A screen shot from the film iself creates the background for this review it also has bright lighting which attracts the audiences attentiona dn directs them to the white text mixed with a bold yellow text to further attract the audiences attention. The picture although shows what the movie is generally about is very vague and lees the audience guessing and making assumptions as to why she is weraing a red A on a black corset.
This film review's techniques are fvery well laid out as they have positioned their writing in a way that doesn't make the audience feel swamped with information but bitesize paragraphs.

 This magazine review has a predominatley white background with a dull picture with blacks, whites but no colours that burst out at the audience and attract their attention. However the positioning of the screen shot makes it easier to break up the information and also gives them a sense of what the movie is going to be about especailly since yet agin jack sparrow has hit trouble this leaves the audience questioning the movie and leaving them wanting to know why he is again in trouble.


Again a very dull background however the text is split into columns which presents the audience with a basic guideline as to where to focus their attention to. The screen shot positioned at the side of the film review lets the audience read the texdt with no break then the picture at the right of the age to then break focus and have something to look at.

Friday 2 March 2012

Final poster


This is my fuinal poster as in the 1920's the posters were very simplistic and didn't have a lot of tect or images to show what film and what genre it was. I ahve positioned the picture in the centre of the page with everyone with monontonous facial expressions with only one person smiling, This shows how naive she is comapared to her firends this also connotes conflict within the film itslef.
The text is similar to the handwriting sterotypically used in the time period of silent moveis. The text is also flowing and neat which connotes a sense mystery within the text. This film is about reading between the lines and interpreting the action.

Second inital poster idea

I thought this poster was efective in gaining the simplistic effect on the pster and how it would ahve been premiered in the 1920's. However I feel that the blood at the top of the bottle makes the poster seem very cliche and this is not the type of feedback I wanted to hear from the audeicne. Although I like the murderer being behind the bottle this gives away the narrative of the film and therefor people wouldn't bother watching the film to see who they killer was and try and find some common gorund and relation between themselves and the storyline.
The 'evidence written on the bottle also gives away the agenda of the bottle and the intentions in this moveis however I like the idea of the bottle to give a certain vagueness to the piece and leave the audience guessing why the bottle is so important that it is center in the poster.

Poster initial ideas

  
The red on the bottle gives of a certain sense of cliche nad that it is fiollowing the narrative of a genric horror movie having gore on the poster and giving off a the dennotation of death and loss within the piece. 
I l;ike how I have positioned the faces of all the characters however this then makes the poster look over complicated and busy and that there is too much to focus on and not enough simplisity. I can argue that I ahve made my poster postmodern as I am following the genreic guidelines for the mass adueicen making them a lazy society and not presenting them with enough detail or questionioing the poster and making it easy for them to interpret. 

Sunday 12 February 2012

suffolk murder music version.mp4



This is the musical version of my short film. The music I have chosen to accompnay my short film is the genre's:
- Acid Jazz
- Blues
- Jazz
These are all old types of music style and as I wanted to keep some of the genric codes and conventions of a 1920's silent movie but modernize it to suit the expectations of youth in 2012.
The opneing of my short film at the moment laswts for nearly 50 seconds this is a fifth of my short film already dedicated to my opening. The iopening of my film starts in a car connoting how happy the firensds are together with no influence of alcohol or other friends casuing distress amoung the group.
I like the car scnes although the are too prolonged and very jumpy and rocky camera shots which makes the eyes focus on too many things with the cast names coming up on screen at the same time it may make the audience feel queezy this could also jepordise the rest of the film as I am trying to change youth's opinions to give silent films an chance.
The first house scene I thought was very effective however there is no close-ups or ways to show who the firends are actually bitching about it leaves a vague interpreation for the audience this is later on resolved as you see the character leave the room and sit on her own.
The title that comes up telling the audience that it is 'later that evening' jumps a bit and is quite a messy finish, this is something I will have to look at and makes sure that the timings are exact.
The use of shots are a good veriety even though a few close-ups could be added to further show the confilct between the characters.
The music I feel complimetns the the action ion screen althought the transitions could be made smotther and have each track lead into another and change the audiences feeling towards the next scene.
The movie up to this point has been sped up to 130% making the body language and movemetns seem bigger and bolder. However in the murder scene I ahve slowed the action down to 70% making the action seem more anxious nad have more of an effect on the audience. The point where the murderer lifts the bottle seems less effective than I wanted it to be, whilst I was filming I wanted to have the action chopping and changing into different parts of the death.
The titles within the piece could ahve been better presented as the corner designs are slightly off screen, and the text is too bold for the naivveity i was trying to create. The text written on the titles is also vague and doesn't lead the audiecne into thinking about the situation.

Suffolk Murder



This is the first verison of my short film. this is different to my first idea becasue it challenges the anrrative of a murder mystery short film. Usually silent films are set in the 1920's as this is the time when short moveis were the most popular type of movei until the speaking movies came into play in the early 1930's.
I have also changed the narrative of a normal murder mystery as we the audience find out who the killer is early on in the film. When normally you would have to try and guess the motive of the killer and what exactly his intentions are and why they want to kill. This film is more of an murder mystery but to the characters only. I wanted to change the codes and conventions to make it suit a teenage audience and a teenage audience don't want to have to think and put pieces together but are highly influential when it comes to seeing people with alcohol. If i then considered the fact of drinking and turning it into something teenagers could relate to which is 'What do you remember whilst intoxicated' , 'Can you trust your drinking partners' and 'Are you old enough to drink'. These questions then contribute to the point of my story - 'Don't drink excessively' I am not trying to say that all teenagers will commit a crime and murder but those who are classed as 'violent drunks' could harm someone they care about without meaning to cause them harm.

13 Lonesome Road for YouTube.mp4

This is the Un-Cut verison of my first media project. As you can see it is alomost 10 minutes long with various shots having to be re-shot.

Friday 3 February 2012

Change of plan

As there were difficulties with my previous footage and most of the actors cannot make the date set for re shoot. With all this and having the deadline coming up I have decided to re shoot at the weekend and modernize the short film itself.
The narrative I am completely changing  and am now going to have a modern version of a murder mystery taking place at a teenagers pyjama party.
The storyline will stay the same that the murderer killed out of jealousy and loathing of the victim.
The scenes that will be in the short film are:
- The ride up to the country house
- The party
- The bitching
- Waking up
- The look around
- The finding of the body
- The conviction
- The run away

These scenes will now make up my short film and will be bases for the actresses to perform. i ahve also decided to scrap a script so that the film doesn't look like people are actually talking as the point of my movie is that actions speak louder than words.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

corner designs

This title has a nice font and feel to it althought the corner designs look very vorad and not as elegant and quaint as I would ahve preffered them to be. I wnated to have a corner design where it was very flowing and smooth. Thye font is very pretty and dainty but also looks very modern and quite bold. I like the font and the way I have presented the font although the font is not what i'm looking for.


This corner design has the elegant feel to it. It is very flowing and has a vintage style to its decoration. This is also very traditional corner designs and will keep within the codes and conventions from silent movies in the early 1900's. The Font is very bold and stands out a lot and gives off a male sense of handwriting which is angry and eerie this is not the final text as I wanted the text to conincide with my corner designs and be elegant and flowing.
Although this is not a corner design it is still part of the traditional from of a title idea. The font is centralized by the mirror like shape and directs the aduiences attention to the font. The font although it is more elegant looks very modern in terms of the french handwriting I am looking for. The design is very bold and large and hasn't got a very good design it looks plain and boring and as the silent movie will be taking youth out of their comfort zones by removing dialogue they want to seesomething visually entertaining and this title gives the wrong impression of the film.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Poster Analysis

 I like the idea of this poster as it is vague and doesn't give any clues to the auidence, the hat worn in this poster reinforces the date in which the film is set and also the role of a male authority, the words that are in the shape of the the man's face are all linked with death.


Tuesday 10 January 2012

Updated shooting schedule

January -
10th - Upload rough cut to youtube
12th - Book out a space for the title sequence
17th - Film the title sequence
18th - Start editing
19th - Go through scenes and see what I have to reshoot
21st - Reshoot the scenes
22nd - Start editing the final scenes
24th - Start making the poster
26th - Upload the poster
27th - Edit everything together
30th - Upload the final cut
February -
2nd - Make the film review
6th - Upload the film review
10th - Polish all my work