Film review text

A young man (Cross) on leaving his work place for the day finds a coin each day and uses it to have his fate told by an old clown box located on the sea front. The fortune’s he receives leads him down a problematic road with a threatening end.

The cast consists of up and coming actors with the main star Cross seeking an acting career with his limited theatrical success. I have been in contact with the production company but they concluded the clown’s identity remains unknown to keep up the mysterious pretence of the story.

Highlights include the special effects, camera movement, and the clown itself with the person sitting next to me physically appearing discomforted by the clown’s frantic moments. The entire clown situated in a box prop was inspiring bringing fears from what presents itself as a thing of joy.

Despite a thrilling tale and much technical greatness the failed attempt to show picking up a coin saw a real weakness. The gum layered floor gave the perception of the man perhaps picking gum off the street or making a decision on which of the many coins to pick up.

For those of you interested in your daily horoscopes and fate the films theme of not being able to escape your fate will target your reasoning and compel you to the edge of your seat.

Overall the film has been produced to a high standard with the delicate editing and film structure giving a movie experience no viewer will forget. The monumental use of the iconic clown strikes anticipation of heart pumping delight.

The film follows a cyclic chronological structure that comes to an amazing conclusion that prolongs the theme of fate and destiny. The story same as in the real world is that life repeats itself and is displayed through the reoccurring events within the narrative.

The film opens 30^th of March and will be available for viewing on youtube.com. It will be enjoyed by a teenage and young adult audience providing them with an eventful clown based creative showpiece.

The films narrative is within the genre of the well-known Stephen king horror novel and now hit horror film and TV series IT and should be watched and enjoyed by all those who found Heath Ledgers colossal joker personality entertaining.

In conclusion the short film “FATALITY” is not the greatest film ever made but for free viewing on youtube will leave any viewer entertained and largely intrigued by the theme not being able to escape your fate.

Film review

Below is an image of the film review which i produced based on our short film Fatality. It displays the common structure of a two columns coloured border, title and star rating on the left nad and image on the right.

Film review analysis

We have been asked to produce a film review based around the short film fatality which we have completed. I began reading weekly film reviews from the sun newspaper and those featured in empire film magazine to get an overall perspective into the constitution of a review. I found a common layout of a two column structure with the film title and star rating on the left and an image and concluding paragraph on the right hand side. A border of colour is also used considerably in reviews as a marker for the reader within the magazine. I looked largely at reviews for the David Fincher directed the curious case of Benjamin button a recent children’s sensation Rango. Each had an information row including the films certification, running time, release date and actors followed by film summary and a series of paragraphs addressing individual areas of the film such as factual and opinion areas such as cast, camera as well as including one major highlight and weakness. Paragraphs about the targeted audience and final verdict are also present with technical language film references and the writer’s opinion being expressed throughout all text. In general the writers possess a knowing and friendly relationship with the reader by using formal but light hearted language with some witty sentiments.

Film poster

Above is the film poster that i produced for our short film "Fatality". I have included things that appear regulary in film posters and that were included in the five posters that i analysed. This poster has the purpose of advertising a DVD release and is designed to target the same audience as the film of teenagers and young adults by showing clearly by the clown face image and dark background the films theme, narrative concerns and film genre.

Poster analysis CASINO ROYAL

The final film poster that I chose to analyse was Casino royal it is a bond film an icon that has entertained families for many years. The 007 graphic is displayed prominently three times throughout the poster as is a well- known and easily recognised symbol for bond films. This symbol includes an image that represents a gun and so implies a violent narrative. The poster is for the actor’s Daniel Craig’s first appearance as the James Bond character and so it appears the poster is introducing him to the already established audience. The large image of Craig is presenting him to the current audience being dominantly male but also targeting a wider female audience. The poster has background images of scenes taken from the film showing individual parts of the narrative of action, and romance.

Poster analysis INVINCIBLE

The fourth poster which I decided to analyse is Invincible. It is a Walt Disney production the fact of which is shown clearly above the actor’s name Mark Wahlberg who is slowly becoming a well-known actor and so could attract an audience. The title is a bold white font communicating the main characters personality and role in the narrative of being pure as symbolised by the purity of the colour white. The poster includes yellow text displaying clearly and making apparent the fact the film is based upon a true story. There is some central black text which provides an introduction to the films narrative and therefore aids the basis of a true story by including textual references to facts of Joe Papoulis life. Text showing the films cinematic release date implies a narrative of dreams and sport as conveyed by the word side-line a phrase used in most sporting activities. The large image heading the poster shows part of the narrative concerning sport sand is indicates in particular about American football. The small billing block at the foot of the poster includes a website for further details.

Poster analysis SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

The third film poster that I analysed is Saving private Ryan which has a relatively small title but the word saving is shown in bold font making textual references to the films plot of entering a war zone to rescue one soldier. The tag line “the mission is a man” anchor’s the perceived narrative. Tom Hanks is recognized as a high standard actor and his name is used to attract an audience as is shown above the title and in a larger font than the other actor’s names which are shown below the title again attracting an audience by targeting the actors’ fans. A large image of all four of the mentioned actors is at the head of the poster with hanks face appearing larger than the others, they are shown in military clothing and are underlined with a silhouetted small image of a soldier ready for battle engaging the narrative of war and violence. The director’s name Steven Spielberg is shown clearly above all other text to show priority as he is hugely famous in the film industry. In total his name appears three times on the poster showing his importance in attracting an audience, with his name completing the billing block so that it is the last thing to remember.

Poster analysis D3 The MIGHTY DUCKS

The second film poster that I have chosen to analyse is D3 the mighty ducks. It consists of a large central known image of a duck shaped mask which targets the existing audience for the films as the poster is advertising the cinema release of the final  film of a trilogy of mighty duck films so those who saw and enjoyed the first two will be targeted into going to see it. The large red and yellow title indicates that the film has been produced for a young audience which is also symbolised by the well-known production company Walt Disney being shown clearly at the head of the poster. The title and actors name’s layout provides the graphical resemblance to the back of a hockey shirt indicating a narrative link to the sport hockey. The actors name (Emilio Estevez) is displayed above the title and his image appears central to hockey players as he in 1996 when this film was released was a big name in Hollywood after his role in young guns.  The poster is backed by a plain blue background which anchors the narrative of hockey with an associated colour of ice. The billing block is not shown clearly but the iconic Walt Disney logo  is included and is made apparent. The posters footer includes a pun “Duck season opens oct.4” showing the cinema release but again showing part of the narrative of an ice hockey teams sporting season.

poster analysis BRAVEHEART

For our media project we have produced a short film but we also have to produce a movie poster so I have chosen five different film posters to analyse so that I know what to include when designing my own.

The film poster for “Braveheart” is based around iconography with the main actor appearing as the central image and his name included in large font at the head of the poster to attract an audience as Mel Gibson is a well known actor. All text including the title is white and spatial providing symbolism for the films narrative of freedom as shows purity and peace. The actual film title is shown with priority for connection with the book and the tag line “every man dies not every man really lives” with background images of romantic embrace and battle conveys parts of the narrative concerning love, violence, and death. The included billing block although is small in comparison with the other text makes apparent that Mel Gibson is the director as well as the main actor. This poster is designed to advertise cinema release and shows clearly with bold increased font in the billing block a date.

Institiutional context of the film

Our short film FATALITY had many institutional contexts which includes running the film over the course of four days to present reoccurring events of finding a coin and using it to have a fate told so that when it came to the fourth day the character would be expecting and so searching for a coin. We decided to have the main character wear a suit to provide the reason for him to be walking past the machine every day as the end of his working day so that he was heading to his car to travel home. The clown we decided on as is a well-known icon of horror film and to aid the locations of the amusements in relating to our targeted audience of teenagers and young adults. This will also give an uneasy sense the same which the actions within the film provide because mysterious and shadowed events are taking place in a supposed happy filled enjoyable place.

Distribution

Our short film “Fatality” is not suitable for distribution into cinemas and then onto DVD after a short period of time like most films because it is less than fifteen minutes long. Our film is designed to be distributed on the internet on either private or well-known video sharing websites such as www.youtube.com where it can reach the targeted audience of teenagers and young adults easily as it is easily accessible and free.

The internet has quickly become a significant retail outlet for the distribution or sale of DVD releases. Due to technical limitations of bandwidth, connection speeds, and legal reasons the internet has no rights to distribute Hollywood films so the independent short film has become a common occurrence online. One of the most popular viewing sites for online film is www.AtomFilms.com, which was launched in 2006 funding independent producers looking to create short films specifically for distribution on the internet. Today the internet possesses an ever increasing number of websites dedicated to sharing films including IFILM.COM and you tube.

Editing sound

With all the editing completed in terms of the footage we now had to include sound. We had found two pieces of music that we all liked and thought would chaperon the film narrative and actions. These were creepy carnival (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuisPf8M40U ) and scary clown music low base original (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FuNdgQkOkk ). The creepy carnival we added to the first three sections of film with the music repeating as with the actions of the three days. The third sections however includes dialogue so we because had decided that we wanted the music to continue throughout increased the volume of speech so that it could be heard clearly above the underlying sound. The other sound track scary clown music we added to the footage of the clown frantically moving in the box and the actions that follow of rushing to his car and see the clown in the back window. We stopped the music but faded it back in over the drive buy’s and house scenes with the creepy carnival music coming back in for the films credits.

Editing titles

We have filmed a sequence of the clown with spot light and camera movement around the face. This footage was edited together creating a sequence of various clown movements and angled shots which we positioned at the beginning of our film before all sequences. We had discussed what should be included in starting titles and began adding them to the images. We added the production company PACK followed by an associated company of WSC media and distributer JFE. We included the actors that appeared in our film and each member of our group with job titles that was randomly chosen as each of us played the roles of director, producer, editor and sound incorporator for our individual sections of film that we chose to take control over. The final part had a play on words to reveal our film title. First the word fate appears but is gradually replaced by the word fatality signifying the parts of narrative concerning not being able to escape your fate.

The credits that we added to the end of our film was placed on to a black background and consisted of the film title, the location of filming and a special thanks to the forum amusements and prop designer Barry Hyde. The credits concluded with a website, contact details and a copyright trademark with date. This was done as in theory our short film is an advertisement to the film industry showcasing talent.

Editing combining sections

Each of us had completed editing the sections of film that we were made responsible for so finalised the editing process by adding Karlene’s and Chloe’s with the collective sequences of mine and Adele’s. We included fades between each part to signify time passing and added markers of the first, second, third and final day to make apparent the narrative running across a four day period. The use of the final day marker also aids the sense of the final day in terms of the main characters fate. With all footage gathered an edited our A2 media short film was completed in terms of the film and narrative, however we now have to produce a title sequence decide on music going to include, and add credits so that the film is finalised.

Editing special effects

Our short film consists of four sections of film that each member of the group where individually responsible for. The narrative runs across four days with Karlene’s part being the first and second day’s events Chloe’s the third and Adele’s and mine the final day. Due to the fact my section and Adele’s constitutes the fourth days actions we added our scenes together to ensure that they accompany each other in a way that appeared natural in the way the actions followed each other.

Adele’s scene consists largely of the clown’s frantic movements, the footage of which we decided to add special effects. The editing programme that we used made many options of special effects available to us. We had the opportunity to change light levels, colour concept, and many methods of distortion. We changed the colour perception known as hue and colour saturation, of the images creating a variety of actions which appeared different and gave an uneasy sense. Slowing down and distorting the footage created a sense of manic behaviour and ominous appearance.

Editing my section

Individually with the big picture of what each of us believed our completed short film should look like began editing the section that we each produced the shot script for. I first opened all the footage of the house scenes in the editing programme pro 11 and arranged them into the order in which the actions should appear in the overall narrative of the film. I spliced the different angled shots of the same actions together to create a sequence that can be seen by various angles providing a greater perception of the movement. I then edited every consecutive shot together adding fades and jump cuts when necessary to allow the footage to continuously flow throughout. The final shot of the clown appearing in the bedroom I included a gradual zoom in from a mid-shot to show a close up of the clowns face. Once I believed I had completed the editing of my section I showed it to the rest of my group to ensure each of us was happy with how the footage appeared collectively. When we have all completed the editing of our individual sections we will begin to create the overall film by adding all sections together and constructing a title sequence.

Post production meeting

We returned to school on completion of filming and firstly viewed all the footage we had gathered to decide if any of it needed to be re filmed or if we required any extra scenes for our short film. We came to the decision that none of our footage needed re filming but we had no sequence in which to add a title sequence. With this in mind we discussed and decide to film another sequence of the clown which we recorded several lessons later so that we are all ready to begin editing.

Shooting diary 3

We went back to Felixstowe to complete filming our project but no longer required the box so transport was easier. We began filming the mugging scene following Chloe’s shot script and creating the actions that we discussed would resemble a mugging that were not to elaborate. We collected the remaining footage that required the Felixstowe amusements setting swiftly and finished filming with the series of shots that sees the clown at various places as the male figure drove past. On a hole all four of us were organised in terms of our individual shot scripts and the overall picture of what we wanted to include in our media project.

Shooting diary 2

The second time we filmed we travelled to Felixstowe transporting ourselves and the large prop of the box that was generously made by Barry Hyde. We went about again with a high level of organisation filming Karlene’s and Adele’s section with some of the sequences being the same as in Chloe’s repeating them with the male character changing his tie. We although was filming our A level project enjoyed our time taking a little time out to have fun as had the problem of requiring a decreasing light change for some of the shots.