Post 16 Ancillary Task 1 - Postcards part one

In this post i will be looking at how we as a group came up with our production name, posters, logo's and out post cards. we had to be far more imaganative with these tasks that we have done previously through out our media course. we had to to a lot of brainsorming in our group tryi g to thin of a production name that would be suitable and would tie in with our film. our director (Anton) had organised all our Actors that they were of from columbia so we tries to link the name to that. But we quickly came to realise that there is already an internationaly recognized production company called 'Columbia Pictures'. we did not want people to think that we were copying so we had to divert our search to other options. we had to try and think of something far more imaganative that linked with our film. in our film there is a constant theme of a clock during our film







we then came up with the name cockwork productions as our film as a constant theme with a clock during the entire film. This seemed appopriate and becuase it was origional and it linked in with our film which made it a perfect choice. now we could start creating our Film posters, Film logo's and Film postcards.

Film Postcards

There is a large range of ways that Production Companies try and advertise their films to rtry and target their target audience. For the big production companies it can be hugely exspensive for them to try and market their films and TV is normally the main way to target audiences.  

for smaller production companies who are creating short films and wish to try and make the films more known about it is more difficult as they have limeted funds compared to larger production companies such as Warner Brothers and Comumbia Pictures. the limited funds that were available would have been used in creating the short filmand would have no money to be able to invest in TV advertising.  short films must then look for other sources apart from the obvious TV advertisement. good ways of doing this is to try and showcase the short film at a film festiva. film festivals are a great way for directors and film writers to try and get recognition of their work so they could then go on to bigger companies and get into full Films with larger funds for disposal. so by showcasing their film at film festivals they can try and work their up to the top, this is usually how directors and film writers beome big, by starting with short films, impressing, then going on the big production companies. this is also the came with the film crew i was the camera man in our Film production and if i wanted to go on and do other films i would want my work to be rtecognized for other companies to see if i could be a camera man in other (bigger) films. But the method that a lot of small poduction companies use to try and make people aware of these film festvial showing (and a method we as a group will be using) is postcards. 

in class we looked at some already existing postcards and discused them as a group looking at their charataristics and why it was good choice of design to try and adverrise their film. the short film postcard we looked at was 'On A Lifes Edge'. 

As you can see the image that the postcard is showing does relate to the title of the film. personally when I heard the title to sounds like a drama perhaps social realism about someone depressed or close to suicide or death and I think that the postcard reflects these feeling by making it rather a sad, lonely image. the colours of the image imedietly suggest unhapiness and an unhappy atmoshere. the producer has put a short description of the films and then the cast of the film, how long the films is and then the credits of the film.

in our Media class we talked about the important structure and infomation that is needed in a short film postcard. we had to look at several short film postcards and i started to see that they all have similar layouts and structure. 

there was certain infomation that almost all of them had on the postcards :

• location of the showing
• what times is it being showed 
• how long each showing will be 
• who are the writters and directors of the short film 
• the producer and filming crew 
• any sponers involved  

Film Posters 

in our Media class we looked at how film posters are used to advertise films and how effective they are. we looked a few different types of posters and i did some of my own research in film posters and came up with a few theories. Different film posters use different styles in my opinion. some production companies will look to be big and dramatic which will drw people in, these usually consist of  big dramatic image these type of posters will most likely be for actions films. some other production companes try and do the complete opposite by creating a poster with little infomation and not a lot happening on the poster yet it stikes people who see it with interest and curiositty. I beleive this is risky yet a clever way of marketing by perhaps luring people to see the film out of pure cutiosity. but on the whole i feel that most film posters are big bold and stand out to try and grab the intection of anyone who may see it. espeicially if there are big name actors and directors in the film these must be highlighted so people know that they are involved and will imedietly make them more likey to see it. Colours and brightness sets the tone and atmoshere for the films in the poster and can show veiwers what genre it is instantly which is good.

certain infomation must be put on the poster which will inform all veiwers about the film so they know exactly what they are paying to see. Important information consists of : 

• Title of the film 
• Release date 
• Directors 
• Notabable actors 
• company production name  

Production Logo

As a group we had to think of diffeerent design for our production logo. we had to be creative and use the internet for a scourse of images and ideas. As we had agreed to use clockwork productions as our Production name we needed to find images that would relate to clocks. we needed something that was effective but not to complicated and easy to remember so when people see the logo they can instanty associate it with Clockwork Productions.  

post 15 Reflecting on Theory

In this post I will be reflecting on all the different theories we have learned in class over the last few months.we have been discussing 3 main topics.

• Genre Theory 
• Narrative Theory 
• Audience Theory    

Genre Theory 

Genre theory is used in films to put films into categories. Common genres are thriller, action, comedy, Drama, social realism and horror. Genre is very much dependent on different factors mainly things like the story line, who the director is (what their vision is) and what are the audience expectations of the film. when discussing genre theory in class we identified it by using genre theory we can create a short cut in how can try and describe films.

In order to fully understand genre I need to look at several examples. for example with horror films there is a certain expectation and there is a general notion in people that will think everyone will die besides one person. the people who to watch this will expect to see violence and will be scared.

I have already looked at different notions of genre earlier in post 4. The most important theorist for me was Robert Altman. i feel he looked at genre and identified that a genre needs to be easily recognized by audiences he is quotes saying 'that genres are defined by producers and are easily recognized by audiences.' 

This was very important for me when it came to our own short film. it was important for us to establish a genre for our film, our genre was Drama.

The actors are very important in film and genre. some actors are specified to certain genres. For example an actor like Seth Rogen has only done comedy his hole career basically and for him to be cast into a film will automatically make audience's feel that the film will be a comedy.

In my opinion through my own research i feel that there are two reoccurring genres short films these are 'social realism and 'horror'. this is because short films often suffer from small funds which would make it difficult to create an action films with explosions ect.. comedy is another one which is difficult to portray in a short film mainly because in the time period given it would not be easily to portray humour which wasn't a bit corny.

Narrative Theory

Many people mistake a narrative with a story. This is incorrect as a narrative is something far different. a story is just what happens a narrative is how it is related. all good stories has some sort of action which ultimately changes the characters life of how they behave. there are four main media conventions these are:

Character
Genre
Time
Form

Audience Theory

audience theory is very important it is how the audience see the film through their eyes and how the perceive and respond to what they see. this theory fist arrised in the 1920's and it was suggested that an audience receives the information via a media text without challenging what they are seeing and just accept it as reality this is known as the hypodermic needle model.

Post 14 Pre Production Work

location recce was very important so we could have a full understanding of the rooms dynamics and could prepare our selves for when we came to shoot the film. as camera man it was my job to take all the photos of the house so we could take them back to school and put them all together so we all had a clear understating of the house and what factors we had to talk about before the filming day. things like furniture  was important and also where the windows where for lighting purposes .



as the cameraman it was important for me to take all the photos needed so i could take them back to school and think about what factors we need to take into consideration. The positioning of the camera is vital and by taking these images I knew i would be able to work out where the best places would be. when it came to plotting the camera positioning with the director it made my job a lot easier.

the script is obviously very important and though I do not have any acting role in the script it was in vital i no the script and can access it easily to read if i have any problems connected with my camera role.

me and Anton worked closely with the shot list, story boards, camera and lighting positioning. we had to constantly change the script throughout improving it through out due to problems with actually filming certain bits. this portrayed our professionalism becuae we could adapt and work around any problems that we faced.  

costume design is very important because it portrays what the actors look like and what the audience feels about them. for instance if there is a very angry and aggressive person in a film who is supposed to portray fear then it will not make sense for that person to be wearing bright lively, fun colors. so making sure costume design suits the actor is important. as the camera man i need to make sure when I am filming that the costumes are all perfect and I must make sure the costumes are worn consistently  through out filming for continuity reasons.

The story boards were very difficult and required a lot of work. these are vitally important so when we come to film we can refer to our story boards so we know where the shot is who is in it the layout of the room (furniture) and how long the shot is meant to be and also where the camera needs to be positioned. when it comes to filming this will be vitally important.

The story boards are great to have on the film day so we can make sure we do everything correctly and follow the plan that we have been working on months in advance.  

the shot list is one of the most important parts of the filming process. this will lets us know the shot size (long shot, medium long shot, medium shot ect..). it states who is in the shot and gives a brief description of what happens in the shot (who speaks).