A2 Coursework Evaluation

This link goes to the blogger account which I have presented and created for my final coursework evaluation: http://la2media.blogspot.co.uk/

Planning for Evaluation using VoiceThread

To begin with using VoiceThread for the first time, I decided to use a stage of my film processing work that I've already completed. This is the poster analysis test run for using VoiceThread.

The stages are easy to follow, making all work completed in rapid succession. After uploading any form media, you can record video footage, audio files, and textual description to follow a presentation.

Planning for evaluation Understanding the use of VoiceThread

For my evaluation, I have decided to take advantage of an online software called VoceThread.com. It will enable me to utilize verbal communication when commentating on my products and presentations on display, whether that's my short film or my initial storyboard renderings.

Ancillary product 1 Magazine Article - Hardware

This is my final magazine article for a brief review on my short film: Hardware. The article includes information on other relative films that I have researched for my project, and included still frames and photographic evidence of my film, as other magazines that I have reviewed, have also done.

The article is on page 7, actine traditionally as a main article for a film magazine, it's placed early within the magazine as its importance is above all other stories and advertisements. I Included references to actors and people who aided in my film's production. The article's typography, pictures, fonts, and colours flow well together as a bondage for a film review.

Hardware magazine review (version 1)

This is version 1 of my magazine article

. I have started to create a straight forward response to an imagined journalist reviewing aspects of my short film that seems hard to understand, and being simplified as a basic response from a person who has no idea what my film is, or what it's about.

This is a single page spread, as an ideal understanding for my film, kept short and simple, making it easily readable, as my audience would be young adults with access to more media than anyone else, this would have to grab their attention, and show interest from a popular film magazine.

I started to reference other films that I studied for my product, stating that they're similar and should be watched by my proposed audience.

The tagline "Prepare to be manipulated" isn't perfect though, as it doesn't completely grab the attention of the reader. It will have to have to be changed to sound more appropriate, but still remain definitive to the sci-fi genre.

The complete review will contain more information on the film, and the cast & crew who helped create the film, along with information on the relaese date, other big news stories and a verdict.

Magazine Research and Planning

To go alongside virally releasing my short film, I will be producing a poster suitable for the film, and a magazine article which reviews the film, written by me as a random journalist. I have analyzed many magazine articles, and those of which I have analyzed, I will highlight on my blog posts in photographic displays. Both of these tools will help mend any situations made by my short film, such as; explaining in detail, all of the characters and their backgrounds, and my proposed ideas that could be explained in more depth. This Informal magazine article video review will be explained in more detail, once I have researched magazine articles in more detail, I will give more of a formal response to the comparative texts. The image below is photographic evidence of the magazine Total Film, laid out on a Sci-fi Action film review, that correlates to my short film.

The double page spread of the image makes it obvious what the magazine is reviewing, as well as the big-font titles in contrast to the white pages. The columns of text with small key phrases highlighted are extremely easy to read, with coursed text leaving huge gaps between wording and paragraphs. All of the release information, certificates, and associations for the actors, directors and distributors are accounted for in its general information sector, directly underneath the tag-line for the review.

Empire & Total Film overview

This is a brief overview of how I analysed information from two different film magazines and their leading film articles based on their front cover's initial advertisement. 

Empire & Total Film magazine overview from Luke Anderson on Vimeo.

Ancillary product 2 Final Poster Design

I have created a teaser poster for my short film "Hardware", which presents a single prop piece (being the goggles worn by the antagonist), and a hand cradling the goggles which is distorted (representing a dystopian resembelence, showing sci-fi).

The actors names and credits are written in bold-black text to contrast to the image's background. The title is in contrast to all of the subjects in the image, and boldly presents the key genre of sci-fi with the distorted colours and shapes within each letter. The text at the bottom shows "21122012" which represents the 21st of December 2012, which was the proposed date of doomsady, which I've input into my teaser poster, and the text along the right makes no sense, because it displays an error, justifying that doomsday was wrong, until the english text mentions "both of them", which implies that there's more than one world.

Ideal Poster Choices

I have taken many photographs that I have decided would be best suited for a teaser poster. I have chosen to design a teaser poster, as I would like to have no specific contents revealed until my audience has seen the film. I will provide small hints into my plot, and I shall display the key genres of action and sci-fi, to convey into my poster. 

I experimented with abstract portraits of one of the props used within my film, as I believe it has an iconic display for the antagonist character, I have photographed only the goggles, with minor technical references. One of these images will be converted into a final theatrical poster.

Looper Poster Analysis

This is an analysis presentation for posters produced for advertising the film LOOPER, for its initial cinema release. 

Construction Final Film Product - HARDWARE

Hardware from Luke Anderson on Vimeo.
This is the final draft for my short film, titled: HARDWARE. The film conveys the action and sci-fi genres as one combination throughout. The film centers around one character, who lives on a more hostile planet, that's parallel to our own. The origin of this film was adapted from the theory of Domesday, and how past portrayals of the worldly apocalypse would play for Earth. But the main character "Johnathan Stanston" has realization of our world and his own, existing together, and being both, accessible, through black holes. The message from this film, is to explain how the apocalypse may have already happened, not necessarily on our planet however, but on one that's extremely familiar.

Film editing - video evidence

This short video shows my involvement in the editing of my short film "Hardware". This video classes me as the prime editor for my film, and entitles my work to be genuine.
Film editing from Luke Anderson on Vimeo.
Post-Production and editing with Apple Mac, on I-Movie HD.

Inspirations for Poster Ideas

I have selected a variation of posters and downloaded them from the internet to analyse for an online presentation. These posters are directly referenced to the filmmakers, and are parts of the initial marketing campaigns.

As the film describes itself, this is Looper, a sci-fi film made with 2 actors globally known, some by epic action films, and some by teen romantic comedies. This poster consists of plenty of information, such as; tag-lines, actors names, and distribution logos and information. The linear gradient of the background is plain, yet effective in presenting contrasting figures.

Poster analysis

For my short film, I will be self-generating a poster for an exhibited advertisement (to be exhbitibed both virally and within public structures) to go alongside my presentation. The poster will display my key genres for Action & Sci-fi. Action means that I will have to design/capture an image that shows movement, or a sense of fast pace with fierce facial expressions and a providence of props. Sci-fi may mean that I'll have to include a dark sense of lighting with rays travelling across the image, and props that will conceal the bodies of my actors within the photo, that would seem futuristic/ unnatural.

Some of my poster research includes films relatively similar to my genre selections: Looper, Ghost in the Shell, District 9 and The Terminator. The presentation below demonstrates the key aspects to analyse for a film poster.

This poster anlysis doesn't explain which type of poster this is however. There are three types of poster catergorising that this poster could belong to. There is:

• Teaser - This will be the most basic. It won't reveal much of the plot, but may have picture of the stars and the title.
• Main Theatrical - This will include infromation on the production crew, the stars, and the distributors.
• DVD Release - This will contain the same content as the Main Theatrical poster, with both positive line reviews and relevant publications.
• Genre Identification - Props, costumes, etc... That will include images relevant to the genre. An Action film would include guns and/or explosions. Whereas a a Sci-Fi would display alien/futuristic effects within the image.
• Character - This will display the lead actor/actress.

These elements are vital in the creations of film posters. But there also other elements that can be deciphered within the poster, such as; key settings for the film and main characters, clues to the narrative, colours, and layout, with written textual displays and unique selling points which shows how it differs from other films.

I will have to include some of these elements to display my poster for the film critique.

Location (Ariel) shots of my scenes

Below are 2 aerial shots of my conventional locations for post-modern, sci-fi scenes. Greatfully accepted for the genre. The city itself is mixed with rural and urban structures spread around the neibourhoods, making some exterior shots especially grand for hiding the main characters from the cityscape.

                                          The county of Norfolk with Norwich in dead centre.

This is a zoomed shot of the vast outskirt landscape of Sprowston, that surrounds the city centre in a plush rural location worthy for a character to be hiding away from.

Below, the 2 aerial shots, are another 2 street view shots of my proposed filming locations, as well as them being the actual scenes. I thought of only noting these 2, so I wanted to recreate the scenes, it would be easy to reenact without major changes.

These areas are both full of natural and man made elements which provide the consistency needed to establish a rural cityscape.

Film editing ideas

Throughout the course of which my film plays, I've had some ideas on visualisng different styles for it. As it is a Post-Modern concept, I have the upper hand on playing wih the genres.

• One concept I noticed on several media products is the use of placing big, bold keywords as the film plays. Examples of this includes films such as:

Scott Pilgrim vs. the world - This film is created to look exactly like pages from a graphic novel. So keywords and images are displayed to show understanding for the audience about small subjects that are hinted at briefly.

• A huge amount of films use "after effects", especially for filters to change the films images from bright to dull. My film, if any filters were to be included, woud be presented with saturated colours, to appear dusky. An example of good filtering would be:

The Matrix - When in the computer world within the Matrix, the entire film gets a slight green tint. And when in the real world, it returns to default. Therefore it establishes where and what the characters within the film are up to, and you will always be infromed what world they are in.

These are just ideas that I'm concucting, I may not neccessarily come back to these ideas, as they may have disastrous effects on my film.

Prop still images

These are some images of my signature props and costuming pieces to be used for my illustrated characters within my film:

These cyberpunk goggles will establish eye augmentations for the Drone/antagonist within my film. A possible first person camera view seems good to use while showing a HeadsUp-Display, so that the audience will recognise whose eyes they're seeing through.

This respiratory mask is also for the drone, and will be placed to cover the nose and mouth as a breathing apparatus. I specifically required this prop so that most of the face for the character will not be recognisable, and will show how society has transformed horrifically.

This head scarf is able to cover the nose and mouth for the protagonist "Jonathan Stanston", to conceal his identity from the public. This scarf will show how the character makes simple decisions to hide from bad events.

Both characters will be wearing casual clothing that the actors would wear on a daily basis. Since this will be specific for the winer season, both characters will be costumed with over-coats, jumpers, etc...

Storyboard for film

This is the final storyboard for my film. With stage directions and transition labels.

Key: Standard fonts contains camera angle(s) and visual display(s).

         Fonts within brackets contains transition(s).
This presentation was uploaded with Speakerdeck.com, and made with Microsoft Powerpoint 2010.

Filming (Voice Recording) - 06/11/2012

I now have all visual clips ready for editing. And now I just have to cover the audio track over the video, for there to be any narrative given for my film. I recored with my 2 actors either side of the microphone in a quiet space and prepared the scripts in front of them on a computer monitor. There were a few minor hiccups during recording, but the necessary clips have been created. I recorded 30 clips in order, which took longer than predicted, and some lines were read not up to standard, so plenty of repetitions were made.

Filming - 03/11/2012

I already have my most detailed section filmed and prepared for editing, so the 2nd part of my filming would have to be for establishing shots of the city itself. For this to work as I imagine it, I would have to travel to the city centre, and capture aspects of; tall buildings, crowds of people, and urban lighting.
I captured 29 scenic shots for detailing the city area. Most shots were taken around the Norwich castle, which stands at the very centre of the city, with huge city landscapes in every direction.                               The next step would be to record dialogue and a narration for my city landscapes montage.