Thursday, 22 April 2010

Sunday, 18 April 2010

Audience Feedback Questionnaire Analysis


These are the results and feedback that we received from 20 people about our trailer from the questionnaires we handed out.

1.       The graph shows that the most popular answer, surprisingly was the Variation of shots followed by the narrative as the second most popular answer. This was a surprise to us as we expected the narrative to be the top answer because it is our unique selling point (USP).

The results conveys the point that our variation of shots was an element that our group worked well on, even in the continuity in editing, which is important to show that our trailer  is of good standard.




2. As the pie chart shows, the majority of the audience we asked thought that the non-diegetic sound used in our trailer matched the action on screen. However, only a small few considered that the sound that didn’t sit well with the action on screen.


3.  From the graph above, all of the audience agreed that they could clearly see the effects of the drug taking by the main character Nicole, with various shots used in our trailer conveying the effects the drug has on her.





4.  From the options of the different biopic movies listed above, the most frequent answer of what film does our trailer remind the audience of is Nil by Mouth as it portrays biopic elements with a string narrative but more notably a common ground with our trailer as it shows the effects of drug abuse.




5. The graph portrays that the audience agreed unanimously that our biopic trailer conveyed codes & conventions that are usually found in a biopic for e.g a strong narrative,   sad incidental music to reflect the mood of the character as well extreme close-ups of character’s face which are elements that visible in our teaser trailer.
 

6.  What was bad about our teaser trailer? (Open Question)


The negative points that we received about our teaser trailer was that they would have liked to have seen more on how the main character ended up as a drug addict which is a fair point raised by members of the audience, but however must remember that this is a tease trailer.

7. What could we do to improve our teaser trailer? (Open Question)
The main point that was frequently put forward to the group was by having a wider variation of camera angles as well as more explanation on the story how the main character, Nicole, started to become an addict.
Also, many mentioned that a good idea would be for the narrative to show how nicole obtained the drugs i.e. by drug dealers.
Others points put forward were that whilst the main character was walking on the pavement towards, it could have been screened in black& white & show it as a flashback.
A few enthusiastic people commented in our questionnaire by saying they thought there wasn’t anything bad in our trailer and there was nothing to improve on it!



8.  As you can see from our graph, there was an overwhelming majority in people who would want to watch the whole film having seen our teaser trailer.
They thought that the trailer appealed to them to follow-up their interest in the film so they may know what will eventually happen to the main character because they thought the narrative was intriguing &attention- grabbing, which are the given reasons why they would want to watch the whole film.
The people that said they wouldn’t be interested in watching the film gave reasons such as the genre of the film is not their type i.e. Heroine being a biographical film, although they thought that the trailer was of good standard.

By Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

This questionnaire was created in order to obtain feedback from the audience about our finished trailer.





1.       What did you enjoy most about our teaser trailer? ( Circle your choice)

Variation of shots
Music
The narrative
Continuity in Editing

2.       Did the sound go well with the action on screen? ( Circle your choice)

Yes
No

If no, explain why
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3.       Could you clearly see the effects of the drug taking? ( Circle your choice)

Yes
No


4.       What film does our teaser trailer most remind you of? ( Circle your choice)

Pursuit of Happyness
Transpotting
Nil by mouth
The Wrestler






5.       Did you think the teaser trailer conveyed codes & conventions that you would usually find in a biopic film?
Yes
                No
                If no, what was missing
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6.       What was bad about our teaser trailer?
.........................................................................................................................................
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7.       What could we do to improve in our teaser  trailer?
.........................................................................................................................................
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8.        Having watched our teaser trailer, would you want to watch the whole film?

Yes
No

If no, explain why
.........................................................................................................................................
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By Mohamed Al-Mousawi


Storyboard

This story was created using Micorsoft PowerPont with the each slide with shot details being printed screened.




























 
Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Locations

We shot in 2 main areas in addition to around our school; one of which was a park playground, the other a bedroom.

The bedroom acted as the main setting, with it being the closest practical location similar to the garage in which Bubbles finds himself in my earlier Character Analysis due to the untidiness and off-white coloured walls, the window shown in the picture also allowed us to have the light necessary to shoot effectively.

There were obvious obstacles such as the presence of media devices such as a TV and CD players, but they simply weren't included in the shots.


The second setting we filmed a lot of (although our final cut only included 1 short shot from it) was the playground


 The latter of these photographs is where we set our character, smoking what we tried to portray as illegal substances through a clear pipe. I also felt it would be an interesting concept to situate such harsh subject matter and character in such contrasting scenery of a playground.



 Jamie

Thursday, 18 March 2010

character profiles

Character profiles



Nicole Smallman: Main character, a chronic drug addict coping barely with her feeble excuse of a life. She resembles a skinny trampy looking individual struggling with day to day normalities without her fix!!!

Ruaidhri Sharp: The unforgiving boyfriend once in love but was turned away by her junky ways and slowly gave up on his former love to the extent of taking her money to improve e his own life.

Mark Mayaski
Pictures by Jamie McLynn

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Props

Props

Crack pipe: Was used to symbolise her drug taking and the problems she has her life.

Lines of “coke”: Once again used to symbolise her chronic drug issues.

Spoon with cinnamon burning: used to recreate heroine burning.

Syringe and belt: to show her taking heroin, and her junky ways.

These props were very important to the trailer in symbolising her drug addiction and her poor state of life the trailer would have been very bare without this content. The props being real drug utensils gave the trailer credibility and a professional feel rather than imitating them.

Mark Mayaski

Monday, 15 March 2010

Film Synopsis

Nicole Smallman was an ordinary woman with an ordinary life, however, one day and one man who she was whole heartedly besotted with ruined everything for her, it started out as what seemed to be the perfect relationship. She would have done anything for him and this weakness leads her to a life of drugs and heartbreak. She is in so deep that she feels as if her life could never change for the better and her life is headed for death some way or another so maybe she should just get it over and done with. Can her problems ever end and will someone loyal to her, if there is anyone, come to her rescue.No money, addicted to drugs, no home, no friends, no family and no prospects for improvement, can Nicole turn her life around or will it end before she can find out?

george bridges

Thursday, 4 March 2010

Our Own Magazine Cover and Film Poster

Our magazine took the conventional means of basing information around the portrait photo of an actor/character. The archives of various film magazines highlights that, understandably, the majority of film publications sell their product with a cover featuring the biggest film in terms of potential box office revenue, so accordingly we've had to slightly adapt the concept and present Heroine as such a film, although the genre, concept and style of shooting is far more reminiscent of low-grossing independent films.

I tried to emulate commonly found conventions in film magazines, such as side features based on up and coming actors; "The next De Niro, Nicholson, Jolie and more", and (fictional) director biographies; "Mayaski & McLynn". Such numerous features crammed onto one page attempt to lure a reader into buying the magazine based on appealing to their film-related interests even if the main feature doesn't.


I also obviously designed the magazine to take the same structure as similar publications, with the striking title as the header, a clear portrait photo, clear bold font with the name of the main release that month etc.



The poster is, I think, one of the strongest aspects of our practical work this year. Whilst obviously not being industry standard I think the incorporation of many elements of real-life attributes of film posters heightens the realism and gives it a relatively professional look, albeit with a lack of real knowledge of Photoshop.

The general mood and tone of the film is represented in the dense, dark effect achieved by the desaturated colour from the original image, also the title of the movie will have instant connotations with drugs due to its play-on-words origin.

The Academy Award aspect is just something I thought I'd add because it, if done properly, could heighten the plausibility of the overall poster, adding a further element to enticing the audience. I am aware however that 9 nominations at such prestigious would be perhaps over ambitious for such a film. However I saw the recent acknowledgement by the Academy for similar darkly toned biopics such as The Wrestler and especially Precious in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Magazine Cover Analysis

In order to establish a basis for the design of our magazine cover we looked at covers of two leading film publications in the UK; Empire and Total Film.






The seemingly ever present feature of these film magazine covers, released on a monthly basis, is that the cover is devised from a generic template built around a photo shoot image from the biggest picture in which there is revealing previews or the actual release in that month. The examples here are King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005), Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, 2010), Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) and The Dark Knight (Chris Nolan, 2008) respectively.

The aforementioned template of the magazine, especially these four, follows a simple layout:

  • The Title - At the centre and top of the page in a large print, the title is the first thing that a shopper reads and has its own definitive font. Whether it's due to an already dedicated fanbase or the importance of the film, magazines such as these don't necessarily prioritise the complete clarity of the font, which can be compromised for extended artwork, as shown in all four of these.
  • Other Fonts - The main font advertising the film is, in these instances at least, synonymous with the character or film depicted. The 'Joker' font is rigid, messy and sharp; representative of his character. The 'King Kong' font is simply blocky and bold (both in literal terms and terms of colour). The '2010 Preview' font is slyly representative of Depp's Mad Hatter, and the 'Iron Man 2' font's blue outline provides a metallic-style element.
  • The Features - Usually to the left or right of the cover to emphasise the photograph. In covers such as the first, there will be a prolonged feature (in one of these cases the winter preview) and more including interviews and articles that are contrastingly typed on the other side.
  • The Header and Footer - Another oppurtunity to cram information of the issue into the public perception. This content can vary between reviews of lesser films, previews and/or magazine giveaways.
  • The Picture - For the most part, images are of instantly recognisable characters, with the picture sometimes being a mid shot but usually a close up portrait.
Jamie

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Film Poster Analysis




The Firm poster to promote the film shows the main characters and then there backing with there so called “Firm”. It sets out straight away to give the viewing public how it’s going to be, the casts dress and demeana tells of a light hearted footy film with the occasional comedy element. I personally get this from the colourful colours of there clothes then the black and white faces show the darker side of the film the hidden element behind the cheeky chappy persona that you are originally confronted with. The big blue and white writing incorporated with the dress of the characters immediately gives the impression that it is set in the past. The layout of the poster and the position of the characters show the hierachy and the main characters within the film the top boy of the firm the bloke dressed in red shows his character as a hardy chap with his fist clenched closed and his mean looking walk.
This film poster relates to our biopic as it is about one mans anger and revenge against an oppsoing firm and shows his story through the flm and also the young lad who gets caught up in the firm but then decides to change his ways. These are both very strong stories which show big changes in the characters lives, which is evident in all biopics.
The advantage this gives us by analysing this poster is the amount of ideas we can get for our own poster and how to accomodate our ideas of the film into a advertsing campaign.

Mark Mayaski












The biopic film that I chose to analyse in order to obtain ideas as to how create our own film poster with biopic elements is The Pursuit of Happyness.



By Mohamed Al-Mousawi

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Character Analysis




In an attempt to increase genuinity of our trailer, I felt it would benefit to take inspiration from suitable characters in previous series or films I've seen, none more so than Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins, played by Andre Royo in the HBO series The Wire. Bubbles sub-plot is that of somebody struggling against their addiction to heroin; living in abandoned houses and making money off selling scrap metal and informant work for the Baltimore Police Department.

The performance of Bubbles is an incredibly vivid and true-to-life depiction of homeless drug addicts in the projects of America, with his character development (something the critically acclaimed Wire is famous for) astounding over the course of 5 series. Whilst such detailed development obviously won't be possible in our trailer, I felt obliged to look more at the character and have identified and analysed some helpful scenes which are available to me on Youtube, as well as the 5 seasons of the show in its entirety, which should be beneficial towards our representation of a similar character.





I see the first of these two as the scene we can get the most from as, although all the clips represent the hardships of leading the life Bubbles does, this one exceeds in it. The beating is graphic yet realistic and comes about simply as a result of being in the wrong place in the wrong time. The mise-en-scene represents the sort of location we need to look for aswell, with Bubbles' temporary squat being basically a desolate, run down garage with a mattress.

The second is much the same in that it just shows Bubbles' daily struggle, but differs in that he's even dismissed by the authority to serve and protect. Again the confrontation with the initial perpetrator is realistic and shot well.



In this scene Detective Sydnor is displaying the mock up junkie-attire that he'll be wearing whilst going undercover, with Bubbles giving feedback on its genuinity. Whilst most of the dialogue of this scene is that of the detectives, it's contributed greatly to how we're going to dress our actress.

Jamie