Magazine review - layout plan

This is the basic layout for my magazine review, which will be a double page spread of multiple reviews. I looked mostly at 'Empire' magazine and 'Film' magazine for layouts, and I noticed the biggest difference between short film reviews and feature length reviews is the length of the review. Which is why the space for writing is so small. I also noticed that there was mostly no correllation betweenthe main film being reviewed and the adverts for films in the cinema or reviews of other films, other than maybe actorsor genre, general things that would appeal to those interested in the main article. It's from this I decided to review 'Traffic Warden' and 'Sorry I'm late', and if I have space for another 'For My Blossom'.
I can't sort out the photos or the main review until all filming and editing is finished so I can get screenshots or stills, though I can write out the shorter reviews of actual short films (of the same, childish, family genre). Also, I can do the smaller parts of the review, e.g. basic plotline, film details etc.
I'll have to find styles, fonts and colour schemes too, I'm thinking of light colours to fit the genre of the film without using pink or blue, to make it clear that the film isn't aimed at males or females specifically, and I'd choose more rounded fonts (as opposed to the more square, harsh-looking fonts which would look out of place).

Magazine review - research piece

To make a magazine review, I decided to look at other film review articles. As I couldn't find a short film review article, I used a feature film article as a basic idea. (The boxes contain little notes about some aspects of the article, click the image to make it bigger)

Although, this clearly isn't the genre of film I want to use, or a short film, though the basic layout will be very useful, in creating my magazine review.

Magazine review

So, the other ancillary task (other than the poster) is a magazine review. I'll have to find magazine reviews for short films, the type of magazine, find an audience appropriate magazine, and how it's set out. I'll also have to see what programme to use, I've never used photoshop (successfully, anyway), so I'll have to find a programme which will look like a magazine article, and upload to the blog.

Poster

I know that it's unconventional to have so much blank space on a poster, and so I tried to fill it out, using the little tear-off tabs sometimes at the bottom of missing posters, with details written on them. I decided to have 'Missing' and then the fake website which would further advertise the film, whilst still having the look of a poster. I'll upload this finished product when I'ts finished, and I've decided if it looks better or not.

Distribution

As there'll be a radio advert for my short film, I'd need to think about where people would find my film. Most short films are found either on Youtubes (Many are posted after short film festivals) or on specialised websites, or sections of bigger websites devoted to short films, such as the BBC Film Network short film section. So I think my short film would be on the internet, and maybe have its own website (Like 'Sorry I'm Late'). That way the advert could say something like "Missing. The new short film by Lyndsay Essex. Find it on www.missing-shortfilm.com." There is a problem however, as it is more of a silent film, there will be no voice clips available, so I'll have to think of a way around this, and use the background music from the film in the advert.

I had a rethink since writing this, and I thought that my target audience wouldn't be people who would listen to the radio, my target audience being young adults and teenagers. So I decided to change my ancillary task from a poster and a radio advert to a poster and magazine review.

Coding schedule analysis

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The Coding schedule I made was supposed to evaluate short films by sorting how short films differ, using genre, number of characters, the use of music and diagetic sound.

This means I can compare my film plans against other short films, to make sure the style, storyline and genre fit and work together.Only 2 of the films are less than 5 minutes, and so these examples are the most useful. However the longest, 'Traffic Warden' is the right genre and was a major influence (see first post).


'Test' is the wrong genre, I labelled it as 'drama', and whilst it is in the time limit it is quite violent and dark, the complete opposite of my planned film.


'Sorry I'm late' would work as it is the right genre and within the time limit, but it is a stop motion, I am only using stop motion for the opening titles.

Questionnaire results

Results of 5 returned questionnaires:

1.       2 under 16s, 3 16-30

2.       2 female, 3 male

3.       2 yes, 3 no

4.       Either no reason, not interested, or never heard of any
5.       3 4-6 minutes, 1 7-9 minutes, 1 10 minutes or over

6.       2 with speech, 3 silent

7.       3 comedy, 1 action and 1 animated

8.       4 solid ending, 1 cliff hanger

Question 1 - This shows the questionnaires were aimed at the correct target audience my short film is aimed at. This will enable me to see the preferred film specifics of my target audience.

Question 2 - I originally handed out 10 questionnaires (5 to females, 5 to males), but only 5 were returned. However the returned few were still a mix and so the results should produce valid results.

Question 3 - I chose this question to try to find out how wide the audience for short films is, though obviously only handing out 10 questionnaires wouldn't have brought back representative results. Only 2 out of the 5 people had seen a short film, which shows the audience for short films to be quite small.

Question 4 - I asked if there was a reason they hadn't seen a short film, they said either no reason, not interested, or never heard of any. This shows that short films aren't as publicised as full length films, which could be a major factor in why short films aren't as popular. After speaking with the person who answered 'no reason', I was told that they had heard of some, but only the titles, and so had no idea of what they were about or where to find them, which fits in again with their lack of publicity.

Question 5 - 3 people chose 4-6 minutes, which works due to the fact the limit for the short film is 5 minutes. If I rewrote the questionnaire, I'd change this question, as I think putting a question about length it pointless when there's a set limit. I'd possibly ask the question about prefered story lines (using general examples) or ask about my storyline, and get a rating and a written opinion, or different 'check-box' options.

Question 6 - 2 People said they preferred speech in short films over silent. As silent is the more popular, though people do want speech, I have decided to have no scripted speech and background music, though keep in background sound from filming, so that diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are merged together.

Question 7 - The most popular option was comedy, and so I'll try to incorporate some funny parts into it. Action and animation both got a 'vote', however, as this is only an A level piece, I don't have the budget, software or knowledge to make an animated film, though it would work with the storyline, an action film has the same problems, though wouldn't suit the genre.

Question 8 - More people wanted a solid ending, which works to my advantage, as a cliffhanger would probably need a sequel. In my experience, people don't like single films which end on a cliffhanger, as audience members want to know what happens to the characters, how/if the storyline ends, etc. I found this when I went to see 'The Golden Compass', whist it's a full length film, many people outside of the cinema screen were complaining about the ending.