Finished Movie

There seems to be a problem at the beginning of our film, the grey background is supposed to be black, this is a technical fault as it was black when we first exported and uploaded it.

Finished Magazine Review.

This is the finished look of the review, I feel that the colour scheme compliments each other and that the layout looks professional. The layout of the writing is professional as well as neat which gives the reader an easy read as well as a an eye catching view. The layout of the quotes and extra information is also effective with its neat layout and its clear representation. The band at the bottom of the page with the star ratings is also something different to other magazines however its a neat and effective way of showing them as its close to the end star rating in the article. Although the top right hand corner is bare with only the month and year it doesn't look like it needs something, although we tried to add and move around our information boxes we felt that it looked better the way we have it. Another decision that the group wasn't sure about is the black line graphics on the right hand page and under the title on the left. We felt that they added a stylish and professional look to the article as well as splitting up information blocks. The title of the movie is an unattractive font in comparison to the magazine title however it doe's look bold and eye catching which in turn is more important to capture the readers attention. The colour of the red which also matches Harri's shirt also look eye catching and connote the themes of the movie. The layout of the photo was changed numerous times depending on the layout of the writing, one we had decided the L shape for the writing we decided that the photo had to be a large focus of the review, having it further up also is also eye catching as its not straight bang in the middle which is captivating to the reader. The font of the actual article is also clear and easy to read, this is a big part of the article as if people aren't able to read it easy then they won't bother.

I feel that our articles layout and conventions are all stereotypical of a magazine review as well as an affective and attractive looking article that looks professional. I feel that it would attract the stereotypical audience of males and film fanatics. It gives a clear representation of the movie, the article itself is also a positive outlook on the movie that would attract the reader to then watch the movie.

The Article -

If the moving picture industry were likened to a jungle, the feature film would be the tree top canopy, bathed in the sunlight all day, every day. Television productions would inhabit the middle layer, with some shoots emerging through, but most being overshadowed by the much larger feature films. Short films would then naturally be the forest floor, sentenced to a life of obscurity away from the light, in the dirt. However, every once in a while, a diamond is found in that dirt. ‘At First Sight’ is that diamond.

The first few moments of the film are surprisingly quite cliched and generic, girl meets boy, their relationship flourishes, girl falls in love with boy. Short films have forever been criticised for their lack of story development, given the time constraints, one can understand why this problem has plagued the industry. ‘At First Sight’ however, manages to develop a relationship between two people within mere seconds in a highly believable and, at times, heart-warming manner. It is a credit to the scriptwriter’s work that they have achieved in one minute, what most generic romance films crawl through in an hour.

From here on, ‘At First Sight’ starts to pick up pace very quickly, culminating in a gripping and intense plot twist. We, at KingdomFilmsÔ, are avid film viewers, to the point of which very few films nowadays bring any refreshing and original plot turns that we have not seen before. The plot twist in ‘At First Sight’ however, will shock even the most seasoned cinema go-er. For saving the integrity of the film and one’s viewing experience, we refuse to digress more information about the plot.

Unfortunately, like most diamonds, ‘At First Sight’ does have its imperfections. Not to detract anything from the production crew, a collective of three Media students, because how they managed to put together such a quaint and professional piece of art, on a shoestring budget, is nothing short of astounding. But the lack of financial investment is quite clear in some scenes, with poor lighting being rife throughout the scenes set at night. Often causing some confusion as to what is exactly happening at times. The blemishes on this diamond could be polished quite easily, if that polish came in the form of a deep wallet. Then there would be very little for our critical minds to gripe with.

And so, as we go back to the jungle that is the moving picture industry we have to say, regretfully, that ‘At First Sight’ will undoubtedly stay on the forest floor undiscovered of the critical acclaim that it deserves. However, for the sapling students that produced this masterpiece, we can envisage them shooting to the higher echelons of the moving picture industry. We would recommend ‘At First Sight’ to anyone and everyone, for it is not so much a short film, but an experience.

Magazine Review Conventions

During the production of our magazine review we decided that we wanted to show the conventions of the stereotypical magazine article, firstly we needed to chose a title for the magazine, Harri decided on Kingdom Films which sounds professional and realistic, we then decided to header the review to make it clear it was a short film, as most of the film magazines focus mainly on feature films, "short film corner' is a catchy and effective caption for the heading. Secondly we needed to chose a colour scheme for the review we decided to have a bright blue, we wanted the font of the title to be bold and 'technical' looking due to it aiming more at men than women. This is the first image we had of the title that is in the top left hand corner of the magazine review.

However once we had added this to the review we decided that we actually could have it red to connote the love and romance theme of the film as well as the danger,so we decided to have a deeper red instead of having a bright red.

The red colour also looks very fitting to the photograph that we have chosen, it matches the shirt that Harri is working but also looks very professional as it all fits together. This photo that we have chosen connotes the relationship between the two characters

Another typical convention of a magazine review is the ratings that the writer gives the movie, we decided in stead of putting these at the top of the right hand side page we had them at the bottom across both pages to add a bit of structure to the review as well as use it to display the information clearly.

This is the top right hand corner of the article with the date in a clear blue font that looks professional and the graphic of a black line with a slight fade that goes from the slogan ' short film corner' to the end of the right hand page. This looks professional and breaks up the page a bit more to look more professional and formal.

The layout of the writing is designed like a stereotypical review, it is formal and neat as well as all measured the same, we felt that this was meant the focus on the image was also made aware because the text wraps around it. The article also has an attractive look as it is all layerd out in a professional fashion.

The information box is also a very important convention of the magazine article review, it consists of the important information that people wants to know first. We first had it included in the blue theme before we decided we wanted it to look more formal, it was placed in the right hand corner of the right page. With some deliberation we decided to change this to a black formal font and to have it in bold font as well. We also then added another graphic line with a deep fade to section it off from the title. It fits and looks neat as well as professional.

Every article that we had reviewed had a quote from the review in a larger coloured text box that was effective and stood out. The colour again fitted our colour scheme and looked formal and professional. We chose the quote well because it was an eye catching quote.

This is the smaller quote that we have used to integrate in to the image, it looks neat and clear with the blue font and white background. Its position in the right bottom hand corner is also clear and professional.

This is the last part of the written article with the verdict of five stars (*****) it gives a clear indication to the reviews main feature of being an excellent film. It also looks professional and neat at the end of the text.

Finishing Touches To Film Before Music.

This is the final edit that we had after we added titles and credits however once we were watching it back we felt that it needed to be tweaked again and there were a few things that we decided that we wanted to change. We felt that the beginning of the movie starts to abruptly and that we needed to have a production company introduction instead of the actual film starting. Our production names are 'Oakgrove Film Network' and 'LoveLifeFilm' which would appear on the the screen before the names of the actors however as we placed them in the right hand lower corner of when Megan is getting in to the bed we felt that the start of the movie starts to abruptly and we wanted it to have a different starting to ensure that the audience are eased in to the movie. So instead of overlapping the production names and the footage we decided to fade them in and out on a black background at the start of the movie. We had them in a white formal font which focused in and then out after 3 seconds, we then added a fade before the movie actually started, we felt that this gave the movie a more professional appearance.

We then decided that the first shot of Megan getting in to bed was then bare as the names started when they were walking so we moved the 'Megan Towers' to when the zoom in and close up of her face comes up in the bed and then we added a shot of Harri standing at the river side lighting a cigarette after the fade to bring up his name. We moved both the names to the left hand lower corner and then changed the italic font to a formal font which again looked more professional.

Whilst we were watching the movie through we decided that a few scenes needed to be changed, the scene when they walk in to the room for their anniversary there is a few seconds when the two are standing awkwardly and it creates an uncomfortable shot so we have cut it as far as we can without looking strange or disturbing the dialogue. Another part we felt was disorientated was the way that when she is looking in the mirror in the bathroom it then cuts to her coming back up however the camera has moved from the first to the second shot and it doesn't look smooth. We decided to remove the first shot of her looking in the mirror so that it flows smoother from the shot of her turning the tap on to looking up and the audience then seeing the bruise. Another problem that we noticed was the sound in the last fight scene shot where you see Megan running away still had the background sound in which isn't meant to be there and it meant to be sound effects instead.

The last part we needed to edit was the second to last scene when Megan is getting out of the bed because it is to long and doesn't add to the story until she places her necklace on the pillow. However because we had the credits running through this part we had to change the end credits. However we didn't want to have the last shot to be Harri so to add depth we had a close up shot of the necklace. We now have them over a black background at the end that fade in and out again this looked more effective and professional. We added scrolling credits for the rest of the information but then we felt that they didn't add much to the professional and serious look that we were wanting so we had the producer logo at the end which is LoveLifeFilm.

After we had the credits sorted and the production label finished we feel that the movie is ready to have the music added.

Magazine Review Analysis

Empire magazine has been focusing on reviewing and distributing movie information since 1989, unlike other film magazines it isn't as serious and formal but instead with its focus on telling the audience the information they need to have an over view of the film.Empiresaudience consists largely of males as well as film fanatics who are wanting as much understandable information as possible as well as photos for visual purposes.

This article is very much orientated around the photo which is large and bold but also very relevant to the movies setting. The font is small and plain black to be easily read off the page and the blue and yellow colour scheme is also very simple but eye catching and the same through out each page.

The title isn't as large or bold but it is integrated over the photo and under the title is the information about the movie such as director, released, certificate, running time and plot. This is important for people who want short quick information of a film to see if it would be worth watching for their own reference.

Quotes around the page have been made in to bold with colour font and background to stand out against the photo which they also overlap. It is a very precise quote that has been taken from the review that sums up the movie in a positive light.

The LOOK CLOSER part of the photo gives facts that the film wouldn't have told you before and gives 'secret' information to the audience to further their knowledge of the film. The bold yellow that contrasts with the photo and then is stands out which makes it eye catching in the page.

The key to the ratings run across the top of the photo in a small font and at the end of the article which relates to the ending of the article.

The verdict is the full opinion of the writer and the rating of it is also at the bottom.

The article itself is full of puns and jokes that are used throughout the article to entertain the readers but they don't distract from the seriousness of the films plot. The plot is laid out throughout the article to introduce characters and themes aswell as gives the writers opinions and feelings from watching the movie. The article also has quotes from actors and directors from the film that show their opinions and feelings towards the movie, it gives a positive review of the movie to enocourage people to watch it themselves. Techniques such as rhetorical questions and jokes are used to keep the readers attention throughout the article.

Finished Movie Poster

The poster feedback that I got after uploading them all on to Face Book to see the range of comments that we got was interesting to see how people felt towards each one, some felt that we needed a punch line or slogan to add to the poster to capture the plot of the movie as well as create the theme of it. We decided that we needed something romantic to attract the audience that we were aiming at, 'all great loves come to an end' and 'young love is the most dangerous' were some that we had thought of before deciding on -
'every great love starts at first sight'
we felt that we weren't give to much of the movie theme away but we were suggesting that there may be a twist in the plot.
We also needed to add the 12 certificate which we felt placing the movie as a 12 was the best as it did involve very important and violent issues but it also was appropriate as it didn't have so much violence and 'gory' images.
I also made the image portrait to conform to the typical layout of a movie poster which is easier to display and more pleasing on the eye.
This is the finished image for the movie poster...



I feel that the lighting and the contrast between the background and the focus of the characters embracing is very effective, because they are shaded in black and white it create the effect that they are more important and have a large focal point. It also creates the idea that something bad happens to each of them because the black and white connotes a very dark and negative view. The positioning of the characters within the image is effective because its eye catching and as they aren't in the middle it creates the pleasing effect. The layout of the writing is also effective because it shows well through the bright background and its easy readable. Although the photo is grainy and not very focused it was the best photo to use because of what is happening in the image it connotes love and romance which is a key theme in the film, which contrasts with the black and white.