Magazine Spread Deconstructions

This is an example of a magazine spread. Most of the spread consists of stills in the film, as well as behind the scenes images. In the pictures we see primary characters, as well as primary props from the film. The whole thing is dominated by promotional images, and I will reflect this by including many stills from shooting and from the final product itself. There is some boxes including highlighted quotes from the text which I quite like the look of, and might include something similar in my final piece to bring the reader's attention to specific pieces of information. There is also something to the left related to another film, which appears to be a frequent piece in the magazine which is something I will think about incorporating into my final product.

In this spread, it seems again that it is primarily dominated by movie stills. This is likely to make the large spread more digestible for the reader. The piece seems primarily concerned with providing teasers to the audience, in an attempt to draw them into seeing the film. It provides small pieces of information, and large stills from the films showing various characters and shot types, providing a range of different thoughts as to what this film may be like. 

This spread, from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is the same. Most of the spread is image and a smaller portion is text. Again, I believe this is to generate hype for the film in a way that is considered quite digestible. This is not supposed to be an informative piece, but more of an advertisement.

Throughout this deconstructions, I have found that they are all dominated by images to make the article more digestible to the audiences. I believe this to be quite patronising to the audience, and I am going to try and avoid this by having equal parts images and interesting information about the film in my magazine spread. 

Audience (Survey)

As part of my audience research, I created a survey which I handed out to students to fill in. Here are the results from all 10 surveys:

Age Survey

Finding out if people watch short films

Finding out where people watch Short Films, if they do at all

Finding out what people's favourite genre are

Through these findings, I know now that there is a market for my short comedy film. Most people seem to prefer YouTube for accessing said films, and that is where I will upload my film when it is finished.

I also found out that these are particularly present in an age group of 15-20 due to the fact that they were the majority and these were my findings. I believe this age group to be my target audience as this film is about people who struggle with themselves and their identity as well as relationship issues. Because of this, late teens/early twenty's are my primary target audience - both male and female. I believe this is an age group that would identify most with the characters and their story.

'The Simpsons Movie' Trailer

As part of my practice using Adobe Premiere and working to specific formats, I created a trailer for The Simpsons Movie using a few provided clips and some royalty free music and sound effects. The trailer can be viewed below:

Filming Practice

As further practice for using the cameras, me and some friends made a very short film following a scenario set to us by my lecturer. This can be viewed, on my friends YouTube account due to formatting issues, here.

Shot Types

Along with some fellow students, I made a short film demonstrating various shot types. This can be seen below:

Overall, I do not feel this will be useful to my final product considering the style I'm going for, but it has been useful to experiment a bit with them, and help refine what I want to go for with my piece.

Time Management

Coming to the end of my first half term, I am evaluating how I feel I am progressing.

I feel I am progressing steadily, with over half of my work done for the blog. I have all of my actors ready to go for filming in the next two weeks, and everything is prepped for the filming. I feel ready to begin as soon as I am able to, and when I have finished filming, I feel like I have adequate time to edit my film together and complete my blog.

Film Storyboards

These are the completed storyboards for my film. I will take these with me on set and constantly refer to them. Any deviation from them will be noted in my final evaluation.

Finished Script

Here is my finished script for my piece:

‘Lecture’

A Short Film.

Written by Connor Woods.

1.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with MICHEAL. The teacher. He looks happy.]

MICHEAL

Look at you or the camer… you? Right. My name’s Micheal. I teach Media Production here at the community centre to 18 plus students. They’re good people… mostly anyways. What? Oh. I live on my own, got a gorgeous girlfriend, ya know… Life’s pretty damn good right now.

FADE TO BLACK.

CUT TO:

2.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[The next day. Interview with MICHEAL. He’s been crying. A lot.]

MICHEAL

So some stuff has happened. My girlfriend has left me. My old dog’s been put down. My dad has cancer. I’m gonna… gonna go to class.

CUT TO:

3.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[All of MICHEAL’S class are here, WILL, LUCY, JIM, and ANDY, along with his student teacher, RACHAEL. ANDY is smiling at the camera, trying to get some face time, but being ignored. Jim is egging him on. The camera is focused in on Will and Lucy who are having an inaudible conversation. There’s clearly some chemistry there. Micheal walks in, clearly still not fit to teach. He sits down, takes his coat off, looks around, then walks out.]

MICHEAL

You take them Rach. I can’t.

4.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with RACHAEL.]

RACHAEL

I’m Rachael. The student teacher. I like running, Pitch Perfect… and Greggs. Hm? What? Andy? Well… I think he proper fancies me… who wouldn’t? But I have a bit of a thing for Micheal. Don’t tell him!

[During that speech, we cut to a shot of ANDY hitting on Rachael, and her looking rather disgusted. The camera then pans over to WILL, who looks straight at the camera, emotionless.]

CUT TO:

5.

[Interview with WILL.]

WILL

Andy. What a great guy. Love him.

INTERVIEWER

What do you think of Lucy?

WILL [Embarrassed]

Oh? Erm…

CUT TO:

[LUCY is working, taking a few notes.]

WILL [V.O]

She’s a very lovely lady?

CUT TO:

6.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY

[Interview with Lucy.]

LUCY

So… I’m friends with Micheal’s, now ex, girlfriend. I know she left him, that has to be why he’s like this. I’ve got a plan though.

[Lucy smiles cheekily, obviously planning something.]

CUT TO:

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Lucy is gathering the class up, into a huddled group to discuss this plan.]

CUT TO:

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with Lucy.]

LUCY

So… we’re gonna get Mike and Rach alone. Maybe… ya know… get him a rebound? I know she likes him, so why not?

CUT TO:

7.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[RACHAEL is sat in a room, alone. She looks a bit anxious. MICHEAL walks in, still looking down.]

MICHEAL

Hey, Rach. Lucy said you wanted to see me?

[Rachael ushers the ‘cameras’ out of the room and closes the door. They film through the window in the door.]

RACHAEL

Yeah, erm… I know why you left me to teach this morning. Your girlfriend left you… I’m sorry to hear that.

[She moves closer to him as he starts to break down a bit.]

MICHEAL

Oh god… I’m sorry Rach. I shouldn’t have put that on you. You had no prep time or anything. I’m just a wreck…

RACHAEL

Shhh… It’s okay Micheal. I’m here.

[Rachael puts her arms around him, he isn’t oblivious now.]

MICHEAL

Woah… what’s going on?

RACHAEL

Exactly what you need.

[She moves in to kiss him and he backs right off, totally shocked.]

MICHEAL

What’re you doing?!

RACHAEL

But… Lucy told me that-

MICHEAL

Lucy!? Oh god… they’re trying to… oh wow. I have to go.

[Micheal leaves the room, looking a bit happier. Rachael, however, looks a bit peeved.]

CUT TO:

8.

INT. CLASSROOM. DAY.

[Interview with MICHEAL. He looks much better.]

MICHEAL

The students… they put us together to try and make me feel better. It could’ve been done better, but the gesture’s there, ya know? I feel good. I’m gonna go talk to them. They didn’t have to do all this. Wow…

CUT TO:

9.

INT. CORRIDOR. DAY.

[The camera pans right to left, with music playing, across a door frame. We see WILL stood looking out of a window.]

FADE TO:

[Same shot as before, music still playing. We see LUCY stood in a different place in the room. Will is gone.]

FADE TO:

[Same as before. Instead of Lucy or Will, we see ANDY and JOE.]

FADE TO:

[As before. RACHAEL in place of the others.]

FADE TO:

[As before, instead, we see all of the characters in the places they stood. The camera settles centrally on the door frame again. MICHEAL walks in to frame, knocks on the door and enters.

CUT TO:

10.

[Return to usual mockumentary style of camera work. MICHEAL enters the room.]

MICHEAL

Erm… hi guys. I wanted to talk to you about something. This morning, my girlfriend left me, and I found out my father has cancer. And… my old dog was put down. It wasn’t a good morning, and that’s why I couldn’t teach you, I didn’t feel like I was capable.

ANDY

Oh, hellaw, wasn’t capable, eh?

[Everyone looks at ANDY disapprovingly except JOE, who chuckles to himself.]

MICHEAL

Yeah. Thanks Andy. I shouldn’t have put Rachael in charge because she is still a student teacher, and I’m sorry for that. But, you guys knew something was wrong, didn’t you? You tried to set me and Rach up together, right?

LUCY

Yeah… we’re sorry.

MICHEAL

Don’t be. It might not have worked out the way you wanted, but it had the right effect. I feel better. I know that I have you all as my friends, and you’ll be there for me, and I do still have my dad. As for my girlfriend… ex-girlfriend, well she can get lost. She never treated me like she should have anyways. I’m over her, don’t you guys worry. Now, why don’t you take your seats, and we’ll get started?

[Knock at the door. EMILY comes in, Micheal’s ex-girlfriend.]

EMILY

Hi, Micheal. Sorry to interrupt, but we need to talk. It’s important.

MICHEAL

Oh, erm, I’m sorry, but I’m teaching. Drop me a text, you like talking to me about important stuff through text, right? See ya!

[Emily is taken aback by Micheal’s attitude.]

EMILY

Erm… Micheal. Come on.

WILL

Emily, look. We don’t know each other too well, but you’re a bitch. He has a job to do, we have a topic to learn about. How about you get lost? Make our day better? You’ve fucked with him enough today as it is.

[Everyone looks at WILL, surprised to see him like this. Emily storms out. Micheal looks at Will, nods, turns to Rachael, smiles, and carries on with his life.]

Audience (Video)

As part of my research into audience, I interviewed a number of my class to gather some qualitative data. I have included the video below.

In my research, I have found one recurring piece of data. Most people watch short films on YouTube, and as such, I will upload my short film to a YouTube channel when it is finished. I have also included a link below to a short film already on YouTube called 'Love Field'.

Love Field

Practice Shot Piece

This is a piece I made with some fellow students, demonstrating multiple shot types, showing that I am competent with editing software, as well as the cameras. 

In this piece, we took turns to operate, act and also direct, making sure we all got the necessary experience to film our coursework.

Poster Deconstructions

For my poster deconstructions, I will use posters from my two inspirational texts, 'The Office' and 'This is Spinal Tap'.

This poster has a very simple design, and one that I am most likely going to follow closely. Given the subject matter of 'The Office', the visual style fits well. It looks simple and professional, whilst still providing everything necessary of a poster. It shows some of the characters, the title, and through the way it is coded, it provides some information on the piece. This is done through the outfits of the characters. They have business wear on, indicating the environment they might be working in, along with their overall manner and looks, and their casual poses. One thing that is also worth mentioning, is that the character towards the front looks like the superior one amongst them, but in the piece itself, this is not the case.

This movie poster is very typical. The main characters are central, the title is very large, and there is some kind of endorsement present too. The coding of the poster is very typical of metal music, which is a central theme of the film, and the way the characters look kind of 'drawn' adds to that feel. It also gives a slight comedic feel to them as they're displaced from reality. The font of the title is very 'metal' as well.

This poster is similar to the first one, but with the characters coded differently. In this poster, the only character is that of David Brent, arguably the lead character in the series. This codes him as the main character, and sets up our expectations of him in a ifferent manner to that of the first one. Again it has a simple layout with plenty of white space and a simple title that is a through line to all the posters, and is therefore much more recognisable as a brand.