Feedback from final cut of film

I asked a member of my target audience to watch the final cut of my film and give me feedback on it. The feedback is in note form so I will attach a photo:

Additionally, I have notes of feedback from other people:

VICKY: well put together

KATY:very different and unique

MRS FEARNLEY: I love it! Beautifully shot Charlotte, excellent composition and framing, a clear message, sound in its various forms adds to the film, transitions don't spoil it nor detract, and I really like the reversal at the end. If I was to critique one teeny thing it would be to have Harry appear with the change of tempo in the music around 2:17

SAM: very cute!!! i like it lots it made me happy and fuzzy

JASMINE: cute, i like how it links in with your everyday life, you were able to show clearly what you like and dislike, good camera skills- you can see clearly the development you have made through your video and the improvements

final poster

This is my final draft of my film poster. I have responded to the feedback I got on it and changed a few aspects from my original draft.

TITLE
The title "SONDER" is the biggest part of the poster, in the middle so it is the first thing the audience will see. Each letter is made up of a different character's face, which relates to the film as it is about individual people and I have chosen to show that in the title. There are no spoilers but it does give an indication as to what is included in the film and the iconography of it is shown in the most simple but effective layout- the film is about people, so the poster shows the people individually.

CAPTION
Beneath the title I have put the definition of "SONDER", as it comes up on the film. This gives the potential audience an idea of what to expect from the film without knowing exactly what is in it; they will know that my inspiration has come from the definition but they won't know how I adapted that into the film.

BACKGROUND
I chose to use a plain white background against the images and text to know they stand out and are what the audience needs to see first. The white is a bold but not loud contrast against the title and additional words and shows that the audience needs to look into the middle of the poster.

QUOTES
Looking at existing film posters, I noticed that a common trope in them is to have quotes somewhere on the page from film critics. I have used this technique along the top of the page; it shows the common rating and quotes from highly recognised critics without being the main focus of the poster.

FONT
I used a continuous font across my film and poster. The typewriter font is a big feature of my film for the annotations, so I continued that into the poster to show it was a conscious decision.

Final Film

After credits clips

I have looked at a past student's work on putting a surprise clip after the credits of a short film. In tabithalaya2media.blogspot.co.uk's short film, she has put a clip after her credits to complete it (and for her genre, to give the audience an idea of 'what comes next' in a sequel). I like the idea of having an after credits scene because it is a surprise to the audience that finishes it off neatly and brings them back to the film, rather than having them leave as soon as the credits come on.





This is Tabitha's end scene for after her credits. Watching this has made me want to do an after credits scene as I like the way it doesn't officially end the film for the audience but it gives it an official finish after the traditional ending.



I have filmed a final scene to play after my credits. Rather than follow the style of Tabitha's and play a clip to show a sequel, I am going to use a clip showing the 3 most frequent characters shown in my film and what their natural life is like. There is a canted angle from the camera being handheld to show the natural look to it and the sound is the same volume it was recorded at with no additional non-diagetic sound as it is just a playback from the theme of the film itself. It fits well after the credits because the non-diegetic background song has finished and it plays without edit.

Second cut of film

First cut of film

Target Audience's opinion on my poster drafts

To find out which of my posters is preferred by my target market and so would be the best to work on and use as my ancillary task, I asked 21 people from my target market which of the 3 choices they liked the most.

The first draft of my poster has shown to be the most popular. Now I will refine it and produce it properly as my ancillary task.

Poster Drafts

Here I have drafted 3 poster designs before I make the final version. I have been inspired by my moodboard and taken some ideas from it and combined them with my own ideas. I am going to do a survey on what my target audience thinks is the best and make a final version based on those results.

DRAFT 1

Here I edited the letters from the title to show the multiple people that play a part in the film. It has the effect I intended because it shows the meaning of the film in a basic but understandable form. The white background means it isn't too crowded and there are reviews and ratings at the bottom, as I have noticed in current film posters.

DRAFT 2

The background of this poster is filled with stills from the film showing the aspects of the cast's lives, as the intent of the film shows. There are 5 stars with quotes at the bottom to show its rating plus opinions from critics.

 

DRAFT 3

For the final try at making a poster I have just used a still from the intro of the film showing the title and cast. I had this idea because it shows a real still from the film as the audience would expect to see.

 

 

Now that I have made these drafts of my poster I am going to do a survey on what my target audience would prefer to see and then make my final version from the results.

 

 

 

Moodboard

I have looked through Google Images film posters that I love and think I would be able to use the ideas of for my own film poster. These are made up of indie and avant garde films.

 

 

 

My favourites of these are for "M", 500 Days of Summer, Howl, and Blue is the Warmest Colour. I am going to use some of these techniques to draft my own poster.

Researching film posters

As I have taken a lot of inspiration from avant-garde film Amelie, I have also looked at the film posters used for that film and others of its type. The leading actress,  Audrey Tautou, has been the star of films similar to her most famous Amelie. Following her films, I have noticed a pattern in posters of that type.

Four of her films feature just her as the centrepiece of the poster, with a blurred but colourful background. This shows that she is the main character in each film and draws the audience's focus to her. My favourite of these posters is "Priceless", as it shows Audrey as the protagonist but with others around her that gives clues as to the plot of the film.



Additionally, I have looked at posters that use frames from the film itself to make up the poster. I love this style as it shows the film without adding too many special effects in the poster like major photoshop. Using stills from the film show it naturally and give the audience and idea of what to expect from watching the film, without giving it away.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" is my favourite film poster, as it shows stills of many characters surrounding the centrepoint of the film. It shows no spoilers but the audience aren't left wondering what the film is.

Film Promotion- Ancillary planning

Promotion of film in industry (aka film distribution) is essential to the release and output from the film. It opens up the film to its audience and is done in a variety of ways including press releases, advertisements, merchandise, and interviews with directors and cast.

For my ancillary tasks I am going to produce a movie poster and a magazine film review. These are common and key parts of film promotion as it it released directly to audiences. Posters are shown everywhere when a film is distributed, like on bus stops or walls. I have to make sure my poster stands out against competitors and is a direct interest for my target audience. I will look at trending designs for current film posters to see what is popular and gets the attention of audiences, and draft my poster several times and ask my audience what they prefer so I am confident that it is what my audience prefers.

When I do my film review I will research popular film magazines and take inspiration from them on how to make it. I also have a lot of information already from my AS task, where I made a double page spread for a music magazine. Market research is important for this task as I have to ensure it will interest my readers and make them want to watch my film.

Lighting

In certain scenes of my film I have used lighting to highlight specific areas that I want the audience to see. Examples of this are in the scene where I (as Lottie) am sewing and writing.

For these scenes I used a lamp in a darker setting to light up the areas I wanted the audience specifically to see; mainly where my hands would go. Shadow also illuminates these areas and draws attention to my hands.

I also used natural lighting in a lot of scenes. This is because my film is designed to show natural life, so having natural lighting highlights the fact that my film is designed to look 'real' and not too staged. When filming with natural lighting I made sure to do it in a position and time of day so that it wouldn't be too dark or bright and ruin the effect of the scene.