Film Review

To create a good film review for Samhain I searched through newspapers and magazines at home such as Sight and Sound. I analysed film reviews also online reading Empire, which is the biggest movie fan based magazine world wide. I studied the layout in some Empire reviews and will employ some of the same techniques used by the writers to my Film Review.

Points that must be included on a poster to give information to the potential audience and reel them in would be to have;

• The film's title is a very import feature that must be added to the review simply so that the audience knows what they are going to go and see, using an odd title name could create mystery around the film to draw the audience in, the same audience response could occur using a grabbing title.
• The release date will be included in the review and poster, this is to guide the reader to know when the film will be in theatres for them to see, this is a good technique to employ on a poster or a review as the reader can then make plans to go and see the film on which ever date we will set it to.
• A description of what the film entails but worded cleverly to not give away too much information should be employed at the beginning before the audience engages with the actual written review, this is good to employ early so that reader has a purpose to keep reading whether the film is a no-go or not.
• It must be the end of the film review where the final opinion should be implemented, whether the film is worth a watch or not. The final opinion of the film will be the last part that the audience read, therefore if the review ends on a good note, the audience will be inspired to go and watch it.
• The main characters' actors and the director should be featured in the review to give credit and allow the audience to know who will be in the film and knowing the director can give them a sense of what type of style the film will be.

Making a Film Poster: Inspiration

Before making the movie poster, it would be a good idea to learn a little behind the construction. I found a time lapse video of the creation of a 'The Dark Knight Rises' poster, watching this gives me an idea of home much time and effort should be put in to the design.
This also reminded me that credits should be added  to the bottom, with a date to show the release.



My favourite types of movie posters are Compilation Posters that have depth and a lot of imagery for the audience to interpret.

Film posters used in the Star Wars series have a style which can tell the audience a story before watching it, using such attention grabbing imagery, with multiple events going on at once. This is what I aim to achieve with the creation of our film's poster. 

Star Wars posters typically have the main enemy super imposed in the background, I admire this as it looks as if the villain is watching, which is a direct link to our film. I could potentially emulate this for our poster.

Looking at these montage like posters is very exciting when done right, the posters will shape an idea in the audience's mind which will want them to go to the theatre to justify it. 

 This version of The Wicker Man poster is a similar style, but using hand drawn images. I admire the border and symmetrical sky design. I wish to adapt this technique to our poster incorporating dismal colours. To do this, I will draw images by hand, scan the drawings and convert them on to Photoshop, where they can be perfected and formatted in a fashion to grab the audiences attention.

As the film is a horror, I will need to draw some ominous pictures, such as upset skies, desolate islands, and an unnerving portrayal of the Pagan Wildmen. Using colours such as Red, Black, Grey and Deep Purple, will further help the audience indicate that the movie is associated with the horror genre.

Incorporating key images you see in the film is important when emulating this style, the light house, town, boat and the three characters will therefore feature in this poster.

POSTER DIMENSIONS

Dimensions are an important factor for the poster mainly for advertisement. The movie poster will need to be a portrait image so that it is able to fit in to traditional poster holders located in areas such as bus stops, cinema walls, train stations etc.

One sheet: (27" X 41") is the dimensions of the standard movie poster. These posters are printed on a thin paper and displayed on the theatre walls. The next most commonly used movie posters size is 40" X 60" these posters are larger, but still come in a portrait format. This size of poster is typically used for advertisements on bus shelters and train stations.

Character Profiles

a few short bios of the main characters in our short film. . .this will be helpful in constructing the audiences perceptions of characters, creating a better background image in their heads.

Captain Murphy
Dermott Murphy is a long time captain of the Sail la Vie, he and his boat have sailed across the Irish waters for the last 25 years. Murphy knows the ins and outs of the Irish seas, witnessing presences unfathomable to the average man. He has a mysterious spiritual understanding and connection from his travels, which comes to be a significant trait to have in the events included in the short film.

Ian Hughes
Ian Hughes, known as 'balloon' by most people, is one of the three main boys in production of 'Monsters and caves'. Ian has always been quite slow and silly, the class clown who really just goes with the flow with his side kick Nathan, who easily persuades him to do stupid troublesome things for his entertainment. Ian shows up to the film shoot in his usual dopey attitude, poking fun at the small insignificant things that amuse him, but all of the banter stops with the upcoming events at Donaghadee sea side.

Harry Evergreen
Harry is the outcast of group, thrown in to making a project with his two classmates who he is the complete opposite of. Harry is quiet, unconfident but works well when a task is set out for him. As he may complete tasks quite well, the events at the seaside will be the toughest obstacles Harry has ever came to face.

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is necessary considering the location where we will be filming, being the sea side. If safety precautions aren't taken before shooting, potential injuries or equipment damage may occur...

Background

The background of our film is loosely built around the Pagan festival- Samhain. This is an important part of the year for Pagans as it marks the 'Feast of the Dead'. Samahain was the time of the year where the veils of underworld and our world are at their thinnest, where the dead spirits could mingle with us living humans. In Pagan ideology, death is not something to be feared, but celebrated as it is a key point in life as is being born. Samhain is what non pagans would know as Halloween.




Inspiration for the film comes from the stories of the primitive pagan barbarians, who would sacrifice humans with the award of demonic power. In researching some ancient Northern European customs, it is believed that on summer solstice; the longest summer day, human sacrifice rituals had taken place. The purpose of these savage rituals is to connect with nature or 'the other side'.

It is said to be a danger in calling on to random spirits, but by covering ones self in the blood of the sacrificed will give power in the spiritual realm, but if not protected by the blood, demonic oppression can occur.

For our film, 3 characters will have sinned or tampered with an unwelcoming presence, the acts of those seeking the 3 characters blood will be inspired from the brutish last rites of Satan's worshipers.

Costume Progression

Collecting Materials.

We took a day out with our Media Studies class in a hunt to find materials to use for our costumes. We went to Helen's Bay filling large plastic bags with seaweed, and sea shells. We collect just about enough to facilitate the production of these products. The seaweed had to be kept in the school's green so wouldn't dry up and become brittle, when the costumes with seaweed incorporated are created they will more than likely be stored in the green house to keep them in good moist condition. 
The shells we collected were brought to the sinks in the Art rooms where we rinsed all of the sand and dirt off of them so they could be moved to the next stage of drilling.
These materials fit the short film very well as they give the nature of the scene's location more recognition.

Along with the shells and sea weed, we will also use fabrics in the costume. We utilised our school's Art and Design resources for thick fabrics with rough textures such as hessian for the main body of the costumes, we also utilised old curtains and bed sheets to help us create out costumes.

One of the costumes we are working on creating is inspired by one of the Pagan Wildmen's attire shown below.

I admired the technique the costumer designer made by having multiple acorns (from my interpretation) beaded on strings hanging from the outfit. I wanted to adapt this aesthetic to my own costume in relation to the film's setting being the beach, so with all of the shells we collected, we spent multiple hours drilling small 4mm holes in each shell to then put on string to hang from the costume. This costume design has quite the eery, spooky element to it, which was an initial aim when writing for the film.

1.  Shells collected from beach
2.  Sand washed off of shells
3.  Shells drilled with 4mm drill bit
4.  Shells beaded on string, knotted to secure
5.  Hot glue gun to attach shells to the piece
6.  Additional shells glued to the chest of the costume representing armour.

Another costume that had inspired the head wear for our project, was this mask worn by an Eastern European Pagan Wildman. It is quite evident in the photo that a fabric has been manipulated to create the large head shape. Another method we discovered to create large helmets/masks with ease was by using paper mache, which involved creating a mould from paper to then wrapping the mould in thin strands of paper lathered in wall paper place, after around 3 solid layers of newspaper were covered around the mould, and 3 days to dry, we were left with a solid rounded mask outline, quite similar to the mask above.
The next stage was to paint the mask a darkish brown to match the other garments of the costume, Ryan painted the mask with brown acrylic paint, I finished off the mask by drawing a mouth and teeth  using black and white acrylic paint, and a sharpie to outline the teeth with.

1.  Large ball created with newspaper (mould).
2.  Wallpaper paste + water used to form pieces over the mould.
3.  Strips of construction paper cut out.
4.  Strips covered in paste and applied to mould.
5.  4 layers applied over mould.
6.  48 hours to dry
7.  Once dry, newspaper mould is removed leaving mask.
8.  Mask painted brown, with mouth and teeth also.

 I have focused on aspects from each of these costumes to then go and create to add to our own. From the first photo, the costume has a straw skirt, we acquired straw from our school's art resource. To create a straw skirt quickly and effectively, we will:

1.  Measure strands of straw to cut out.
2.  Use an old belt to attach the straw to
3.  Use duct tape and glue to effectively join the strands of straw to the belt.

The second photo uses shredded rags as an over coat of the costume. We will distress old blankets and utilise the spare hessian to create an overcoat for a costume

With the photo to the right, I will focus on the skirt worn, taking inspiration to make my own. I am thinking of using this 'dress/skirt' costume as an undergarment 

 

Coloring