Final Film

EVALUATION QUESTION FOUR

EVALUATION QUESTION THREE

From the focus group and questionnaires I can conclude that the genre for "Reflection" suits a surreal psychological drama not thriller as we first decided it would be before filming. I found this from both the questionnaires and focus group although no one disagreed that the film is surreal.

I believe that due to this, my poster also markets more of a thriller than the film is. However, the female audience seemed to find the poster more appropriate than the male audience found it and as my audience is predominately female the poster is therefore aimed more towards them.

I have found the film is best received by an older/mature audience rather than a younger group as the issues are more serious and the film lacks comedy which seems to be a main expectation of the younger male audience.

Through questionnaires I found that males found the issues raised in the film about self consciousness a lot less relatable than the girls although this is questioned by my male focus group who discuss how they did find the issues relatable as it was about how people perceive them. However across both female questionnaires and female focus group members there was no one who did not find the issues relatable to themselves.

Overall I can determine that the main audience who found the film most enjoyable to watch is a maturer female group with a strong interest in art-house/alternative films as they are able to understand and relate more to the sensitive issues raised throughout the film. As this was our initial target audience, I believe we have targeted the correct audience throughout despite the outcome our film becoming more of a drama than a thriller.

EVALUATION QUESTION TWO

EVALUATION QUESTION ONE

Progression of Poster

RESEARCH:

I first looked into surreal photography and thriller posters for inspiration. I aimed to create an artistic poster with an element of shock factor to allow our film to stand out. I decided to use the standard positioning which is used with many thriller posters as it would also allow direct mode of address. 

PRODUCTION OF POSTER IMAGE: 

To begin I chose an image with direct mode of address to allow the fourth wall to be broke via my poster and lure the audience in more. I then cropped this image to a poster size and used the smudge tool on Photoshop to remove the face of the image. However I felt this was now too bare and then decided to re-edit the image keeping certain features.

The idea behind this comes from how the viewers face is reflected by the plastic casing film posters are normally placed in and as Reflection is more likely to be shown in an art house cinema where smaller sized poster advertising is used, the viewers reflection should align with the image merging the two together making the film instantly more personal. I believe this style of poster will largely appeal to the alternative art house audience and suit our predominantly female target audience.

I also removed the background to allow the poster to become more minimal and striking then edited the contrast to create a more solid defined image which worked extremely well when I added a black and white filter. The black and white filter was used as the film is black and white and this is fluent to that as well as representing the surreal art house theme and drawing further attention to pupil-less bright white eyes.

Cropping the image to the freakish and creepy looking close up came about as an accident when I was experimenting with my image on Photoshop. At first I added a frame (to represent a mirror) which then covered only part of the image cropping it. This cropped image really appealed to me and therefore I decided to use the cropped image and get rid of the frame.

FINAL PRODUCT:

When creating my text layout I decided to flip the text so that the poster could only be read in a mirror, forcing the viewer to therefore look at their own reflection. However I soon realised that this was impractical and decided to then flip only the title and the slogan to keep this idea within my poster and also allow the rest of the poster to be seen.

I placed the slogan across the characters mouth to represent how the doll herself does not speak and continue the questions of who the emotions really are (who the voices are) creating more mystery towards the film.

Double Page Spread

This is my final double page spread. I decided to create it in the style of real film magazine "Empire" sticking to its red, black and orange colour scheme adding a bold two lined border around the whole article. I have given credit in my layout by adding "Empire" references along the bottom of the page and along the top red line by adding a website link. By sticking to the conventions below I have been able to create a professional looking outcome as I could:

Conventions I applied:

The summary box (the box on the left below my title) informs the reader quickly about the director, length, stars etc. of the film. When looking through Empire magazine myself I found this very useful for distinguishing whether I would enjoy a film or not so found it important to include in my own  magazine article. The style also sticks with Empires traditional layout and makes itself recognisable to a part of Empire magazine.

In Empire magazine there is a red bar across the top which states "over 14,000 reviews at empireonline.com and as this brings in digital convergence and makes the review accessible online I decided it was important to include. This aids the overall success of the magazine on new digital platforms allowing it to gain competition in the new technology market and therefore increases the success of the films it reviews.

Empire often uses large images which fill much of the page. On this example the image fills a quarter of the page, as I was creating a double paged article I used two images to fill half. I believe these images draw a reader in who is flicking through the magazine and represent instantly the art-house/surreal genre of film making the article recognisable to an audience who will enjoy it most.

Including a verdict was the most important part of the review as its overall rating and stars given are likely to be the final influence to whether the reader decides to watch the film or not. This is a final inch of persuasion so I stuck to Empires layout and placed it at the end of the article with the star rating just below it. I found this layout overall visually appealing as its strict neatness makes the article feel more trustworthy.



WHY DID I CHOSE EMPIRE MAGAZINE?

Empire Magazine Article Example:

"Like undead Guardian readers they discuss high-flown books and music in deadly earnest, glide through intimate marital rituals and sup plasma from crystal glasses. There is no horror to speak of, only an after-dark aura of drained lives and deep connections.

Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is the grouch, a Byronic musician on a “funeral” jag, contemplating turning a wooden bullet on his embittered heart. Hiddleston makes an ideal vampire — pale as a bed-sheet he works the Iggy Pop torso and sulky demeanour of a rock star gone to ground, inhabiting a mouldering baronial recording studio in the wolf-haunted hinterlands of that ‘dead city’, Detroit.

Eve (Tilda Swinton) at least has an iPhone. She’s more engaged with the world, lighter of mood. Swinton, genetically sun-starved and heroin thin, is surprisingly warm and wry, tending to her lover’s pouty needs with a motherly patience.

What plot there is has the immortal beloveds confront his suicidal flounces and her troublesome baby sister (Mia Wasikowska), who ruffles their ennui by drinking his human factotum (Anton Yelchin). It all wafts by comfortably with no great urgency to decipher its enigmatic postures; Jarmusch is a more relaxed riddler than, say, the Coens. Maybe it’s a satire about self-involved artists adrift in obscurity. Then, Jarmusch might genuinely be lamenting the waning of our cultural times (humans are decried as “zombies”). From David Foster Wallace to Nicholas Ray to throaty rock played on an 8-track, these are the things he thinks should live forever.

Verdict
Haunting and idiosyncratic, Jarmusch’s vampire marriage preaches to the converted, but he’s in fine voice nonetheless.                                                                                                                                                                                   "

Overall I found the way in which Empire magazine reviews almost poetic which I believe is the best form of review for our Art house film.
I have highlighted the examples of the language and tone which the magazine describes the film in an exaggerated and enthusiastically artsy tone.
This allowed me to then write a deeper article which had the freedom to indulge into the meanings and issues within the film and the mise en scene as a more magical experience rather than the typical straight forward boring rating other magazines I researched offered. I was even able to play on words and include phrases such as "the film bore" which all relate back the films narrative.

I believe to enjoy our film you must be a film enthusiast with a general knowledge of how society works so Empire (a mainstream, although contemporary film magazine) will bring in the correct audience who have the cultural awareness needed to understand and appreciate our film. The articles generally use many metaphorical terms which also suits our film as it is metaphorical itself.

Overall an audience who appreciate at-house films are best suited to a more insightful, poetic article such as the style Empire magazine uses.