Ancillary Text 1: Film Poster: Critical Review

I feel that my first draft of my film poster is a good first draft as it has given me a rough idea of what I want my final draft poster to look like. I feel that I will have to change the size and layout of the poster and the font of the text in order to achieve synergy with my Final film review and short film, however the images that I have used shall be re-sized and reused. I felt that the ammount of research into film posters in general really helped me in terms of imagery and taglines to be used. i looked into blockbuster film posters as well as short film posters to understand the conventions of each and how I was going to apply those conventions to my poster.

In terms of how my poster looks I am pleased with the balance of text to images as this is key in a poster as if there is too much text people won't bother to read. However i feel that my text deffinately needs improving especially the font as not only does it not go with my other fonts therefore I am not achieving synergy with my other pieces, but also the fact that it is too small and hard to read. I felt that everything else was fine it is just those small changes that should be changed for my final draft

Ancillary Text 1: Film Poster:Rough First Version

Here is my initial, basic idea for a film poster, it is a good start however i need to make the poster stand out more, at the moment it does not look like a film poster that you would see advertising a new film/short film. The trouble with my poster at the moment is that it is very basic. As stated I have attempted to use the 24 style split screen effect in my poster as it is an important effect that relates to the story line.

My Initial 1st Draft:

24 Effect For Poster And Main Project

The T.V. show 24 has a really cool split screen effect that I hopeto use in my poster advertising the film and in my actual short film itself. Origionally I had planned to do a three way split screen with a line separating each part of the screen however instead I have decided to do a 24 style effect. Below is a clip to demonstrate what I mean. If I get time I shall also try to encorporate this effect into my short film as well.

24 split screen effect:

Tag Lines For My Short Film & Final Decision:

And You Thought You Were Having A Bad Day?...: I like this tag line as it is humerous and still relates to my short film and it is one of those tag lines that everyone can relate to were they have had a bad day and feel like it is the end of the world to them whereas it could be for the spies.

What Would You Do If Your Boss Was Out To Get You?...: I like this tag line as it takes a more serious apprach to the plot and puts the viewer in the position of my main character and really makes them think about what they would actually do in that kind of situation.

Three Men, One Package, One Life Changing Opertunity...: This tag line is really good as it really sells the short film as an action fast paced piece rather than a slow hard to get into confusing storyline piece. i like this tag line as it really shows the importance of the package and how it changes the spies lives when they open it.

Overall: I think my favourite tag line is What Would You Do If Your Boss Was Out To Get You? This is my favouritre because of the humerous side to it as well as it not giving away to much detail about the plot so the audience will not know what to expect or how to feel about the short film until they watch it.

Name Ideas For My Short Film & Final Decision

The Package: I thought of this title because of the whole basis around the plot is what is actually inside the package (a photograph of the other spies) this title also does not give much away about the storyline or the characters involved.

Life, death And Other Consequences: I really like this title as it is one of those titles that does and doesn't match my short film. The reason it does match is because the spies are all trying to kill each other to live and in the end the boss pays the consequences for betraying them. The reason it doesn't match is because the title does not give the film a western feel.

An Average Day: This is my least favourite title however it is probrably the best fitting for the short film, I don't like this title because I feel it is to plain and not interesting. The reason this title fits so well is because the idea is that what the spies are doing (going out killing each other) is exactly what an average day is for them.

Overall: My favourite Title would have to be: life,death and other consequences. I like this title as it is bold but yet slightly confusing at the same time.

Critical Evaluation Of The Name Of My Short Film

The Package: I thought of this title because of the whole basis around the plot is what is actually inside the package (a photograph of the other spies) this title also does not give much away about the storyline or the characters involved. I feel that this title is a little bit too simple to be proffessional as I feel that if I used it it would look like I had not spent much time on the name of the film as I had on drawing the storyboards or the script. I want to use a title that is not too long but not too short at the same time and I feel that two words is too short.

Life, death And Other Consequences: I really like this title as it is one of those titles that does and doesn't match my short film. The reason it does match is because the spies are all trying to kill each other to live and in the end the boss pays the consequences for betraying them. The reason it doesn't match is because the title does not give the film a western feel. I feel that its a good idea to use this title as it does not give away much detail about the plot to the audience and allows them to try and think what the film is about before they see it. I think letting the audience try and predict what a film is about by a title is important as it gives directors to either live up to expectations or to shock audiences.

An Average Day: This is my least favourite title however it is probrably the best fitting for the short film, I don't like this title because I feel it is to plain and not interesting. The reason this title fits so well is because the idea is that what the spies are doing (going out killing each other) is exactly what an average day is for them. I coud possibly work on this title as I feel that it does have potential if I expanded it a little bit more although this is quite hard to do, however I could use words that stand out such as unexpected to interest the audience more. I feel that the title is a very important part of a film as I think that if the audience aren't interested in a title they already make judgment on the film without watching a trailer.

Overall: My favourite Title would have to be: life,death and other consequences. I like this title as it is bold but yet slightly confusing at the same time. This is an excellent thing as it will slightly baffel the audience and make them want to watch the film to fully understand the meaning of the title. The only thing I would have possibly changed would possibly turning the title a little bit more informal and rather using the , and the and I was tempted to use Life Death Other Consequences. However this did not quite fit with thengenre as other action films have not done this.

Ancillary Text 2: 3 Film Magazine Reviews

For the second part of my Anscilary texts I had to create a film review for my short film. To be able to do this I fist of all had to look at a variety of reviews on current films out at the moment.

The First review: Total Film: Shutter Island




The Second Review: Total Film: Jenifers Body

Third Review: Empire Online: Thor

Overall I have found that there is a difference between magazine and online film reviews, mainly in page layout where mostly online they use a portrait layout and in magazines they use landsape, but also the reviews are slightly different in themselves where they didn't go into as ,uch detail in the magazine reviews as they did on the online review, this was actually supprising as the magazine readers had to pay to read the magazine and the article was free online on the Empire website. I want to change this in my magazine review as I want to give my readers the in-depth information about my short film and the idea and actors behind it. One thing I deffinately do want to use is a rating system and a variety of images as I feel that this is what these reviews lacked and can uninterest the audience if all they see is articles with words.