Location Recce

Location idea 1, a typical lounge. The reason why did not use this idea was because none of our lounges looked student like, therefore wrecking the whole idea of our short film, that the people are at university.

Production Meeting

Reflective Analysis on Empire and Sight & Sound

                                           Empire                                                             Sight and Sound

Actual Review

Empire employs a system wherein it avoids analysis of the films and often labels whether a film is "good" or "bad"which is done by introducing a ranking system or a "star verdict". It is also rather more informative whereas Sight & Sound is more critical. It demands specialist in-depth analysis of the stylistic elements of the film, mise-en-scene, genre and production techniques while Empire offers brief synopsis in terms of plot, narradtive, characters effects and entertainment value.

Layout

Both magazines have a higher body of text to image ratio but Empire displays a bigger sized image than S&S (but this is partly due to the fact that Empire has a double page spread review on the film). Empire also uses bolder texts and different coloured fonts as opposed to S&S's basic normal sized and black coloured fonts. Similarly both have white coloured background as to not retract from the actual review of the film.

My verdict

In terms of the written review, I prefer to write one for my short film in the style of Sight & Sound. I want it to target audience who are interested in the analytical side of the film rather than blindly saying what is good and what is bad. In terms of layout however, I prefer Empire's bolder text, incorporation of a quotation in large font across the page and more colours. However I wouldn't follow the exact layout used here in my own magazine review layout. I want my magazine review to possibly include one or two more images and I certainly would not include a verdict or star ranking in my magazine.

Film Review Analysis - Sight & Sound

Film Review Analysis - Empire

Genre and Target Audience

From the responses from my audience questionnaire (19 responses) the majority of the interviewees were aged 17-20 and most were women.

I found out that the majority of interviewees thought that the genre of the short film is either drama or documentary. The fact that I've introduced the short film being "based on the 2010 UK student protest" attributed to people choosing documentary. This leads to whether the audience would watch the short film or not.

More than half the interviewees chose "no". This could be correlated to the preferred genres that they watch.

As we can see from above,  0% did not prefer to watch documentary and 18% for drama.

Reflective Analysis

Because our short film highlights social movements and political protests, many chose "not" to watch the short film; they thought it would be a boring documentary. The target audience will still be aged 17-20 because the issue with tuition fees should be relatable to students who are applying to universities. Furthermore, instead of two people talking about politics, we are basing the story on peer pressure but with the protest as the trigger for this which results in a conflict between two friends. This would make more of an emotional impact on the audience and again the target audience should relate to issue as well.

Masterclass by Barry Ryan (Warp Films)

Presentation1 from Alice Hancock

General Audience Research

Audience Research on Documentary Films

During the ASFF, we interviewed a documentary enthusiast and she told us how she got interested into documentary films and why she loved this particular genre.

Audience Research on Experimental Films

Audience Research - Survey

link - http://freeonlinesurveys.com/app/rendersurvey.asp?sid=tkljvtyi1chzvc2450004&refer=freeonlinesurveys%2Ecom

Aesthetica Short Film Festival

Actor for Short Film

Our actress playing the role of Molly.

Storyboard for "Raise Your Voice"

Raise Your Voice

Script

Update on Actors

Another short story

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

I sit alone in worry, biting my nail as the sound of the clock echoes around these brown painted walls. The living room never looked so small until this day. I feel like the walls start closing in on me, suffocating me.  I stand up from the sturdy leather couch and start to pace across the room. Alright Jane, you can do this! I think to myself. I try to psyche myself up, hoping that my worries would subside. As I walk towards the window, I hug myself in comfort. Looking through the window I see a peaceful neighbourhood, quiet and tranquil. Then I see my own reflection, an average girl with long blond locks and fair skin. But beneath those hazel coloured eyes, I see fear.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my housemate’s footsteps as she walks into the room. She looks intimidating with her black leather jacket and combat boots. But then again, even without those she’d always been intimidating, well to me at least. It’s written in her eyes, in her stare, the way she talks and the way she moves. She’s loud, outgoing, and adventurous and that’s why people like her, unlike me.  Quiet, reserved and a coward.

“So, did you finish making our poster?” she asks.

“Yeah, I did. It’s on the coffee table, check it out.”

She walks towards the couch and sits on it. After inspecting my work, she nods her head in agreement. Without looking at me, she puts her feet on the table, takes out her phone and shrugs, “It’s alright”.

“Right.”, I say.

“Anyway, John and your brother will be back any minute then we can go.”

I walk my way in front of her, the coffee table between us. “Uhm…”

“What’s wrong?” she asks, still looking at her phone.

Suddenly, I feel my heart beating fast and my stomach doing somersaults like a Russian gymnast. It’s now or never, Jane! I must have been gawking at her like an idiot for a long time because she looks up to me and asks, “You’re looking constipated, Jane. Just spit it out.”

“It’s just..”

“It’s just what? Oh, wait a second.” Did I mention she was smart too? Because she cocks her eyebrow at me and says, “I get it, you’re having second thoughts about this, aren’t you?”

Bingo.

“Look, I just don’t think me not going to the protest would be any loss. Besides, I think the whole thing is pointless anyway.” I say, hopefully persuading her. But the irritated look on her face says otherwise. But whatever retaliation she was about to make was interrupted as we hear the front door opening. It must be Daniel, my brother and his friend John, I think. They enter the room, unaware of the tension looming between me and Molly.

“Hey, we’re all set now. We should get going.” John says.

Daniel however notices something wrong and asks, “You guys okay? You’ve been staring at each other weirdly.”

Molly turns her head towards them and says, “Why don’t you ask your sister, Dan? She’s the one having cold feet.”

“Cold feet?” he asks, worryingly. Both Daniel and John walk towards the couch, behind Molly and towers over her, like two bodyguards. Molly crosses her leg and folds her arms, waiting for my explanation.
“Jane, thinks the protest is stupid.”

That liar! Both men look at me in awe as I try to explain myself.

“What? No! I said pointless, not stupid.”

“Do you even care about our education Jane? Because it doesn’t look like it.” Molly adds in.

 “Of course I care about it. But let’s be honest guys, do you really think the government will change their minds? I want to support the cause but there’s no point fighting the inevitable.”

The room falls into an awkward silence. After what seems like an eternity, Daniel breaks the ice and says “I get where you’re coming at Jane, but it’s still worth trying.”

“Ok fine, but there’s bound for something to happen. I’m worried. You know what people get like, especially in this city. Also, the police will be everywhere, we could get in trouble! And I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Wow, talk about paranoia.” she snottily remarks, rolling her eyes.  “It’s going to be a peaceful protest Jane. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Yeah we’re just going to march around with our posters and stuff. It’s gonna be fun”, John says.

Fun? Is he serious or stupid?

“Are you sure about that? Because I saw pictures online last night and it didn’t look like a peaceful protest to me.” I then look at my brother, pleading to him with fearful eyes “They were smashing police vans, Dan! That’s anything BUT peaceful. I’m angry about the cuts as well but smashing things aren’t going to help anything.”

Molly looks up at my brother, annoyed. Take care of this, or else.

Sighing, my brother walks towards me and grabs me by my shoulders, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you! You’re my little sister, and I’ll be looking out for you the whole time. It’ll be fun, I promise. We can get pizza after; if that doesn’t tempt you I don’t know what will.”

He’s bribing me with pizza? Really?

Molly stands up angrily and says “Okay, enough! You can do whatever you want Jane but remember,” the next thing she says is haunting, her eyes threatening me but I know what she means when she says, “Remember who your friends are.”

“Hate to break this up but we should probably leave.” John pipes in as he gathers the posters.

As I watch them leave, that moment when I see their backs in front of me, I shut my eyes. Then I open my eyes again and reality set in. “Hey guys, wait up! I’m coming with you.”

I’m still the same coward little girl.

This always happens. Every time I try and resist her, she always finds the right words to incite me. In the end she always win. I wonder, did she truly believe in the cause? Or was she just in it for the show? I probably won't ever know. Because in that moment, I raised my voice and said the words I can never take back... Wait! I'm coming with you..

Short Story (Robyn's Version)

Media Short Story by arzenia

Short Story for Short Film update

Why Do People Protest?

Other sociologists like Katz believe that people commit crime to be a break from boredom and everyday life. This links to the idea of our film how these students do not realise what they are doing. They are disconnected from reality and can’t see the difference between what they were protesting for and what  they were actually doing, making it more romantic, thus not seeing the harsh reality. This is like Jane who can see the harsh reality of what they are doing while her brother’s friends only see the romantic side of the idea of going to protest and looking ‘cool’ in front of there peers like Cohen suggested about the 1960’s mods and rockers riots.

UK 2010 Student Protests

The 2010 British student protests were a series of demonstrations that began in November 2010 in several areas of the United Kingdom, with the focal point of protests centred in London .MPs were asked to approve a motion tabled by Vince Cable, the business secretary, allowing universities to increase tuition fees to up to £9,000 from September 2012. Student groups said that the intended cuts to education were excessive and broke campaign promises made by politicians, amounting to "attempts to force society to pay for a crisis it didn't cause." Approximately 30,000 to 52,000 protesters attended the demonstration on the streets of central London. Further protests were held on 24 and 30 November, and 9 December, with students holding rallies and occupying government and university buildings. Organisers said that most of the protests were peaceful, but sporadic acts of violence and vandalism were reported by authorities; protesters and police officers alike were injured, and in some cases hospitalised.

*This video is helpful as it will show us how people behaved during the protest and it also gives us an idea on what to write on the posters for our props.