Liam Drake

In creating our short film have attempted to replicate the successful formulas of the horror/thriller genre. Fast cutting is a convention that is consistently used in this genre, the pace of the cuts helps to keep the audience entertained during action scenes. It also aids the flow of the film, as it builds up to a climax. Close ups are also utilised in out short film , especially extreme close ups as these help to create horror and suspense by enabling the audience to view the expression of the actor on the screen.
The use of the camera is critically important when making a short film. Each shot shown in the film was actually filmed plenty of times from different angles, this enabled us to create a successful film when it came to editing as we could select the most effective shots, and cut them together when we felt it was appropriate. Again this technique has been adopted from professional film productions, who will film scenes several times in order to achieve perfection.

There is no dialogue between two characters in our film, the lead character is never presented with an opportunity to converse with another character throughout the film. This unorthodox approach challenges the codes of cinema as you would traditionally expect there to be some form of conversation between characters. Instead, we have used voice-overs in our film to narrate a message which has been directed towards and read by the character, as this is the way the antagonist communicates, hence the name Social enemy as he uses technology to interact with the protagonist. Our film is a hybrid of many genres; Horror, thriller, action being the primary three. The conventions of horror genres is the build up of suspense, the tension builds up to a climax when the audiences emotions have reached a pinnacle point it is then the film with hit a crescendo, occasionally the director will throw in a red herring. Similarly the thriller genre plays up to the audiences emotions, building suspense to shock the viewers. Conventions of this genre are rapid camera cuts to create a frantic pace this is wear action is tied into the genre. As the fast cuts are most prevalent in scenes that involve action, for instance running or chase scenes. Typically the finally scene is wear the protagonist and the antagonist finally meet/resolve the narrative. However, our film ends on a cliffhanger. Allowing the audience to decide the fare of the hero character for themselves. This is a risk though as some people believe cliffhanger ending are cop-outs by producers whilst others are sceptical as it leaves the potential of a possible sequel open. I believe the technique is effective in our film, as it leaves it open to the audiences imagination. The black screen before the credits roll lasts for a few seconds, this is a technique that was used in the sopranos tv series and it caused some controversy. The connotations with the black screen are fatal, it is a reflection of death and a theory of what possibly happens when somebody has been killed. The audience is allowed to create its own interpretation.

The story follows a linear pattern, as the character moves from scene to scene, marked by his arrival at a different location. The editing has enabled us to do this by cutting and putting together sequences of film to make them all appear cohesive. We have adopted the stereotypical narrative of the damsel in distress. The lead attempts to rescue his girlfriend who has been taken hostage by an unknown enemy, it is his job to locate her whereabouts and to free her. This is a story that resembles one of fairtytales and children's stories. We have been able to take this narrative and develop it into a horror story in the modern age by implementing the technological aspect in our props, mobile phones. An everyday modern necessity that is used to the antagonists advantage.

For my film poster I have used a clean style to create an impact piece that is clear in its aim. It follows standard conventions of film posters, with the actors names displayed in large text, production information in the traditional font and style across the bottom and the title of the film is the largest text on the page. The font style is modern and futuristic, creating a house style that reflects the genre of the movie. The aim of my poster is to promote the film and attract the audience to go and see it, through the use of the structured layout, with the central image being key, it draws the audience in, who will be interested in finding out what the poster is advertising. The tag line You life is online Is both a pun and a enigma code. It is a play on words of your life is on the line, putting a technological spin on the saying, connoting the horror genre of the film, implying that is a life or death narrative, that involves elements of scifi/technology. White text on the film poster always looks effective. The image I used was a still from the film, therefore I did not want to stretch it too much as the quality would be drastically affected therefore I had to take an unorthodox approach and leave a white strip along the foot of the image. I feel this has worked well though as the date and website for the film stand out more than if they were placed over the top of an image.

I believe my final poster appears to follow the same style as this short film poster for the film Drawback. They too have followed a clean simple approach, using the character as the central image as the key figure. The actors staring in the film are displayed at one end of the portrait image, and the use of White text is effective in drawing the eye in contrast with the darkness of the image. Short film posters are very different in comparison to glossy mainstream pictures. The difference in audience is the catalyst for this, independent film watchers are less interested in multi-million pound advertising campaigns. Indie film producers cannot afford to create high value distributions, instead the posters are more basic in comparison. Indie film watcher will view films based on content and rarely be influenced to watch/not watch a film based entirely on its poster.

For the double page spread I decided to stage an interview with the lead actor in the film for a film magazine that I had made up, I have names the magazine MMM. The readership for the magazine are film-goers who are interested in both mainstream film shown in multiplexes and also independent films. The stereotypical features of double page spreads are all there with headlines, copy in columns, quotations an info boxes, plus the traditional Q+A styled layout of the interview. The layout of the piece is crucial to setting it out as though it were to be featured in a magazine. Ive attempted to create a structure with a border to provide some continuity I have used the same font style for the title of the film on the double page as the poster. Images are a very important part of the piece, all of the pictures features are stills taken from the film production, or they were taken whilst out on set. The images are used to entice the audience to read the article, and also to attract them to the film.