Ancillary task preparation

Today we were given the task of recreating a film poster. This would be practice for our personal ancillary task, for which we have to create a film poster and magazine review. I was in a group with fellow students and we were given a certain poster to recreate; we were given the poster for the comedy film: The Hangover Part II. The poster we have to recreate is below:

 



First of all we took photos of 3 people, each in the role of the 3 characters you can see above. The pictures were taken in front of a green screen so that the pictures of the 3 replacement people would slip into the photo easily when editing them in on photo shop.
After the photos were taken, the editing process began and my colleague (who is a photo shop pro) began by editing out the 3 original characters. After this was done, my colleague began editing in the 3 new characters. To top it off, a beard and bald cap was added to one of the characters to make him look original. The finished product is below!

Short film #5 - What are the pros and cons in creating a short film in comparison to a feature film?

Short films are usually great but there are some drawbacks, so lets get those out the way:

• A short film is less likely to be shown at a cinema, unlike a feature film. 
• Usually it will be much harder to fit a detailed story into such a short space of time, unlike a feature film when you have time to include a detailed story with lots of plot twists and drama. A short film will usually be left on a cliff hanger which is bad for some viewers that may like a story that is told fully.
• The market for short films is a lot smaller than the market for feature films. 

Although there are a few drawbacks, here are the good points about short film:

• On the whole, a short film will take a shorter amount of time to produce.
• A short film will be significantly cheaper to make than a full-blown feature length film. 
• Usually it is easier to find actors for a short film because they do not have to be as talented as an actor that you would expect to see in a feature length film. Too add to this, viewers usually expect a big name actor to appear in a feature film.
• A short film often ends on a cliff hanger and this can be good for viewers as they will be left with a surprise and no doubt lots of questions that they can discuss with their fellow viewers. 

Short films #4 - How has the short film market benefitted from digital technologies?

In this blog post I shall evaluate how the short film market has benefitted from digital technologies by looking at how digital technology has affected the production, marketing and consumption of short film.

First of all I will look at how digital technology has benefitted the short film market in terms of production. Due to the rise in affordability of digital film cameras, more and more people can simply pick up a camera and film some footage that can be used to easily make their own short film. In addition to this, editing software has become cheaper and therefore more widely available for use. This combination of affordable digital cameras and cheaper (and easier to use) editing software has resulted in the rise of people being able to make their own short films and post them on youtube, Vimeo, and social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter. This has obviously had a positive impact on the short film market because young film makers have been more able to produce films easily and share them instantly. 

Secondly, I will look at how digital technology has benefitted the short film market in the form of marketing. Thanks to the introduction of the world wide web and along with it, social networking, the marketing of short films is as easy as ever. For example, if a young film maker is releasing his/her first ever short film, he/she can easily set up Facebook, twitter and Instagram accounts and use these to advertise the film by posting pictures of the film being produced, short interviews with cast members and last but not least, a trailer for his/her film. Digital technology has benefitted the short film market in terms of marketing because overall, the use of social networking makes it simple and free for anyone to advertise their short films.

Thirdly and finally, I will look at how digital technology has benefitted the short film market in terms of consumption. To start off, with the introduction of free video sites such as youtube and Vimeo, millions of people can view short films on their desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones whenever they want. This is a benefit to the short film market as loads of people can see uploaded short films and there is no cost to the short film producer to upload the finished video online. Another way in which the short film market has benefitted from digital technology is that the internet is completely free to gain access to and the increase in the affordability of smartphones and tablets means that more people than ever can go online and view short films. 

Overall, the short film market has benefitted greatly from new digital technology because short films are now easier to make, more people can produce them, new short films can be advertised to the general public without any charge, and finally millions of people have access to the internet on which countless short films can be viewed. 

Short films #3 - Who is the short film market audience?

The first and most vital short film market audience are the groups of film distributors and producers that attend film festivals such as the Toronto Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. They are the key short film market audience because film makers that are establishing themselves usually produce short films and show them at multiple film festivals hoping to get recognised and picked up by film distributors. The other audience that the short film market targets are children that watch big feature films such as Toy Story, Cars and Finding Nemo. Short films are usually put on a DVD release of these kind of films so that children do not get bored and in return, large media conglomerates make millions of dollars more when they charge more for the extra aspect of a short film on the DVD release. The final short film market audience target is young media studies students like ourselves, and this is because we often watch them for inspiration for our own short films that we have to produce at A2 level. 

Short films #2 - How are short films consumed?

Thanks to the widely available use of digital technology, short films can be easily watched in a number of ways. First of all, films can be viewed by anyone on free video sites such as Youtube and Vimeo, on a wide range of devices such as laptops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones. Secondly, short films can be viewed on subscription-based services such as Amazon Prime and Sky Box Office. As well as this, short films can usually be viewed on the television on channels like Film4 and sometimes E4 and Channel 4. In addition to this, short films are often advertised on these channels and in the last few months the 'Short shorts' page has been advertised on Channel 4 and E4 channels, persuading viewers to go online and view hundreds of short films free of charge. The final way, and maybe the most common way in which short films are consumed (apart from online viewing), is the method of large conglomerate media companies releasing short films on an extra disc in the DVD releases of films. An example of this includes the time when Disney included a short film called: 'Toy Story Toons - Hawaiian Vacation' on all DVD/Blu-ray releases of Cars 2 in 2011. Below are some images of Disney/Pixar short film releases:

            

Short film #1 - What is a short film?

A short film is a film that is not long enough to be considered as a feature film. There are no strict rules that govern whether a film is a short film or not but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences clearly defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". There a few important things about short films that you should take note of:

• Short films can be professional or amateur productions.
• Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals.
• Short films are often made by independent filmmakers (such as Warp Films) for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all, and in rare cases big budgets.
• Short films are usually funded by film grants, non profit organisations, sponsors, or out of pocket funds. (Examples include - National Lottery Funding
• These films are used by indie filmmakers to prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies, or film studios.

Examples of successful short films include:

• Toy Story of Terror (2013)
• The Real Ghostbusters (2011)
• Doctor Who - Time Crash (2007)

The films above are from the IMDb's most popular short film list. There are loads more to find out about on this list, you can see it by following the link below:

http://www.imdb.com/search/title?title_type=short