ICONIC POSTERS

Nowadays Hollywood churns out at least 10 posters for every film released ranging from the main poster to character posters to teaser posters. However it used to be that 1 poster was produced for a film and was treated more as a piece of artwork than just promotion. This is why many older film posters are more artistic and in my opinion are far more effective, compared to more recent posters which are edited photographs more often than not.

This is a small collection of some of the most iconic film posters of all time:

This poster for Hitchcock's Vertigo was designed by Saul Bass in 1958. The poster is based on a simplified two-colour process that uses hand cut lettering against the orange background. The only figures shown are the hand-drawn figures of James Stewart and Kim Novak. The film on its release was seen as slightly outside the Hollywood normal, more edgy and physiologically complex, this is reflected in the poster through the typeface and abstract graphics.

Perhaps THE most iconic poster of all time is the Jaws poster designed by Roger Kastel in 1975. Through one image the poster manages to exploit the audience's fear of the unknown - what is beneath them in the sea. The combination of the blood-red type, thick border and size of the shark in comparison to the girl all add to the impact of the poster. However undoubtedly what makes this poster so great is the impression it leaves on the audience before they have even seen the film, it is truly unforgettable and therefore is so effective.

Stephen Frankfurt's poster for Downhill Racer in 1969 is not seen widely a particularly iconic poster, however in my opinion it should come close. The use of negative space below the up-close photo of these two characters makes for a powerful poster, plus the subtle skier in the centre. These basic elements of the poster manage to sum up the rough plot of the film in a very simple but effective way. The title noticeably does not fill all of the negative space, it is consciously smaller than what would be expected. This can happen because the top half of the poster manages to draw the audience in so well that it draws the eye down to the title at the bottom.

These are some more of the many iconic posters that leave such a mark on their audiences that they can draw almost anyone to see the film:

tb

POSTER IDEAS

Harry and I together came up with some initial ideas for our film poster. We thought about our opening sequence in which Amelie descends the staircase, and this gave us the idea of an imitation of Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending A Staircase" which involved one image made up of a still from each shot of Amelie on a different stair. By changing opacity of the stills the stairs would seem to stay in one place, while Amelie is a blur bumping down the stairs.

Our next similar idea was using the same series of stills, but in the style of Eadweard Muybridge's original "Nude Descending A Staircase". Using each still in black and white with a grainy texture to make them look a similar style to the original images.

Another of our initial ideas was after looking at this poster for "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". If we wanted to follow a more conventional route for our poster, something similar to this would work well as it is quite and intense and full-on close-up. The fact that the boy has his hands across his face fits well with our film as it reflects the feeling of being trapped that our characters feel.

The final of our initial ideas was based around an image we found called "An Autistic Brain". It is a collage which we both thought that when tailored towards our film could be and interesting and more quirky way of presenting our film.

TB

TITLE POSSIBILITIES/THEMES

We have created a picture & wordle inspiration to come up with our film title which is currently unnamed. After much deliberation I came up with the idea of PaperWeight - the phrase references several moments in the film and the relationship that is the centre of it. A paperweight holds down and restricts what it rests upon as Amelie does with Emma it also refers to the hectic lifestyle Emma leads and Amelie's obsession with tidiness and neatness. 

Thus the film was called

PAPERWEIGHT

HH

UPDATE #9

I am finding as I put together the rough cut that we have a lot of footage and it is going to be very difficult to trim it down so much that it is around 5 minutes, it may consist of us having to cut entire sequences such as the rubik's cube or stairs scenes.

I decided that I should make the effort to properly use keywords in Final Cut Events to help organise our footage by location this has made the editing process much quicker and more efficient so far.

tb

UPDATE #8

We filmed all day Saturday last weekend and managed to get all of the footage we needed well within our time limits. We found Amelie was actually very easy to work with despite the fact that she was only 5 years old, and of course Rachel was very helpful as she is experienced in acting herself. It felt like a lot of work and the day was very full on however it was good to get the bulk of filming done in one go. So far the only thing that we have found we will definitely need to reshoot is the opening stairs sequence as the light seems to change between the shots and the camera moves slightly when it shouldn't. We could have fixed the lighting issue with colour matching however because the camera moves we feel it will be better if we can sort this on location at the reshoot in a couple of weekends.

tb

INTRODUCTION TO NON-DIAGETIC SOUND

Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

• narrator's commentary

• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect

• mood music

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. 

The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening.  We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are  represented as coming from outside the space of the story events.  A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). 

Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound. 

RESEARCH NON-DIEGETIC SOUNDTRACK

In common film music and soundtrack - a producer and director will hire a composer and sound producer to create sound based on information and research that the director/producer provides for inspiration and style. They will attach a storyboard and give clear structure to the sound and when its needed. It's important that if the sound is being created before the film is made that the story and style is very clear so that the wanted effect is created.

With our film we feel it's important that the non-diegetic sound doesn't add all the emotion to the film but that it's an aid. You should be able to watch the film and understand it the same way you would with non-diegetic sound.

Good examples of non-diegetic sound being used and natural sound being enhanced are in my studied short films such as White & Apricot, the sound is very much an aid rather than leading the film where as in Future Proof for example the sound is leading, more like a music video.

HH

INTRODUCTION TO DIAGETIC SOUND

Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

• voices of characters 

• sounds made by objects in the story 

• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world 

Digetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. 

Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound  

• Diegesis is a Greek word for "recounted story"

• The film's diegesis is the total world of the story action   

RESEARCH DIEGETIC SOUND

This article on Sound in Film has helped me learn more about how people use sound and tips from experts. http://www.freestockmusic.com/2011/article/diegetic-non-diegetic/

This website and article gives some really interesting tips and DIY ways of enhancing sound with foley and other enhancements that can be created through Logic/GarageBand or Final Cut Pro. This article emphasises the importance of sound in film and how it aids the storyline, no film is complete without relevant sound, even if it is abstract. http://www.videomaker.com/article/15797-diegetic-sound

HH

UPDATE #7

I have found online, on the London Sci-Fi Film Festival website, a competition page that provides free downloadable footage. The footage is for a trailer called Facility; there is about 10 mins of footage for a 60 second trailer. I have downloaded all the footage and plan to edit my own version of the trailer over the weekend right before we start editing our own film as it will be the best way to practice using Final Cut Pro X again,  having not used it for a year. This will familiarise myself with the program and mean that when I start editing I can get straight into rather than spend time reminding myself of how the program works.

tb

STORYBOARD

This is our storyboard animatic with added sound and the script. I did  all the drawings for it while harry added all the sounds and script. We have tried to get the timings of the shots as right as we can however this will be easier using the actual footage.

HH + TB

FILMING SCHEDULE

We are filming from 9am - 3pm on Saturday 16th November at Theo's house. We are setting up shots and props from 7.30am so that when our actors arrive at 9 we will be ready to film.

We plan to spend roughly 2-3minutes per shot. We divided 5 hours (our filming time) by the 140 shots we have and have produced an average 2minutes per shot. Although this is very tight we have planned meticulously and by sticking to the schedule we should be able to get some shots done in only a minute and others in a longer time.

9am - 12am

The Build up to and Fit from Shot 60 - 117

12am - 12.30pm

The End of the Film from Shot 118 - 139

(whilst Amelie has Lunch) 

12.30pm - 1.55pm

Opening Stair Shots from Shot 1 - 11

(whilst Rachael has Lunch) 

1pm - 1.30pm 

Beginning of Act 2 from Shot 46 - 59

1.30pm - 3pm

Act 1 from Shot 12 - 44 

hh

SOUNDTRACK PLAN

THE PLAN: NON-DIEGETIC SOUNDTRACK

A close friend of mine - Cameron Jacobs is an incredible classical pianist but can improvise easily to certain moods or atmospheres. For our film soundtrack, we don't want to set anything in stone until we have filmed and produced our rough edit. It's important to us that the non-diegetic sound enhances the diegetic and aids the film in its purpose.

With recording Cameron - we plan to tell him nothing about the film and then when we are ready to record, link a keyboard to recording equipment which is available in our school music department and show him the film raw, simply allowing him to play what he feels appropriate.

We will then tell Cameron specifics that he needs to play and look out for, moments lasting a certain amount of time that we have pre-decided to fit with the film. He can then adhere to our requirements, neither of us are able to write music for him to play but I have experience in music and can clearly show Cameron our intentions, after the initial viewing and recording we will also show him example pieces and short film examples for him to take inspiration from.

We will repeat this process seven times, obviously during the repetition of the process he will create something that he feels suits the mood and by the last times should be able to pre-empt what happens on screen and show this in his playing.

We realise this is a lot to ask a pianist in only an hour or two but Cameron is incredibly accomplished and has been playing most of his life. He also plays violin and guitar to a high standard and has experience in computer generated sound.

Once we have recorded material we feel is sufficient we plan to mix together parts of the seven tracks and create a master track that will accompany the film. There will be moments of silence within the film such as the blackout in-between the acts but apart from this we want to leave ourselves open to Cameron's interpretation, it would be a shame to waste such musical talent and intuition. Obviously if we don't feel it's appropriate we will cut it finely to change things around.

Once we have the master track we will add foley sounds such as swipes using Logic Pro & Final Cut Pro. It's important that the non-diegetic sound accompanies the film well. The reason we plan to film in the next two weeks is so that we have plenty of time to edit and add effects we feel appropriate to the sound.

HH

UPDATE #6

I have now finished the storyboard and have given it to Harry who will add some sound and possibly text or speech. We are filming on Saturday which is in 2 days so we are spending our time setting a filming schedule and contacting the actors to make sure that they are clear on what they are doing. Harry is collecting some of the props (mainly the different outfits for Amelie for the opening), whilst I have the equipment at home and I am doing a few extra recce shots including testing the new dolly wheels for the tracking shot along the table. The dolly wheels are new and neither Harry or I have used dolly wheels before for tracking shots so I have been testing them out to get a feel for how to control them whilst filming.

tb

ON SET

We are filming on Saturday 16th December, we have hired out:

• 2x Panasonic HD Cameras

• 2x Tripods

• 1x Dolly Wheels

• 1x Boom Pole

• 1x Stereo Mic

• 1x Directional Mic

• 1x Microtrack

• 1x Headphones

• 2x Kaiser Mains Lights

• 2x Light Filters - Day Blue Colour

• 1x Clapperboard 

• 1x Light Stand 

• 1x Nikon SLR 

We plan to use all the equipment and get the actors to help us during the production, we will both film as much as possible to try and get a range of shots, as we are using a child actor we want to capture as much as possible of what she does incase there is anything unexpected we want to use. One camera will film the shot list and the other will travel with one of us, filming form angles and compositions we can improvise at points along the way. It's not a necessity that we film with two cameras but we feel hopefully it will add any fillers we need. 

The lights will create an added effect specifically to the scene in the kitchen when we want to feel white around Amelie, the lights also provide the cold white colour we want, especially if the weather is overly dark on the day of filming, although the weather forecast is set to be clear.

We will try to take stills throughout the shooting day in attempt to capture a cover/poster photo that might be suitable. 

SOUND DESIGN

http://www.askaudiomag.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-apple-logic-9-part-1

Over the last few days I've been exploring Logic music software and learning basic sound development techniques so that when we come to complete our sound we will be able to edit sufficiently and won't be held back by our technical knowledge/limitations.

The program allows you to combine recorded sound with computer generated sound which is what we were hoping to do. It also gives us full control of the sound that we record.

We have also decided that we need to be clearer about how we want our sound to be in advance of recording with Cameron. We will still take some blind recordings from him but after a few takes we will show him some examples, samples and information about the kind of sound we want. In the next few days I'm analysing film music and mainly cross diegetic music which is a kind of enhanced diegetic sound, aided by non-diegetic SFX.

hh

UPDATE #5

I am on shot 100 of the storyboard and have been scanning in the drawings as I go in order to speed up the process. We have also set a final date for our filming which will be Saturday 16th November. We have had to delay our filming slightly due to availability of actors and problems with location some equipment including the dolly wheels. However now we have an extra week to finalise everything and start thinking about sound and possibly graphics.

tb

SOUND RESEARCH & IDEAS

A close friend of mine - Cameron Jacobs is an incredible classical pianist but can improvise easily to certain moods or atmospheres. For our film soundtrack, we don't want to set anything in stone until we have filmed and produced our rough edit. It's important to us that the non-diegetic sound enhances the diegetic and aids the film in its purpose.

With recording Cameron - we plan to tell him nothing about the film and then when we are ready to record, link a keyboard to recording equipment which is available in our school music department and show him the film raw, simply allowing him to play what he feels appropriate.

We will then tell Cameron specifics that he needs to play and look out for, moments lasting a certain amount of time that we have pre-decided to fit with the film. He can then adhere to our requirements, neither of us are able to write music for him to play but I have experience in music and can clearly show Cameron our intentions, after the initial viewing and recording we will also show him example pieces and short film examples for him to take inspiration from.

We will repeat this process seven times, obviously during the repetition of the process he will create something that he feels suits the mood and by the last times should be able to pre-empt what happens on screen and show this in his playing.

We realise this is a lot to ask a pianist in only an hour or two but Cameron is incredibly accomplished and has been playing most of his life. He also plays violin and guitar to a high standard and has experience in computer generated sound.

Once we have recorded material we feel is sufficient we plan to mix together parts of the seven tracks and create a master track that will accompany the film. There will be moments of silence within the film such as the blackout in-between the acts but apart from this we want to leave ourselves open to Cameron's interpretation, it would be a shame to waste such musical talent and intuition. Obviously if we don't feel it's appropriate we will cut it finely to change things around.

Once we have the master track we will add foley sounds such as swipes using Logic Pro & Final Cut Pro. It's important that the non-diegetic sound accompanies the film well. The reason we plan to film in the next two weeks is so that we have plenty of time to edit and add effects we feel appropriate to the sound.

With our film we feel it's important that the non-diegetic sound doesn't add all the emotion to the film but that it's an aid. You should be able to watch the film and understand it the same way you would with non-diegetic sound.

Good examples of non-diegetic sound being used and natural sound being enhanced are in my studied short films such as White & Apricot, the sound is very much an aid rather than leading the film where as in Future Proof for example the sound is leading, more like a music video.

hh

SHOT LIST

hh

CHARACTER: GIRL

• Amelie is a character who certainly looks as if she is a little crazy but also isn't abnormal in any way. She has quite and innocent look to her as well.
• She is younger looking than we had intended when using the boy, more around 7 years old, but again she will seem younger than that in the film due to her condition. However still with above average intelligence and understanding for her age (doing the rubik's cube), just struggling with communication with others.
• She understands she is autistic but struggles to relate that to her behaviour as she can justify all her actions as normal in her head.
• She likes to be on her own most of the time however when she wants attention she easily gets upset if she doesn't have it straight away. She is not bothered by that fact that she doesn't have many school-friends and doesn't understand why this does bother her mother.

Amelie is a character who won't necessarily be relatable by the audience, but the audience should connect with her as they will feel sorry for her, although we would not want the audience to pity her. Our target audience is older, more similar to the age of the mother, so it is possible parents watching will relate to Emma who has to deal with a difficult child.

ACTORS: AMELIE STANIJIC AS AMELIE

We've chosen to switch the script to a combination of Amelie & Rachael. The pair are already mother/daughter so they know each other meaning that their acting as this will be far grater than two people who don't know each other.

Amelie Stanijic

5yrs

3"8

Large, Brown Eyes

Long, Blonde Hair

Fair Skin

Amelie is a young girl, in yr1 at school. Her mother is Rachael Watkins, the actress playing Emma. She enjoys dressing up, playing with Lego & Toy Story and watching Shrek. She is very bright and can clearly take instruction.

I have no doubt she'll be able to act well for the film, especially as the mother and daughter relationship on screen is real. She has lots of clothes, girly and not-girly. She also has dressing up outfits that would give us the option of having her dressed in some more exciting clothes that an autistic/OCD child might like to wear.  

hh

SHOT LIST & STORYBOARD AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

We interviewed the same pair to get feedback on our final narrative that was derived through the shot-list and clarifying the storyline shot-by-shot. We asked them what they thought of the completed narrative and also what they thought of the storyboard animatic.

They thought;

"I love the completed narrative, it makes a lot more sense, the motifs we talked about are clearer and it  will let the audience, umm, feel more towards the child rather than confused I think"

"The drawings and use of the story video [animatic] are great, it makes it clear, if you stick to that I'm sure the film will turn out great"

"When you're filming make sure you stick to that storyboard, it looks really clear, and they're only stick characters!"

"The shot list is good, all the columns with the different things should make the filming pretty easy for you. The new narrative as well is pretty good, it makes more sense and is clearer"

From this we are far more pleased with our final choice of narrative and motifs, they felt that we had taken on their advice and got a clearer vision. We now want to confront the filming day itself and how we go about scheduling that day and working out the equipment we need.

UPDATE #4

Over half term Harry has been working on our shot list whilst I have worked on the storyboard. We decided to simply split the tasks instead of sharing both as this way we can both play to our strengths. Harry has now finished the shot list and we will talk through it together to confirm that we are both 100% happy with it before we post it. Currently I have done the storyboard for Act 1 and will do Act 2 once we have finalised the shot list for it.

TB

LOCATION RECCE

We did a recce of the location showing some of the different shots we will use. The recce was mainly so that we could see which shots would work or not, if any shots would need lights in certain places. Being on location was helpful as we came up with some other interesting filming ideas such as shot where we could pull focus, interesting camera angles and ways of composing each shot for a higher aesthetic.

HH + TB