Ancillary Task Research - Film Poster Research

The ghost rider is seen in the middle of both Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendez on the film poster. This suggests that either the ghost rider is going to get involved with someone who is close to both of the characters or the ghost rider is going to come in between the pair and interfere with the relationship that the two characters have in the film.

The slogan, “Long ago, he made a deal to save someone he loved” is also situated in between the two characters. Combining this with the previous comment made, the placement of the slogan suggests that it is there to fill the space of the character, who in the film feels the wrath of the Ghost Rider.

Although the burning bike is facing to the left, the flames which are coming off the bike are leaving the bike and then surrounding the picture of the character played by Nicholas Cage. This represents the fact that the plans of the Ghost Rider could affect Nicholas Cage’s character a lot more suggesting the Ghost Rider will have hold and surround his character; similar to how the flames have surrounded his picture on the poster.

Behind the bike there is an image of a female’s body being carried out of what looks like a burning object, by a masked man. The woman could represent one of two options to those who have not yet seen the film. Either the females body is the person who is going to feel the Ghost Riders wrath, therefore creating the question of why is he saving her from the burning object, or the second option is that the woman is the person who was “...saved long ago” and now the Ghost Rider has come back for her or for revenge.

The typography of the title name helps to portray some of the themes that will be seen in the film. Stereotypically, ghosts are known to be white, hence the traditional white she to make a ghost for around Halloween. The white writing in the title text allows the poster to confirm that there will be an element of ghostly themes appearing in the film.

“Rider”, the second word of the film’s title suggests that there will be an element of racing in amongst the films narrative. The text has a red mist/smoke effect coming off the left side of each individual letter, this is a similar effect given to objects when making them look as if they are moving. With the smoke effect leaving the text on the left side, it gives the look that he text is moving and going to the right; the same way that the bike is facing.

Ancillary Task Research

For A2 Media Coursework, there are two ancillary tasks to go alongside the creation of my main coursework piece. The ancillary tasks vary between each type of coursework piece. Due to me doing a short film, my ancillary tasks therefore are a film poster and a film review. To get my ancillary tasks to the best standard possible, I should research other film posters and film reviews to get an idea has to how posters are designed and layed out as well as the way film reviews are written to ensure the writer gets their opinion of the film across to the reader without writing too much information.


I have already done a bit of research on film posters, as can be seen on the post with the Due Date film poster followed by an analysis. I will extend my research on film posters and will try to cover as many different film genres as possible to expand my knowledge and ideas and to ensure my film poster portrays my film in the right way by including the correct elements.

Audience Research

Every film has a Typical Audience Member, someone who is an exact replica of the sort of person who would normally watch the film.
For example, the typical audience member for a film such as The Notebook, would be a teenage girl. A girl who likes to take part in typical teenage girl activities such as, shopping, having sleepovers with friends, talking about boys, fantasizes over male celebrities and has a room covered in posters of their favourite musicians.

Therefore my short film would also have a typical audience member. The typical audience member for my film could quite possibly be split 50% young boys, 50% young girls. They would have a large interest in the music industry and possibly have ambitions similar to the characters seen in my film. People with large music interests are the main type of people who I tried to get my film to converge to, this is due to the people watching may have a similar ambition to those seen in my film and would automatically create a relationship/bond between the character and the audience, which would automatically entice the audience to continue watching the film.

The style of my typical audience member is represented in the style of each of my characters; including skinny jeans, with a band t-shirt, dc's or converse shoes.

Song Lyrics

Although my coursework piece is a Short Film, the lack of dialogue and the visuals included in parts of my film suggested that a use of a song over the top of the visuals could be a good idea to allow the visuals to give the impression that they are representing time going by but without any significant events happening.


The song that I decided to put over the top of some of the visuals is Paramore - Careful. I chose to include this song, because after doing quite a bit of research into many different songs by a few different bands, I found that this one has a meaning to it which would support the message given in my film.


Many people shared the opinion of the song meaning that what ever someone wants in life, it isn't going to be handed to them on a plate, they have to work for it and put a lot of effort into achieving a goal and then sustaining it. I also share this opinion; I have put the lyrics in bold to explicitly express which lyrics are those that make me think that could be the meaning to the song.


Paramore - Careful Lyrics
I settled down
A twisted-up frown
Disguised as a smile
Well, you would've never known
I had it all, but not what I wanted
'Cause hope for me was a place uncharted
And overgrown



You'd make your way in
I'd resist you just like this
You can't tell me to feel
The truth never set me free
So I did it myself



You can't be too careful anymore
When all that is waiting for you
Won't come any closer
You've got to reach out a little more
More, more, more, more



Open your eyes
Like I open mine
It's only the real world
A life you will never know
Shifting your weight to throw off the pain
Well, you can ignore it
But only for so long



You look like I did
You resist me just like this
You can't tell me to heal
And it hurts remembering
How it felt to shut down



Can't be too careful anymore
When all that is waiting for you
Won't come any closer
You've got to reach out a little more
More, more, more, more



The truth never set me free
The truth never set me free
The truth never set me free
So I'll do it myself



You can't be too careful anymore
When all that is waiting for you
Won't come any closer
You've got to reach out



Can't be too careful anymore
When all that is waiting for you
You won't come any closer
You've got to reach out more
More, more, more, more

Storyboard

These are the storyboards that I had designed to help me plan out my film. They include the camera angle that was decided on, as well as what the camera was going to film. I am happy that I managed to film near enough exactly the sort of things that I had originally planned on filming.

Genre Research

The idea for my coursework piece originated from the film 'Almost Famous'.

Almost Famous is about a young teenager; William Miller who is hired by Rolling Stone magazine.  He tours with an up and coming band who is trying to get their band publicised in the music world; he helps to promote and publicise the band by writing reviews on their gigs and sets up interviews after the band reach another step in their journey.

According to the IMDB website, Almost Famous is classed with the Drama and Music genre. This would therefore be the genre that I would class my short film.

Examples of other films that conform to the conventions of a Music genre film are films such as; Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010); School of Rock (2003) and 8 Mile (2002).

Examples of films which conform to the conventions of a Drama genre film are films such as; Black Swan (2010); The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Pulp Fiction (1994).

Script

There is very little dialogue throughout my film. This did initially cause some concern when originally planning out my film. But now that a lot of it has been filmed with only a few bits of dialogue left to film, I am happy that the amount of footage without dialogue evenly weighs out the footage which does include dialogue.

The video footage which appears at the beginning of the film, includes a piece of music over the top of the footage.

Scene 5:

Brent: “Hey what’s the matter?”

Amy: “We got another rejection letter today and I just don’t see the band going anywhere. “

Brent: “Don’t be silly we will work something out.”

Amy: “Hmm okay.”

Scene 7: Phone Call

Amy: Hello?

(fictional person on the other end of the phone replies)

Amy: Oh right okay.

(fictional person on the other end of the phone replies)

Amy: *gasps* Really? Yeah that’s amazing, we would love to.

(fictional person on the other end of the phone replies)

Amy: Okay, so that’s March 28^th at Newton Road Labour Club/

(fictional person on the other end of the phone replies)

Amy: Yep okay, thank you so much. Bye.

Scene 8: After the phone call

Amy: Guess what?!

Brent: What?

Amy: We’ve got a gig!

Brent: Really? I told you we would.

Scene 9: After the gig

Amy: Oh my god! That was awesome.

Brent: Yeah! I agree!

Location and Prop List (Additional items may be added)

Locations

Nacton Road Youth Club

Nacton Road/Cliff Lane

Outside Margaret Catchpole or Newton Road Labour Club

Prop List

Guitars x 2

Microphone

Leads

Amp x 3

Posters

Phone / (Laptop)

Envelope

Characters

In my film there will be maximum of 4 characters in my film although only 2 of these will be my main characters.
The style and characterisation of each character is important towards to mise-en-scene as it adds more reality to the film and it allows the audience to interact with the characters and allow them to create a relationship with them through their similarities or their differences. For example; if a character in a film was to enjoy the same genre of music as a member of the audience then naturally that audience member would most likely favour this character over the others in the film.

Amy

Her style icons are: 

 Hayley Williams, Paramore

Avril Lavigne

Taylor Momsen, The Pretty Recklass

Amy enjoys many things and is normally keen to go along with the majority and isn't fussed where her social group go as long as they are having fun. Amy enjoys listening to music; she also enjoys playing her guitar either covering songs by artists or writing her own music and writing lyrics to create a song of her own. She is a multi-talented person who can play the guitar, write songs and sing them; she also has the ambition of learning how to play the drums. She frequently goes to concerts in and around her local town, and also goes to a festival each year; her life ambition is for her to be up on the stage with teenagers like herself attending her bands concerts. Amy also frequently dyes her hair; the colours can range between each of her two main idols; Hayley Williams and Avril Lavigne but are normally styled on the look of Hayley Williams, ranging from bright yellow or orange to a dark red.


Despite Amy appearing to have a happy and bubbly personality, there are a few things she dislikes. She is the kind of person who most of the time is happy in life and enjoys whatever she does with no regrets; but if she was to hit a 'bump in the road' and that made her feel like it was resulting in her having to finish what she enjoys doing then she gets quite unhappy about it but tries her best to avoid it happening and normally successfully does so, enabling her to continue with her activities. As well as this she dislikes having headphones which don't work or headphones with only one ear piece that works, she also hates people who don't do what they want to do and instead take part in activities which their peers seem to enjoy and therefore makes them look a lot "cooler."

Brent

His style icons are:

 Rob Flynn, Machine Head

Matt Tuck, Bullet for my Valentine

Synyster Gates, Avenged Sevenfold

 Brent likes to spend his time playing his guitar writing new songs as well as recreating original songs already made by his idols. He also enjoys art, although he tends to only use pencils when he is drawing. As well as both of these activities, he likes spending time out at night when it is dark.

In addition to all of these, he also enjoys reading reviews; whether its a review of an artists CD, a film, a concert or a game, he has also attempted to write his own reviews that seem to be quite popular on the internet.

Brent has a few dislikes which is why he can sometimes be seen as quite ignorant and sometimes a bit naive. Due to his liking of night time, it wouldn't surprising to learn that Brent isn't a fan of the summer season, lighter mornings and lighter nights means there is a lot less darkness for him to enjoy.

He doesn't like mainstream music, he will only listen to rock or metal music and its surrounding genres, he doesn't like any of the music that appears in today's charts as he feels that the songs are all easily created by buttons and tuners rather than a band standing up infront of a big crowd and playing real music with a guitar and a drum kit.

Coursework Idea Synopsis

Ive decided to go along with my second idea. It's a lot more appropriate than my other ideas, and hopefully its a bit different to what is usually done by other people who complete the course.

Band History

The trio first got together in their third year of High School after they found out they each had similar life goals as well as similar music tastes to make their life goals more achievable together.

Afer the band formed, they  frequently met up and began to explore each of their tealents and the extent of which they can go.

Now they are still together and still just as determined to make it into the big music world as they were this time 3 years ago.

Synopsis

A band who practice at a local youth and enjoy socialising together and with their other friends from oputside the band are trying to crack the music industry. They are aware of how hard it can be but motivation levels are high throughout the band giving them the will power to fight to try and grab that once in a lifetime oppurtunirty for them to get signed by a record label. The band try everything; they send out hand written letters, electronically typed letters, emails, CD of some of their work including both covers and their own music. They've tried everything but they keep getting rejected and being told to stick at it and that their time will come.

The singer of band recieves another rejection letter from a record label, another one that gets added to the pile of many that they have already recieved. She notifies the other members of the band and while on the phone to one of them, she tells them that she's starting to see the end of the bands life. She explains to them that shes close to giving up and she doesn't want to continue living a lie. Her fellow band mate reassures her and persuades her to keep going, and promises her that the band will pull together and work even harder than they are already to make sure that the band make it into the music industry.

The band go out again sticking up posters on every tree and on every lampost. The owner of a small venue phones them to tell them about a gig he is holding at his venue, where small local bands can perform in hope of giving out numbers and contact details to various record companies in hope of getting signed.The band go along to the night, and after the gig they exit from the venue with all of them being in a happy and optimistic mood both about their lives and the future of their band. 

Following on from this, will be a screen showing the bands successes over the last 15 years, showing a range of CD album covers they have done, figures of how many albums sold, countries they've toured in, other famous people they have worked with.