PALIMPSEST: Final Version

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Final Poster

Magazine Review 

EVALUATION QUESTIONS. Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge other media products?
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EVALUATION QUESTIONS. Question 2 - how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

EVALUATION QUESTIONS. Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback? | Create infographics

EVALUATION QUESTIONS. Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.

CALVERT JOURNAL Features.

Audience Feedback

In order to get some feedback about my short film and ancillary products, it was necessary to produce a questionnaire. I was familiar with the process of getting feedback, because for my AS production work, I had to gather audiences's feedback as well. Feedback is powerful as it helps people get on track, it serves as a guide to assist people to know how they and others perceive their performance. In my case, gathered feedback, will help me to improve my work based on information I will get from my questionnaire.

Here is the questionnaire which I produced in order to gather feedback.

Why Little White Lies rather than Calvert Journal

For my review magazine, as you already know from previous posts, I have chosen The Little White Lies,  rather than Calvert Journal. Despite the fact, that Calvert Journal attracts international audiences, which would serve beneficial for my production work, The Little White Lies specialise in featuring and reviewing different sorts of films. What is more importantly, Little White Lies also focuses on local festivals, such as WaterSprite Festival in Cambridge.  Because of this reason I prefer my work to be reviewed in magazine, such as Little White Lies. 

The Calvert Journal is unlikely to review independently produced films. Instead, it would focus on group projects, and feature specific details, whereas Little White Lies would focus on independent films, as well as review local festivals. Calvert Journal, however, features all the things associated with photography and art design, therefore, it would be not the best "location" to set my work in. 

Here is the Calvert Journal link. 

If you have followed the link above, you noticed that Calvert Journal website is mostly associated with youth projects about art&design. Featuring my film, in such magazine, would not suit the format of this particular journal. However, there is one strong advantage of Calvert Journal. It is associated with Russian culture, which would allow my film to be reviewed in Russian,  which would attract more and more audience, especially youths. 

Little White Lies, however, has completely different format. It reviews about newest films and famous actors' life. Here is a good Little White Line LINK , to compare with Calvert Journal. Furthermore, Little White Lies web-site has a separate section for reviews, where all the most "hot" films and short-films are settled. 

Little White Lies and Calvert Journal

In order to produce the review page, featuring my film, I have examined several magazines which specialize of reviews. 

Little White Lies is an excellent example of the abstract style, used to review all type of films. Because of this reason I decided to feature my work, in this specific magazine.The design of each issue is inspired by its feature film, often represented on the cover by an illustration of its lead actor. The cover film also influences interior aspects, such as editorial icons, chapter headings and custom typefaces. However, the overall template of the magazine remains the same. Therefore, it is a good magazine to feature your film in. Furthermore, It was called "the best-designed film magazine on the shelf" in The Guardian. Its content is split into three acts: the lead review, a series of feature articles inspired by the cover film, and the reviews section, which also includes interviews with directors and stars of upcoming movies. This suggests, that this particular review magazine has a lot of consumers, who would read about my work

Another magazine, which I wanted my review to be based on is Calvert Magazine. The Calvert Journal is a guide to the contemporary culture of the new east: the post-Soviet world, the Balkans and the former socialist states of central and eastern Europe. At the beginning, I wanted to base my review there, as this journal reflects the atmosphere of post Soviet era, which would suit my A2 production film, as a part of it was filmed in Russian.

HERE IS THE LINK FOR CALVERT JOURNAL

"Having launched in 2013 with a Russia-only focus, we are increasingly broadening our scope to include other countries, embracing the challenges involved in covering such a large and complex area. Based in London — and with content-sharing partnerships with international titles including The Guardian, Business Insider, Meduza and The Moscow Times"

The Calvert Journal also focuses abroad and attracts audiences from around the world. Putting my review there would help me to gather some more audiences throughout the globe, which would allow my film to move to international scale. 

The Creation of Poster

In order to produce examples of the possible future posters, it was necessary to superimpose some of the images from my film. In my opinion, "blending" images was a quite good idea, as it allows to link the actual film and the poster. In addition, unusual title of my film (Palimpsest) is defined as manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing, therefore, to combine two images was a successful idea. 

So, that is what i got so far, however I need to chose one. 

 

In order to produce this kind of image, I superimposed two images. One image, i took in Moscow. If you carefully look at the background of this picture, you will see the outline of the famous cathedral located on the Red Square in Moscow. Also, I used the photo with Millenium Bridge in London and brightened a colour a little.

The same process I used to create this variation of my poster. This image involves two superimposed images, as well as added graphical effects, which allows the poster to have a "dream" look. I have reduced the colour a little, in order to contrast one image from the other, and added some necessary effects.

The final variation of the poster involves two "blended" images as well. In my opinion, this poster, directly links with the idea as well as the narrative of my short film, as it is about car crash. Furthermore, this image involves some graphics, which could be linked with the graphical effects in the beginning and ending in my film.  

Samsung Sponsorship Idea

I have already came across with some short films sponsored by Samsung. It is possible, that Samsung, as a huge international company, would want to promote some films made by young people, for example, through the local festival like Watersprite. The combination of, perhaps, six or seven short films screened locally, which are sponsored by Samsung, would gain some popularity among the audience. 

Screening short films in festivals, would give the products a chance to move the screening from local to international or global scale. This would work perfectly with my film, as it would link Moscow's and London's audience together. Samsung Sponsorship idea, therefore, might give an amazing promotion of the film to international audience. Increasingly the internet is making possible methods of distribution, that in the past filmmakers could only dream of. Web based communities of filmmakers have the latest advice on distribution and exhibition for independent producers and film clip websites like YouTube can create the possibility for new filmmakers to reach a huge audience.

As far as, funding for small to medium projects may have come from a grant like Samsung and depending on the contract the film may be tied into their distribution schemes. As the film gains popularity among local and global audience, it would benefit both, a funding organisation(Samsung) as well as producers, as profit will be gained from selling the tickets or releasing a hard copy of the film, such as DVD. It might also be an idea, to promote small-scale films on the tablets and smartphones, as Samsung is mostly associated with the phone company. 

Linking it back to my film, providing an online access on smartphones, would be ideal for Samsung, because on modern society, it is a rare thing if one do not have a smartphone. Furthermore, the popularity of the product is going to increase, making the short film more popular among the audience.

Originally it was my idea, to link my production work to phone company like Samsung, as they will provide the film on smartphones and tablets, so the idea with the Samsung sponsorship would be excellent.

LittleWhiteLies Review

Little White Lies is an internationally distributed independent review magazine, which provides reviews for upcoming festivals and movies. Ideally, it would be amazing to make review about my A2 film in such a magazine, as it has an independent review system.

Additionally, this magazine provides details about festivals such as WATERSPRITE, where the combination of different short films are distributed and promoted locally. To get the film screened in the festival like Watersprite and reviewed in LittleWhiteLies would be ideal. Furthermore LittleWhiteLies have its own YouTube channel, so the audience could contribute and give the feedback or even critique.

Superimposition of Images

"Using the techniques of superimposition and photo montage, photographers can blur the lines between past and present, reality and fiction, and imitation. Whether by manually holding up an object or photograph against a carefully chosen backdrop or using image editing software, these imaginative artists have created alternately quirky and poignant images bringing together various urban worlds."

"In these haunting images by Sergei Larenkov, the harsh realities of life during the siege are juxtaposed with modern photos of the city to provide a glimpse of St. Petersburg’s dramatic past. Larenkov picked through archival images of the siege to find images that could be merged with present-day photographs, and the effect is compelling and eerie."

A2 Short Film - Draft Version

I finally managed to complete my A2 production film, so it looks more or less reasonable to understand the narrative. The feedback from the audience was surprising. Audience were thinking that instead of sci-fi film, it appeared to be more psychological, which was very surprising for me. Another interesting thing was about notes. Some people thought it would be better to deliver notes through voice over, rather putting them on the screen. However, the notes were written by hand, which made them look a little unattractive(as you will see in the video below). For this reason, I have decided to change the style of the notes, to make them look good. 

Please watch the draft version of my film:

Promotion and Marketing - audience feedback

As my film was being promoted by Samsung, phones play a big role in marketing as well as promotion of my film. First of all, as the length of the film is not very long, only 5 minutes, it would be a good idea to distribute the film on Android tablets and smartphones. Distributing short film on gadgets, would significantly increase audiences' popularity among the genre. Marketing the film in smartphones' market, would significantly boost the chance of promoting film to global audience.

In addition, YouTube can be used to market my film.  Because of interconnectedness of mise-en-scene in my film (Moscow and London), putting it on YouTube will combine audience from both Russia and England. It would be also possible to collect some feedback through comments under the video in YouTube or by using other social media websites, such as facebook or VK(the russian version of facebook). Creating an opportunities, which allow to demonstrate a personal view, will significantly increase the chances of improving already existing products, especially ancillary once. For example, poster and magazine review.

Furthermore, hosting local festivals such as the WaterSprite one, is going to add even more popularity to the ancillary products. Additionally, a lot of people from my college have attended that festival. I have talked to a couple of these people, who have attended the festival. Here is what they said:

Here is what Artur (friend who has attended WaterSprite festival) has mentioned:

"  "

Eduardo (another friend who has attended WaterSprite festival) however said:

"   "

WATERSPRITE Cambridge Film Festival 2015

For the purpose of getting an experience, and to see some of the short film, I have attended Watersprite Film Festival in Cambridge. This year Watersprite received submissions from 52 countries around the world. This made the competition stronger then ever. From Nepal to Switzerland, from Mexico to Russia, nominees have travelled from all over the world. I have only attended animation and fiction films that showed the impressive talents of the producers. It has been overwhelming to see how many people are willing to give up both time and effort to produce such amazing short films and animations.

After watching short films and animated cartoons, I have taken some photos.

The screening room was quite small, however there were quite a lot of people. The organisation was also good. Each person was given an audience response sheet, which was about rating film from the scale of 1(awful) to 5(amazing).
Personally, I have awarde 5 to every film I have seen in that festival, as I think the effort put to production of these films was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, It was not possible to take videos in the screening room.
One of the film, I have watched, was named the"Warm Snow". It was an animated short film, produced in Israel. The surprising part was that it was fully in russian with english subtitles, therefore, this film was very interesting to watch, at least for me. The screenings were divided into two parts. The first one was called "With love" and the second part(which involved 3 animated and 1 documentary films) was called "Watching over"

"With love" explores the powerful, often turbulent, yet always touching dynamics of family relationships. On the other hand, "Watching Over" shines a light on the role of the guardians and protection in both fictional and real worlds.

This picture shows sponsors of Watersprite Cambridge Film Festivals. I think it is quite important to sponsor such film festivals, so more people would attend festivals like this.

I found it very interesting to observe how so-called stop-motion films are made. The effort for making those kind of animated films is incredible. In order to produce 20-30 second video, you have to work 15 minutes, in order to change the position of toys and take a shot of every changed position. There was a gathered crowd simply watching how stop-motion films are done.

The girl who makes stop-motion. Everytime she had to go and change the positions of toys which were made of plasticine. It took about 10 minutes to produce 20 sec video.

There are about 20 nominees from around the world, who received an award from Watersprite festival. This shows, how interconnected and interlinked the media had become, especially with the development of different technologies.














This map shows, where Watersprite film festivals took place.
I was very surprised to see Russia among the list of countries where the festival was held. As it is noticeable on the map, United States also was part of the festival. India was also one of the countries which held festival. One of the short-films I watched was Indian documentary about disabled girl, who was studying in the school, in order to financially provide her family in the future. I found it very interesting and not surprising of India's participation in film festival.

 Stop-motion has a premier position in the UK, with digital technologies evolving to give rise to a stop-motion renaissance, expanding its influence to media areas including commercials, TV series, feature films and SFX productions. Stop-motion techniques provide you with a diverse range of technical and creative skills. Knowledge of stop-motin as a communication tool will allow to understand the nature of new theories that have resulted from changes in technology

 I observed how stop-motion films are being made.

I have gained a lot of experience and understanding about the production of animated as well as short-films. It was a great film festival to attend as it involved production work from countries around the world. Furthermore, I watches stop-motion film being made, which was very interesting and entertaining activity.

Oscars 2015: The Best Animated Short Film nominees.

One of the most entertaining categories at the Academy Awards is for the Best Animated Short Subject.

Below are trailers for each of this year's nominees, as well as some behind-the-scenes videos showing how these talented artists used hand-drawn, stop-motion or computer animation to create memorable characters and fascinating narratives.

"The Bigger Picture"

Filmmakers: Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees

A "life size animated short," with painted characters and props in a room shot in stop-motion, shows the tensions between two brothers caring for their aging mother.

"The Dam Keeper"

Filmmakers: Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi

A parable about bullying, featuring a young pig and his tentative friendship with an artistic fox new to his school.

"Feast" (WINNER)

Filmmakers: Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed

A little dog's exhaustive menu changes as his master's romantic relationships change. What's a hungry pup to do?

An Oscar Winning film producer interview

Oscar short-film awards

Best live-action short film

WINNER: The Phone Call– Mat Kirkby, James Lucas

Aya – Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis

Boogaloo and Graham – Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney

Butter Lamp – Wei Hu, Julien Féret

Parvaneh – Talkhon Hamzavi, Stefan Eichenberger

The live short action film, which is called "The Phone Call' won an oscar for the best live-action short  film. Mat Kirkby and James Lucas’s film tells the story of a woman working for a crisis centre phone help line who receives a call from a suicidal older man. It is an encounter that changes the lives of all of those involved in the call.

"Thanks to my crew, who all give their time for free. Short films are made not with money. They’re made with tenacity and lots of favours. Impossible to do it without them," said Mr Kirkby.

Before the Oscars’ glory, the film had earned plaudits from the Tribcea Film Festival and the Seattle Film Festival.

Please follow the LINK to know more about "The Phone Call" and to experience an oscar winning short film from the point of view of its producers.