Film Ideas

So far, I have been thinking about the film idea, involving phone transition. It was very difficult to think of a specific genre,  therefore I came up with the basic narrative for each genre.

Horror

Comedy

Romantic Comedy

Thriller

Sci-fi

Action

1) Horror  - Vampire is trying to get back to the undead world. Vampire kidnapped a child, knowing that his/her parents have an access to the phone, which can physically transport anything anywhere. Eventually, the phone does not allow him to do it and the child get rescued..

2) Comedy - The guy is a nerd. He uses an app "Google maps" to observe the world. He suddenly discovers that the phone can transit him anywhere. As a result, he finds himself in Moscow, Russia where funny things happen to him..

3) Thriller - Guy's wife was murdered. He transits himself in Moscow, using the phone that he has created (which is capable to do that) where his wife was killed. However, Russians are trying to get his unique phone! On which side is the truth?

4) Romantic Comedy - A guy broke up with his girlfriend, who has is in trip in Moscow with her school. He has a phone which can transport him to Russian. However, girlfriend cannot know about this phone. Eventually, the guy decides to destroy the phone...

5) Sci- fi -Aliens  (they look like humans) have taken over Britain. The guy creates a phone which allows him to transit himself to a random place only once. Eventually he find himself in Moscow, thinking how to defeat those aliens,  as no one believes him..

6) Action - An app was developed by unknown company. An app is a military game, which is capable to transport the player physically into it. In order, to escape, that person has to finish the game. If not - death is already waiting...

7) Other - Two guys are located in Moscow, and London. They are looking for the clues, which would be able to help them to find a phone. This phone, however, is a unique. It could transport the owner anywhere. Both guys are searching for this phone. Whoever, find it first, would be able to go anywhere. The looser will be stuck in parallel world forever. However, clues are located around the cities. Who is going to win?

Film idea

Having a look at the developing phone market, I decided to that my film idea is going to involve phone in it. I am talking about phone transportation from one location to another. The locations which I am planning to use are quite unique and iconic. As I permanently live in Moscow,  it will be a good idea to film some of the sequences there using such famous locations, as Red Square, Moscow underground, and St. Basils Cathedra. Furthermore, as my film would involve phone transition, I decided to use London as the other iconic figure in my film. For
example, London's Trafalgar square and Moscow's Red Square would be an amazing comparisons, as well as locations to film in. The difference in mise-en-scene would be very recognisable and I think this will impress the examiners and will help me to gain higher marks. 

I was thinking to use "Google Map" app as a transition to one place to another. However, instead of using real app, it would be a good idea of combining graphics design and animation skills in my opinion. The mixture of both, amazing mise-en-scene and animation would make my short film look good and interesting. 

The idea is that the main actor is getting into habit of using his phone as a teleport. However, he doesn't know that everything is for real, as he thinks he only teleports when he dreams. Eventually, something will happen with this guy. To know what exactly, please watch the film... 

Audience research

The audience research is a major step in production process. It allows clearly understand the desire of audience to see a particular product.  However, all audiences are different, and may like contrasting genres. Each genre have its own audience. For example , there are individuals who only like to watch horror/thriller movies, in contrast with other individuals who prefer to watch comedies and romantic films. To avoid audience confusion, the producer have to be careful with targeting audience age. Some films are +18  and cannot be consumed by children, therefore when a family is going to the cinema not all films suit them in age restrictions, as they may be with the children. Furthermore, they could be seen as a potential audience ready to pay money for the product, however age restrictions may sometimes be a problem. Careful thinking about age restrictions is what is needed, before launching film.

There are a variety of methods of attracting the audience, and promoting the movie. For example, as I did in my As media, questionnaires is the good method to gather audience information about age, preferred genre, as well as the how frequently does a particular person attend cinemas. Questionnaires help to understand about audience more. In addition with questionnaires, blog responses and comments may be used effectively, too. As internet and different social networks attract more and more interest in people from year to year, they may be used to gather the responses as well as the comments from real people, of what is need to be done to make your product to look better. Also huge phone companies have their own ways of attracting the audience. Such companies develop their own marketing system. For example, recently big phone companies have introduces super short films, which last about 2-3 minutes. That was a really good and effective way, in order to attract more audience, as most of the people watch movies and read press on their phones or tablets. The example of it, would be a film festival sponsored by Samsung, which is going to take place in Dubai in December, 2014. This film festival would be sponsored by such companies as:

Here is a LINK to Dubai film fest.

Festivals and competition is another useful way of obtaining

audience and information about what age group are in favour of your short film. The example I put above (Dubai Film Fest) could be used to obtain some international audience. Once the film is entered for a movie festival, it is clear that competition with other films is unavoidable. However, this could be considered as a good thing. In case of winning competition, the short film is going to become much more popular and gather more audience around. Eventually, the clear idea of what age group is in favour of the movie, and what age restrictions must be put on film is going to form in producers head!

Camouflage

This is a brilliant work about children who have schizophrenic parents. The combination of very nice animation technique as well as the amazing graphics design skills, plus the unusual genre (documentary) makes this short film to stand out from other similar sequences. It involves a very strong story about a girl, who had schizophrenic mother. The floating voice and animation makes it very interesting to watch, as the animation follows reality as well as the voice. In addition, sound effects in this particular short film, are quite negative. Furthermore, the combination of both, negative sound effects  and sad background voice makes the audience to really feel what is like to have schizophrenic parents. This is a very powerful work, even though a little bleak. This film, however shows how experimental and ambitious a short film could be..

Post-it Love by Si & Ad (2008) (UK) (3m) 

"Post-it Love, written and directed by British duo Simon Atkinson & Adam Townley (thus Si & Ad) is just about as close to perfection as you can get in a romantic short film. Like the similarly brilliant Signs, Post-it Love shows us two shy office workers looking for love but unable to say so overtly. There is some suspension of disbelief needed but these are romance shorts made for the silver screen!" Source: http://www.filmsshort.com/

 The short film has two main characters, a male and female. They are represented as being two people who are very shy but share a loving interest in each other, and this is shown using various different techniques. At the beginning they are found photocopying some paper and as you can see they have both gone on different copier machines because they are too shy to talk to each other. When standing in front of the machines the shyness is once again represented because they both peer over the wall-section to glance at the other person simultaneously and quickly look down when they spot the other person staring at them. The girl is in a close up shot and you can see a small smile appearing as if to portray her happiness that the male was looking at her too. 

I chose this short because it holds a very positive image, after the first time you watched it. In addition, it is difficult to make romantic-genre short film, as the director does not have a lot of time. "Post-it-Love" is a very kind film, which raises the mood after the watch. The mise-en-scene is quite simple, however, it is how it should be in this case. I cannot say much about this short, perhaps, because it is simple and fun, but that's why I put this short in the blog, I liked it.

H ere is an example, how short film such as "post-it love" can act as a commercial to a new samsung product. In cooperation with Future films, Samsung has made 4 short films so far. It shows how marketing and promotion works for Samsung. "We reach 10m people a year with our content, representing serious media value and an audience that trusts us to deliver the best content from around the world." The amount of audience that Samsung and Future Shorts is huge, in addition the audience come from around the world, which makes it interlinked. Furthermore, they say that, "The public will be asked to vote for their favorite film and from June 5th Pearl & Dean will showcase the winning entry as part of the very first 108 screen, pre reel, HD digital network". This suggests that the winner's short film is going to be promoted in a very effective way, as it is going to be shown and distributed on 108 screens!! Learn more HERE!!

WJEC Moving Image Award Winner.

Watch the following video:

On Friday the 19th of September, the WJEC held the inaugural Moving Image Award 2014.

The ceremony, held at the British Film Institute, was attended by hundreds of pupils and industry professionals. Guests were treated to a talk from one of the UK’s top directors, Joe Cornish, who discussed one of his most recent pieces of work, Attack the Block, while Iyare Igiehon, a former BBC 6Music and BBC 1Xtra presenter, entertained the crowd throughout the afternoon. 

The winner for best music video: Ben Porro from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Faversham with his take on Madeon’s Pop Culture (look at the video above).

Once I will finish my short film, I plan to send my work to one of the festivals. This would be a good experience for me. Of course, I am not even thinking to be on the 1st place in the award ceremony, however, sending my short will help me to get some audience and even market&promote it. Furthermore, If you look at the winner's for best music video, you will notice that it is not very difficult to make. It is possible to make, most of the things, which this video involves, on the computer. 

Production, Promotion, Marketing and Distribution

In order to produce my own short film, I had to look at production, promotion, marketing and distribution of "The Stairway" (previous post). This would help me to get an idea how I should produce and promote my own film. That is what I got so far:

Production

The Stairway was produced by Alex Torteroton, in association with "Shiny Production".  Even though, this film lasts a little bit longer than 3 minutes, the hard work that producer put in this sequence is highly noticeable. I have to admit that the actor was very good, and played his role professionally. In addition, the funding of the film wasn't very big, however, producers managed to create a very good-looking product, which is interesting to watch, in my opinion.

Promotion and Marketing

In order to promote such film,  it would be effective to include it in festivals and competitions as well. Send your film to the right people and publications for talent spotting e.g. TV and Commissioners, Advertising Agencies and production company Producers. Once you've sent your film to these people, call them to make sure they actually watch it and ask for their feedback or advice on it. It is very important to send your short to a right festival. For example, British Film Institute (BFI), organise film festivals every year. This would be a very good place to send your film in. In case of "The Stairway",  one of the ways to market and promote it, would be to submit it on one of the short film festivals, as it has a niche audience. 

Distribution

As I already mentioned above, the distribution of short film such as "The Stairway" would be hard as it has a niche audience - narrow, very specific audience. The reason because it has a niche spectators, is because of a genre. Horrors/Thrillers attract less watchers than, for example a comedy or a romantic film. Furthermore, it is important to decide the target audience. Judges (for film festivals) would be the main audience, which you need to favour by your short film. If the film would get the approval from the judges, then promotion and marketing is going to be much easier.