How/Why do my three products synergise and what is the effect/significance of this synergy?

How/Why do my three products synergise and what is the

effect/significance of this synergy?

Joseph Cross

Poster

Poster

We learn from the poster that the style of the film will be rather bleak in it’s outlook, this can be implied from

the tagline, it begins with a statement about how it gets difficult to be accepted, so the audience can infer that this will be a theme of the film, then the following statement about love is harder, can be inferred by the

audience that romance will become a theme of the film too.

This leads us in to genre too. The usage of a teenager, asleep on his work and his posters, reflects that he will be a teenage student, but

the heart he has drawn with a question mark in the centre also represents the love interest of

the character.

This leads us to first believe that it could be a teenage romance story. But if you look deeper there’s more to it, such as the fact he is working on loads of poster’s for what could be classed as an ‘alternative’ style of music. So it’s a teenage

alternative love story, but this can’t be truly decided

because the tag line leaves the whole genre representation down to

interpretation.

It could bring in elements from loads of places. I wanted to

bring in the drama genre a lot with a mix of social realism but

it may not be very obvious from the poster, however i did plan it this way. Due to my film only being a short, i didn’t give

away to much too quickly in my film and i wanted to keep this true to the poster. So i only gave up information as i felt

was necessary to draw in the audience and intrigue them enough to watch the film.

This can represent the audience of the film in a sense, it can be interpreted so that the film is

aimed at a teenage audience, but an older one because the teen in

the picture is studying psychology, which is a subject

taken on mainly at A-Level, and if you delve deeper, the use of poster depicting ‘alternative’ idols and music festivals, it is

aimed at the alternative youth subculture.

The themes and issues are represented very subtly in the poster.

The theme of age and growing up, is represented

through the youth asleep on his studies. But this is paired

with the issue of balance, which you also learn as part of growing up, this is shown through his note pad actually being more taken over by a

mysterious love interest, rather than work.

This idea of growing up and balancing work, and

romance is also supported by the tagline;

‘Acceptance is hard. Love is harder.’

The tagline also sets us up for a potential theme that could occur in the film, that is of acceptance, this could be by anyone, like his family or his peers for example. But as following the conventions of social

realist shorts, i didn’t want to reveal everything straight away, i just wanted to intrigue my audience

at first.

The tagline then proceeds to set up another theme, of a love interest, but it could also be his lack of a love interest too, this is down to viewer interpretation,

which relates back to Milgrom’s theory, because i am intriguing the audience to want to find out what

happens, because the only thing they can be sure of is that love/romance will be present within the film.

The posters the teenager is sleeping on in the poster, also sets up a theme; ‘the alternative teen’

this could be interpreted in a couple of ways by the audience, in the form that it could turn in to

an issue, because of the ‘outsider’ representation of the teens who are classed as alternative, and this paired with the tagline, could link

to the acceptance theme, and there could be conflict revolving around that, or that this is going to be an alternative love story, due to some of the romance

elements in the poster. This links back to Milgrom’s as she stated

with social realism shorts it’s best to only reveal what you have to, in order to keep your audience

interested.

The poster reflects the style of the film.

The poster reflects what I was trying to achieve in terms of character development, as my film is very heavy on character development as a main part of it’s structure.

The use of dark lighting, to surround the main attraction of the poster, which is the teen and his work space, can represent the dark cloudiness and confusion in this characters mind.

The use of costume and make up also represent is the character style, the long hair and dark hoodie can be representative of the ‘alternative’ or ‘emo’ subculture.

This is supported by the use of the alternative band and festival posters underneath his work, these create a stronger link that this character is going to be part of one these small subcultures, at some point in the film.

The use of the brighter light on the character and his posters and work could be interpreted in the way that these are the important things on his mind at this point in time.

This leads us in to a point on that because of his two open books, and the fact they are in a brighter light in the centre of the poster, could be used to show that the character is a quite studious one.

Audience

The actors names inform the audience, that because they have never heard of them before, they will be new/untrained actors.

The posters the character is working on top of inform the audience that the character is going to be part of an ‘alternative’ subculture.

The character in the poster is a male, informing the audience that the main character will be male.

The characters work book, shows hints at a love interest, informing the audience that there will possibly be elements of romance in the film.

The reviews at the top of the poster can inform the audience choice to see the film due to positive reviews.

The tag line informs the audience that acceptance will also be present as an issue in the film.

The credits at the bottom of the poster show, that the director also, did most of the other work, informing the audience that this was a low budget production, because of the low amount of crew.

Promotion The use of reviews at the top of the page, promote the film to the viewer, as the guardian is a well respected newspaper, and has been established for years. This instills confidence in the viewer that the review is reliable and the film is good, so therefore the audience will think it’s worth a watch.

The use of my name as director, plus the use of ‘new film’ gives the audience a way of perceiving that i have already created works and could be an established director, this promotes my film in the shape that, they can go back and watch my previous works, to get a better sense of what they are to expect from this film.

The use of production company logos, also promotes the film, because they have film back catalogues that could be considered very good short films, that are worth watching, so for this film to be added to it’s roster promotes the film tot he viewer as it was deemed a good enough film to join the production companies ranks.

The release date defines a certain time for the viewer to expect the film, but it also draws out it’s release allowing for the build up of anticipation, and also therefore allowing for more promotion if needed.

The use of actor’s names promotes the film as a relatively new social realist piece as the actor’s names haven’t been seen before on a film poster, but this allows for the audience to wider then actor scope. It also promotes the actors solo work if they have done any previously.

When reading the production credits at the bottom of the poster, it promotes my film as a small budget piece to the viewer, in the sense that apart from two names, pretty much all the work has been left to me, whilst also acting director. It also promotes the other two names,, because if the viewer thinks that they have done a very good job at their position, they will look out for them in other films.

Viewer PreconceptionsThe reviews create a preconception that the film has been viewed, reviewed, and deemed as worthy of four stars instilling confidence in the audience.

The films title causes the audience to develop a preconception, that a question has been asked or the character could be waiting for an answer to something, which could be running through the film as a theme.

The books and notebook on the floor in the poster, cause the audience to develop the preconception that the main character will be a student, in his late teens, due to the fact he is studying psychology.

The use of the love heart drawn in the notebook, containing a question mark, causes the viewer to get a preconception, that the film could include a love interest.

The production credits, and production company logos, cause the viewer preconception that this is a low budget film because the director has also done pretty much every other job on the film, whilst the production company logos cause the viewer preconception that the film has been picked up by production companies that have already been established and that ave also created films films before to a high standard.

The use of the cryptic tagline, cases a viewer preconception that the film could possibly contain themes of acceptance and romance, and the romance point is backed up by the heart drawn in the notebook.

The use of the ‘alternative’ band and festival posters have been used to create the viewer preconception that this is going to contain an ‘alternative’ main character or characters.

Review

Review The review informs the viewer about many things.

It informs the viewer about the title, the filming location, director, main actors and it’s run time and certification, all in the first little part of the review, it’s not even a paragraph and it’s extremely informative.

The synopsis is set aside from the review, so that it is able to inform the reader of a small idea of what actually happens within the short film, before they read the interview, so that they can have a better understanding when reading.

The review also sets up the credits so they are separate from the rest of the view, as such to inform the viewer, who has worked on the film, pre and post production, plus who also acted and starred in the film.

The review delves deep in to the film itself reading in to the deeper meanings of the film, whilst analysing the effectiveness of shots and also analysing the acting and the directing. Whilst all the time being able to draw upon, previous knowledge of other films that could relate to this and using specific examples of similar scenes, to improve the reader’s understanding of what happens in the film.

The review attracts the audience differently from the poster because it’s less visual based and more text based.

More Text

Less Visuals

It’s main function is to inform by actually looking in to the film and reviewing it’s critical aspects, such as the directing, acting and film making as a whole rather than trying to attract it’s audience cryptically without revealing much to hem about the story line which in the review has been shortly and briefly outlined in the synopsis.

Purpose wise, it is there to give a better overall view of the film to the reader. It has not been designed and written for casual readers, it has been written for fans, this is evident through it’s more complex lexis, more in depth review of the writer’s previous work as well as comparisons to other directors in the same genre/field as me, whilst also going deep in to the credits, so that the reader can identify who did what and whether they enjoyed it or not.

More Complex Lexis

Credits Acknowledgement

Brief Story Outline

Functionally, it’s got a very easy to follow layout, and everything that needs to be read or had attention drawn to has been highlighted, and when compared to the post, where the poster has a layout but it hasn’t been massively highlighted or and you aren’t shown where you need to read in to, that’s up to viewer interpretation, where as this is shown so you can follow it properly and have it all laid out easily and plainly so you can make your own judgement as a viewer.

Everything that has needed to have been highlighted such as the Credits, Synopsis and Caption have been highlighted and made bold.

The review, when i was writing it i tried to keep it as unbiased as possible.

There are a few examples of bias in the writing

1

2

1

1

3

Within example 1, the phrase ‘create wonders with’ over sensationalises my skill as a director, overall the language used in this paragraph over sensationalises small details to make it seem like i have put a lot in to it.

Within example 2, the phrase ‘powerfully juxtaposed’ over exaggerates my directing/editing skill, as it was juxtaposed but it wasn’t as powerful as it has been made out to be. Plus furthermore the sensationalist language used, makes out that an untrained actor has intense acting skill, which she doesn’t, she was just good at acting, not amazing.

Within example 3, once again language plays a large part of making this biased, the language is so over the top in it’s descriptions, it makes it seems like i have created one of the most amazing shorts ever when in reality it’s a rather basic film, with a basic structure and a little complexity o the story.

The overall impact that this has on the review is a small problem but it isn’t out of hand. It is typical of reviews to sensationalise certain parts of the film, to the reviews advantage and this is what has happened here, it may mislead a couple of naive readers, that are new to the magazine, but considering the magazine is for a niche audience anyway, the seasoned readers should just see right through it.

When reading the review within the first column genre is steadily affirmed to the reader.

At the end of the first paragraph, genre is already stated as a social realist hybrid.

In the next paragraph this is then developed, by explaining the lead characters social realist roots. By referring to his previous work, ‘family vices’ character and his social realist roots comparing the similarities between the two characters.

Then at the end of the paragraph which introduces the next, starts to bring in the genre which makes it a hybrid by explaining the failing dramatically relationship between the male lead and female supporting character.

The genre is then defined as drama, which is shown through the problems with the relationship and also the problems between their peers which are discovered later on in the interview which reaffirms this social realist drama hybrid genre.

Then later on, it goes on to explain my social realist directorial roots, and elaborates on how the audience can pick up on these still.

There are three specific paragraphs in the review stating who the audience for the film is.

The third example, it states how thew film is trying to represent what teenagers go through on a daily basis, so following Milgrom’s theory of writing your film so that your audience can identify with it, the audience must be teenagers.

Within the first paragraph it states how the film is delving in to the world of teenagers, which gives the reader an immediate drawing towards a teenage audience.

Then later on in the interview whilst talking about the location choice, it talks about how i chose to record in my sixth form, which once again links it to the teenage audience, the sixth form would be full of teens.

The interview also contains the director’s rationale within it’s writing.

It’s shown in three parts of this review.

Firstly it’s shown in the first paragraph, when it says it wants to open the doors to the teenage world, showing the reader that the rationale was to try and represent teenagers, differently from the negative representation portrayed in the general media.

Secondly it is shown when the director is talking about how he chose the sixth form location, this relates back to teenagers, plus he also stated he wanted to accurately portray the social cliques of teens.

Thirdly it states in the paragraph that the film makes a good stab at opening and getting through the door to the teenage world and gives a real representation about what the teenagers go through, which shows the director’s intention.

Themes are opened within the first paragraph, by saying it is set in the sixth form, an area mainly populated by teens, there will be a teenage theme running out the film.

The next paragraph brings up the theme of a niche social clique, which is represented in the film, and the issues that are normally tied to this social clique.

The next paragraph delves in to some of the issues in the film, for example it drops in to the failing relationship, Luke is trying to establish with Alice, so within the first column is has already brought up 3 instances of themes and issues.

Within the paragraph in the second column, it starts to open up issues further by talking about the bullying that some teens go through, and it also starts to mention on alienation of social cliques.

Within the last paragraph highlighted in the second column, it talks about themes of romance, and acceptance to start it off that have been subtly covered through the review. It also highlights key issues that some teens deal with such as rejection, isolation and torment.

Themes and Issues are articulated, well through out the review, some subtly and some very obvious, the highlighted examples are the more obvious ones, but they still achieve the articulation of the themes and issues to the reader effectively.

Main Task

In the actual film you can see the upper class clothing which is also seen in the mise en scene by the character wearing a ralph lauren polo shirt, Also seen by the mise en scene in the other characters via the branded t-shirt depicting a video game character and also the character off screen wearing a pair of chinos shows the upper class clothing.

This works with the poster cause you can see in the poser that the character is wearing upper class clothing, it doesn’t have any logos visible but it fits comfortably and has two tone colours on the item, which shows it’s more expensive than most clothing which can connote the upper class.

In this ancillary, it is very text heavy, but the shot from the film in the review, uses a midshot to depict the main characters, this was a useful way of conveying emotion to the viewer via facial expressions and also by body language and they way they stood.

This can also be seen in the main task.For example the main character Luke, here can be seen in the midshot conveying a sense of uneasiness because he is being hounded by the group of youths.

The character behind the main character is leader of the youths and you can be his facial expression that he is conveying confidence and also by the shadow on his face and the way he is holding his posture that he is trying to intimidate the character Luke.

The other youth you can see is displaying her confidence via the use of a n almost patronising facial expression and her proxemics of being quite close to the character of Luke which is her way of intimidating the character, which follows the groups mentality of intimidation.

Through out the whole piece there is a theme of love and acceptance running throughout it, this can be seen in the screenshots from the main task, via the over the shoulder shot looking at her which the cuts to a close up of her eyes, and the her smile, which shows he is analysing her, showing his love interest.

This is also evident in the poster, via it’s tagline ‘Acceptance is Hard. Love is Harder’. This connotes to the viewer that a common theme that runs through the film will be acceptance and love.In the review the

recurring theme of acceptance and love is evident throughout but is most evident in one specific paragraph, which manages to link the story to a likeness of a professional product. But it highlights what happens in the love story in the short film.

The main message/meaning of my film which is extremely evident by the end, is that if you fight hard and stick to your principles, whilst standing up for yourself, acceptance and love is achievable evident by the two main characters getting together at the end, shown by the holding of the hands after she rejected him at the beginning of the short film.

The poster extremely mediates these messages mainly due to the fact, that when creating the poster I had Milgrom’s theory in mind, that stated to keep a viewer interested, is to not give away too much of the story details, which is evident in the poster, because it’s very cryptic, to get more ideas of the meanings of the film you have to analyse and look deep in to the poster. The love elements can be seen on the notepad, plus the tagline shows the acceptance idea, which causes the audience to be interested and intrigued to find out more.

Within the review, the meanings of the film are explored in depth, which is evident via this paragraph more than others. It delves in to the love meaning that is shown and how these are evident through the social realism and drama genres that cause this hybrid, for example it shows how that acceptance is a massive part of the film because It in depth analyses the scene where Alice is bullied predominantly because she is different from the socially accepted norm.

The review impacts on my main task in the way that this is a good critical review of my film, it is slightly superlative in it’s explanation which can kind of drag the review down a bit but otherwise the review is structured critically and analytically, so overall it’s impact is generally good but the over exaggeration of some of the description lets it down.

The poster overall has a better effect on my main task than the review in my opinion because of it’s layered meanings and effects on the viewer.It starts off with the main title of the film, in big white lettering so that the viewer can easily identify it. From there the viewer can easily delve deeper in to the poster, to get more hints about the story. For example the main character is wearing clothes related to the middle class, which can show class representation, from there the posters can also demonstrate to the viewer that it will be based around an alternative social clique because they show alternative bands and idols. Furthermore the heart drawn on the notepad connotes the romance theme to the viewer.