Film review

I used Adobe Photoshop CS to construct my magazine review.
I aimed to pretty much follow the Empire Magazine layout.
The first thing i done was to find a suitable picture to use. I chose a picture that represented the film. Once i had done this i edited in using the lasso tool, all the borders around the page. I scanned in the 'In Cinemas' bit from an actual Empire magazine that i had and tweaked the colour using the ' colour adjustments tool' to make it look realistic.
I used times new roman text for the writing and adjusted teh size of the writing where appropriate. Once i had added all the title, subtitles, basic info about the film I added the colour scheme. I sued the same colours to once again make it look realistic. The last thing i done was to add the review which I had done on Microsoft Word.

Glass Short Film Poster

As my short film is a fairly unconventional I believe that the best way to represent my film would be to use an unconventional film poster.
In keeping with the black and white theme, I decided to keep my poster black and white.
My poster draws parallels with Frederico Fellini's 8 1/2.



I didn't want to give too much away about the film through my poster. Although film posters are meant to attract the audience by putting the main actors on the front, showing the storyline/ themes etc , I believed that my minimalist approach to my poster would still attract my audience.
I wanted to only give away a little information about the storyline and therefore decided to use the picture of the pills.
This is similar to Billy Wilder's Stalag 17.



I used ideas from other posters most notably Lars Von Trier's controversial film Anti Christ.

Glass Short Film Final Version

I decided to change the ending of my short film. This was because my original version didn't suggest a definite ending and was left too open.
I therefore decided to end it when Abdul is being surrounded by his friends, when lying on the kitchen floor.

Glass Short Film

Glass Short Film from James Lee on Vimeo.

Editing

I added my footage on to imovie and edited my footage.




For the scenes where I required to speed up the clips (Abdul's drug scene) I altered the clip speed to 2000%
For a couple scenes where i slowed down the clip i reduced the clip speed to 50%




I used the Black and white effect on the whole film and also altered the contrast levels on a couple of scenes.
I used the 'pull focus' title effect to create the blurred scenes and used 'centered' title effect to create the opening and end credits.




I created the movie score option from the menu on Garageband.
I added the Clair De Lune Soundtrack and then added separate tracks to it.
These tracks included: heartbeat, transportation sounds (sirens, trains), animals (dog barking) ticking clock etc.
I used Garageband as it offered me more editing options and allowed me to add several different sounds at once (something that is limited on imovie)





I finally added the soundtrack to my film.

Filming

In the picture above I am directing my actors during the alcohol scenes. This is a shot from the point of view of Abdul and i am directing the actors to move in and out of the shots.



Above I am planning the hall way scenes where Abdul is walking to the kitchen.
In the picture i am holding a plank of wood with a camera taped in the middle. This technique was used in films such as The Evil Dead ( a low budget horror movie) to achieve a stable shot without the use of a track dolly. I could have used my home made track dolly to achieve this shot but setting up would be time consuming, especially as time was already against us.



Me,setting up the track dolly.



Me, directing Abdul on what to do whilst checking the lighting, composition etc.


Tripod Set-up.



Filming the drug taking scene with the home made track dolly.
The scene where Abdul has just taken the drugs and sits still while everyone else moved fast around him needed the use of a track dolly.
As i planned to speed everyone else in editing, I still needed the camera to zoom in on Abdul fairly smoothly.
In order to achieve this, I had to zoom the camera in at a slow constant speed for a duration that lasted 5 minutes. I plan to speed the clip up at around 200% so the clip will actually last 30 seconds. So in the scene where Abdul has just taken the drugs, the camera will be zooming in on him whilst everyone around him is sped up.

Film Review

I plan to use this single spread layout for my film review. I will construct it on photoshop.

Title of my short film

My short film will be called Glass.

A reason for this is because it refers to something that can be broken easily (in this case, Abdul). Hit highlights as sense of fragility.
Also it is a play on words with the word 'Class.' This is because one of the main themes behind the film is Class.

Film Poster Planning

I plan to take a minimalist approach for my poster.
I believe it is important for my poster to represent my film.
My film poster will be in black and white (as my film is shot in black and white)
It will have a black background with white writing.
There will be the title in large 3/4s to the top of the poster with my main actors name above it and my name below it.
Underneath the title (around the middle of the poster) there will be a shot of a couple white pills.
The font I will use will be American Typewriter as this is the font that I have used for the credit sequence for my film.

Film Poster

As my film storyline changed from when I first looked at the film posters, my idea of what my poster should like like has changed.



Here's a film poster from the film Requiem for a Dream. My film shares similarities with this one as they both have drugs in the story.
The poster is very minimalist with none of the main characters on the front (apart from one which is hardly visible)
The poser is striking as it has an image of an eye. it is an unconventional poster for an unconventional film.



This is the poster from the film La Haine. There are similarities between this film and my film.



All these films are similar to my film. This is in regard to the subject matter of drugs, conflicted personalities, the influence of friends and the negative effects of drug taking.

The film posters for all these films represent the film in one way or another but without giving too much away.

Inspirations

This is a scene from the film La Haine.
This is the main inspiration for my opening scene where Abdul is looking in the mirror holding up a fake gun.



This is a scene from the film Garden State.
The effect where everything speeds up around the main character will be used in my film. It will be pretty similar however instead of keeping the camera stationary at a medium close up it will slowly zooms out from an extreme close up to a medium close up.



This is the second part of a short film called 'We Were Once a Fairytale' by Spike Jonze.
The second half of my film when Abdul is feeling the come down from the drugs will be similar to this. This includes the blurry effect, feeling of nausea, the movement of the main character. It is also inspired by the scene in the bathroom when he kills the demon inside of him.

Storyboard