Analysing A Film Review

In preparation for writing the film review I analysed a film review from the Empire magazine. I chose their review of "Bridge of Spies" as I thought that the layout would be most like the layout of our own film review. In my analysis I stuck post-it notes to the different sections of the review explaining the information that was given in each section and so showing the layout. Below are a number of photos that I took of each post-it note with the magazine:

The film review begins with the title of the film and some key points about it such as the release date, the name of some actors and the director. Then there will be an intro in which the basic plot summary is stated. This summary is only a few lines long and gets straight to the point.

After the plot summary is stated there is the main review. This is the section which writes about all of the different aspects of the film and the critic will tell the reader what they thought of each individual aspect. The aspects that are mentioned tend to be; writing, acting, cinematography, editing, muse-en-scène and soundtrack. The reader can make their own judgement on whether or not to watch the film based on what the critic has to say. In this sense, the main review is quite useful as it encourages people to go and see the types of films that they should hopefully like and it will also make it clearer to the reader whether or not it is a film that they would enjoy watching.

At the end of a review the critic will often write one last line or a few last lines to sum up their overall review of the film. It is by reading this part of the review that readers can tell whether or not this film is a good quality film to watch or not. The summary of the review will often be what make people decide to watch a film or turns them against the idea of watching a film. The rating may also be placed here although it can also be placed at the start of the review as well. The rating is normally out of 5 stars and so any film that receives 4 or 5 stars is normally a film that people will want to go and see.

Final Audience Feedback

Cinematography:

• very clever shots in final flashback
• flashbacks = effective in telling stories
• good connecting flashbacks with objects he finds on beach
• panning shot at end works

Sound

• seagulls set beach scene
• noise at final flashback = dramatic and build tension
• dialogue tells story, giving info about Dylan
• clever to create own soundtrack, different/unique

Props

• idea of him finding objects from his life was clever
• photos show earlier days when things were easy for him

Audience Feedback

https://youtu.be/03axfriPgZA

Film Review Planning

We have to make a review of our film. There were numerous things that we needed to think about before creating it. We made a list of the things that would need to be included in a film review. Below are some of our ideas:

• Photos of the film
• Names of cast and crew
• Brief synopsis of the film
• Commentary on acting
• Commentary of cinematography
• Commentary on scriptwriting
• Overall rating of the film

In most film reviews, a main image will dominate one or both pages. This will be a screenshot of the film. There is sometimes also a smaller image showing the supporting actors.The title of the film with a tag line for the review will be below. At the start of the review, important information about the film will be included for sample; the release date, the director and the well-known actors who star in it. The main body of the review will all be the same text and then there will be a significant lime from the review in the same text but larger and sometimes in a different colour. The general verdict for the film and the star review will be almost always be at the bottom right hand corner in a film review.

Below are examples of film reviews that we will be using as inspiration:

Making An Ident

As part of the editing, our group thought that it would be a good idea to create an ident. After the main funding film company's ident, there are a few from waller production companies.

Last year for our film 'An Fiach Raicleach', we created our own company called Bronze Age Productions. As a slight change from last year's name we decided this time to go for Bronze Age Vintage.

Part of the reason for the change was that we wanted the company name to reflect something about our film. The word 'vintage' is used to describe things that are old and from the past. Although a modern setting, Dylan is reflecting on his past life. We see flashbacks from his past and so we go between past and present throughout the film. Due to this we thought that Bronze Age Vintage would be a professional company name that would fit with the film.

Credits

CREDITS are added at the beginning and end of a motion picture to provide credit to those who were involved in the production. The people whose names would be included would be the cast and the crew (such as creators, producers and lead actors). The end credits typically mention everyone ho was involved. There are two common types of end credits for motion pictures. The first is one where the names flip from page to page. The second is one where they scroll across the background. There tends to be a black solid screen and the names will appear in small white font as a contrast. They are usually all capital letters. Each set of names will only appear for a short amount of time.

FOR OUR CREDITS We will need to give credit to Mícheal first as the cast are always named first. We will also gave credit to ourselves for our jobs in directing and cinematography. Our assistant cinematographer Andrew will also be credited. We will also split the roles of soundtrack and producing between us. Then will follow anyone else who has been involved in helping to create the film.

CASTING

MICHEAL LYNCH     DYLAN

CINEMATOGRAPHY

EIMEAR McCANN  DIRECTOR OF CINEMATOGRAPHY
CHARLIE BEARE  CINEMATOGRAPHER

ANDREW MURRAY  ASSISTANT CINEMATOGRAPHER

DIRECTOR
ELLIE WILDMAN

MUSIC BY
ELLIE WILDMAN

PRODUCED BY
EIMEAR McCANN
CHARLIE BEARE

SPECIAL THANKS TO
JACK McGARRY

Poster Photoshoot

On Thursday 25th February we did a photoshoot for our film's poster.
https://youtu.be/KD9R59rDQp4

Above is a video that we created of photos that were similar in style to the idea we had for our poster. The aim was to create something like these photos but also for it to have our own interpretation and to tell the audience something about our film.

We had to bring a DSLR camera and lights with lighting stands to make sure that we got the most effective shots. Our group travelled to our actor's house together and then began to set up. The camera was handheld and we had two lights on light stands set up close to the bath. Our actor then had to lie in the bath with his eyes closed. The shot that we took required our photographer to be directly above our actor so that the photograph showed the actor's face and shoulders and part of the bath surrounding him.

A number of photos were taken so that we could chose from them which one was best suited to being the photo for our poster. We wanted to chose one that added mystery but also helped to give background information to the film.