Ancillary Task 2 Planning

When Planning my radio advert, I had to look at several existing texts, from which I could draw ideas from. The two radio adverts I researched were Alton Tower's and Friday the 13th. Whilst the Alton towers one took a more light hearted approach of a man on a roller coaster trying to deliver a speech, the Friday the 13th advert looks to entice the audience through directing their statements at the listener, almost challenging them to consume it.

For my short film radio advert, I want to carry similar emotions that are expressed in the film through to the dialogue in the piece. Furthermore I would love for the audience to connect in some way with the content, due to an experience they have had similar to it or due to general emotions towards the sensitive topic.

For the soundtrack to the piece, I will use continuity from the short film, and use the same song. The song is 'To Build A Home' by the Cinematic Orchestra. This instrumental version of the soundtrack is a very emotional performance, and always manages to connect with me when I listen to it.

Ancillary Task 1 Planning

In order to prepare for the first part of the ancillary task, which was the film poster, I had to analyse several other examples of existing film posters. This helped me enormously to improve my ideas, and presentation skills. The reason for this is that by engaging with material that has seen other forms of media see great success, you are able to ascertain what it is that the audience engage with, and what they perhaps did not look. For this reason, I researched film posters that had and had not been so successful, so as to broaden my scope of knowledge.
                                                                            
Perhaps the most important of posters that I looked at was that of Vera Drake. The lighting and the titling of the poster inspired my thought process as to what I could achieve, and how I could portray a message through a static image.

Ancillary Task 2 Brief And Initial Ideas

The second ancillary task was to make a radio advertisement. Similarly to the film poster, it had to bear links to the actual film, through the use of dialogue. When deciding upon the style of advert that I would look to make, I had two main ideas. The first of these ideas was to start off in a light hearted manor, but quickly change to a dark and depressing mood within the wording and music. This could be an effective way of making a radio advert, as it can have a large influence over the consumer as there is a quick change and manipulation of their feelings and emotions. Furthermore, this holds a strong resemblance to the narrative in my piece, and Todorov's narrative theory, whereby the equilibrium that the audience will see is quickly changed to a  disequilibrium.
The alternative option was to stick by a more conventional form of radio advertisement, which is the continuity of emotion and style throughout the advert. By doing this, the consumer will essentially feel the sadness and emotion throughout the piece, as opposed to just in the section after the change in the dialogue that is occurring.

Ancillary Task 1 Brief And Initial Ideas

The brief for the first ancillary task was to make a film poster. The film poster would have to bear relevance to the narrative of the film, including some of the internal occurrences. Furthermore, the poster would have be visually stimulating and interesting for the consumer in order to boost demand. A positive that came from making the poster after the creation of the film was the benefit of hindsight. This enabled me to tai common themes that ran through the piece, and existing shots, to formulate a common idea which I would follow.
Given the dark nature of the film that I made, I wanted to make the poster have a similar dark an uncomfortable feeling to it. Furthermore, my initial ideas towards the poster were that cuts and blood would be present. This is due to the suicide scene that is within my piece.

Having seen other existing photos, I had the choice of whether to show emotion and action, or show a lack of emotion, and a cold figure. This would also bear a link to the end of the film, whereby the audience is led to believe that the girl is dead.

Film Concept And Synopsis

For my short film, I had to keep in mind many different variables from soundtrack, to setting, to effects and camerawork.

Setting:



Given my immediate thoughts about the potential storyline that could go in my piece, I had to find a setting that would accompany and accentuate emotions that the viewer could feel. I came to a decision that I would incorporate the outdoors and indoors into my piece, allowing the change in scenery to signify the changing of emotions. The dappled lighting that was present in the park was in my opinion a  metaphor for the beginning of drama as it is trying to break through, as the light attempts to get through the leaves in a tree.





The other part of my setting is indoors, within the girls house. I have made this the other location in the film, as it adds to realism in the piece whereby the majority of people attempting to commit suicide will do it within their own homes, to make it as small a spectacle as possible.

My inspiration for this film came from a St. John's ambulance Directed by Bartle Bogle Hegarty. The way in which he captures the audiences emotions and enables the audience to make an emotional bond with the character is the way I would like my film to be digested.

In the attempt to find the perfect soundtrack for the piece, I looked at many tragedy short films to see the style and genre of music they used. I came to the conclusion that the Cinematic Orchestra's 'To Build A Home' was the perfect soundtrack for my piece, using primarily piano based instrumentals. Due to copyright issues however, I changed it to just the backing track without the lyrics, which gave just as effective an appearance. It was disappointing particularly about having to take out the lyrics 'and now, its time to leave and turn to dust' as they had a great relevance to the events in my piece.

'The Desolate' Presentation

Check List For Film Shoot