Sight And Sound

Sight and Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute. Sight and Sound was first published in 1932 and first published in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the BFI which still publishes the magazine today.
Every decade, Sight and Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time.

Having already decided Sight and Sound will be the prefect magazine for our film, we decided to break up the conventions of a review page and see what it was we needed to include.

1)   Image – usually introduces new talent or the main character of a film.  In our film, because we do not have linear characters, we need to suggest the bokeh technique and the genre of our film.

2)  Title - Isn't usually the title of the film in Sight and Sound.  Writer creates a slogan that sums up the genre of the film

3)  Image description - lets the audience know whose in the image.  Usually has either a positive/negative thing to say about the actor/actress playing the role

4)  Main text - I was quite surprised to see that the text was not justified.  I thought that magazine articles were usually justified so that they looked more professional.  When creating our review page I will justify the text because it is easier for readers to read and it will look professional and slick.  I will use the same font as I used in the poster and film title, so that all our products are visually linked. 

5)  Film information - here the article has placed film information such as certificate, director name and all the different features.  

6)  Article sub-heading - introduces the tone of the article, whether it be positive, negative or mocking.  Audiences know what tone of writing the author will have from this heading.  

7)  Banner at the top of page - audiences know which section of the magazine the film comes under from this section.  Our film will come under "Short Film".

8)  Article type - audience know whether this review is a feature from this title - the title given to this review is "close-up"  this implies that more information will be given to the audience about the film.  

When creating our poster, Miranda followed these conventions as closely as she could.

Effects and Editing Techniques

For the opening shot/ title i wanted to use one of our stronger more simplistic shots with a font that was not too overpowering. Our film requires you to think but it is not complicated, therefore a busy font would not have suited it. This simplistic font is perfect, paired with a cross dissolve in and a cross dissolve out, it serves it purpose well.

To hide the dissappearance of the title i used the 'cross dissolve' so that it would fade out in the middle of the layered footage. By creating layers of different bokeh footage i was able to create a smooth and interesting effect.

We chose the phrase 'those that wander are not lost' as it acts as a bit of a summary to what we are creating our film about. The screen grab above shows the effect for the word 'those'. The diy lense cap is visible adding depth, which then slowly zooms into the sea. To create something more appealing we chose to keep the original sound of children playing on the beach.

To widen our use of techniques we took a series of still shots that appeared to move when placed close together. I chose the photo's of the arrow as they show a sense of direction. One of my favourite shots that Miranda created shows a bright blue bicycle bokeh with a textured almost green background. To link the two i added a 'dip to white' which created a flash and overlapped the two pieces of footage.

(this image shows the amount of layers i have overlapped) 

The above shots show the layering of footage, a theme i have chosen to keep throughout so that there is a sense of movement. The pink lights are three layers of bokeh lights which cut in together at different intervals to create a flicker and a hazy kind of effect. I like this effect so much that i have asked Miranda to get some new footage of the round bokeh effect, this time with perhaps different shades of blue or green.

Lastly, the 'world' image shows the lense cap on top of a landscape view of a harbour. The bright yellow lights that are visible at the back make the writing look almost graffiti like, with the reflection in the sea acting as the paint drips.

Poster Ideas

I have taken screen grabs of my favourite shots and a few of my favourite techniques to play around with when creating the poster and magazine article. I think we would need to combine a few of the shots in the magazine article to show the audience the experimental side of the film.

Finding a suitable font

Colleged

Airplanes in the night sky

One starry night

Maybe maybe not

Decibel

Random house

1942 Report

Passion

Scriptina

Skinny

Empire magazine film review analysis

Total Film magazine review analysis

The picture at the top of the page informs the reader that these two are probably the protagonists or have a lot to do with the progression of the narrative. The title of the film is just off centre making it easy to see. The review page as a whole looks very professional and it is not too over complicated. The text in red diverts the readers eye to important information. The red section in the bottom left hand corner is titled ''predicted interest curve''- I was unfamiliar with this feature at first and so I decided to look into it. The graph tells the audience when the most interesting parts of the film are throughout the whole running time. The graph adds something unique to the page. The columns break the text up and make it look less wordy, the reader will not want to read a page which is all text. There is a small 'The verdict' box in the bottom right hand corner which gives the audience a quick overview of how the film is doing, a long with a rating out of five stars. The last feature is the ''See this if you liked..'' which lists films of the same genre or similar narrative. It allows people to widen their film library by listing films they they may also be interested in. 

Sight And Sound magazine review analysis

Sight and Sound magazine is an international film magazine published by the BFI. 

The review page itself is simple and easy to understand. The title of the review ''Memory bliss'' has been placed at the top of the page, in an easy to read black font. The title is situated just below this, the text is smaller but uses the same font and colour. Just below that is a short summary of what you will find in the review page, informing the reader of the journalists name. Next comes the credits, which tell the reader who made the film, how long it runs for and who you can find starring in it. The actual review has been split into three columns, breaking up the text which is not as daunting as having a page full of wordy analysis. A picture, probably of a key moment or strong shot within the film has been placed in the top right of the page, keeping the layout simple and not too crowded. 

I think this type of review page would be most suitable for us as the magazine promotes experimental and niche films where as Total Film and Empire magazine rave about blockbusters with well known actors. The layout will suit our film well and we would be able to choose one of our strongest shots to feature alongside the review. 

  

Poster Analysis- Harlem 16

This poster has been taken from the experimental film Harlem 16. I chose this particular poster because there were no characters and the text is limited. Immediately you can tell that this is not a blockbuster film, there are no well known actors plastered across the page, just the title and a silhouette of a fence. The red/orange sky suggests danger, and the fence for me, represents some sort of secret. From this poster I think the film itself will be of a realist nature.  The title incorporates the red sky and the texture of the fence, the black silhouette background makes these colours stand out. 

I don't want our poster to be overly complicated. Our film is experimental however the images are not hard hitting or overly complicated. Therefore something simplistic, but just as eye catching will suit our film better than the other Blockbuster posters I have looked at. 

Poster Analysis- Salmon Fishing In The Yemen

The two protagonists are featured in the picture which takes up the entire page. The characters themselves are situated in the top right of the page, allowing the rest of the space to be used for information. There is a fun aspect about the text, the quotation marks are either yellow, pink or blue and these match the colouring of the title which has been capitalised. Two quotations take up the majority of the top half of the screen and certain key words have been highlighted using the colour theme which runs throughout. Again, the small print gives information of the directors, distribution company and actors etc etc. From this poster design i get the feeling that the story being told will be somewhat heart warming with a comical side to it.

I particularly liked the text on this as it reminded me of the lights in our production. As we do not have any characters, our poster will have to rely on the images we produce, and the way we design it.

Poster Analysis- Martha Marcy May Marlene

The poster itself is very eye catching. The different layers require you to look into the images and figure out the different shapes and figures that you can see. The images dominate the page, leaving a small area on the left for the title and other information such as a quotation, awards and the actresses name. Not only are we supplied with this information but we are also told- in the small print at the bottom- about the directors, editors, writers, other cast members, production company and the distribution company. The title has been capitalised and the colours fit in with the colours of the images. 'MARTHA' is in a slightly pinky red where as the rest of the title is white and a slightly smaller font. Immediately we know that the story is going to revolve around somebody named Martha- no doubt the woman that we see before us. The smooth overlapping of the pictures suggest a narratie in which we are going to sympathise and be drawn into.

Film Exhibition

As our film is not 

Poster Preparation

Before creating our own poster i wanted to research into what other types of posters that are out there. I felt as though these posters were particularly different- as apposed to the big blockbuster films which have famous actor's faces all over them.

1. I chose this because i liked the layering, although it is targeted for a wide audience, there are several different images which have been merged together to create this interesting final piece.

2. This poster does not feature an actor. Instead it relies on an image which sums up the main themes of the film.

3. This piece has been made up of layers much like the first poster. These images however are much harder to distinguish, representing a film that has no hard narrative. 

Creating a story

Life. It can be tough. The people around us can blur our vision, people have the power to force us to choose pathways we do not wish to take. So what happens when you stop living your life for other people and you start seeing the things YOU wish to see? 

You see things you never thought you would, or could. You realise that you are not lost, you are not invisible.

Sound

Story
As our piece has no clear narrative- only the themes of travel, words and a sense of finding your self- we thought applying our footage to a poem would help string together what we are trying to say. After googling poems, we didn't feel passionate enough about anything we came across and so we decided to throw out words and phrases in order to create our own poem.

• pathways
• ''not all those that wonder are lost''
• nature
• blurred
• vision

After brainstorming a list of words we thought a small story-like narrative would be more suiting. We wanted to try and match some of the words that are spoken with visuals. 

Music

As well as a voice over i thought a soft, acoustic piece of music would suit the background. Music like Bon Iver's- Holocene. 

A track like this doesn't take too much attention off what's going on. Due to copyright issues we cannot use this exact track, but i want to create a similar sounding track using garage band.