Ancillary Task - Article review

This is a draft of our magazine review. the first page is split into two sections. each section being almost as a profile page of the two main characters , Danny and Maggie, a picture of both characters will be on their profile and also introducing the audience to the characters, this is a good technique in order to get the audience to see the difference between the two characters personalities. The use of bright colors and bold writing is going to be used on Maggie's side to reflect her bubbly, unique personality, whereas plain colours and italics will be used on Danny's side to illustrate the contrast between them. At the top of the page there is a rhetorical question; 'An ugly girl,a good looking boy and a dream... Now who said dreams don't come true?
This question will help place the audience in a situation where they would be questioning their own imagination. This will be useful as it creates an unrealistic mood.
The colors used in this review are mostly Pink and Blue. These colors will be also used in the poster to create a coherent style. this shows that the production company has a particular motif color scheme that is used in all their film reviews. This is done to show consistency in their reviews and also to make their reviews recognizable to their target audience. The layout of the review helps attract new readers due to the strict and ordered layout. The review is presented through the use of columns. The columns help keep the review in an orderly fashion and is also part of the consistency used on all the reviews. The review is a double page spread and includes a profile section about each character. This is done to create a comical effect which can ease the mood of the reader and allow them to drift into a feeling of euphoria.
In terms of images, there is an additional photo connecting both pages at the bottom. This image helps create the split lifestyle of both characters. Each character is placed on their own side of the page however,the image itself shows them looking at each other. Presenting this to the readers will create a clear view of the romance that will be going on throughout the film. In addition, the image also leaves readers to envisage their own idea of what may be happening because they see a good looking boy dropping his eyes on an ugly girl.

Ancillary Task - Poster

This is a draft of our short film poster. unfortunetly its not so clear, but our main idea was to illustrate an obvious idea of split personality by the use of an image. The left hand side of the image shows the dreamy side of Maggie whereas the right hand side shows her real look. this double image effect was used to help us keep in coherent style of split screening. The use of bubble writing font was to emphasise on Maggie's features, as you can see we used thinner , bold writing for Danny. Our slogan which is shown below the film date release is 'The dream of a lifetime..' the use of elipsis gets the audience to assume what will happen. Just under the slogan is the website which is full of information of the film i.e its release, audience feedback and some stills taken from the film. For the poster to be very conventional we had to follow some rules. We placed a large title which attracts the eye, bold and funky colors which stand out from the background, and an intriguing picture which would attract viewers to
the film. the use of split picturing is very interesting as it foreshadows an idea of split personality in our film. We also used a persuasive slogan which might persuade the viewers to go and see the film. We used the main character's name for promotion, and the certification will help ensure that the right type of people
are watching the film.
We tries using the rule of thirds to help format our work. This rule was very useful as it helped us place the image and title in a very coherent way.

Production Diary

28th September - We discussed the locations we needed for each shot and kept in mind the advantages and disadvantages of filming in each place so that we wont have any problems when we start filming. We chose to film the waking up scenes in one of our houses since we would'nt have a problem if any shots needed to be re-done. We used the bedrooms and bathrooms for when both they wake up to show their lives and makes it look more realistic rather then a fantasy. We chose also to film in trafalgar sqaure and the park since they are seen as a very romantic and calm place were a couple would normally go to spend time together. Also trafalgar square is seen as an icon of London so it could also establish the location. We agreed to film in a school classroom since it makes it more realistic and our target audience can also relate to themselves. Also it represents that they are all normal teenage students attracting the same age group.

29th September - We needed a few props for our film so we made sure we had everything and ready to go so that we could start filming straight away.

13th October - We started off by filming in school since the school shots were most important to show our film was a comedy. A problem we had was making sure we didnt do any mistakes since we had alot of background people and the slightest mistake could mean we have to re-do all the shots. We also had to choose reliable people that we knew in any case we needed to repeat we'd be able to find them. Furthermore we had to make sure the sound was good enough for when we start editing later. The shots in school went smoothly and we were all impressed by the standard of our work.

15th October - We went to my house to film the first scenes of our film which were the waking up and getting ready scene's for both the male and female character. We started by practising a few times to make it come out right. After practising a few times we filmed the shots required from different angles so that we had more options to choose from. We had a few problems were people would walk past the camera and in one of the mirror shots the person filming could show in the reflection in the mirror however this wasnt a problem since we re-took the same shot many times. By the end we were all impressed with our footage.

17th October - We all agreed the day before to meet up in the morning so we could shoot the scenes we needed in trafalgar square. At first we were worried that we were'nt able to film at that location since it was a public attraction, however we asked a police man over there and he agreed to let us film our required shots. Yet again we made sure we repeated each shot to save us any hastle later with one shot turning out wrong. While we were coming back on the train we had an idea to film since it would make the film a bit longer and also suited with the romantic theme we wanted to show. So we took a few shots of both characters in the train. Also we looked for other locations around the area to suit with our film, such as dancing in front of the london eye and walking in the park.

23rd October - We captured all our footage on to the laptop to we could start editing straight away.

24th October - We started editing everything so that everything was in order so we could add the transitions. We had a few difficulties such as the split screening coming into the screen.

10th November - We had finished filming and captured all our footage, however after we watched the film we realised we needed a few more shots for one of the transitions we were doing since it split the screen into four and as a group we decided it would look better if each split screen had a different shot to reflect on what was happening in the dream. As a group we decided on what shots would look better and chose to do them the next day.

11th November - We all met up in Goldney park near school were we had all originally planned the day before to meet. We set up and filmed a few shots however we had a problem with the weather since it was very dull and rainy which allowed us to change a few of our ideas for the shots. We then filmed the 3 shots we needed however we made sure we repeated the same shot more then once incase we had a problem while editing and needed a back up. We had to go to a flower shop close by to replace one of the shots and had a few problems with people wanting to be in front of the camera and people sticking there heads in while we were filming however our aim was to film this shot and we made sure we did it without any inconveniences. After we were all happy with what we had filmed we went to school to capture it and start editing it.