Ancillary Tasks

My Film Review

My final poster

Designing my own Magazine Review

Upon looking at a number of different magazine film reviews and deconstructing them, I have started to design my own. I have decided to do this in Adobe Photoshop as this is the program I feel most comfortable using. Below is a basic outline of what my review might look like, I have just chosen a random photo of the main actress, Steph, and haven't decided which shot to use yet. I have done an outline of the basic layout, I have yet to add the actual review into the shot as I am writing that in Word then transferring it over when I have decided upon the final layout. I am also going to add another photo but of the Barbie doll herself, I have yet to decide whether it will be a photo of her as the stereotypical Barbie or as she is at the end of the film as I do not want to give too much of the plot away in the images.

I have however, added some key facts about my short film in the top left such as the running time and who's starring in the film.
I started to play around with some other photos that I could add to the interview without giving too much of the plot away, I also started to add some of the actual review into the layout as well to see how much text I'd actually need to fill up the double page spread. I thought about adding the photo of Ken proposing to a pregnant Barbie. This does not give the twist ending of the plot away but it does show a interesting turn in events.

After messing around in Photoshop for a while trying to decide upon my layout for my review without writing all of it I then change it completely following actually writing my review. I wrote so much that I decided that I would in fact only have one image, one of Steph looking confused holding the two dolls. This is the final design that I decided upon.

As you can see I decided upon having a pink colour scheme to match the one of the film, with the original title and font across with the top. 

Magazine Review Research

In order to design a realistic film review from a magazine I have been researching the design of the typical film review. There are many different film magazines which, one a weekly basis, review the latest films one of which being one of the most popular in the UK, "Empire".
Some of the better films have more space in the magazine and get a more in depth review, this can be seen below with the review of the 2010 film "Love and Other Drugs" starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal.

As seen above, the title of the film is in bold standing out to the reader, it also has some key facts about the film down the side in case the reader doesn't want to read the whole article to see what the film is about or to spike their interest. 

Many Blockbuster films get a two page, or even more, spread in film magazines to spike the reader's interest. This can be seen in "Avatar" below.

Poster Research

I have had many different ideas what to do for my final film poster, I have begun researching different types of posters to see which one would best suit my film. I really like the idea of minimalist film posters, as the name suggests they don't have much on them and don't give much away, however, if the film is iconic enough even without the title you can tell what the film is.

I have also been looking at teaser posters, these again don't give too much away in the poster, often they are only a single image with only the title of the film

Final Poster Idea

I have designed several different film posters for my short film, I have felt none of them have really worked. The one I liked the best was the mug shot poster, but then it doesn't really apply to my film as Barbie never gets arrested. I then had the idea of have a photo of Real Life Barbie passed out on a park bench with a bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand and having that as my film poster. But due to time constraints and the fact my Real Life Barbie has a full time job I have not been able to take this photo. I then had a further idea of a crime scene photo as my poster, just the outline of a body in chalk on the ground where Barbie died of a drug overdose. This then adds to the title of the film as it adds to the conspiracy around the fact that this story was untold... until now. 

Audience Feedback to Rough Cut

These are the audience feedbacks to my rough cut of my short film when i showed it to my class, also from some of my friends as well.

Level - 2, Mark - 22
I liked the stop motion bit at the beginning. I didn't really get the girl at the end though, or what she was trying to put across

Level - 2, Mark - 23
Isn't the music copyrighted? I think you could get better narration. Some of the arm movements in the stop motion animation seems pointless. You could have music in the background of the narration? Would a teenage girl care about Barbie? Is she deluded?? You could of had more camera shots.

Level - 3, Mark - 29
Original idea! The backgrounds work really well and so does the concept. The title suits the theme perfectly and is really well made

Level - 4, Mark - 32 (more when finished)
LOVE the song, narration! Stop motion is grrrrrrreat! CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE the cocaine bit. Steph is so funny! So so so so good. Snaggle arm adds to the realism!

Level - 3, Mark - 27
Stop motion work well and was a perfect mix of funny and sad. Overall I really enjoyed it!

Level - 2/3, Mark - 23/24
I like the mix of footage and stop motion. Very funny story. I think the real life Barbie needs more development. Stop motion is good

Level - 3, Mark - 30
Effective stop motion. I like the narration. Funny footage.

Level - 3
Good use of stop motion, very impressive. Narration goes well. Steph - very good Barbie impression. Very clever concept - looking forward to seeing end of it.

Level - 3, Mark - 31
Such a creative idea! Very original! You've obviously spent a lot of time on this - very well executed. Hilarious script

Level - 4, Mark - 34
Very funny twist on a common everyday story. Frame rate was off, which I found a tad off-putting. Stop motion was very effective. Really good!

Rough Cut

Narration for my Short Film

I decided upon narration for my short film as I didn't want to voice the Barbie and Ken dolls. As I've said before I wanted a Morgan Freeman type voice or James Earl Jones to narrate my film, but both of those actors were otherwise occupied when asked to participate. Instead I settled for my friend Lawrence to narrate, at first he tried to emulate Morgan Freeman, but that didn't go so well as he has a distinctive Norfolk twang in his voice! So instead I gave him the script and he read it normally. We did numerous takes at first trying to record it on my camera but that didn't pick up his voice too well, then we moved onto my laptop. I had recorded my voice on it before and it worked fine but when we tried to record Lawrence's it sounded muffled and we had to change our recording device once again. The third device we used was his laptop, but again it sounded muffled and almost robotic.

Lawrence playing with his Rubik's cube whilst I tried to sort out the technical difficulties

The fourth recording device we used was my phone, when we tested it, it sounded good. We then recorded the whole script but then when playing it back it had a strange buzz in the background! So we moved on to the FIFTH recording device!! We used Lawrence's iPod and miracle of miracles it worked!! After 3 hours, going on 4 we finally finished recording the narration for my film!

Barbie turns to prostitution!!

Today I ventured outside to film the final scene of my short film, when Barbie hits rock bottom and turns to prostitution for drug money. As I filmed all of my scenes inside and on a set scenary, apart from the cocaine but that was just my dining room table, it was a shock to film outside again. Brought me back to my AS days filming in the cold outside! For this scene Barbie is trying to find a "John" to give her money but is not having any luck. As seen below I used a remote control camper van to drive past Barbie while she's trying to get their attention.

Poster Planning

This is a rough draft of my poster. It's supposed to look like she is having her mug shot taken the strung out version of Barbie post Ken cheating.

I also thought about doing a poster of half a Barbie Doll face and half Steph's face. 

                                          

                                         

But the more I played around with this idea the more I decided against it, I didn't think it would look as authentic.

Final Script

NARRATOR - In this day and age people care more about their looks than getting a good education. Meaning there are walking talking Barbie dolls living among us. As children young girls were given these dolls to play with, there is however, one story they didn't tell you.

CREDITS

BARBIE IN A CLUB DANCING

NARRATOR - Barbie never paid attention at school, she didn't care about her education. During the day she works as a personal assistant and at night she likes to go out with her friends.

ENTER KEN

NARRATOR - One night when she was out, she met Ken.

BARBIE AND KEN DANCE

NARRATOR - Ken was everything Barbie had ever dreamed of, they fell in love at first sight.

BARBIE ON HER OWN

NARRATOR - Soon the honeymoon period was over for Barbie, the day she realised she was pregnant. She and Ken had only been dating for a few months, she didn't know what to do!

KEN AND BARBIE TALKING

NARRATOR - When Barbie first told Ken, he freaked out and left.

KEN LEAVES

NARRATOR - Leaving Barbie all alone.

PREGNANT BARBIE, ENTER KEN

NARRATOR - But he then returned and proposed to Barbie, she was over the moon

PREGNANT BARBIE BRIDE AND KEN GETTING MARRIED

NARRATOR - And they were soon married.

BARBIE, KEN AND NEW BORN BABY

NARRATOR - Once they were happily married, Barbie gave birth to their son, Ken Jr. They were a happy family - or so she thought.

BARBIE WALKS IN ON KEN IN BED WITH CINDY

NARRATOR - One day Barbie came home to find Ken in bed with another woman - CINDY!

BARBIE DRINKING ALONE, SNORTING COCAINE

NARRATOR - This destroyed Barbie, she turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. Social services took Ken Jr. away from her, calling her an unfit mother. Causing a downward spiral she soon hit rock bottom, turning to prostitution for drug money before overdosing on cocaine leaving Ken Jr. without a mother.

FADE TO BLACK

NARRATOR - Do you understand now?

REAL LIFE BARBIE HOLDING THE DOLLS LOOKING CONFUSED

REAL LIFE BARBIE TALKING ABOUT HOW SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHY BARBIE WOULD TURN TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL BECAUSE SHE WOULDN'T DO THAT BECAUSE SHE'S REALLY PRETTY AND EVERYONE LIKES BARBIE COMPARING HERSELF TO BARBIE

Filming Real Life Barbie

Today we filmed the "Real Life Barbie"

Started off as Steph - pre Barbie transformation

Choosing Barbie's outfit

Adding the final touches

 Once we finished filming the scene where the Narrator explains to Real Life Barbie the perils of skating through life on her looks we took some photos for the poster. I have two poster ideas; the first being a cut between an actual Barbie and then Real life Barbie, half Barbie's face half Steph's. This is the image I'd use below of Steph.

Barbie-fied

The second idea is of a strung out image of Steph with the title "Barbie: The Story They Didn't Tell You" above her. We took a lot of photos for this poster idea, we smudged Steph's Barbie make up and messed up her hair and she put a hoodie on as well. We also did a couple of photos that make it look like she is having her mug shot being taken which I would then layer over the top of a striped background as you would see in a police station. We also found half a bottle of Jack Daniels which we used in a couple of photos to show how far "Barbie" had fallen - hitting rock bottom.

Getting "Barbie-fied"

Today I got my friend, Steph, who is going to play the real life Barbie in my film to get "Barbie-fied"

We started off by taking photos of her "naturally" (she didn't want photos of her without any make-up at all so we went with natural make-up instead).

We then started on the make-up, first the heavy foundation

Then the eye shadow

As these photos are only a test run to see how close she'd look like to Barbie and to get a rough idea of photos I could use for my poster we don't have a proper Barbie outfit. For the final film she will be wearing the classic Barbie pink outfit.

Choosing My Barbie

With the help of my friends I have received many different Barbie dolls to make my film, they are all different so I had to decide which one to use, one ever came pregnant.

Other's had rather crazy hair

My Real Life Barbie and my Barbie Doll

Barbie and Ken, we couldn't find Ken a shirt 

Sun Bed Barbie and Princess Barbie

The final choice for Barbie

Title Sequence

For my title sequence I had the title and faded it slowly.