Teacher feedback

Teacher notes
To improve:
Increase the amount of footage in the montage sequence. The montage on the landscape
Michael winterbottom every day
Dont like the candle
Not sure if the letter close up is to clumsy for the scene
Iconography to children is throughout so it would be better if it is a child at the end.
Research Michael winterbottom-draw the inspirations

Graded at a B
Good annotation for each draft p
Good discussions keek
Good discussion
Good deal beach and photographs
Film
The seascape was good in terms of montage
Slow zoom
Use of tension clock

Draft 5-addition

For this draft there have been changes made:

• The way the font fades out, a gausian blur has been added which increases to the end of the fade out which gives it more of a ghostly and stylistic effect. 
• The music with the new pieces that we recorded yesterday, there are two pieces one in D-Minor and one in G-Minor as the G-minor sounds more happy, in comparison with D-minor but it still has the melancholy minor scale. 
• The title has changed, it is now "in the Absence of Life" as it tells the audience the story behind  the main character, as there is much of his story that is assumed by the audience.

Evaluation

During this draft I feel that the flashback montage is a key aspect of the film, however the current narrative doesn't allow for the younger boys to be fully integrated into the film, thus the audience will not fully understand the reason behind it. 

The opening dream sequence is also a very impressive and key point of the film, however this sequence is very different to the child montage sequence and the audience may be confused as to the characters relationships. 

Some of the most interesting shots and sound effects are around the 'Coffee sequence'. The slow zoom toward 'Marc' sat on the empty Sofa and the only sound is the ticking clock draw the audience into the scene; while the coffee pouring sequence is also aesthetically pleasing.

The improvement of the sound in the final edit because it is the final composition from Helen.

After watching the film I have noticed continuity errors, which should be fixed in editing. Some I have noticed at the start of the film as there is a short break between the 'Marc' waking up and him lifting his arm, this slows the feel of the film and makes it jump; this can be fixed in the edit. 

To improve the flashback sequences and there integration with the rest of the short film there needs to be another flashback scene which allows for the audience to see the siblings when they are older and during there teenage years. We have planned to shoot a basketball sequence when they are older to show the age progression. This second flashback will be shot in a similar style to the sea montage with the same lighting effects, this will allow for the audience to place the two scenes together. 

The final candle shot of the film is a symbol to show the end of the brothers life, however the shot seems detached and separate from the rest of the sequence. To fix this there needs to be a visual link between the rest of the sequence and the candle. A way to do this is to add a photo of the two brothers at the beginning of the short, putting the photo frame next to the candle will fix the visual link. However the genre of the film and its style does allow to leave the film with an open ended narrative, this will cause the audience to make their own assumptions about the older brother.

Distribution companies

Artificial eye
Artificial Eye is a British film distributor, specialising in foreign-language and art house films. This means that the audience is very specific, but it also means that the audience does not fit the same audience as our film. This is because our film is made to be more mainstream. So it will not be this distribution company.

Coffee films
Coffee films started by distributing independent short films across a wider audience. It is also a major production company for short films. Later it went into feature films. However the short films distribution and production is what is important as it would take our film to distribute across their website, giving a much wider audience, however it is still a smaller audience from larger companies, but it would be easier to work with them.

Renderyards
It is a short film distribution company, they have connections with love film, iTunes, Hulu etc. is means they have a massive audience and many places to distribute to. They also take in any film, so it will be easier to send them. They represent Filmmakers of Feature Films, Documentaries and Short Films, Animations and Music Videos for international movie distribution.

However these independent distributors aren't that professional. However the best out of all of them is coffee films. So that seems to be the best to send our film to distribute.

Draft 5

A small add to the coffee scene were the letter box opens as a close up before cutting away. This makes it seems as if the scene moves faster than it did before. However I feel that the first close-up of the letter box opening doest work with the rest of the scene and it feels redundant.

Demographic and Viewership

 
All of this information has been taken from YouTube advertising page, where they teach users about advertising on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/en-GB/demographics.html
http://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/en-GB/affinities.html


All of these are based in the US but the internet and thus Vimeo is world wide
Researched from here

Ways to exhibit our short film

I have decided that the best way to distribute my short film is online, because by most it is free and easy. Plus there is no way of blocking the audience which can happen as not everyone can get to the cinema. When on the Internet everyone can see it, so there is a complete 100% audience access.

Youtube:

YouTube is the biggest video sharing site on the planet and is designed for users to upload video straight to the site where it can be viewed by anyone and commented on by anyone. However the site uploads footage by anyone, so the quality of certian videos are lacking. The footage and shot films uploaded to YouTube is completely free, this means it is easy to share videos. Also the vastly large audience that is on YouTube allows for a higher chance of getting the short film seen on YouTube.

 
Vimeo is a similar site to YouTube, however it caters to a much more professional market. The videos that are uploaded to Vimeo are in the most part short films by professional directors, this meanss that the users and viewers can give a profesional opinion on the short film. This makes Vimeo a much more impressive and professional website for filmmakers. Also you can donate which gets your videos higher in the search. This also means that the search is based on views and not recent. However YouTube allows for you to change the relevance and style which you can search. This can't be done on Vimeo


The BBC film network is designed to exhibit new filmmakers by showcasing their short films. Their site consists of user created short films and they are to a very high standard. However it is harder to upload a video, but it does get a more professional audience.

After looking at these three online distribution methods I will use YouTube as it is free, open, easy to upload and easy to get an audience. However BBC film network and Vimeo are more profession it is harder to upload and harder to get an audience to see it, although the quality of the feedback would be better.

Draft 4

This is the draft she there is music before flashback sequence, as it can create a juxtaposition with the other music changing the key.
In this draft the music start before the flashback sequence, just after the envelope drops. This means it can ceate a juxtaposition with the other music changing key. However I think that the music at this point needs to be slowly faded in