Review Plan- Imo and Candice

Paragraph 1- Background information
(talk about last film, and director info- specialising in thrillers)

Paragraph 2- overview of film
(two best friends where jealousy is an issue)

Paragraph 3- genre and characters
(talk about the genre and how the characters relate to the genre)

Paragraph 4-key scenes
(Louise receiving the number of bullying letters and the relationship turning for the worst)

Paragraph 5- Our intentions and themes for the film
(talk about jealousy and how this can make people behave in extreme ways)

Paragraph 6- Reviewers comments and summary

'False Witness' Film Review 2nd Draft- Candice Tyson

Imogen Salmon, Mae Webb, Candice Tyson and Charlotte Hudson direct their second thriller film together. Having a crew of four directors, it was like having too many cooks, a recipe for disaster. With a vast array of opinions and perspectives combined together, the final product could have been catastrophic, hence why leading Hollywood bosses tend not to follow this path. However, after the group transformed using four conflicting point of views, to construct a positive outcome rather than a negative with the success of title sequence Perception, many weren’t concerned.

The main actors Phoebe Richardson and Megan Harman starred in their debut film as newcomers; we acquired high expectations due to comparison with Gabriella Martorana, previously giving a strong lead role in Perception. Comment on acting

Who would have thought the ‘green-eyed monster’ could lead to such dire events. The spine-tingling thriller False Witness is a short film based on the psychological and physical effects of bullying, through words and actions, recounted through the eyes of an adolescent. The statement ‘keep your friends close and your enemy’s closer’ couldn’t be more appropriate as the film recounts the process of a deteriorating relationship of two teenagers. 

Insight into protagonist Rebecca’s mind reveals the depth of deception, immorality and hostility of this ‘false witness’.  Revealing one of the many flaws in the justice system, where insufficient evidence can result in an unjust aftermath. This film highlights how lies facilitate avoidance of punishment, similar to the real-life case of Tia Sharp. Her murderer initially gave a false statement, pleading not guilty, and therefore getting away with murder, replicates aspects of Rebecca’s case.

The directors purposefully inflict information upon the audience creating omniscience, as memories are unravelled in the form of flashbacks, as if they have access into Rebecca’s mind. Emotions of agitation ignite among the audience as the truth is revealed, followed by an undesirable outcome. 

Paragraph about genre- 

Intentionally the directors chose antagonist Rebecca to play a heinous, spiteful and deceitful character which are ideal elements of a crime scene. Through the tension provoking flash backs, the thrilling events are unveiled before us. Dark low-key lighting used throughout the film shapes the atmosphere while mirroring Rebecca's personality. 

Paragraph about key scenes-

Louise's mother questions Rebecca's sincerity with her awareness of the on going jealousy in the relationship. With what echo's our own social problems, Louise's submissive and forgiving nature means Rebecca continues to dominate and control her. What is next for the friendship? Is the jealously overcome, or does the relationship take a turn for the worst? 

Conclusion ideas-

'the plot lumbers on'
Rebecca's character is 'power-mad'  
'intermittent flashbacks'

Final Review

Mae Webb, Imogen Salmon, Candice Tyson and Charlotte Hudson bring us their second offering for the silver screen. With a crew of four directors, having too many cooks could have made this a recipe for disaster. The coming together of so many contrasting and contradictory opinions and perspectives could have resulted in a tragic final product. However, fortuitously for them, the outcome is a positive one and it is, if anything, clear evidence of their ever growing maturity and confidence behind the camera. With the success of their previous feature Perception, we expect great things from these aspiring directors.
Who would have thought the ‘green-eyed monster’ could lead to such catastrophic consequences. The heart-stopping thriller False Witness is a short film based on the psychological and physical effects of bullying, through words and actions, recounted through the eyes of an adolescent. The statement ‘keep your friends close and your enemy’s closer’ couldn’t be more appropriate as the film recounts the unravelling and deteriorating relationship between two teenagers over time.
This is unknown actors Phoebe Richardson and Megan Harman’s first showing on the big screen. These directors definitely have a track record for this type of risk taking after their collaboration with Gabriella Martorana, also a newcomer, in last year’s Perception. This risk certainly paid off after her strong performance, landing them with glowing reviews. Using this technique again, Richardson and Harman succeed in giving a very realistic, true to life, spine-tingling portrayal of teenage bullying taken too far. Richardson plays ‘Rebecca’, a power-mad teenager, whose jealousy finally drives her to the extreme, leaving her ‘best friend’ Louise, played by Harman, in mortal danger. This is every parent’s worst nightmare – an unsuspecting, naïve and forgiving daughter who becomes the victim of an abusive and controlling psychopath. 
Through a combination of intelligent lighting, skilful directing and powerful camerawork, directors succeed in constructing a truly heinous and spiteful character. Through the use of ingenious narrative structure, we see the contradictory parallel unfolding of events past and present. We are given an insight into Rebecca’s mind revealing the lies of this ‘false witness’. This enables the audience to grasp the magnitude of Rebecca’s deceit and manipulation, and has them yelling at the screen.
Clever use of unrestricted narration throughout the film places the audience firmly on Louise’s side. The constant betrayal by her ‘supposed’ best friend, the wider sense of moral outrage and the consequent failing of the justice system are all too much to stomach. The film highlights how lies can facilitate avoidance of punishment and resembles recent real-life cases where murderers have walked free, again with deadly consequences. 
It’s a captivating message for the most part and the directors have managed to depict a spiteful relationship at its worst. Aside from the occasional flaw and a few poor casting choices, the end product does hold together and you have to admire these directors for attempting to weave together such an intricate, complex and dark trail of events.

 

Final Poster

Review Draft - feedback

Here is some feedback we received from a draft of our review.

'Side Effects' - language and content - Mae Webb

"The Place Beyond The Pines"- content and language technique- Charlotte Hudson

Audience Feedback- Imogen Salmon

For our review, we need to rate our short film on 3 aspects : Anticipation , enjoyment and in retrospect, so we decided to use a social networking site to receive audience feedback, evaluating our short film and rating it on what they believe as an audience it should be.

I calculated an average using the given ratings from the feedback using a mean to produce a rating out of 5 per aspect, there were 8 people who commented.

Anticipation: 4+ 5+ 5+ 5+ 3+ 4.5+ 4+ 4 = 34.5 / 8 = 4.3   4
Enjoyment: 3+ 3+ 3+ 3.5+ 3+3 +5+ 4 = 27.5 /8 = 3.4    3
In retrospect: 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ 3+4  = 31/ 8 =  3.9    4 

We will also use these comments to help in our evaluations.

FALSE WITNESS - Final Film

Review ideas- Imogen Salmon

Imogen Salmon, Mae Webb, Candice Tyson and Charlotte Hudson produce their second thriller film together. With a crew of four directors, due to the vast array of opinions and perspectives combined together, there was potential for a disastrous short film. However, after previous success many we weren’t concerned. The main actors Phoebe Richardson and Megan Harman starred in this debut film as newcomers, with high expectations due to comparison with previous strong lead roles

. 

Who would have thought the ‘green-eyed monster’ could lead to such occurrences. The spine-tingling thriller False Witness is a short film based on the psychological and physical effects of bullying, through words and actions, represented through the eyes of an adolescent. The statement ‘keep your friends close and your enemy’s closer’ couldn’t be more appropriate as the film interprets a deteriorating relationship of two teenagers. 

The insight given into protagonist Rebecca’s mind displays the depth of lies, immorality and animosity of this ‘false witness’.  Revealing one of the many flaws in the justice system, where insufficient evidence results in an irrational aftermath. This film highlights how lies enable avoidance of punishment, similar to the real-life case of Tia Sharp; with her murderer initially giving a false statement, therefore not being accused of her death.  

The directors purposefully inflict information upon the audience creating omniscience as memories unravel in the form of flashbacks, as if they have access into Rebecca’s mind. Emotions of agitation inflate among the audience as the truth is revealed, followed by an undesirable outcome. 

To talk about: 

-        -  Genre

-         - Key scenes

-         - Reviewers comments (conclusion)

Poster - fourth draft - Mae Webb

After discussion we felt that the image on Charlotte's poster was more effective as it makes the character Rebecca look more evil and tells the audience that she is the antagonist. Therefore we decided to merge both of our posters together to create our final one. We have kept the record button as we feel it adds enigma to the poster and makes the audience want to find out what it's about. 

• We still need to create a production block for our film including our names
• We also need to think more carefully about who would review our film and what they may say.

Recording our voiceover - Mae Webb

Here is a video of us recording the voiceover for our film. During our film we decided to have Phoebe's character 'Becca' talking to the interviewer over the shots of her and Louise to show how she is lying to the interviewer about what happened. We feel this would make the audience feel tense as they know she is lying and are seeing the truth, therefore it would draw them in more as they would want to know if she gets caught or not.
We recorded this voiceover using a voice recorder in an empty room to try and get the right effect.

However we soon realised that because we recorded this voiceover in a room that echoed and used the camcorder to record the sound in the interview room, they sounded completely different and disrupted out continuity. Therefore we decided to record these voiceovers again using the camcorder and in a room that does not echo to get the same sound.

Here is a video of the second recording of the voiceover that we did:

3rd poster drafts- Charlotte & Mae

Charlotte's draft

Here's my 3rd draft of my poster:

• I have changed the billing block so it has our names in it instead of random words. 
• I have also re-aligned all my text so it all justifies to the left
• I have made my title larger and put it at the top of my poster instead of having a review quote at the top
• I have also changed the font of my quote so it is 'sans serif' instead of 'serif'
• I have tried to justify my billing block as much to the left as possible so it is in-line with the title
• Also my characters aren't meant to be orange but i think on this computer they have a more orange tone- i haven't done this on purpose!! They have normal skin tone on the actually poster.
  
  Mae's Draft

'Zero Dark Thirty' Little White Lies- Language and Content - Candice Tyson

Zero Dark Thirty

I have read through each paragraph of the review of 'Zero Dark Thirty' in the magazine Little White Lies and written briefly with annotations what each paragraph is telling us as the audience.

1st paragraph

2nd paragraph

3rd paragraph

4th paragraph

5th paragraph

6th paragraph

7th paragraph

8th paragraph

9th paragraph

10th paragraph

'What Maisie Knew' Language Techniques & Structure- Imogen Salmon

• Immediately, the first word indicates the topic of this film. Divorce. The paragraph then continues to give examples of similar films, followed by naming the directors and the book it is based on. This opening paragraph is an introduction to the context and background of the production of the film. 

• The next paragraph follows with historical context, explanation of how the film is different to it's written version, set in a different period of time. Following with, description of the plot in the opening of the film, introduction of main characters and mentioning the subjective narrative of the film.  

• Paragraph three develops the plot further, briefly describing the events following the divorce, (both parents find new partners).

• The fourth paragraph involves comments of pure opinion of the reviewer Oliver Lytlelton, he describes how well he believes the actors carry out their roles, comparing one couple to another, stating what the script offers them as actors, and how this result in the 'film feel(ing) repetitive'. 

• The review finally concludes with an evaluation on how well presented the film, and a comment suggesting improvement, by instead of just showing what the main character Maisie could see, representing what was going on internally too, showing greater depth into her emotions.