Assignment one | Review
Client
Criterion
Context
Criterion has launched a new campaign called ‘Review’. This campaign will be used to promote their vast catalogue of independent, foreign and legacy films to a younger audience.
Requirements
Audience
The primary target audience is for young people from the ages of 16-25. The aim is to encourage young people to form a brand allegiance to the Criterion Channel.
Client
Criterion
Context
Criterion has launched a new campaign called ‘Review’. This campaign will be used to promote their vast catalogue of independent, foreign and legacy films to a younger audience.
Requirements
- Work in art, design or media that reflects the campaign ‘Review’.
- The work must clearly include photography to reflect the company.
Audience
The primary target audience is for young people from the ages of 16-25. The aim is to encourage young people to form a brand allegiance to the Criterion Channel.
Premiere Pro Tutorial
Editing
Creating a new sequence:
Add clips to a sequence:
You can also drag a clip displayed in the Source Monitor into the Timeline panel. If you added In and Out marks to a clip, only the selected portion of the clip will be added to your sequence.
This is important because when I come to export my video I can select which part I want export and which not if that ends up being the case. |
Remove clips from a sequence:
Use the Track Select Forward tool to select every clip from where you click to the end of the sequence (having Link Selection turned on lets you select the video clips or audio. With Link Selection off, it makes you select the clip and the audio with it)
This can help me move the selected clips or audios of my choice around quickly. |
Move clips in a sequence:
Make simple audio adjustments:
Use the Mute and Solo button to selectively hear audio tracks. Mute makes a selected track silent. Solo plays only the selected track.
This can help me by only selecting the audio that I would like to hear so that I could adjust the volume of it and muting the needless ones so they can't get in the way. |
Colour Correction
Learn basic correction options:
Apply a Look to your clips
Make creative adjustments
Adjustments made in the Lumetri Color panel appear as an effect in the Effect Controls panel if the clip is selected in the Timeline panel.
This can assist me because I can make some adjustments to the shot like increasing the exposer. push up the contrast, pull down shadows and the darker black/brighter white pixels which can give the shot a feeling of greater in depth. |
You can copy effects in the Effect Controls panel and paste them onto multiple other clips.
This can help me save time by adding same effects by just pasting it onto my chosen clip without going over it to chnage it. |
To copy all the effects on one clip to one or more other clips, right-click the clip with the effects and choose Copy. Select the other clip(s), right-click and choose Paste Attributes, select the attributes and effects you want to apply, and click 'Ok'.
This is important as it can help safe more time since I can apply the same effect on the selected clips. |
Using color wheels
Sound Design
Some effects include advanced settings that are accessible by clicking the Edit button for the effect in the Effect Controls panel.
This is useful because it shows me the stopwatch icons that allows me animate all of the settings over time. And by clicking edit, it takes me into a custom setup interface. This also useful because it can make it easier to access and modify the settings |
What is a review?
What is a film review?
It is the analysis and evaluation of Films.
What is the purpose of a film review
So that people can take the overall evaluation of a film's quality from a professional critic and deteremine whether if its worth watching or not.
Where are you likely to find a film review? List possible texts and formats.
Film reviews can be found on:
Television shows
Digital Media
Radio
Internet
Text:
Televisions- Jonathan ross, Bary norman and The Graham Norton
Digital Media- Magazines, newspaper and print media
Internet- Social Medias like YouTube, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, The Guardian's film section, Twitter and Facebook
Television shows
Digital Media
Radio
Internet
Text:
Televisions- Jonathan ross, Bary norman and The Graham Norton
Digital Media- Magazines, newspaper and print media
Internet- Social Medias like YouTube, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, The Guardian's film section, Twitter and Facebook
What type of language does a film review / reviewer use?
The languaged used depends on the intended readers. Therefore, it can be semi‐formal or formal. Formal film reviews should see a frequent use of passive voice. In a formal review, there should be no short forms of words. But the review should always begin with an introduction of the film, main points of the plot, opinions and end it with an conclusion.
What makes constitutes a successful film review and what constitutes an unsuccessful film review?
A decent movie review should entertain, persuade and inform, providing an original opinion without giving away too much of the plot.
Review set up
Dress code: When filming an review, it is important to look good and professional to your audience. There is no need to ever dress and being too casual. Wearing a casual dress code would be good since it could meet my target audience.
Ton of voice: The effectivness of the voice can have a huge impact on how viewers can preceive the reiver. Learning to control the pitch and tone of our voice can help engage the viewers. Having an optimistic and positive tone of voice creates trust and hope between the reviwer and the viewers.
But that also goes into the facial expressions as well. Looking naturaly happy, excited and smiling through the review can enhance the words being said along with gestures. But it also makes the viewer feel engaged.
Background: The background isn't much of a worry but it does have to look neat. Having a neatral background filled with various different eye catching things because the viewers like to look at clean professional videos because a messy one might make them click off giving them the sense that the person is not comitted to the video.
Having a simple and cheaper white wall for the background is alright as well but is a bit boring. But having something on the wall can give more depth in the picture.
A green screen is a great option as well since a lot of other reviwers might use it because it allows to replace backgrounds and insert a footage or images. But it takes a lot of time to set up. Having a flat surface without wrinkels is also needed. A green screen background can also feel unnatural for the viewer since they would like to see the presentor in a neutral background
Ton of voice: The effectivness of the voice can have a huge impact on how viewers can preceive the reiver. Learning to control the pitch and tone of our voice can help engage the viewers. Having an optimistic and positive tone of voice creates trust and hope between the reviwer and the viewers.
But that also goes into the facial expressions as well. Looking naturaly happy, excited and smiling through the review can enhance the words being said along with gestures. But it also makes the viewer feel engaged.
Background: The background isn't much of a worry but it does have to look neat. Having a neatral background filled with various different eye catching things because the viewers like to look at clean professional videos because a messy one might make them click off giving them the sense that the person is not comitted to the video.
Having a simple and cheaper white wall for the background is alright as well but is a bit boring. But having something on the wall can give more depth in the picture.
A green screen is a great option as well since a lot of other reviwers might use it because it allows to replace backgrounds and insert a footage or images. But it takes a lot of time to set up. Having a flat surface without wrinkels is also needed. A green screen background can also feel unnatural for the viewer since they would like to see the presentor in a neutral background
Film Review Analysis
Empire MagazineEmpire reviews only have a single picture at the top left of the page, and a lot of text. It uses three evenly placed columns to help fit the text of the review in. Finally the name of the reviewer is placed right at the end of the review, even taking up a small amount of space for the review. It is in bold and capital letters to easily distinguish from the rest of the review.
The review uses bold and CAPITAL LETTERS to help draw attention to the main aspects of the review. The capital letters helping readers to see where to begin, and the bold used in the ‘verdict’ section to help it stand out. |
Empire is a British film magazine which is published every month by Bauer Consumer Media. The first issue was published in May 1989. It offers reviews on both mainstream, cinematic productions and art-house films.
Type: Print media/magazine Audience: Empire magazine targets people who are interested in cinema since their magazine is about film. About 34% of the readers are between the age range of 15-24 years old, the other being 25-34 years old which is around 34% Gender: The foremost gender which reads the magazines are male which makes up to 77% while the female being the least, making up to 23% Here is a review done by Empire of a film called Emperor which was released in 2012. The first thing the review does is cover the basic plot outline, primarily so readers can understand what the reviewer is talking about. For the historians out there, the opening sentence should hook them quite nicely with the mention of World War II. The review mostly follows the basic storyline of the film without trying to give a lot of spoilers, and is off handedly criticising the film with comments such as “Only rises to the occasion” and “He would make a better movie.” When mentioning a character in the film, Empire uses the full name of the actor instead of just a surname. It also uses a few different colour blues, most notably the ‘plot’ one is a lighter blue to the rest of the movie info section, once again to help it stand out and goes down the traditional route of using black text on a white background. |
Chris Stuckmann
He starts the review by reminding the audience the events of the first film which automatically makes them remember from where they left of from, leading to the opening of the second film and how satisfied he was with it.
After that he once again talks about the first film but this time admiring it and saying that it has becomed the go-to reference whenever anyone talks about high-concept to horror. He talks about the concept and reasons of why he liked the first film as he said that he found it very tense and suspenseful. This can persuade the audience to watch the first movie if they haven't already. He also uses key-words like 'Pitch' to explain that whenever he has written something to a producer, executive or to a Studio. A quiet place inevitably will get brought up at some point during the conversation. He also compares the first and the second film and says how similar they are since the execution is almost the same, like how both of them share tension. He also brings up John Carpenters Holloween 2 released in 1981 which was a sequel to 1978 Holloween and compares it with A Quiet Place 2 by saying how both of the films catch up from where they left of in the prequel. Overall, he explaines the movie in a formal manner, doesn't use many complex words and keeps the language balanced for his younger audience to understand. He speaks calmly in a relaxed and slow way with the viewers like a friend. Not worrying about rushing |
Chris Stuckmann is an American filmmaker, YouTuber and film critic. He has over 1.94 million subscribers and over 636 million views which makes him one of the most popular film critics on YouTube.
Type: YouTube Video Audience: Mainly immature teens and adults around the ages of 15-30 who are interested in films and their reviews. Gender: Both females and males This is a review he made on 'A Quiet Place 2' which is a direct sequal to the first one which came out in 2018 which he also made a review on. All of his reviews have him face to face with the viewer to make it look personal. Before starting the review. He talks a bit about the director of the film and how this review will contain some particular spoilers, as he generally tries to make most of his reviews spoiler-free; however, he will occasionally release additional spoiler reviews for movies he fells would benefit from further, in-depth explanation like in this particular review. He also talks about the performance done by the actors who played the characters since it plays a very imporant role in any movie. How their performance relies on silent communication and visual storytelling. In addition to this. He talks about the director as well and how every frame of the movie was shot beautifully. He uses different shots from the movie as an example of what he liked. He also uses them whenever explaining a cetain scene or part of the movie duting his review of it. After praising about the movie he mentions only one critic at the end, and that is how the ending wasn't as emotionally resonant as the firts ones. To end the review. He gives his overall rating as in a letter, giving the movie an A. He then encourages his audience to watch this movie since if they have watched the first one, they will definetly love this one. Or if they haven't watched the first one, he heavly advices to go and watch it before the second. |
Peter Bradshaw/The Gaurdian
The Guardian has received many awards like the Best Newspaper category in 2005 which they went on to get for 2 more years. It has also been the winner for six years in a row of the British Press Awards for Best Electronic Daily Newspaper. It also got an awawrd for the best-designed newspaper online service in 2000.
The way their covers are produced look more precise than any other newspaper/magazine which specifies that they are aiming at a elderly audience. |
Peter Bradshaw is an English writer and film critic. He has been the cheif film critic at Guardian since 1999.
Type: Newspaper Audience: Largely aducated adults (18 to 30) who are intersted in mature films and reviews. Gender: Mixed The Guardian is a British Daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guarddian, and changed its name in 1959. They issue film reviews on papers day-to-day. Peter Bradshaw, who is the cheif film critic at The Guardian also has a YouTube channel where he posts weekly reviews on films which targets grown elder citizens. The language they use in their reviews is very intricate which is more towards older adults to understand. |
Review: Style and Content
What have I learnt about different types and formats?
Different types of reviews like digital and videos are very different but follow the same format as in planning an introduction to the movie that is going to be reviewed, plot summary, discuss the aspects of the film making and then an conclusion. But the presentation is very different, like how in a video review. You see an individual talking about the movie which makes the viewer feel angaged since they are face to face making it personal while in a digital review, you'll just be reading it.
Considering the brief and the Criterion brand, how are you going to construct your review to meet their requirements? Consider the following:
a) Style
b) Content
c) Audience
d) Presentation
The style of my review will be very simple since my audience will late teenagers and young adults from 13 to 19. The presentation will be fairly simple with subtitles and smooth transitions when ever I would have to explain a certain point in my review.
Film Genres and there Audiences
What is a Genre?
Film genres are categories that define a movie based on its narrative elements. Each genre is unique in the types of stories they tell.
Horror
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Horror is a genre which is intended to frighten, scare, disgust, fear, terror, shock, suspense, represent disturbing and dark subjecy matter. Horror has numerous subgenres like gothic horror, supernatural horror, monster movies, psychological horror, splatter films, slasher films, body horror, comedy horror and postmodern horror. Frequently in horror films, the plots use more larger fears of society. Common elements include, ghosts, demons, vampires, monsters, serial killers, apocalyptic worlds and etc.
The average target audicene for horror films are 15-25. The most general reason for this is that young adults and teenagers enjoy thrills. But these thrills are likely to excite a younger audience than an older one. |
Action
Action is a film genre in which the protagonist/protagonists are forced into a series of events that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, rescues and wild chases. Action films tend to feature a mostly resourceful her struggling against inredible odds, which include life-threatening situations, a dangerous villain, or a pursuit which usually ends in victory for the hero.
For most action films the common target audience are young males aged around 16-25 years old. This is because most action films have large amounts of fast paced scenes, violence and etc which is the satisfactory that this audience will look for. |
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Comedy
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Comedy is another genre of film in which the main attention is on humor. These films are made to make the audience through amisement and most often work by exaggerating characteristics for humorous effect. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending. There also many types of how comedy can e protrayed such as romantic comedy, traficomedy and dark comedy. Comedy, compared with other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars.
The films are targeted either at very genral audiences, with a G, PG, or PG-13 rating; or at teens and young adults with a higher rating (probably R). In both cases, appealing to women and men is key. |
Three Film Theories
What is a film theory?
Film theory is a collection of interpretative frameworks which develops over time so people can have a better understanding of the way that films are made and the way they are received.
Realism Film theory:
The media always encodes reality. It is therefore impossible to gain a first hand direct experience of the world via media no matter how transparent or virtual their representation of reality is. When an audience watches a film they expect what they see, listen to or read to have some connection of their own perspectives, life and experiences or to appear to be based upon some recognisable reality. This then help us to identify and understand the text and its meaning. We can often judge a film of how successful it is by measuring it against our own experiences. What is ‘real’ therefore can become a subjective and a controversial concept, as what one person considers to be realistic which may not be considered from another perspective. Auteur Film Theory: The term auteur originates form France which translates as author which means that a directors fil reflects their creative vision. The Auteur theory was introduced in the 1950’s by French film directors like Francois Truffaut who advocated a focus on the contribution directors made on the style and form of film he quoted ’A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material’. An auteur is a film maker whose style and practice is distinctive which creates a signature auteur status for them. It is also a film maker who has personal signature style and keeps creative control over his or her work. Making any film needs time and effort. The director would be the auteur but it would not be possible for them to create the whole production on their own, so instead they will collaborate with others and team up with the writers, cinematographers and actors but the director is still an auteur in a sense as they control everyone and everything in the production. Marxist Film Theory: Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1948. • He believed that the history of society was based on class struggles and materialism• He was in opposition to traditional Hollywood narrative structure and was opposed to a singular protagonist• but was in favour of group decision making. Marxist theory films can also encode political views, with a belief that Hollywood promotes capitalism by drawing you into the propaganda/ marketing. For example, a shot reverse shot is devised to make the viewer align with the character/commercial ideology. Marxist ideas are:
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This can be seen in film as:
- The individual can make a difference to the world, a group can change the world
- The individual can improve themselves, by being part of a group
- Good will triumph and effort will be rewarded
- The criminal returns to the scene of the crime and evil will be exposed
- Corruption exists in isolated cases
- Financial comfort and stable marriage is the best reward/ do not do drugs/ drink/ meddle with things you do not understand.
Three Genres and their convections
Horror
Setting - This is very important om horror films, as they should be set in isolated places, maybe in rural without many people nearby, or could be set in rundown derelict places, or even alleyways. Horrors should be set in gloomy places, or places that indicate isolation so no one is there to rescue them, or nowehere for them to run and hide. It's often use to enchance the feeling of isolation, and create more of a tense and scary atmosphere, with the use of thunder lightning and colours such as black and red in horror films as danger.
High/Low camera angles are also very important in horror films as they can be used to portray people as more scary, which is curtail in a horror film. |
Low key lighting is a common convention in horror films as it can be used to create dark scenes, and it can also be really usefed to build tension in a scene, with the use of flickering lights.
Props are very important in horror films as they can be really useful in helping to identify that the genre of th efilm is horror, props such as knife and chainsaw's are very common amongst horror films, rather than guns, because guns are a fast way of killing people whereas a knife is a more gory weapon.
Sound is also plays a very important part of a horror film. Loud Diegetic sound can be use to create tension (any sound that originates from the storyworld of the film). Diegetic sound is also used to make people jump, and scare the audience.
There is always a villain in a horror film, whether this can be a ghost, human, alien, monster, or clown, but this is curtail in a horror film, as it gives the main characters an opposition.
Props are very important in horror films as they can be really useful in helping to identify that the genre of th efilm is horror, props such as knife and chainsaw's are very common amongst horror films, rather than guns, because guns are a fast way of killing people whereas a knife is a more gory weapon.
Sound is also plays a very important part of a horror film. Loud Diegetic sound can be use to create tension (any sound that originates from the storyworld of the film). Diegetic sound is also used to make people jump, and scare the audience.
There is always a villain in a horror film, whether this can be a ghost, human, alien, monster, or clown, but this is curtail in a horror film, as it gives the main characters an opposition.
Comedy
Todorov's narrative theory works paarticularly well in children's animated comedy films, such as Madagascar or Ice age, as children can feel more involved with the film if they are being taken on an adventure.
Comedy's could be set almost anywhere, but usually bright vibrant places such as towns or cities, or even beaches, places that are well populated. Props in a comedy include things that could easily made comedic. Character types are very important in identifying a comedy film, there is always the 'idoit', or accident prone person, as well as a smart person. |
Comedies are usually filmed in ways that shows all characters are equal.
Natural lighting is very commonly used in comedies as it doesn't suggest anything, and portray characters in certain ways, it creates a very antural feeling scene.
In comedies the actors actions are usually very over the top to enchance a funny thing that they may be doing, to make the audience laugh.
Natural lighting is very commonly used in comedies as it doesn't suggest anything, and portray characters in certain ways, it creates a very antural feeling scene.
In comedies the actors actions are usually very over the top to enchance a funny thing that they may be doing, to make the audience laugh.
Action
Action films are suually set in big modern cities, where there is lots of hustle and bustle, which adds to the action sense of film, and usually have scenes that you wouldn't see in you're everyday life, such as scenes of police chases, explosions, car crashes, or gun fights. Which all adds to action of the film. The characters in action films are usually believable despite the unrealistic scenes. Special effects are very commonly used in action films, to create things such as explosives.
Action films tend to have very gripping, of the seat storylines, and there isn't a bad character as such, but there is usually a main character, who is trying to solve something or go on a long journey. |
The Criterion Channel
The Criterion Channel is an independent streaming service that features an wide-ranging mix of classic and modern films from Hollywood and around the world, many not available anywhere else.
History of the Company
The company was founded in 1984 by Robert Stein, Aleen Stein, and Joe Medjuck, who later were joined by Roger Smith. In 1985, the Steins, William Becker, and Jonathan B. Turell founded the Voyager Company, to publish educational multimedia CD-ROMs (1989–2000), during which time the Criterion Collection became a subordinate division of the Voyager Company. In March 1994, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH bought 20% of Voyager for US$6.7 million; the four founders each retained a 20% owner's share.
In 1997, the Voyager Company was dissolved (Aleen Stein founded the Organa LLC CD-ROM publishing company), and Holtzbrinck Publishers sold the "Voyager" brand name, 42 CD-ROM titles, the Voyager web site, and associated assets, to Learn Technologies Interactive, LLC (LTI). Robert Stein sold 42 Voyager titles to LTI from his Voyager–Criterion company share. The remaining three partners, Aleen Stein, William Becker (President) and Jonathan Turell (CEO) owned the Criterion Collection company, which has a business partnership with Janus Films, and had one with Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) until 2005, when Image Entertainment bought HVE. On November 4, 2013, it was announced that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment would handle distribution.
In 1997, the Voyager Company was dissolved (Aleen Stein founded the Organa LLC CD-ROM publishing company), and Holtzbrinck Publishers sold the "Voyager" brand name, 42 CD-ROM titles, the Voyager web site, and associated assets, to Learn Technologies Interactive, LLC (LTI). Robert Stein sold 42 Voyager titles to LTI from his Voyager–Criterion company share. The remaining three partners, Aleen Stein, William Becker (President) and Jonathan Turell (CEO) owned the Criterion Collection company, which has a business partnership with Janus Films, and had one with Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) until 2005, when Image Entertainment bought HVE. On November 4, 2013, it was announced that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment would handle distribution.
Their Audience
They target film lovers that have a deeper understanding and knowledge than the rest of the average people.
Style of Presentation
There website is very simple to navigate as right at the homepage it has the menus to look at all the Criterion films along with the posters and it will have the director, the year in which it was released and country. Once you click on you're preferred film, it will give you small summary of the story and an option to watch the trailer if you like.
Three Criterion Films
Film 1- The Seven Samurai |
The Seven Samurai is a Criterion film, starring Toshiro Mifune, Tajashi, Isao Kimura, Seiji Miyaguchi and Daisuke Kato. It was directed by Akira Kurosawa which was released in April 26, 1954 in Japan. This classic of the samurai film genre will appeal to teens around 15 and older about 30 who love action.
Plot Mainly what happens is there are a bunch of bad guy bandits goin’ around and raiding the villages, they are about to raid another village, but decide to wait and go after the harvest, one of the villagers hears they will be attacked soon, and go out looking for guardians, for samurai. Most shun the villagers, but eventually they find an old master and eventually recruit 7 samurai, they all have talents and personalities. They build many defenses for the village and protect it in any way they can. Eventually the bandits attack, loosing lots from all the defenses because they didn’t think the villagers would put up a fight. And eventually they do fight, and the samurai fight and stuff. The chief bandit has muskets or something and captures some women from the village, 4 of the samurai die fighting or in other ways, some by musket shot from the chief bandit, and then the 3 remaining samurai watch the village grow and prosper, and they feel very happy with themselves. The movie Seven Samurai is an amazing ancient style movie of the Samurai, and Ronin, master swordfighters of an almost lost art, it’s a very powerful and wise movie in the sense that all the Samurai are wise and all have their special talents and have to work together and be a team. |
Film 2- Stalker
Stalker is another Criterion film, starring Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko and Alisa Freinchdlich. It was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and was released in May 25, 1979. It's mainly targeted towards teens around 15 and adults about 25 who like Drama and Science fiction
Plot: In an unnamed country at an unspecified time, there is a fiercely protected post-apocalyptic wasteland known as The Zone. An illegal guide (Aleksandr Kajdanovsky), whose mutant child suggests unspeakable horrors within The Zone, leads a writer (Antoliy Solonitsyn) and a scientist (Nikolay Grinko) into the heart of the devastation in search of a mythical place known only as The Room. Anyone who enters The Room will supposedly have any of his earthly desires immediatly fulfilled |
Film 3- Night of The Living Dead
Night of The Living Dead, starring Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman. Is a Criterion film directed by George A. Romero which was released in October 1, 1968 (USA). The film is aimed more towards teens around 16 and adults about 30 who enjoy the horror genre which includes lots of gore and blood.
Plot: A disparate group of individuals takes refuge in an abandoned house when corpses begin to leave the graveyard in search of fresh human bodies to devour. The pragmatic Ben (Duane Jones) does his best to control the situation, but when the reanimated bodies surround the house, the other survivors begin to panic. As any semblance of order within the group begins to dissipate, the zombies start to find ways inside and one by one, the living humans become the prey of the deceased ones. |