Analysis of film reviews - Research -

Before I write a review for My Brother Leon, I need to know how they are written and any codes and conventions I need to follow. I have looked at 3 different articles on 3 different films to compare and contrast them. I will need to choose which layout to use for my own article.

Firstly, as Kidulthood has the same theme of gang crime I looked at reviews for this film;

This Kidulthood article was placed on the Music Omh website which houses the latest reviews on music, film and theatre. The audience of the article is for people interested in film. It was very descriptive, using such phrases as;
- “Brazen young individuals”

- “Fear driven”
- “Blunt and often harsh”
- “Ruthless bullying”
- “Stunning cast”
The language isn't very typical for people in the film industry as not many film ideologies were used. The review also brang out the good qualities of the film and didn't really have a biased opinion. I also liked the phrase; “woven so seamlessly” as it summed the film up in being not all together which is exactly what it was trying to represent.
The structure of the review was;
- the first paragraph introduces the news around the film. Knife crime is a big issue in the UK, which they pointed out.
- the following paragraphs are the synopsis of the film, including sections about the cast and their characters.

- It then compares in to another film; Trainspotting.

- The author then makes a point to say that the film "works" as it is made by Londoners who have dealed with the experiences in the film first hand.

- It then goes on to distinguish the themes and morals.

- Which ends the article about the director, stating elements which made the film successful.

Johnny Mad Dog

This review of Johnny Mad Dog by Trevor Johnston is from the Sight and Sound website. I decided to look at sight and sound as the site and magazine are aimed at people either interested in film or a part of the film industry so the people reading the articles would be interested in seeing new material.

The review states you can choose to view Africa as a “dark continent” or as a normal place with normal people, putting the continent into a new different light/view. The author believes that the film is allowing us to look at poverty without engaging it. Although it does state that there are always films made in this genre.

The structure of the film is that he speaks about the filmmaker, subject of film, characters, comments on treatment and techniques filmmaker has used. Throughtout the review it includes the story.
It mentions about setting and the impact of it, the context of the film and the sound and states that there is no happy ending.

New Moon
I then went onto look into a review in a newspaper. I used New Mood from The Guardian for this as it is a big leading newspaper England.

It was placed in the Friday paper which is a night for going to the cinema. Although it was a bad review as The Guardian doesn't have the same target age group as New Moon does. The review used a very sarcatsic tone and is biased.

The review introduces the film before the review starts and again tells the story throughout. It also talks about the characters and actors.
The language used is aimed at middle class readers, as that is who reads The Guardian.

Film reviews codes and conventions
There are no set codes and conventions for film articles but these are some I've found to be similar in the film reviews that I have looked at;
- Strong opening and ending line.
- Powerful adjectives.
- Sentences to describe.
- Description/synopsis of film.

I then decided to compare and contrast two of the reviews I looked at.

The New Moon article from The Guardian and Johnny Mad Dog from Sight and Sound have two very different audiences. The New Moon article was placed in The Guardian to target middle class culture vultures on a Friday. Not many of these aged people would be interested in a teen movie such as New Moon so it is perfectly placed in The Guardian as a “gimmicky” and “worn” film. On the other hand, Johnny Mad Dog, is aimed at film enthusiasts who like researching about up and coming films. The review focuses more on the technical issues of the film than the New Moon article does. People who read publications such as Sight and Sound and Empire are more interested in the way a film is made rather than the actual storyline.

The two articles use very different language. New Mood review has a very sarcastic tone to it. It is a very one-sided article that picks out all of the negative points of the film and exaggerates them. It lacks the technical side of the film and just informally comments on the characters and storyline. He states rhings such as “campest hair extensions” and “real macho gym bunny” which is simple yet effective language. However, the Johnny Mad Dog review uses more informative words and leaves you to decide whether to like the film or not. It describes the film from a technical point of view rather than just his personal opinions. The article uses such quotes as “morally repugnant” and “implicatory manner” to describe the treatment and context of the film.

The structure also differs between the two articles. New Moon’s article starts off with a long introduction which states and tells the story about the whole new Twilight Saga. The author then goes onto introduce the characters and storyline. The next paragraph goes into detail about one character and makes a sarcastic remark about his body. It ends with a round-up of the film and a little about the actors. The structure is very simple and shows a picture of an innocent girl stuck in a forest looking at something. The author of the article obviously does not like Twilight and is not afraid to make readers feel the same. The picture makes sure that people are on his side as it is simplistic and doesn’t give much away about the story. The review for Johnny Mad Dog has a clear layout and doesn’t just talk about the storyline but starts off with n introduction about the filmmaker and comments on the treatment. It gives a short synopsis of the film and then goes back to the technical die of the film, the context and setting too.

Layout of film reviews

As both the reviews from magazines were off of the internet, I decided to research into the layout of reviews in paper magazines. I looked at Empire magazines for this. The title is bold and in capital letters with a short background of the film underneath which includes the directors name, cast list and running time. The layouts change on different pages as there are some that take up half of a page horizontally and some vertically. There is also a big photo of a shot of the film included.

Film Festivals

As mentioned previously, film festivals are effective when promoting a short film. I will research into which festivals would accept and screen our film this year.

The first festival it could be screened at is Portobello Film Festival, which takes place in September in London. The entry is free, which is to our advantage as we are a no budget film. Although they offer places to a wide range of films, there is an award for Best Youth Film. The downfall is that people submit permission forms from all over the world so we would have competition with alot of people. They are constantly looking for new talent and show independent films only.

To the left is a application form which if the whole group was interested in attending we could fill out. It accepts all kinds of themes and genres.

Raindance festival is another festival that we could attend. We could enter this for free if we got our submission form in by May 7th, after then we would have to pay between £25 and £35. They guarantee that they will look at our film. Although, we have to attend another festival before we are accepted at Raindance. On the other hand, if we were to take it here, they are well-known and have a high reputation, which may get us into higher levels of festivals.

They accept short films as well as other types of films including documentary and aim at the frist time directors. When we submit our film, if we got a place, only two of our team could go to see it, which is a bit disappointing but at least someone could go and give the other two feedback. They also hand out awards such as Best Short that we could be nominated for. It takes place in the West End, London.
They require a press kit which should include the following; names of the director, producer, writer, DoP, main cast, the country of origin, original format, print source and website (if we have one). Also a short synopsis, two stills and which format we are in.

The last festival that we could enter is The Student Film Festival Awards. It is set in Brighton so we would have to use our own money to get there, but as we drive we could split the costs of petrol and also it is £15 to enter the festival, again we would have to use our own money. The festival accepts DVD format which is the format our film is in. Also they say we all have to be over 16 which we are. We would be competing with other people from other schools, universities and colleges. The requirements also state that the film has to be less that 2 years old which our film is. In addition to this, the film must be between 1-20 minutes long, as ours is around 5 minutes it is acceptable. They accept all genres and themes of films. When we submit the film we will have to include the name of film, running time, contact information and a short synopsis. There is an award for best short film, which we could be nominated for. The judges include award winning directors such as Howard J. Ford and Antony Thomas which could get us recognised in the film industry.

We would be more successful if we were to enter a student film festival as everyone would be at around the same levels of expertise. If our film was made more professionally, it could be taken to different festivals that are more well-know and have more people from the film industry included.

Our marketing strategy - Individual -

As we need to promote and market our short film after it is completed I need to research to find out ways to promote a short film.

The “Short Film Distribution Guide” by Nigel. R. Smith was a source of research to find out ways to distribute and market a short film.

After reading this, I brought together the ideas that have been an inspiration and methods that we could use to distribute our short.

He states thaat there has never been more opportunities to show a short film. By getting on the international festival circuit, through DVD sales, on-line streaming or downloading.

People that we could show the film to, to get feedback and create word of mouth, would be friends, families, enemies and industry figures. We wouldn’t just have to show immediate family, we could give it to the extended family who could pass copies on to their friends. When handing out the copies, we could ask for a contribution towards the film.

Taking the short to a festival would attract attention to the four of us involved as well as the film. With this attention, we could even be nominated for awards which could even result in cash.
We could place the film on the internet either using YouTube, a short film site or even create our own website.

Festivals are a major part to the success of short films. A short film usually has a festival life span of around two years and the net span can be endless depending on the efforts put in to promote the film. The guide states that festivals don’t usually tend to give money but supplies the most appreciative, committed, adventurous audiences who are looking for fresh material, which would be us and the film. We would have to prioritise which festivals to go to; ones that would be most suitable for our genre of film.

People attending the festivals include; producers, distributors, sales agents, talent agents, development executives and other industry personnel who are all in search for new talent with potential. We should have copies on the film with us at any festivals to give to anyone in the industry. Some festivals may even reduce or cover our entry and shipping costs.

If we were to produce our own website, we would have to take into consideration that there would be no financial gain and industry figures may see it. This method of distribution may disinterest sales agents, festivals and DVD compliers as it would be available to people free to watch. It would be a cheap but time consuming way of advertising. Although, we could charge a small amount to view the film.

Other places we could promote the film are through chatrooms, special interest websites, blogs or newgroups. This will allow us to get feedback.

A disadavantage of placing the film on the web would be that it then becomes unappealing to film festivals as if it is on there for free why would people want to pay to go and see it at a festival?

We could screen the film in a set location for people to come and view the film. We would have to consider where to screen, who to invite, how many people are likely to attend and at what time and date. We could either have free entry, charge a small fee or run on contribution from the viewers. To get feedback from the audience we could do a Q & A session or have a book at the back of the location and request any opinions.

The sales of DVD’s could be placed on sites such as eBay and Amazon, through a secure payment method. If we sold DVD’s independently, although it would be cheaper to bulk order the DVD’s, we wouldn’t be sure how many would be sold. If we added extra’s such as interviews with the cast and crew and outtakes, the DVD would have a higher value.

I then went on to research the promotion and distribution of East is East to see how a British film was distributed.

East is East was a British comedy-drama film and was produced in 1999. It had a varied popular cast including actors such as Linda Bassett and Archie Panjabi. The film was about the changing culture within the different generations. It was marketed as a British film and was intended for a wide range of audiences. In the UK, it was distributed by Channel 4 films and in the USA by Miramax, an art-house, independent film distribution company. The film used a low-budget of 1.9 million and including the UK and USA, collected over £10 million. The UK is well-known for doing British comedy and being good for it as other countries are really interested in watching it.

Trailers
A trailer was placed during the breaks of comedy/drama programmes such as Hollyoaks, Frasier and Brookside which was aimed for the younger generation. This was because East of East was of the same genre so the producers felt that this would entice people to go and watch the film.
Another location that a trailer was placed was on ITV, during breaks of soaps as the film included different generations and their opinions on culture. East is East imitated soaps as it was about real life situations like programmes such as Coronation Street.
As our film isn’t a professional production we wouldn’t be able to get a trailer on such channels as where these programmes would be shown. We wouldn’t have the money to place a trailer on TV. Also, as our film is only five minutes long, the trailer would show half of the film, so people wouldn’t come to festivals or such to watch it, loosing viewers.

Banners
Banners were placed on the internet which targeted the keen internet users and gamers. This grabbed the attention of another group of people that the producers thought would be interested.
Advertisements were placed on radio stations such as Capital FM at peak times so the biggest audience possible could hear them. They included 30 second comedy clips.
As a production company with no budget, we couldn’t use these forms of marketing as we wouldn’t have the appropriate money for it. Although, if our film was at a professional standard and we had the money to do it, broadcasting on Capital FM would be a benefit as it would reach all the people listening to the radio at peak times such as when they are travelling home from work.

Articles and adverts
These were placed in magazines such as More, Look and Sugar which was aiming the film as girl teens again getting the younger generation involved.
To gather more middle aged women to watch the film, adverts were placed in OK! magazine which was for the women who like to gossip about the world. East is East would be suitable to this generation as it was a light-hearted film and they could take their friends and families along with them.
To those who liked watching soaps, articles were location in Inside Soap and Time Out.
Promotion also was included through daily national newspapers which were page dominant making people take note of them.
If we wanted to advertise in a magazine we could post it online as it would be free/cheaper to. Ads were shown a week in advance before release which was a reminder for people to book and go and see it.
East is East promoted their film through billboards and bus stops for passing people. We could market a similar way which would be free of charge and would be to put posters around school and on street lamps and posts inviting people to screening. Posters would have to be bold to stand out.

Although East is East had trailers we could only do this if we created a website.

Website
With a website we cost post all the latest news, video clips of the film and making of, interviews with the casts and crews. A disadvantage of this would be again that it would take a lot of time up which we as students don’t really have much of.

Interviews

Linda Bassett who was also in Darling Buds of May was interviewed on GMTV and in the Daily Mail newspaper. As nobody famous is in My Brother Leon, we can’t get attention through this method.

Reviews

An advantage that East is East had was that only good reviews were released. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop the bad reviews from being made, although posters and the website could include quotes from good reviews.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack including Supergrass’ tracks was released just before the film was shown in cinemas. We only have used 3 tracks in our film, but we could make them available to download through iTunes or the website, maybe even for a small charge.

Festivals

The film was also taken to festivals such as Cannes and premiered at charitable events. We would have to research into which festivals would be most suitable for the film. Although, taking the film to charitable events would be free or have a little charge which we give us a bigger audience in return.