AICE Media Studies Short Film Blog

Originally, we put a title card over black at the end of our film. We got rid of it to put a title over the last scene of the film; however, we decided it did not look that good, so we got rid of that too. We made a bunch of title cards that we thought would look great to place over the very last shot. After looking at them, we decided to use this one. We thought this title was the most aesthetically pleasing.

Hell or High Water has a very specific marketing campaign. Its posters and trailers are focused on the story. The poster goes for tonal accuracy, and the trailer lays out the story. For social media, the film has a website that is not very special. The film relied on word of mouth and TV Spots. The film had many commercials that depicted the atmosphere of the film. Our group would use many TV Spots in between shows that our target demographic would watch to spread the word of our film.

Molly's Game was released in 2018, and has a similar age demographic with us. The film focused on print media, TV Spots, and some social media. The film generated most of its buzz by being selected in the Entertainment Weekly fall issue. In the magazine, there was an interview and photo shoot with the lead actress, Jessica Chastain, as well as the the writer and director, Aaron Sorkin. The magazine is subscribed by an older demographic that could be interested in our film. Our group agrees that we would get more ticket sales, if we follow a similar path. However, Molly's Game is an inspiring movie for the female movie-goer, and our film does not have many tropes that would captivate female movie-goers like Molly's Game. Our group wants to primarily focus on the age that Molly's Game targets.

Our group is looking for an audience in the age range of adults. Baby Driver was released in 2017, and its target audience is primarily young adults and adults. Baby Driver's marketing campaign took to social media. It created buzz from a screening at SXSW film festival. The film was trying to hook people with the music. There would be social media posts that carried a feeling originating from cassettes and mixtapes. The tag line to the film was "All you need is one killer track." which shows the heavy influence music has on the film. The film had many posters with different styles. For example, there were character posters highlighting the cast, and posters with a unique style. Our film is mainly about poker, not music, so we would focus around advertising to people who like gangster movies and poker. Baby Driver also had a U.K. premiere, and our group wants to distribute in the United Kingdom along with the United States.

The feedback was constructive and positive, and we need to revise a great deal in our film. For example, we plan to rewrite and add dialogue to clear confusion. Also, we are planning to recast some actors who can fit into our re-shoot schedule. We want to switch to a better location that was not available the first time we filmed. The comedy was well received, so we are adding more comedy into our script. The song at the end will also change for a song that will fit better in the tone. There is some more editing issues that need to be resolved. For example, there is an extra title slide that needs to be cut that is just a black title.

We followed the conventions of an opening for a crime thriller. Instead of dragging the whole opening credits throughout the opening, we challenged the convention of opening credits by putting it as quick as possible on the screen. We did this to try to get people to focus on the dialogue and the actions of the actors. The social groups we aimed to portray were crude gang members. This social group is appealing to some because they get to experience a dangerous lifestyle without participating it. This portrays the issue of breaking the law, and the dangers that comes with it.

We were going over casting, and everyone raised important questions of costume designs. We decided that the costumes should be dark-colored, and long sleeved. Connor's character will be hiding cards under his sleeve so long sleeved costumes are imperative. The costume design included leather jackets and pants.

The weeks of December 18-29, we scouted locations for the film. We wanted a nice secluded-rural hideout location, and my partner's neighborhood fit the bill. It was very spacious. His neighbor had a shed we could borrow for filming.