‘Luck Of The Draw’ Review Page

Another one of the tasks for the coursework was to attempt making a review page as you might see in a magazine. The fact that I had looked at all the Pixelmator tutorials from previously making the film poster made this significantly easier and so I began by looking at other film poster magazines such as “Guardian” and “Empire”. This was very useful as it gave me a good idea of the general sort of layout I could use for my own review page.

I began to think about what I wanted to call the name of my review page company, and in the end I came up with the name “Outline”, which I decided to be in a dark blue colour scheme. Once I had done this, I looked at an article in an Empire magazine and created a similar looking layout design for my own review page.

After this, I looked at what picture I would use for my own film on the review page, and I decided to use a still from the film, rather than using the film poster. I decided to do this as I thought it looked more professional looking, as it would appear that a lot of review magazines seem to follow this approach. I made sure that the picture was large enough and I had the right sort of shape for my review page. I then started to add text to it.

Text was quite important because review pages have to easy to read. This was achieved through easy to read black font and also by adding in a bit of humour here or there. I also spent a lot of time ensuring that my layout was perfect and I had page numbers written on the pages accordingly, with my review page name, “Outline” written nearby.

The next stage was to try and fill up some of the right hand side of the right page. I did this by looking in an Empire article and then doing sub reviews, which fit into the right place I was looking. I decided to use my own films, however one of the films I made up entirely. The poster images I used I all created myself in Pixelmator. However, the hardest one was the poster for the film I made up, called “Dark Wrath”, because I had to try and come up with an entirely new plot for something. However, I came up with an idea and then found copyright free images on the internet to give it a background. I also added in a sinking ship by cropping it from another picture and then I added some text, followed by changing the brightness and the colour of the lighting. I was quite pleased with this, and it wasn’t essential that it looked good anyway because the size would be made much smaller.

I spent a lot of time filling in the text for my reviews and also putting in a generic star system with a mention of if there are any extras, as done in Empire articles.

Here is the work I have achieved so far. I may still make changes to the review page as I have quite a bit of time…

Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino (1994) Review

IMDb page

Having watched this film quite a while back but never writing a review, one thing is for certain, the film I remember quite vividly due to it’s quite graphic but entertaining nature. This is clearly a piece of work by Tarantino, and you can tell from the style and the eccentricity in the plot and the acting. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this absolute classic and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is a fan of Tarantino’s work.

The easiest way to describe the plot without giving too much away is as IMDb puts it  “The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.” The way in which these characters come together or “intertwine” as it’s put is very good and it works well without feeling like it was completely intentional right from the start. The story plays out well and cuts into the different characters lives at just the right times. Personally, my favourite characters are the two mob hit men, perhaps because one of them is Samuel L. Jackson who plays Jules Winnfield, but even so the acting is perfect and I was definitely satisfied with the way in which these characters, regardless of how bizarre they were, were played.

This film is rated an 18 certificate and for good purposes. There is a lot of scenes younger audiences may find distressing, there is even a count of rape and the violence and gore is pretty intense. Looking into the film again in more detail, the language used is at times extremely unpleasant and nearly every swear finds it’s way into the film successfully but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like it has been overdone.

Despite being such an intense film, I think it’s supposed to be one of those films which takes things just a little bit past the line to the point where it becomes laughable, but at the same time not in a bad way. The violence, despite some of the brutality can be quite entertaining as can the acting. I would definitely recommend seeing this film. I’d personally give this film 10/10 just because it is such a good classic and was made as an independent film at the time, securing Tarantino’s career and a number of actors.

-08spencerh

Grand Theft Auto V (Five) – (Rockstar Games) Review

Reviewing a video game is definitely new to me. In the past I have only ever reviewed films so this one might be lacking some flavour and content. However, I will try my best to discuss this game and my experience with it so far. Especially since video games are ultimately linked to media just as much as films.

Despite being released onto PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September the 17th, I actually only recently picked this game up from Amazon for about £25 for the PlayStation 3. I wouldn’t class myself as a hardcore gamer as such, but I hoped that the game would be one I could pick up and play every once in a while.

When released, I remember the game picked up a huge amount of interest all over the internet, and indeed even in some of the newspapers. It was often out of stock in a number of stores and the game made big sales for Rockstar Games North. Getting to the finer details, within 24 hours, the game generated over $800,000,000 in revenues and after 3 days this number exceeded one billion USD, making it the fastest selling entertainment product in history. Obviously this means that there is likely to have been plenty spent on marketing and advertising.

The game itself isn’t anything too different from the GTA franchise, however as with most games – since it is the latest one so far, the graphics, the gameplay, the levels of customisation, the sound and even the story are all often considered to be better than it’s predecessor.

The story itself involves you playing as 3 main characters; Trevor, Michael and Franklin who you control throughout the game. I will avoid spoilers, so I will just keep things to a bare minimum. There are plenty of robberies, murders, assaults and a variety of illegal activities within the game.

The game is interesting in the way the player can choose to play tennis, go cycling, play golf or even take a dog for a walk and then the next minute you could be piloting a helicopter and shooting at something with heat-seeking missiles. This huge contrast makes the game quite entertaining, but also allows players to do whatever they want and more importantly when they want. I will add now that the game is an 18 certificate, and contains vast quantities of bad language, violence and pretty much everything else including some nudity. Being 18 myself, I can say that this is definitely the right sort of rating to put on a game with such content, and letting some younger gamers play this game may be unwise. 

So far, I have perhaps managed to get through a third of the game and this has already taken a fair few hours. I haven’t even had much time to test out the online part of the game which has also been quite fun from what I’ve seen and heard. In the online mode, there are missions and you can rank up, team up, race and so so much more.

In some respects, I don’t often find myself thinking this, but perhaps if anything this game actually has too much going for me. It does require some thought when playing as to what you want to do, because you really can do whatever you want and you’re not forced to do anything at all.

Nonetheless, the game of course scores very highly and if I had to rate it, I would give it a solid 10/10. There is much, much more to be discussed in reality, although as a general review I think this might just do it.

-08spencerh

 

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) – Dean DeBlois Review

IMDb Page

This film is not something I would usually watch, yet alone write a review on, however, diversity is important in the world of media and we must appreciate the many different styles and genres.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is the second film to a story following a boy, “Hiccup” who is a teenager living amongst a large group of vikings. The film is animated and scored 8.4/10 on IMDb so is classed as being quite successful. Likewise, looking at the success, the film took a massive $50,000,000 on the opening weekend which was more than 30% of it’s budget (the budget was $145,000,000 – source: IMDb)

The film was rated a PG which was of course essential to it’s target audience. Having seen the film in a cinema, I noted down that the primary audience appeared to be parents taking younger children to see the film.

Being 18, watching the film myself was interesting in my own way. I was personally interested in the visuals and the extent to which animated films have improved over time, in terms of the fluid movement, the graphics and the detail of everything.

I won’t spoil the film as such, but it was rather stereotypical for a PG action film in the way that there was of course a main bad guy who was battling it out against the good guy, who happens to be the protagonist in a fight for power.

However, even though it took this approach, I cannot complain about the content and it had a few little twists within which made it appearling to a variety of audiences. It goes to show that one of the challenges that film producers of this specific type of film have is to try and make it interesting even for the parents, because the parents will invevitbly be watching the film with their children.

Whilst I didn’t find myself very attached to this film, I know that the audience the film was targetting would have become rather attached specifically with some of the characters. At times there were some more tense moments and even the loss of a character which may have upset younger audiences. In fact, in a PG film this is often avoided and critics argue that Dreamworks took a dangerous approach to the film by including this.

Overall, the film was good, although I preferred the previous one to the sequel. I would recommend seeing it if you really enjoyed the first one, but not just as a film to watch if you have an alternative decent choice available.

-08spencerh

 

Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle (2008) Review

Slumdog Millionaire is set in the slums of Mumbai and follows the adventure of a man, Jamal, who ends up on a TV show which is the Indian equivalent of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ by chance, Jamal (played by Dev Patel) manages to do exceptionally well in the questions asked and the public do not believe that a young, 18 year old slum dweller could be so successful and know so much. Resultantly, he is arrested before the final question worth 20,000,000 rupees (which is actually only just over $400,000) and interrogated by the police.

However, Jamal is innocent and so the film is about him proving his innocence frantically by recalling his life events which have led to him acquiring the knowledge he has in the specific areas. The interesting part to the story of Slumdog Millionaire is that in fact, Jamal has no desire for riches. There is something else he wants to gain (no spoilers here though).

The film is interesting in the way it is both in the past and the present, and there is some stunning cinematography to get the audience to visualise the area in the correct manner. It is well worth watching, and as a member of the audience you are likely to bond well with Jamal as you are told the story of his life and his many misfortunes. It is definitely an emotional film, and there are is certainly a wide diversity of ups and downs throughout. It might be described as a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

However, overall this is a film for everyone and it is of good quality, meaning I would recommend it to everyone. Danny Boyle clearly demonstrates his moviemaking potential within this film and it is a must see.

-08spencerh

 

Evaluation of “Many Happy Returns”

“Many Happy Returns”

A film by…

Lucy Slade

Kate Tindall

Jemma North

Grace Olsson

“Many Happy Returns” is a short film about a man (Jim) who keeps visiting a dry cleaners, until one day where he doesn’t show up and it would appear he has sadly passed away. In essence, that is the whole story, which is not unusual for a short film. However, on a positive note before I start to fully criticise the film, the story itself is quite good and there are a few things which I do like which seem quite clever, such as linking in the sponge cake by the letter which was found in “Jim’s” clothing he took to the dry cleaners.

Firstly, the camera is fixed on a clock, showing it is 11 o’clock. However, everything is silent until the addition of music at the sixth second. The music does not gradually come in, which may have been slightly better – but instead starts off very loud. The next shot is facing out of the door, looking towards a man. One change I might have liked to see would be to hear certain sounds such as the ringing of the bell on his entrance. In the same shot, clearly one of the issues which needed to be addressed was the low-ceiling. Ideally, the camera would have been slightly higher on the tripod and looking down a bit on the man to avoid letting the audience see the ceiling, as the ceiling is a bit of a visual distraction from the more important events.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of making a basic short film, the acting wasn’t perfect either. The man, “Jim”, appeared to glance at the camera briefly which is not good. Having an actor look straight at the camera is bad because it loses the cinematic effect a film should create for the audience because it is then recognisable that a camera is filming him, so creditability for realism is reduced. Whilst the camera is within the dry cleaners, the panning movement on the tripod is not very fluid. Instead, it may have been better to keep the camera static, but had more shots instead. Panning shots can be difficult to pull off successfully, and they should not even be attempted unless the panning movement can  be done steadily.

In a later shot, a child appears in the shot towards the lower right hand side of the screen. This is another distraction and really should have been shot again, although fortunately it is only a minor distraction as the child does not cover a very large part of the screen. One of the bigger flaws within the short film is probably the part with the letter. We spend a lot of time trying to look at a letter, which is very difficult to read successfully. Ideally, another type of shot should have been taken which covered the whole of the letter, or maybe even a way of changing the plot so that the message was revealed.

When the woman is making sponge cakes in her house, the lighting also changes significantly. Although you could see it was daylight outside through the closed blinds. This raised questions of what the woman was doing with her blinds closed in the middle of the day. It was quite hard to for the audience to grasp a sense of time. In my eyes, the last part of the film appears to be done to the best quality. There is a good use of close-ups, but at the same time the music just doesn’t seem to go. Nonetheless, there is good effort since the group used a compiled piece.

At the end, the short film is missing some credits which might have been nice after the film name appeared “Many Happy Returns”. Although once again, it is not a major flaw, it may have been better with them. Overall the film was quite good, although I would have liked to hear some more diegetic sound in particular and see more fluid shots on a steadier tripod.

 

 

 

Une Femme Mariée – Jean-Luc Godard (1964)

Une Femme Mariee translated to “A Married Woman” is about a woman called Charlotte with a lover, Robert, and a husband, Pierre. She goes to and from the lover and the husband throughout the film and it follows the life of the woman in a beautifully set out story with stunning visuals for its time, directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The twist is that Charlotte goes to a gynecologist where she learns that she is pregnant. But the question is who with? Is it the secret lover or her husband? The question remains untold throughout the entire film and leaves the audience thinking, but at the same time her relationship with her secret lover continues.

The film has very good camerawork for its time, with a few unique shots such as a special pan on an axis facing downwards causing some distortion of the frame. Jean-Luc Godard is notorious for not following the typical Hollywood convention and so acts like these are to be expected, and whilst they may surprise the audience from time to time, they still tell a good story. Another thing I found particularly interesting within the film was Godard’s use of close-ups. The beginning of the film for example featured a white bed-sheet with a close up of Charlottes arm and then Roberts arm moving in to hold hers. There were often close-ups of individual body parts of the actors such as an arm or a leg and this helped in a way to tell the story, whilst being quite unique at the same time.

The film was in spoken french but with some english subtitles and so I was still able to follow the story as it progressed throughout. The sound quality was good and the subtitles were of a good speed and kept up with the speaking.

I did notice there seemed to be a lot of things in pairs within the story. A man and a woman, two taxi’s to get somewhere, two relationships, two hands, two arms. I found that this just highlighted the idea that Charlotte was living a double-life and this seemed to be a clever little implementation in the film by Godard which worked exceptionally well. Often the pairs of things also seemed to contrast as dichotomies which was quite interesting too. For this reason it almost seemed to make the film into a living piece of literature, which modern audiences are probably not used to. It made the film quite difficult to understand, although it did provide it with a decent story so this made up for that.

It is not a usual film I would have chosen, but surprised me for its age nonetheless. I actually did find that this film was reasonably enjoyable, but I would really recommend it to older audiences who are into watching films about romance and drama as opposed to your everyday cinemagoer.