Soundtracks

Now that we're onto editing, I've started looking at music that we could use in our film.

As the film has a much more sad tone, we wanted slower, hauntin music and thought that simple piano tracks would fit very well.

Here are some tracks I have considered:

A piano cover of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The music is public domain, so we are allowed to use it.

I also found some tracks on a royalty free music site which I quite liked.




This one and the following aren't piano pieces but feel quite eerie and fit well with the narrative/







This last one does have a little bit of a pinano at the start and feels quite eerie too, but it also seems childish, fitting very well with the themes of the film/

Changeling(2008)

Changeling is a 2008 film directed by Clint Eastwood. The premise is that Christine(played by Angelina Jolie) is a mother who's son mysteriously disappears one day. After a very public search for him, the police find a boy who claims to be her son, Walter. However after meeting the boy, she finds he is in fact and impostor and the film follows her exploits as she tries to convince everyone that "Walter" is not her son.

This film is quite similar to our own, as it deals with quite similar issues such as the bond between mother and child and losing a child. Christine's emotion driven journey to recover her missing child is the film's driving force, and this is similar to how in our film, Mary's psychosis is what drives the plot in our film.

The film poster for Changeling reflects the serious tone of the production.

There is a good use of negative space, bringing focus to the shadowy figures of the young boy and Jolie. The colours are quite downplayed, reflecting the older period of the film (the 1920s) as well as the difficult time Jolie's character faces during the course of the film.

The low key lighting on the two figures also reflects the darker undertones- a lot of the film questions the governments involvement in the disappearances  and this leads to some serious ideas of whether or not they were purposefully trying to cover up the disappearances of the boys. The young boy;s shadowy image may also represent how he's been taken away from her and her face taking up most of the page, looking down at him may be to show how she is trying to watch over and protect her son.

Sight and Sound Magazine

A British film magazine published by the BFI. It includes film reviews as well as retrospective articles, features and interviews. It's almost a halfway point between Empire and Cineaste in terms of content- it does review quite big popular films such as it's recent review of Skyfall, but it also covers independant foreign film Five Broken Cameras as well as their use of much more formal language compared to empire.

This is a scan of a page from Sight and Sound. Like the other magazines I've looked at, it again separates it's text into columns. Unlike Empire though, it's center image doesn't seem like such a focal point, as it;s layout is a bit more spaced out. There is a small text box towards the top of most of there articles, similar to the box on Empire which gives some technical information on the film. 

Sight and Sound also uses different colours occasionally in articles, to make certain bold bits of text stand out even more.

As for the actual language used, as I had said before it';s quite formal. However it is also quite descriptive compared to other magazines, using more adjectives and talking a lot about the feelings and emotions the cinematography creates within the audience.

Cineaste Magazine

A film review magazine which mainly focuses on reviewing arthouse or political films. In comparison to Empire, it focuses on films which maybe wouldn't be the most mainstream and in it's reviews it discusses a lot of the themes and ideas behind the film, rather than whether the film was enjoyable or not.

Within it's reviews it looks like it uses large images at the top, and then quite clean, uncrowded layouts. In this particular one, there is a bold extract at the center of the page to draw in people.

It also has a online website where it posts up some reviews. This is an extract from one of it's online exclusive reviews.

Cineaste Language on Prezi

In the Bedroom(2001)

A 2001 film which tells the story of a young man who has an affair with an older married woman, and his family. During the course of the story, Frank, begins his affair but it abruptly ends when his lover;s husband murders him after a dispute. The film then focuses on his family and how they deal with the loss of Frank, as well as bringing up issues with how each parent treated their son. A lot of the relationships within the film are very similar to that in our film- the mother character in particular has a lot of parallels with Mary Higgin's character, as an overbearing mother who becomes a recluse after the death of her son.

The layout of this poster reflects the themes of the film quite well. The two images we see here are both set in the bedroom, which refers to the title of the film as well as the location that a lot of the pivotal events of the film take place. The images are also set out in the form of a grid, which is really interesting as it looks as if the viewer is looking intot he bedroom from outside the window.

I also really likt the lighting on the top image- it's very blue and cold. This reflects the emotions of the parents in the film, first worrying about their son and then grieving over his death later on in the film.

Empire Magazine

A film Magazine that reviews various genres of films, as well as having features, interviews and other types of articles regarding film.

Empire Magazine is a British, monthly film magazine. Empire covers a wide range of film genres, from Fantasy films like The Lord of The Rings trilogy to animated children's films such as Frankenweenie(2012). Although it does review art house films, it mainly focuses on reviewing popular block busters and big budget films.

It also reviews Video games, Books and DVDs.

Empire also has a website which can be found here.

Review style

When starting reviews, there is always a box at the beginning of the article including information about the release date, the director and some other information 

This particular article I looked at starts off with a quote from the film. The language used in this article is standard English  however it's written in a casual manner and in a way that grasps the audience's attention. Furthermore, it frequently compares it to the original film, but mostly focuses on reviewing the plot of the story and whether or not the gags were delivered well.

After the review, there is a verdict which summarizes the reviewers opinion on the film.

Film Threat Magazine

A film magazine that reviews a lot of Indie/cult/alternative films. It originated as a printed magazine in the 80s, reviewing independant films of the time, but was recently remade as the film review website it it now. Like it;s original incarnation, the website also reviews independant films.

The language the reviewers use is very fitting to the sort of films that are featured on the online site, and there is a very quirky tone to the articles. 

Reviews often speak a lot about the actual plot and action in the film as well as the characters. It's style is more similar to a blockbuster reviewing magazine in terms of review content, as it's evident it's main purpose is to entertain readers with the reviews rather than inform them. Although it;s reviews are both good and bad, they are always quite enjoyable to read because of the informal style of writing.