The document discusses the film "Inception" and how it portrays an alternative reality through dreams that could be seen as preferable to real life. It then discusses a short film the author created that was loosely based on similar concepts from "Inception." The short film is about a man named Carter Evans whose reality is confusing and may not be what it seems. The document provides details about various aspects of the author's short film, including its budget, characters, use of everyday situations, marketing techniques, poster design conventions, and a fictional film review magazine article.

2. Inception

3. 0 The film ‘inception’ has many aspects of hyper-reality.
During the film, the mind is opened into another reality
which could be seen as more desirable than real life reality.
This aspect of the film means a sense of a new, better and
more sought-after world, so the audience are convinced
that it is an authentic world.
0 The film has a ‘what if’ style nature. It makes the audience
question what the world would be like id we could alter
peoples mental states. It also asks the audience whether is
it right to invade a persons thoughts.
0 The film portrays a different shape of reality which allow
the viewer to personally decide whether they prefer the
‘hyper-reality’ situation, or their own current situation.

4. 0 My short film is lightly based on the same concepts as
the movie ‘Inception’. The both use the ideas of
whether this dream ‘hyper-reality’ shows a better
more normal reality than we currently live. I have
developed the themes and ideal of the movie to help
influence and create my short film.
0 My short film itself is based on the fact that one
person’s ‘Carter Evans’ reality is not the reality he
believes it is. The can be quite confusing, and I believe
my audience struggled with this at points of the short
film.
0 Yet with all the technological advances our society is
experiencing, the audience is made to question
whether or not this can actually happen to them.

6. Length
0 The length of my short film is just under 5 minutes (this
was the specification for my coursework). Yet this is a
stereotypical length for a short film, many are even 2
minutes. I didn’t want my audience to become bored by
watching a longer video, so I kept it within the suggesting
time by the exam board to keep the audience involved and
interested within the short film. I tried to keep my
narrative up to speed by using a montage at the beginning
of the short film, showing time passing and using faster
cuts when the white room becomes more present at the
end of the short film. The reason I did this was because I
wanted to keep the audience interested because even
though the length of the film is still short that audience
attention can waver.

7. Budget
0 Actually I had to pay £2 for the creme egg
mug to use/smash within this short film.
0 The budget on many films is very low. This is
because they are made by un-professionals. I
have made a link within my magazine review
that I have previously made films, but I have
decided to do the basics. This is because I
haven’t actually used any money to invest into
this short film. I have used all clothing from
the actors own wardrobes, all equipment of
my own, all props of my own and all locations
I was able to use fro free. This means that I
haven’t actually had to pay for anything.
0 This is were I have stuck to the conventions that many short film uses. Many of the
Un-professional short film makers have very little money, especially with many of
them in their yearly twenty's and just having come out of higher education
(university). The reason many people create short films is to be noticed by film
studios or other film industry professions so they themselves can become a
professionals and start working with bigger budget movies.

8. Characters/Extreme
Characterisation
0 Short film usually only involve on or two characters at a maximum to keep the story short
and uncomplicated as possible. This is so the audience can follow the story easily. I have used
this model by only using two characters Professor Linton and Carter Evans. There isn’t much
back story to these characters because I wanted to keep them as simple as possible so the
audience member would concentrate on the themes and ideals themselves rather than
understanding the characters.
0 Normally within short films extreme characterisation is used to get across certain themes or
characteristics of the main characters. For example within ‘Black Button’ the good guy wore
white while the bad guy wore a black suit. This is a simple way of inferring the characteristics
of a character was using the colour of the clothing they are wearing.
0 I believe I use this to an extent. I dress Carter Evan’s in the room in white clothing to
symbolise that he is the innocent and the ‘good’ character within the short film, where as in
the reality I just cloth Carter in normal everyday clothing similar to the clothes we would all
wear. I wouldn’t class this as extreme characterisation, expect from the fact that Carter is
mad out to be an everyday/ordinary type guy.
0 On the other hand, I try and make out that Professor Linton is the ‘bad’ character within this
short film so I dress Professor Linton in dark colours to show that he is not a character that
should be liked or sided with.

9. A Hook/A Twist
0 A hock or a Twist is common in many short films.
Especially as many leave the short film on a cliff hanger.
(which I have used – when Carter wakes up in the white
room at the end of the film, it cuts out)
0 The hook could be as simple as, what is that woman doing
with the trolley (2:20 analysis). You want to watch to the
end of film to find out this information.
0 This is similar to Entity, I have used this in respect of the
white room. The viewer will see the white room at the
beginning of the clip, than once they see it flash up again
they start to get interested in what the white room could
be and what it is doing appearing in Carters ‘reality’.

10. Arty Vs Experimental
0 Many short films are classed as experimental as
experiment with their style, narrative and effects to create
a new individual short film. I don’t believe my short film is
as experimental as other short film have been. The only
real thing I have experimented with is the effects of the
white room, and how I could create an effect that helps
make the white room look in a dream-state. For this is used
Chromer Key and adjusted the brightness levels to create
an almost blurred look. I have challenged this convention
because I have kept my short film quite minimalistic by
using, as I have said in question two, light colours and
simplistic layouts that keep the products looking spacious.

11. 0 Many short films are based on everyday situations or tasks that you find
yourself in. This is because within a short film you don’t have time to set
up elaborate fantasy worlds and create a back story for them so they keep
the short film to small tasks and add twist to keep the audience interested,
this can be clearly seen in the short film Black Hole. (A photocopier
produces a black hole on a bit of paper and things turn bad from then).
0 I have also used this convention and kept to very everyday tasks and
situations for my short film. The fact that I incorporate a dream into my
short film was an interesting factor to me as dreams can be interpreted in
many different ways. But the fact is when researching into the theme of a
white room, no interpretation was found for a white room in a dream,
which I thought fit the narrative and theme very well.
0 Other than that I have used everyday tasks such as waking up; making a
drink; drinking; working; searching the internet to base my short film on.
This will allow my audience to feel some sort of Da Já Vou while watching
the short film as they themselves complete these tasks.
Everyday Situations/Tasks

12. Ways of Marketing
0 There are many different ways of marketing short films. But the
conventional way is through the use of Social Media websites such
as: YouTube; Facebook; Google+; Twitter and Tumblr. The reason
they market the films this way is because the short film is then
distributed to a wider audience and more people will see the short
film. The reason this occurs is because the directors or even
producers of the short films want these film noticed by someone of a
higher power in the film industry, so through this hype that can be
caused over the internet, the short film could be noticed.
0 I have used all the social media networks mentioned above to try
and gain views and audience feedback for my film. The other thing
that could challenge this is that one of my reasons for using social
media to distribute my work is that many of the users that social
media is targeted at are my targeted audience so this is a great way
to distribute my short film to my target audience.

14. Type Of Poster
0 There are many different types of posters, this include: Iconic; Interest; Name
Drop; and Character. These posters are created to create interest for the film
itself. There are slight differences between short film and major feature film
posters. These are listed on my Film Poster Conventions post.
0 Within my poster I have tried to keep it as simplistic/minimalistic as possible so
it fits in with the tone of the rest of my products. It also keeps it separate from
other posters as they can be quite cluttered to attract an audience to the film.
0 My poster is a mix of an Iconic and a Interest poster. This is because of the images
I have used. The top image of George in the white room is an iconic picture from
the short film, yet the middle section photo is a picture that shows George circling
articles, this gives away a part of the film’s plot thus allowing the poster to create
interest.
0 Another thing I have challenged when creating my poster is the use of more than
one photo. I have used two. Many poster only use one photo for the whole poster.
Unless it is a multiple famous cast film or a comedy. Yet this film is not a comedy
and it only has two actors/characters within the film too!

15. Titles and Names
0 All posters have a title and the named cast on the
poster this is to create interest about the film itself
and the cast that feature within the film. This poster is
not for a short film that is originally well known or a
sequel to another so It requires a title.
0 The title of the movie is present at the bottom section
of the poster. Whereas the cast has been placed at the
bottom of the poster. This is so that they don’t look
bunched together.

16. Image
0 I have used two images within my posters. The images in
real poster normally encompasses the whole poster then
text is layer on top of this.
0 In the case of my poster I have split my poster into three
sections that would allow the audience to view each
section separately. On the top section/middle section two
film still have been placed to create the images of the
poster. These two individual images gives a clue about
what genre the short film is, fantasy and mystery. The two
images will also give a clue into the plot of the film. This is
good because this is how a film poster is used. So it creates
a interest in the film.

17. TageLine
0 Normal posters feature a tagline of some kind to clue
the audience in on what type of film will be. The
taglines are normally quite memorable and short on
the posters for easy of the viewer.
0 I have challenged this convention due to the fact I
haven’t used one. This is because I wanted to keep my
poster simple and I believed that a tagline would
cause my poster to become cluttered and seem over-
powering to the viewer.

18. Awards
0 Awards on poster is a convention I have only seen on
short film posters. The use of the awards allows the
audience to understand that this short film is worth
watching because it has been given awards due to the
quality of the short film.
0 I used short film awards on my poster to create a
professional looking poster that would use the
conventions of other short film posters. Plus by using
the film awards and layering them onto my poster it
would make my film look professional and make it
seem worthy of watching.

19. Additional Credits
0 On many mainstream posters additional credits at the
bottom of the poster are provided this information
includes the other cast, director, producer, production
company and even the composer. This can also be
seen on many short film posters, but doesn’t always
appear on all posters. I have challenged this because I
have no additional credits on my poster as I have tried
to keep the focus towards the images and title.

21. Conventional Film Review
0 A conventional film review consists on a 2-collumn
review solely focused on the behind the film
interviews and interviews with cast members. Where
as within this film review I have challenged the norm
and created an interview with the main character
George Sutton (Carter Evans), but this interview can
be seen in a magazine called Empire. This magazine
challenges the normality of a conventional magazine.

22. Large Pictures
0 Large pictures are used within magazines to invite the
reader to read the particular article. These pictures
normally take over the whole page! And the little
amount of text surrounds the picture. I have used this
convention as such yet I have challenged it also.
0 Within the short film review I have used three
pictures that are of a smaller size and used more text.
This is because I wanted more information about my
short film on the review rather than pictures to
describe my short film.

23. 2 Column Article
0 Normal and stereotypical magazines only use a 2 column article.
This is because magazines like to keep their articles less crowded
and look more approachable because they writing doesn’t look
as daunting.
0 I have challenge this and used a 3 column and a 4 column article
within my double paged review. This is because the style of
articles on each page. On the left hand page I have used 4
columns this is because it is a Q&A – so this isn’t particularly
heavy to read so more columns still look approachable.
0 Whereas on the right hand page I have used 3 columns because it
is more of a film review styled review so there is more texts, thus
fewer columns would make it look more approachable to read.

24. Page Number/Issue Date
0 At the bottom page turning corner a page number will
be present this is so the reader can flick to which
articles on each page.
0 On the magazine I styled my article on at the bottom
of the page they marked the page number, the issue
month, the magazine name, the website URL and the
subscribe URL to the magazine.
0 I have directly copied this onto my magazine as it
gives my magazine a profession look and in keeps the
information for the reader if needed.

25. Quotes from Cast/Director
0 Direct quotes from the cast and director are used within
magazine articles/reviews as it gives the reader an insight
into what the director/cast are saying within the article.
The quotes sometimes have the names next to the quote as
they are unrelated to the article, yet when some quotes are
placed within the text, they are direct quotes from the
article itself.
0 I have only used one quote within my film review this is
layered over the top of one the film still I use. This is not a
direct quote from the article but I have not signposted who
said it. This is because I wanted t leave some mystery
behind the project and thus not much other details are
given away either.

26. Drop Catch/Additional
Information
0 A drop catch is used in almost every magazine article I have seen
or read. I have used a type of drop catch that is similar to the
drop catch used within the ‘Empire’ magazine. This is to show
the reader where to start reading the article.
0 I have developed this convention also by use a yellow arrow on
my left hand Q&A page to show the reader where to start
reading, this is so it keep in with the style of the page, but keep a
fresh take on a drop catch.
0 The text for the magazines is size 11 and they use Aerial, but for
my double page film review/Q&A I have used Times New Roman
and the size 10. This is because Time New Roman looked
professional and I had to use a smaller size front due to the
amount of text I had on my page was to much for a size 11pt font.