The document summarizes the process of creating a short film, poster, and magazine article about the film. It describes using various software programs like Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and InDesign to edit footage, enhance images, and design layouts. Key steps included editing footage in Final Cut Pro to convey surrealism, enhancing photos in Photoshop for the poster, and designing the magazine article layout with images and text in InDesign. The goal was to effectively communicate the surrealist genre and narrative through visual editing and design choices.

1. FILM
In order to get my footage I used a film camera to shoot them. I had to film on quite a few
days in order to re-film my footage that wasn’t right and continue to film things in order to
develop my narrative for it to make sense. Once I had all my footage I uploaded it in a
software called final cut pro. This was the start of putting all my footage together to form
my short film. Final cut pro is a good software to use because producing a short film meant I
had a lot of footage that needed to be sorted out and placed in the correct order. This
software was very helpful and made it very simple to find the clips you needed and where to
put them. As my chosen genre was surrealism it meant that I was relying on my editing to
present the genre the most. Final cut pro had a selection of tools that meant I could
improve my footage visually, the audio, added titles, split screens etc. which all added to
making my film appear surreal. Editing wise, my main focus was to include quick and abrupt
editing which was to present Lizzie’s mind flitching as her mind was changing and appear
more robotic. I also used a slow motion tool to slow down a clip after the quick editing. This
was to reflect her reaction changing within her body and that she wasn’t in control of
herself. I added sound effects over a variety of clips where she was speaking. This was when
you started to see her change so the change in voice presented someone taking over. The
more effects added to her contrasted her when she was her original self in the beginning
portraying a change within her. I was able to crop clips in order to place my
characters/objects centre frame if need be. For example, I did this when Tallulah was sat on
the stairs holding the photo frame. Originally I filmed the shot making her centre frame
however I later cropped as I wanted the photo frame to be the most important to symbolise
the youth and innocence in Tallulah and how she has been changed. By cropping the photo
it meant it could make the audience focus more on what was important in the shot.
At the start of the film I added a colour effect to the clips which gave it a bright, off colour
which was to help add the surrealism convention of a flashback. This was later made clear
when it went back to the original, natural colour signifying present day. Once I had
completed my film I added in my titles so I could choose which clip to place them over. My
first shot I included the main title. I downloaded a font from the website DaFont.com which
gave me a variety of font themes to suit my film. I also included my actor’s names and
unravelled the names as they appeared on screen. This was so the audience knew who was
who. I also downloaded and imported music from the website FreeSound.com to find sound
clips that would be suitable for my film. I downloaded a variety of weird and creepy sound
effects which gave my film a more realistic and spooky feel. I felt the music made my film a
lot more interesting because with music you can create the atmosphere more and build the
tension and drop it for the audience. All these special effects benefited my film as it made it
a lot more interesting and exciting to watch. I knew it was working as my audience response
became a lot more positive on each edit. The ending of my film is the most popular as I did a
lot of work on the ending with speeding it up, changing the colours, over lapping sound
effects to create this strong, effective, surreal finish which I managed to accomplish.

2. POSTER
When making my poster I originally used a still from my film a placed it in Photoshop. This
software allowed me to edit the picture enhancing the colours as I experimented with the
saturation, colour, exposure etc. In my second edit I felt a photo that was actually taken
would be more effective. I put make up on Lizzie to make her appear beaten up which
meant in Photoshop I could enhance the purple/red bruising to make it look more harmful
and dangerous. In my third edit I took this photo again but added arms and hands wrapping
around Lizzies face. This was more surreal which meant my genre was more recognisable. In
Photoshop I therefore had to use the lasso tool to cut around the arms and hands as I
wanted this in a different colour to the rest of the photo. I experimented around with the
colours to find the one that stood out the most. I decided on a light blue colour for the
arms. The unnatural colour for the human arms/ hands appeared surreal presenting Tallulah
in control over Lizzie and making her appear as if she is no longer human. I then placed my
final edited image into InDesign which is where you bring your poster together adding in
your text and images. I used the same font as I did in the film as I felt it suited the title and
the genre the most. As my main image was on a white background I put the title in black so
it didn’t fade out. It was located at the top of the poster as that’s the first thing the audience
would read. By using DaFont.com it meant I was able to find the font that you is used at the
bottom of posters to name the actors, producer, music by etc. This gave it more of a
professional look and included the typical conventions of a film poster. Originally I had an
image of Lizzie with her hair pulled out and her holding her face. I wasn’t able to use this
photo as photo shop didn’t allow me to cut around all the strands of hair quick enough
which would have taken up a lot of time. However, once I had my new photo the lasso tool
helped me to section off different parts of my picture in order to add colour to different
things. This reinforced my surrealism genre as I made my poster look unnatural with the
tools. In my research and planning I researched the codes and conventions for a film poster.
This included things such as a main title, actors and producers names, slogan or punch line
etc. When placing my poster into Photo shop, this was the point where I could add things to
my poster to develop it.
MAGAZINE ARTICLE
For my magazine article, firstly I focused on the main image that would appear on it. I went
on the idea of Lizzie appearing on it both young and old. I first took the image of the girls
with younger Lizzie stood behind and older Lizzie stood closer to us but they were both a
long shot. I put older Lizzie at the front because she was the main actor. The separation
between them presents this sense of time and how long Tallulah has been missing. I then
took a picture of the woods that’s filmed in the short film however it was a different part
that was more idyllic and peaceful. I did this because the characters used were pure,
innocent and vulnerable. I cut out the image of the girls and edited the background picture

3. to the brightness that I wanted it. I then placed the background image into InDesign and
placed the cut out image of the girls over the top. The background image covered the entire
magazine article while the girls appeared to the right of the article. This was so too much
focus wasn’t taken off the text. From my research I had an idea of what I wanted my
magazine article to appear like. InDesign meant I could reach this idea as it allowed me to
place, change and adapt anything in the magazine.
InDesign had a selection of shapes that I could add to my product. From the examples I had
seen in ‘Empire’ and Total Film’ they included extra advertisements on the film article page
about something else within the magazine. This appeared in shapes such as stars to stand
out. I therefore used this idea to make the article appear more professional. A key
convention of a film article is a clip from the film. I decided to crop a still from the film and
placed it into InDesign on my film article and placed a caption underneath describing the
image. I found InDesign a lot more challenging than Photoshop as it was more technical and
was hard to get used to considering it is a software I had not used before and was familiar
with. However it allowed me to produce the article to how I imagined it would be. The
creative software benefited me as I can create my layout I had planned to the way I wanted
it. In my planning I drew three layouts for my magazine article and asked my audience to
choose which one was the best.