This is our Mock Poster for our film. We this was also a part of brief to be created for our pitch.
In my opinion, this poster, though a mock, gives good denotation to our short film. It is simple, but sums up our film, hopefully in an intriguing way to attract an audience.
There is still room for improvement; for example instead of our names being placed at the top of the poster, we should place our production company name and cast name. A date and new broadcasting company will also be changed to fit in with conventions, which for poster's is vital.
Poster created by Jacob Lucas

Audience Research Video

On our research video we interviewed a mixture of ages to see if people watched short films; we then wanted to know if people understoof the genre of Mockumentary and if they liked it.

Media Pitch

Recently, we have been told to create a pitch including a 90 Second Synopsis, 90 Second speech on Distribution and our mock poster. Here is a written format of pitch:

Synopsis
From young, Paul Smith (currently no name has been decided), was the under the illusion that the Sockmonster had left an odd sock on the top of the stairs, which his mother tripped over, fell and died. In reality, the Sockmonster was a fable created by Paul Smith's father to hide and reconstuct his memeory as to how she really died, which was by Paul Smith leaving his odd sock accidentally.
The short film follows Paul Smith on his mission to catch this Sockmonster. We are situated not only with Paul Smith's of obsession with finding the Sockmonster, but also his compassion reunite lonesome socks with their missing partner - He believes this will not only benefit the owner, but everyone because it will prevent others from plunging to their own death. Paul Smith's legacy leads him to great deal of legal trouble and his back story gains him little sympathy from the police, but they let him go under strict orders to find the truth about this so called Sockmonster. His father also plays a key role in telling the story. He explains to the documentary crew, that his fabrication of the Sockmonster got 'out-of-hand' as Paul Smith got older. His father thought that he had forgotten about the Sockmonster as Paul Smith grew up, when truthfully Paul Smith had created a delusion based upon hallucinations he suffered as an older child and teenagers - symptoms of Schizophrenia.

Distribution
I believe the distribution of our film would fit successfully within the mainstream market. Just like the synergy used in the feature length film 'TED' ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbo_pQvU7M) of merchandise E.G. the bear TED, and the film; I see out short film using a similar technique - the synergy of the short film and of merchandise such as socks and it could be seasonal for example at Christmas, stockings could be apart of the franchise. It could be argued that the short film would be a success on the independant market because it covers issues of a sensitive nature, however, I think the way the mental health issue (Schizophrenia) is covered is in a mainstream way as it glamourises the disorder by not displaying the harsh reality of living with the disorder.
I also believe the short film would gain the largest attention if it were to be uploaded on the internet where it will gain an audience seeking such material and with the rise of Web 2.0 it is easier than it ever has been to access and share short films. It allows for it to be spread virally through Social Network (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr), which could be argued as the most important way to share information and art.

Idea Research Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksuYZPgPADo

On this video you can see our group discussing our current ideas and problems we had with our first idea e.g lack of innovation.

Elaboration on Idea 1

Since our group video, we have had several more ideas elaborating upon the idea of mental health and we have since been to a convention set up purposely for OCR A-Level Media and Film students at the BFI in London.

The convention taught us the importance of distribution and marketing, in particular marketing a film according to whether it is aimed at a Mainstream (attitudes and activities shared by the majority and is seen as the norm) or Independant film (a film produced outside of the major studio system) audience. I believe our short film will thrive being aimed at a mainstream audience because it will cover mental health problems which are open in society, for example Schizophrenia and OCD. Some would argue this would also suit an Independant market because it covers ordeals that can be difficult for others to talk about and express, however I still believe it would suit Mainstream rather than Independant because it does not show the reality, dark or not, of living with such disorders, infact the style of a mockumentary would almost 'glamourise' the disorders.

There has been a change with the mental disorder to which our main character has because we felt an emphasis on delusions and hallucinations-symptoms of schizophrenia- would tie the story together and would create a better equilibrium, which is what we are aiming for.

Idea 2

In class, we were given the task of producing a pitch for a short film based on 4 mains details picked at random. They were:
                              
                              - Name (Cynthia)
                              - Prop  (iPhone)
                              - Mise-en-scene (High Rise Flat)
                              - Shot (Zoom Out)

From these we created the idea of a 25 year old girl called Cynthia, who is blonde and played by Scarlett Johansson. Her parents are mutil-millionaire Russians who have spoilt her all her life, however this doesn't mean she lives off them for money now; she currently has a job as a leading editor for Vogue magazine in New York. She lives in a high rise flat in Manhatten, New York and lives alone.

The film starts with Cynthia getting ready for her night out with the girls from work. As she's finishing up she goes to call one of them to ask if they were downstairs. iPhone users will know that iPhones have a mechanism called Siri, which enables the user to speak and the phone will search/dial for answer. In this case, she asks to dial her friend and it denies a response. She then finds that Siri starts shutting down or turning on electronic devices in the apartment EG. Electric Fire turns on, fridge turns off. Cynthia starts to become anxious and gets her bag and heads to the door to get out. As she goes for the door handle she sees that the lock is turned in the door, she ignores this and tries to open the door and as expected it is locked. She panics and begins to breathe deeply. Siri then speaks "Door Out of Action". This of course preturbs Cynthia. She goes to email her friends on her phone but Siri denies this. She realises that she can try to contact someone by going on her laptop as Siri should not be able to of hacked into the system. She goes to turn on her laptop when yet again Siri speaks "Laptop Out of Action". She then turns to her home phone which is also out of order, so Siri returns with the same answer "Landline Out of Order" As she looks around the room she becomes aware of the strange goings on.
A light bulb then switches on in her head, and she believes that if she turns her phone off, then Siri will no longer have this control. She goes to turn off her phone, only to have Siri reply "Phone in action. Access Denied". Cythnia by this point is in no mood or look to go out; her perfect hair is no longer perfect, her makeup smudged. Getting angry, she turns to her last resort of smashing her phone, so throws is against the wall cracking the screen. This enables all technology features to return to normal. Cynthia sinks to the floor with her head in her hands and deeply breathes trying to regain normality.
The film then cuts to her tousling her hair into an acceptable state and her make-up being altered in a reflection shot, though she does not take her time as she is still on edge about the previous events. She scurries out of the flat and checks the open plan living space as she leaves. The door slams and there is a pan towards the iPhone on the floor. A close up of the film is then shown with a slow zoom out. During this zoom out the phone comes back to 'life' and Siri's evilness reappears locking the door so that Cynthia cannot return into the apartment. The screen then fades to black. 

Film Idea Extended - OCD

What is OCD?
OCD is an anxiety disorder that comes in a variety of forms. The four main 'obsessions' are Checking, Contamination, Hoarding and Intrusive thoughts.

From my previous blog post, my group and I have come up with the idea for an Over Compulsive Burglar.
The film could start with a young male, dressed in the stereotypical burglar outfit, with face covered, breaking into a house. He starts to steal items such as TV's, Games Consoles, Laptops and any left behind mobile phones. As he is about to leave, he sees a plate left by the sink...this is where is disorder kicks in and affects him. He cannot leave the house without washing it up and putting it away. Once he has done this, he goes to leave again, but sees a light turned on in the lounge. Yet again he has to turn this off, otherwise his anxiety will strike and his burglary mission will be over. From here he begins to reorganise the kitchen. The film will begin to end with him out of the mask and in a cooking apron and cooking a meal e.g lasagne. The homeowners then come home and it finally ends with both the burglar and family looking shocked.

I don't think that the film will need any dialogue because it seems to be more plot driven, and often with media course it is the dialogue that brings the quality down.