REVIEW PAGE - Photos

What photos shall I use for my review page feature..hmmmm. This is my shortlist after running through my film a couple of times:

I like this over the shoulder shot, but I think maybe it looks a bit...dismal...the beautiful Italian countryside looks depressing  instead of intriguing and might give wrong impressions about my film.

I like this shot: it makes the film look professional with the authentic clothes and landscape. 

Nice shot - I like how the landscape stretches off into the distance like that.

Blue sky gives slightly more 'Western' connotations...that's why I picked this one. Face maybe not got enough sun on it though.

I think I'll use this one, as I like its symmetry. I think its intriguing as well - who is Maria and how/why is she dead?

It will go well with this one I think...authentic clothes on show, and so is the authentic background. Thats almost the unique selling point of my film - that it is an authentic student film.

REVIEW PAGE - Writing the Film Review

What do I want to talk about? What are my unique selling points?

Its resemblance of Leone's Spaghetti Westerns.

Location: stunning location, endless with a sense of it being in the middle of nowhere, stretching into distance. Gives a symbolic sense of importance to the events.

Costumes: Overall, convincing. Even before the cowboy characters cool and calm acting, we get a sense of him being cool and calm.

Music: Tense but exciting. The stings of bells, guitar strings and scrapes are true to the style of Ennio Morricone.

These four main talking points are my unique selling points, and things that will most likely intrigue my target audience.

REVIEW PAGE - Further Existing products

LITTLE WHITE LIES
Price: £3.95
Release: Bi Monthly
Industry Info: Church of London design/Publishing company
Audience: Independent, Design Conscious, Specialist.
Range of Film Coverage: Non-mainstream films, art/foreign films that the editors are interested in. A window into films that arn't advertised like mainstream/high budget/Hollywood films.
Film Review Page Production Values/Content: Director, cast stars, release date. Urge you to watch the films that the majority probably won't. Focuses on: 'Anticipation', 'Enjoyment', 'In Retrospect'. Values stills from films for their artistic visuals. Linear lay out, functional font. Page split into: 1/2 picture, 1/2 text. Functional layout.

SHORT LIST
Price: Free
Release: Weekly
Industry Info: Free, funded by advertising.
Audience: Casual, commuters, male.
Range of Film Coverage: Promo Connected.
Film Review Page Production Values/Content:

TIME OUT
Price: £2.99
Release: Weekly
Industry Info: Commercial, general interest listings, magazine.
Audience: Casual.
Range of Film Coverage: All mainstream films out each week, from a range of countries. Only films showing in London.
Film Review Page Production Values/Content: Not high production value, but aiming to advertise as many films as possible. Give information on where to view each film, all funders and cast/directors. Lots of reviews on the same page, often without a picture. Gives a rating out of 5 for each film.

REVIEW PAGE - Existing products

Ultimately, our film will be screened at our school. So the film review page would best be suited to the sixth form school magazine 'Sixth Sense'. However I think it would be good to look at other existing magazines, if briefly, to get a better sense of layout and production values.

EMPIRE
Price: £3.99
Release: Monthly
Industry Info: Very commercial, a big business magazine, a very mainstream publication.
Audience: People interested in popular, mainstream films shown in cinemas such as Odeon, Vue. Film enthusiasts, people with a general film interest.
Range of Film Coverage: All countries, new films and occasionally old films, but mostly feature length mainstream films, often Hollywood films.
Film Review Page Production Values/Content: Link to webpage, often just 1 picture. Gives all industry information, and information about similar films. Font reflects the mainstream - block and bland, so can cover all genres. Font reflects the name, official and standing out. Pictures mostly stills from films. Always give a rating in stars out of 5, verdict and a release date. Sometimes trivial facts.

SIGHT AND SOUND
Price: £3.95
Release: Monthly
Industry Info: Funded by the British Film Institute.
Audience: All British who enjoy less mainstream films.
Range of Film Coverage: Mainly independent and art films, foreign films, old films. 
Film Review Page Production Values/Content: Quite a linear, simplistic design. Value stills from films and pictures that look interesting, artful and stylistic, as opposed to representing a film with a generic still. Plain, similar font to Empire. Very functional, serious, about the content, which is quite sophisticated.

Sixth Sense
Price: Free
Release: Annual, in the spring/summer.
Industry Info: Student magazine, for Camden School for Girls.
Audience: Students and possible families.
Range of Film Coverage: Films that the writers personally recommend, not very objective.
Film Review Page Production Values/Content: Georgia font - bland, official and functional. Film poster and 2 stills on the review page.

POSTER - Final Feedback

The final feedback.
Jagged outline or blurred outline on sun?
Here is the final feedback from my teacher for the final draft. She personally liked the blurred sun style choice, but, as she noted, it was her personal preference, and so I kept the jagged sun, as I felt it sort of tied in more with the overall style.

However there were some things I couldn't keep the same: standard industry size of the certification box is about 50% smaller than what I currently had it as. So that had to change.

Finally, she suggested scaling down the 'Empire' review at the top of the page, although, after testing this idea, I felt it slightly ruined the symmetry of the poster, so I changed it back.

And here it is!

POSTER - Second Draft

POSTER - Adding information

As you can see from my poster pitches, I have a lot more to add and change before I can have any sort of completed poster.

TAG LINE
BILLING INFORMATION
CRITIC QUOTES
CERTIFICATION

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines

Here is the classification webpage.

The issues that could be relevant to my film, in the guidelines, are:

Imitable behaviour, Violence.

According to BBFC:

Imitable behaviour is:

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

I think the cigar smoking in my film could be considered as imitable behaviour. The antagonist and protagonist both smoke cigars, so I think this raises the age to 15.

Violence is:

Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.

The death is non graphic in my film, with no blood, and it is the 'good' character shooting the 'evil' charcter, giving the killing a moral value.

EXHIBITION

POSTER - Modern Products

CAPTURING A MODERN AUDIENCE


I'm guessing you will have noticed that my post on Spaghetti-Western posters was only looking at old products. Although they are very stylised and so can appeal to audiences today for their their uniqueness, it would be good to look at any sort of popular modern cowboy product.

Que Rockstar's 'RED DEAD REDEMPTION':

Red Dead Redemption is the hugely successful, very popular, critically acclaimed, award winning video game. It sold over 2 million units in the combined months of May and June. And it is, genre-wise, a Spaghetti-Western. Just like my film! The poster is then of course a good one to analyse. 

There is a huge chance that the poster designers for Red Dead Redemption looked at the same type of posters that I looked at, as elements are hugely similar. The fonts, the blood red colours, the gun, and the cartoon, non-photographic styled images. If I am clever with my poster, I can make people think about Red Dead Redemption, and it will work the other way around as well.

It will be cool if I ever get a poster this big, though I don't know where I'd put it. As you can see though,  Red Dead had a fairly 'huge' marketing campaign, and the posters were particularly useful as the strong reds/whites/blacks and eye catching depictions were extremely eye catching.

POSTER - Pitch

IDEAS FOR A POSTER



Here are some rough first ideas for film posters, based on my research. I used the strong reds, mixed with the most photographic stills from my film. I also tried out showing guns on the poster. Showing the antagonist and protagonist, the characters the film is about, I also felt was important. The font is changeable, but is similar to recent and old western film posters, and I personally think that it is quite effective.

1+2. I wanted my poster to show the two characters who have the main conflict. I think this one is fairly effective, the silhouette working well with the symmetry of the background image. But I don't think the red works very well with the colours in the background image. So to make this one more effective, I think I would need to adapt the background image, so maybe it was also edited to work with the silhouette: I could maybe change the colours, to make them silhouette like, or make the background more red/black/white.

3. This poster is less effective. Because I felt the red clashed with the other colours, I matched the silhouette with the title. But I think white has now become overused, and is not strong enough. It makes the silhouette less strong and has shows less indication that the film involves a big conflict.

4+5. I like this poster. The two characters having the conflict in the film are face to face, foreshadowing the stand off. The grave gives connotations of death, and is a key prop from the film - it is involved in the reason behind the conflict narratively. The red and black clash together and it is clearly an action-western. It is similar to recent posters for the xbox game 'Red Dead Redemption' and the old cowboy posters of the 60s. To improve this poster however, I think the title 'Spaghetti Western' should be enlarged to have a bigger impact and be more noticeable.

6. The red is now switched with the black - but I think the poster is less effective this way. The red cross gives the wrong connotations to a British audience, and it over all looks less like an action film.

7. Again the white on this poster is inneffective. I like the silhouettes of the gunmen, but the title needs to be bigger, and the poster gives away too much about the narrative of the film.

8+9. In these two I am working with the silhouettes of the gunmen, which I think are very effective. As I found through research, most action themed western posters show guns.  I think the space in the middle needs to be filled, as there is too much open space, but I could always put the grave silhouette in there.

10. I quite like this idea as the title is easily read, and I felt it made me try and work out what the ambiguous shapes in the background where, making me stop and think, and in the end it becomes very clear that it shows two cowboys pointing guns at each other. There are problems too: the yellow makes it look too happy, not representing the film properly, so I would need to change it. Also, I cannot imagine where the essential poster information could go: actors/directors names, rating etc. 

A final comment on my posters: I think the red I have used throughout is the wrong shade. It is too bright and although dangerous looking and vibrant, could almost be viewed as slightly comical. On my next drafts I will make it darker. But don't those silhouettes look great?

POSTER - Cowboy Film Poster Analysis

WHAT DO COWBOY POSTERS LOOK LIKE?


There is a video of this information at the bottom of this post, if you can't be bothered to trawl through the endless text. The posters I refer to can be seen further down also.

So: I need to make a poster. But what do spaghetti-western posters look like? And more specifically, what will 'Spaghetti Western's poster look like? The only way to find out what works and what doesn't, is to look at old spaghetti-western posters.

To start with, I will try and find the similarities between the film posters (of the films that inspired my film), so I have some solid building blocks to start the construction of my poster - I will know what things I will want to include on my poster and what I think is crap.

What is first noticeable about these 4 film posters of Ennio Morricone Western's from the 1960s is that they don't use unedited photographic images. The characters are either painted, or shown through a manipulated photographic image. Although this is obvious, it can be used effectively and non-effectively. For example, on some of these posters, it brings out vibrant colours and creates contrasts - while others become very dull and lifeless. There are many existing programs that I could use to give a photographic image an altered effect, so this is a design technique I could consider using when designing my poster.

All of the posters use reds and browns as the central colours. The browns are a typical colour seen throughout westerns - with the desert settings and the dusty clothes. The vibrant, bright red gives connotations of all sorts of things: Danger, death and blood, the harsh, relentless sun, and heated conflicts. I may want to use a similar colour scheme for my posters - a strong use of vibrant red and earthy brown.

A mood-board or colour palette I made to help in the creation of my poster...using the eyedropper tool on the posters below to steal their colours.

A third similarity is that three of the posters show a cowboy pistol. This is a prop from the film: so having it in the poster gives us an idea of what type of film it is - not just a western, but an action film also. So I will want to consider including a gun on my poster to show the action theme of my film.
Two of the posters here also use a still from the film as the background. I think this is more effective than the other two because it helps give further insight into the film. Audiences can also recognize the still when watching the film.

...ET POUR QUELQUES DOLLARS DE PLUS... For a Few Dollars More. This posters USP (unique selling point) is the main actor, Clint Eastwood, as it is a sequel to a film in which he himself was a huge factor in the films success, for being a silent but deadly, lone, gruff man, an antihero. Here, in this poster, he is depicted the same - he is unshaven and squinting, making him look a wild-west hardened man, and holds his gun up menacingly. You would be forgiven for thinking him the villain of the film, but his menacing pose his contrasted to the still from the film in the background, which shows him as nonchalantly brave in the face of danger - three confident looking Mexicans. This sets him up as an antihero - a gruff but brave lone gunslinger, who is menacing to the viewer, but more so to his enemies.

The font is also effective: it looks just as rugged and 'wild-west' worn as Clint Eastwood himself. So the poster revolves around entirely around Clint Eastwood.

Once Upon a Time in the West. I don't think this poster appeals to me very much, but I want to work out why. I think the paint effect makes the film look old and less exciting, with very dull colours. The characters wear very similar clothes, and nothing is learnt about them through the poster. The film revolves around Charles Bronson, a mysterious man who plays his harmonica sorrowfully, but nothing is seen of the harmonica. His cold hard stare is also deadened by the paint effect. The poster becomes indistinguishable.

This poster I think is also very ineffective. The white and brown dull the poster, while the effect also dulls Clint Eastwood, the USP of the film as indicated by the writing on the left hand side of the screen: 'he's going to trigger a whole new style of adventure'. It is certainly not colourful enough, and could do with the blood-red seen in the poster below.

I think, although the image is not very telling of the film, colour is used to good effect in this poster. The yellow, red and black all contrast effectively to make the characters look dangerous and rough. This is the type of colour scheme I want to use in my poster.

FILM - IT'S FINISHED!

And it's finally here: enjoy.

'Spaghetti Western' created by Frank Higson.

FILM - The Soundtrack Finished

So, having listened to Spaghetti-Western soundtracks numourous times, and gathering my information from Louis Vause, I have created a soundtrack. Here is a video describing the..behind the scenes..and you get a sneek preview!

FILM - Editing Log

EDITING LOG
(Note - Sorry if this is scrappy or unreadable..I'm copying my quickly scrawled notes which for your sake I've touched up a bit): 


Have removed all the footage that is simply unusable for example when Louis' moustache drops off of his face. Now have 16 minutes of footage. Have to get it to 5 minutes/ hmmmmm. 
Have ordered the footage. Editing the duel to the Morricone track : A fistfull of dollars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILB0yIn6jBg&feature=fvst) shame I cant use this track its perfect. 
Beginning Title sequence over blue sky before pan down. A homage to one of the best parts of the Spaghetti Westerns - the title sequences. Shame I only have 10 seconds instead of 5 minutes for it. Title appears with gunshot - trying to get it as similar as some of Morricone's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9w2sqfNJuE&feature=related (great isn't it? skip the first minute in if your strapped for time). The font is as similar as I can get it to a spaghetti western font (http://www.dafont.com/eastwood.font) quite pleased with this font. What colour should it be?   White. Red gives good connotations of blood/violence, but looks crap against a blue sky. White stills works and added with gunshot, theme of violence probably isn't lost.
Editing to storyboard - nice and simple steps, but very long process.
Need to dub sound such as footsteps but especially voices. The actors voices don't sound right.

FILM - Research & Planning: Soundtrack

THE SOUNDTRACK

I've never written a soundtrack for anything before, but because having an effective soundtrack is so vital to my film, I'm gonna have to give it a try. But, I'll need some help: here are my interviews with Louis Vause, piano player and music expert.

Here is the link to the first part, where he tells me about:

-A quick history of early 20th century music composers.

-A quick history of Ennio Morricone.

-How Morricone's life shaped Spaghetti Western music.

-Morricone's low budget and his interest in minimalist soundtracks.

-Morricone's mix of non-diagetic and the diagetic sounds.

Here is the link to the second part, where he shows me the more practical aspect of writing the soundtrack, using a demonstration on the piano.

Using this information, I will now go and try and write a soundtrack for my film using Garageband. With no orchestra. Wish me luck.

FILM - Production log

HAS FILMING BEEN SUCCESSFUL?


DAY 1
Here is a video of myself talking very enthusiastically (I was tired and a bit ill ok?) about the first day of filming the duel scene.

DAY 2

Here is a video of myself talking about the second day of filming, the prison scene.

FILM - Character Design

WHO IS WEARING WHAT?


So, in 'Spaghetti Western' - who is going to wear what, and what props will I need? I want to make sure the clothes are not bright, but dark and cool, to keep it gritty and real, and give undertones, for Jim's character, of a sort of 'anti-heroness'. 


Jim Higson - The Cowboy.
Inevitably, I will look at some of the characters that inspired the character of The Cowboy. So basically, Clint Eastwood...

















I of course don't want very colourful cowboys. Blacks and browns are best, as the distinction between good and bad doesn't necessarily have to be shown through clothes. However, I do want a big distinction between the Mexican and Cowboy. A poncho is a good way to indicate instantly that one character is Mexican, so I will have the Mexican take the poncho, and have a more western styled jacket for the cowboy. Everything about this character has to be Western, to be immediately recognisable as the  'Gringo' cowboy character. So I will have a western styled brown jacket, black jeans like Eastwood above and a black hat to match, and a denim or grey shirt. I will need to get cowboy boots as well.

Louis Crompton - The Mexican

The Mexican character again needs to be immediately identified as  the Mexican. The Mexican characters in Western films tend to be characterised by simpleness and ruggedness. For my character I want a sombrero, a stereotypical Mexican hat, a poncho, and some simple prison style clothes, as he has just come out of prison.

FILM - Health and Safety

TRYING NOT TO GET HURT FILMING
Some of the things I will write about here may seem ridiculous, but if I was to fall off of a 25 ft roof onto flat stone, I would be deeply upset. And probably dead.
Scene 1 One shot is taken from the roof for an establishing shot. I will ensure safety by not going on top of the wall when filming. As I said, I would really rather not fall off the roof.

High above the trees: great for interesting camera shots, bad for falling off.

Scene 2

The main problem is that there is no paths to the location, which is quite out of the way in a field. I will need to get people to help bring down props such as the grave and the guns, as well as water, a fall mat and the camera.
The water will be important because it is very hot and we will be filming for hours.
The fall-mat, a hard large mat, will be useful if I need to film a low angle - I can position myself on the floor without getting hurt, and for the Mexican's death scene. (The floor was covered by many spiky plants, so the mat was very important).
I will bring gardening gloves to remove and particularly spikey plants and rocks.

Spiky plants and rocks: great for filming a scene set in a harsh environment, bad for lying down on.

In both scenes the floor will be a hard stone, so a drop for the camera would completely destroy it. I will make sure to use the safety-wrist attachment  to make sure that it doesn't fall if I was to let go of it. I am also taking the camera and props to Italy on the plane. I will carefully wrap them so as to ensure they make the flight too and from Italy.

FILM - Shooting Schedule

WHO CAN FILM WHEN?

Here is my shooting schedule.  These notes are mainly for me - I had to organise my thoughts.

A graph to show who is on location when.

This graph shows my shooting schedule for my film. I arrive in Italy on the 10th of August, late at night, and leave on the 22nd of August. So I can film from the 11th to the 21st. But the actors in my film: Jim (Higson - cowboy) Louis (Crompton - Mexican) Sidney (Higson - Sleepy Mexican) Sean (Whiteman - Prison Guard 1) and Charlie (Higson - Possible extra), come and go throughout that time, so I need to note when the actors are present at the same time. For the outdoor part of scene 1, there are 3 of the actors involved. To get a good sunlight, I will need to film this scene early in the morning, when the sun is shining on the face of the prison in the scene. I won't film it on the 14th or the 15th of August, as Sean Whiteman will have just arrived and will want to settle in to his holiday. I think the 16th of August will be most appropriate, as if there is no sun on AM 16th, then I can easily rearrange to the 17th. For the latter part of that scene I want sun coming in from the opposite window. to shine through the prison window bars - so it will need to be filmed in the afternoon. This means that I can only film the other scene - the stand off, on either the 13th or the 14th. This scene only uses Jim and Louis who will both be in Italy. Using this data, I will now complete a shooting schedule. 

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

TO PRINT OFF FOR FILMING

SCENE 2 'THE DUEL' EXT

DATE 14 AUGUST 

ACTORS - JIM HIGSON + LOUIS CROMPTON 

TIME - 16:00

PROPS - JIM HIGSON -  CLOTHES - Cowboy Jacket / Black Jeans / Cowboy Boots / Leather Belt / Black Cowboy Hat / Grey 'Neckerchief' / Grey Shirt

PROPS - JIM HIGSON - Pistol / Pistol Holster

PROPS - LOUIS CROMPTON - CLOTHES - Sombrero (Round) / Poncho / Patterned Shirt / Grey Long Johns / Black Shoes / Leather Belt

PROPS - LOUIS CROMPTON - Pistol / Pistol Holster / Cigar / Moustache

SAFETY - Large water bottle x2 / Gardening Gloves / Hats / Mat / Box

PROPS - SCENE - Wooden Cross marked 'Maria'.

SCENE 1A 'THE PRISON' EXT

DATE 16 AUGUST

ACTORS - SEAN WHITEMAN + SIDNEY HIGSON + CHARLIE HIGSON

TIME - 10:45

PROPS - SEAN WHITEMAN - CLOTHES - Sombrero (Pointy) / White shirt / White trousers / Sandals / Rug

PROPS - SEAN WHITEMAN - Cigar / Pistol / Poncho

PROPS - SIDNEY HIGSON - CLOTHES - Sombrero (Round) / Towel

PROPS - CHARLIE HIGSON - CLOTHES - Straw Hat / Towel

PROPS - CHARLIE HIGSON - Rifle

SCENE 1B 'THE PRISON' INT 

DATE 16 AUGUST

ACTORS - SEAN WHITEMAN + LOUIS CROMPTON 

TIME: 15:00

PROPS - SEAN WHITEMAN - CLOTHES - Sombrero (Pointy) / White shirt / White trousers / Sandals / Rug

PROPS - SEAN WHITEMAN - Cigar / Pistol / Poncho

PROPS - LOUIS CROMPTON - CLOTHES - Patterned Shirt / Grey Long Johns / Black Shoes / Leather Belt

PROPS - LOUIS CROMPTON - Moustache

FILM - Research & Planning: Storyboard

SHOT BY SHOT: SPAGHETTI WESTERN


This storyboard is based on my location shoot, my synopsis, and the ideas in my head.
I scanned my pictures into photoshop. This meant I could colour them with the colours from my location shoot (using the photoshop eyedropper tool), to get a very rough ideas of how the shots might look as well as use it as a normal storyboard. I apologise for the crappy drawing, but it will help me get the general gist of what shots to use.
(This storyboard - slideshow does work, I found that clicking it until it changes seems to do the trick).

Storyboard

View more presentations from fhigson.

FILM - Script

THE SCRIPT

I don't want to have too much dialogue in my film, as it's harder to act that way - again I don't have Eastwood in my cast, just GCSE drama students. (No offence to GCSE drama students). Furthermore, Sergio Leone's characters became famous for speaking very little, making the scenes more tense. However, tension was not the original purpose. In Leone's biography, it explains some of the reasons for the low amount of dialogue. 

Firstly, Clint Eastwood simply did not say some of the script because it was written badly and was of low quality. Furthermore, because sound was not recorded on sight but added afterwards in a dubbing studio: too much dialogue looked scrappy as it was hard to sync the speech. Nevertheless, it does add tension to the flms, so I will want to minimise the amount of dialogue in my script.

(Click the script to enlarge it).

As you might have noticed, there are some shenanigans going on with a cigar. First, it is stolen by the Mexican, and then by the Cowboy. Well, in 'Once Upon a Time in the West':

Bronson forces the harmonica into Franks mouth when he takes his revenge...

...just as Frank had forces the harmonica into Bronson's mouth when he brutally murders his brother.

Well I plan on slightly reversing this idea. At the start of my film, the Mexican will snatch the cigar from the Jailers mouth. When the Cowboy takes his revenge against the Mexican, he will then take the cigar from the Mexicans mouth. This will remind us of the earlier scene, and at the same time (hopefully) make the victory more satisfying for the audience: the victory is not just a personal victory for the Cowboy but a moral victory, aa the Mexicans bullying ways are over.

FILM - Research & Planning: Synopsis

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE FILM:
I have a good idea of what my films synopsis will be, based on my pitch and a weekend of endlessly watching cowboy films.

Spaghetti Western is a short western with a theme of revenge. A villainous Mexican, who lives outside the law, is unwillingly set free from a Mexican fort prison. The threat of a return to life behind bars seemingly has no effect upon him, as he immediately seeks revenge upon the man who put him there - a lonely, quiet cowboy, who still mourns the loss of Maria, his old love whom the Mexican murdered. The two exchange a few words before menacingly circling each other and preparing to fight. After a few tense minutes, the pair fire, and it is not clear who has shot who until the Mexican drops to his knees, before slumping, lifelessly to the floor. The mournful cowboy takes a cigar from the Mexicans mouth before walking off slowly into the orange, setting sun.


I feel as though I can insinuate a past between the two characters, through the cross of 'Maria' and carefully chosen dialogue, which will help build tension/emotion through the theme of revenge - the audience have to actually care about the outcome of the duel.
I think one characters motif being revenge is very important, as it makes the viewer have immediate emotional attachment to the characters. Revenge has always been the motif for the previous films - and they showed that it worked. 

'The Colonel' returns to take his revenge against 'El Indio' for the rape and murder of his sister.

Bronson returns for revenge against Frank for the brutal murder of his brother in 'Once Upon a Time in the West'.

Eastwood returns for his revenge...

...to fight the notorious 'Rojo Brothers' - the men who tried to kill him.

The seeking of revenge for the protagonist is a winning format for Spaghetti Westerns - a format I think it will be important to follow. 

There are other themes/ideas I think I'll pinch from Leone. Like people always say, 'good artists borrow, great artists steal'. In 'For a Few Dollars More', there is a comic scene with a comic character - and the comedy comes from his cowardice. 

The coward in For a Few Dollars More

I think I might include one or two characters inspired by this one - perhaps the jailer? Coming to think about it, it will provide other benefits too - if the characters are cowardly towards the Mexican, it will make him seem scarier, hence making the cowboy seem braver for standing up to him.

FILM - Film Title

WHAT WILL MY FILM BE CALLED?

I can tell you, coming up with a title has been hard. Surprisingly it is harder to pin down what the unique selling point of my short film might be, even though less happens. So, after a few frustrating days, I'm going to go with: 'Spaghetti Western'. This was always a working title, but its stuck and I've thought about the positives. Its slightly humorous, as my film is a western movie filmed in Italy, while it uses all the conventions of and essentially is a recreation of a traditional spaghetti western film. So it is a 'Spaghetti Western' in more than one way.I think that it sounds intriguing also, so may help to intice an audience, fans of the films of the 60s and those who have never even heard of one before. To entirely convince myself, I conducted and asked people what they thought of the title.

Audience feedback found surprisingly that potential female viewers were in fact intrigued by the title enough that they wanted to see it, even though they didn't know what a Spaghetti Western film is. So perhaps the title works well for people who do and don't know what the spaghetti western film genre is.