Evaluation

Drafting and planning (Finished Trailer)

This is the final hand in for my coursework and the video is my finished trailer for my A2 project. i added the end to my trailer so now it ends on the correct note to say the release date and a small advertisement to twitter with the #WeCanFindHer. the new footage was tricky to add in as i needed to make sure i could connect it with the rest of my trailer so the sound didn't overlap and i could continue the trailer as normal. the new footage has a repeated bang with the sound so it would add the suspense and it goes well with the repeated close up on the poster as it zooms on nearly every bang of the sound effects. i think the added footage has made my trailer make more sense as before i gave no clear indication of who Amy is which could be quite confusing for my audience as they probably wont want to see a film without the slight indication of what the film is about which i can understand.

Drafting and planning

this is my final draft of my poster for my horror film Astray. This poster was heavily inspired by the scream 4 poster as it was produced by dimension films which is the same production company that i have chosen to use for my project. i looked at posters by dimension films as they usually follow a distinct style with their film series so i tried to replicate that in my poster which can be seen by the way they layout there production block at the bottom of the poster. i chose to have quite a dark poster as i wanted it to reflect the horror genre easily so it would be obvious to the viewer what they were looking at. i used a generic font for the cast at the top of the poster as i want the names to be easy to read as if i used the same font as my title for the cast the names would be difficult to read due to the odd font choice and the size of the text itself. i am quite happy with the result of my poster as i was quite quick to change my mind about what i would do for it in the past so i am happy to see that this is complete, i asked peers who also act as my target audience due to their age what they think and the only criticism was that they wish the images on the wall were easier to see but they were fine with the finished result so i have achieved the aim of the ancillary.  

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 this is my empire magazine cover for my film/ A2 project. i am comparing it to the dead pool cover as i tried to use some of the conventions they used for his cover. i went with the house style of red as that is the primary color used by empire which they change every now and again for different covers. i wanted to create a splash effect on the back of my cover like the dead pool cover but when i tried it the images didn't suit the background so instead i create a bar/ beams of light effect to act as my background which worked out quite well as the background doesn't obscure the images and it goes well with my chosen house colors of red and white. i used the ever present in empire magazine the above title pug as the empire magazine looks naked without it and it really ties the whole cover up as it uses up the empty black space that the background bars didn't cover so it is also there to fill in the space i couldn't fill within my background.

Drafting and Planning (Magazine)

this is my magazine cover for my A2 project. the cover was inspired by Empire magazine as shown obviously by the magazine title. i followed Empires conventions with the location of the bar code, lower left pug ext. i took a risk of with the main images as in every empire magazine cover the image is a person looking into or just away from the camera. i wanted to take the risk as the Polaroids are a large part of my story and it would be extremely difficult to get my three characters together for a solid image. the cover images work as they bring the attention to the cover as three faces attract more attention than one face will.

Drafting and planning

This is my ancillary product for my A2 project. i took the photo in the drama studio so i could target the light at what i wanted. i lowered the light in the studio but but it wasn't low enough so i edited the image to lower the lighting in the center and i raised it on the left so the audience can make out the character on the left but you can hardly see his face which is exactly what i wanted as in near to all horror movie posters if the antagonist is featured on the cover you can hardly make out their face or they are wearing a mask so i followed the conventions. the beam of light at the top had to be created as the camera provided by the school didn't capture the whole image so i duplicated the box of light created by a window and made it vertical to make the room look more eerie instead of making the light look like an obvious window. the production block was created in word and then imported in, i used other horror movie posters to figure out a shape and layout for the production block i followed one poster developed by my same production company so i could learn their house style and i found a separate horror movie poster so i could get two opinions and two points of view to make sure i didn't fully copy the one product.

Drafting and planning

to make my trailer longer and to add clarity to some of the story i have done some more filming in the drama studio. To make sure that i used the time i had in the studio wisely i also took photos for my poster so now with the deadline coming up next week all i have to do now is put the new footage, create my magazine cover and create my film poster. the image on the left is the very start of my poster for the film. it is near to complete as all that needs to be dont is lowering the contrast of the title and adding in the production block and release date which shouldn't take long at all. the image was taken using a video camera as i used a real smoke effect to create the smoke so i thought that it would be easier to pause on a long video clip so i can select the moment from a five minuet recording. the image came out a little blurry as the schools video player program isn't as updated as it could be and the camera isn't of the best quality but non the less i am still happy with the outcome.

Drafting and planning

Due to some unfortunate events i will need to do a bit more filming for my trailer with only 3 weeks until the final deadline. i have already drafted a new opening scene where pictures in the form of polaroids are torn from the wall and a close zoom into a fade of a poster describing the last known location of the missing girl. the new opening scene wont effect my current footage as the purpose of the new footage is too make the trailer longer and to give the viewer a better understanding of what the film is about as the new footage will give the viewer the information that the antagonist has some form of obsession with these kids.

Drafting and planning

this is my new idea for my movie poster as my last idea wasn't really the standard i was looking for. the idea will center around the Polaroids in the middle of the poster and the antagonist will sit aside to the left with a cloud of smoke coming from him. the cloud of smoke i wont add in using effects i will use smoke when taking the picture. the background will most probably be a black wall with and the whole picture will be shown with a low white light so the character doesn't cast too big a shadow that would ruin the image. the images on the wall will be of the protagonists and because there will be alot of images i will re use afew of them but you wont be able to tell that they are the same image as i will overlap alot of them so the wall will look legit.

Drafting and planning

the picture on the left gives the general idea of how my movie poster will look although it wont be as creepy. the idea for the movie poster is to have the antagonist on the left of the poster looking at the Polaroids of the protagonists. this will be able to indicate what genre of film im going for by the general disturbance of the image itself. for the movie poster i dont think i will use alot of photos as the two main focuses of the poster is the antagonist and the three Polaroids of the protagonists so if i include alot of pictures it will draw attention from the two main subjects of the image. if i follow this path for my movie poster i can just take the photos with more images and then some without alot of images. i mentioned in a past blog post that i would have a fourth main Polaroid that includes the missing character in the film but the photo will be ripped, i think i will add the fourth image but cross out the face of the character as if she has been ticked off the list this will mainly be done to force the audience to speculate what the antagonist wants from the situation which will force the subject of my film to be in their heads.

Drafting and planning

the initial idea for my movie magazine cover is too have a pile of Polaroid photos of my protagonists and have three very distinct photos of each individual protagonist so the viewer can see the three main characters. because this idea alone doesn't seem to relate to the horror genre i will more than likely add a blood effect as if it has dripped on the photos. the general senses will be that the antagonist has stalked the protagonists and gathered all of the information on them. but the antagonist wont be seen on the movie magazine cover as he is to be unseen so to include him would defeat the object. he will be included in the movie poster which i will cover in a later blog post. the image to the left is there to give a general idea to how the Polaroids will be laid out as if they have just been thrown into a pile to give the impression that there are alot more. another idea for the magazine cover is to have four Polaroid photos on a cork board and the fourth photo will be ripped in half to indicate it is the missing friend that the protagonists are looking for.

Drafting and planning

this is my first draft of my trailer. i have edited all of my footage together but when i was filming and story boarding i didn't take into account how much of the footage i would have to cut out so my trailer inst as long as i once thought it would be but i can find ways to get around that such as adding text screens in the trailer which is an option that is still widely used in professional and high budget films but if i was to do this i would need to make sure that i dont just use a blank background so i will probably use a photo that i managed to capture and lower the brightness and contrast to make sure it blends well with the scenes in the trailer. i am happy with how my trailer turned out it looks better than i thought i would. the one thing about the trailer that i am on the fence with is that in editing on every clip i turned the color vibrance up so the colors will really stand out which worked really well when i lowered the contrast and brightness on the second half of the trailer. im going to render two different trailers one without the enhanced color vibrance and one with the enhanced vibrance so i can ask my audience what they think and so i can get a solid opinion on which one i feel looks better.

Drafting and planning

INSERT FIRST POSTER DRAFT
the image above was originally my film magazine cover idea. i like the picture and image but it was pointed out that in every single film magazine cover you can always see the character clearly and without obstruction. looking at it due to this fact i cant see a way that i would be able to continue with my magazine cover idea as it wont look realistic at all. i have two more ideas to what i can do for my magazine cover which both relate quite closely. the idea is to use Polaroids to show the characters which is also my film poster idea but i cant use the same image for both the film poster and magazine cover so for the poster i will include the antagonist with the Polaroids.

Research into similar products

this is another movie magazine cover for the new film suicide squad. although this film isnt the same genre as mine i think it is still valuable to look at the poster. im looking at suicide squad because their magazine covers are quite unique as the film could be classed as a action, comedy, horror due to the dark themes and humor. the magazines are unique due to the color scheme and how this is how the film is directly introducing the characters in the film. i like how plain the magazine is as it only covers the topic of the new film and has no mention of another feature in the magazine. they follow the generic convention of holding eye contact with the camera which i am and im not going to use as in my magazine you wont be able to tell where the antagonist is looking due to the hood and the dark colors.

Drafting and planning

this is a very rough idea of what my main image will look like on my film magazine cover. this is a very simple idea of what the magazine cover will look like but it will look better when i have actually captured the image in real life instead of using images from the internet to create the base idea.the photo itself shouldn't be hard to capture except from the darkness of the face but i can lower the brightness and contrast down when i edit the image much like i did in the last half of my trailer. alot of the magazines i have looked at have quite complex backgrounds but some of my favorite covers of Empire Magazine have no background which i will most likely try to imitate. Using a black background would look good but i would have to make sure that i edit the center image well enough do that it is fairly easy to see since the hoodie the main character will be wearing will be either a dark grey or black.

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in my last blog post (http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/tuesday.html)
i talked about my second ancillary product which will be the film magazine. the example i used was a action comedy film so im going to look more into films around my genre. because empire mainly deals with big budget action films. I found a magazine that relates to my film due to the dark subject matter it deals with. the magazine to the left is a genre crossover as it is a horror/ action film. the way they show the horror aspect of the film is the dark background and shading around the center character. that it is a main aspect of my trailer as i have edited at least a third of my trailer to show it as dark and mysterious so i could easily edit the photo i take to be dark and shady like the photo on the left, i wouldnt be able to create the cloud effect that is used for the suicide squad magazine but i could have the blue glow which could work really well with my photo idea but i will make a version using differnet colors so i can ask my audience which one they prefer as im making these products to attract my audience so if they like the magazine and give me feedback on it i will know what i have to do to get my audiences attention.

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the second part to my A2 project is my ancillary products where i have to make a movie poster and a magazine cover. for film magazines the most noted one is empire which covers all of the new upcoming films. the conventions to the magazine are very easy to copy due to one being that the cover is very empty and only relates to the main article giving no mention of what else is inside. this will be easy to do as i am going to be promoting one film and that is mine. another convention is that the is always someone looking into the camera, im going to have to go against this convention due to my idea to feature the villain on the cover. to do this im not going to have him look into the camera as that will give the identity of the character away thus spoiling the film so im going to center him on the cover with a hood on so you cant see the face and like the example to the left the character will be holding his weapon. the title to empire is only shown in a few colors which are Black, Red, Gold and white, im going to use black or red for the connotations they hold to represent my genre of horror.

Organisation

"How Far Would You Go To Find Her"
"Three Friends - One Job - Alot Of Blood"
ive been looking into cover lines of horror films and they all seem quite similar in the fact that they will highly have reference to the film or that they are just advertisements from newspapers when they say "the best film of the year -Daily Mail" which to me is just a way to use up some of the empty space on the poster. The two coverlines above are my two rough ideas of what my cover line could be. for the first cover line i will probably use a small font to make sure that it inst too big so it doesn't draw the attention from the main picture and title. but for the second cover line i would have the size being around half the size of the movie title as it is a very attention grabbing line which i would want to take advantage of and get the most i can from it. im going to look int some fonts that i could use for the coverlines as i dont think the font for the cover line can be the same as the main title as i dont think they will both stand out if they are identical.
with the second cover line i could play around with the transparency of the three lines of text so when the line "Three Friends" that could be faded and when it gets to "Alot Of Blood" that would be clear and easy to read so the audience would be able to distinguish what the film is about due to the clarity for the film containing alot of blood. i could also do the same thing but with color and have the color of the cover line get either brighter as the text goes down or it gets darker as the text goes down

Drafting and planning (unfinished)

My original idea for my film title was Thanatos but i have recently changed my mind due to outcome of my filming i dont think this title will work with my film. i have looked at my clips and reconsidered my poster idea to make my new title work with my new title. the new title i have in mind is Astray, this should work with my plot line due to the definition of the word due to the story revolving around the group going Astray from the path in search of their friend.
I think this title will be easier to incorporate with my poster as i was always worried with the length of the name Thanatos as to make sure it would fit on the poster so to make it fit the font size would have to be quite small to which wouldn't make my poster look professional as you wouldn't be able to read the text and i wouldn't be able to make it stand out.

Target Audience

as i have started looking into movie posters for my ancillary i will need to make sure that my poster attracts the right target audience. looking at the posters i talked about in my last blog post ( http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/ahhhhh.html) they were both primarily aimed for people over the age of 18 although alot of its the films revenue came from under 18's. My poster will need to have the conventions that will attract my audience of over 18's. the conventions i will look for are the dark colors that will make my poster look quite mysterious and dark. another convention i will use is the centering of my weapon in the poster, im primarily taking inspiration form the Inglorious Bastards poster which i will take my own twist on i will try to attract an audience that is interested in horror instead of hard core action film so instead of the poster centering on the ripped Nazi flag i will center on a reflection on the blade of the axe. another thing i will have to use is blood which features in both posters in two different ways, for instance the blood on the Annabel trailer is alot less obvious than it is on the Inglorious Bastards poster. i will try both styles of blood display when i take the photos for my poster, i will ask my audience which style they prefer as i want to make sure my poster attracts them as i want to keep my target audience consistent in my project.

Research into similar products

I looked at posters recently but because i dont really know what i want to do for my movie poster i thought it would be a good idea to look at some more. i have a slight idea of what i will do for my movie poster but by looking at the Annabelle poster to the left i really like the black background being broken by the doll. im going to use this effect on my poster when i come to make it but instead of having the left third begin black i might use the corners of the poster being black and have the axe that featured in my trailer breaking the barrier between darkness and color. since i am looking at having a weapon being the main attraction to the poster i looked at the Inglorious Bastards movie poster. i like how the hand is featured in this poster as well as when you put it together with the knife and flag it can tell a whole story which is what im trying to aim for. if i was to use this poster as inspiration i would use an axe instead of the knife and try to put abit more lighting on the blade so i can create that reflection effect.

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INSERT TRACKING SHOT
The clip above is the tracking shot that i achieved by using my home made track. i have looked into alot of tracking shots and i am still yet to find a tracking shot like the one i made. most of the tracking shots i have looked at tend to follow a character at an eye level point of view so it seems that the viewer is walking around the scene following the character. the difference between my tracking shot and the tracking shot like in kill bill that i analysed a few weeks ago (http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/when-schools-wifi-is-that-bad-i-cant-do.html) is how the camera moves like i said the angle the camera moves at as my shot is a low angle that follows an object instead of a person so the audience is following the villains weapon which can symbolism alot more than the camera following someones back for afew seconds.

Drafting and planning

INSERT RUFF EDIT OF TRANSITION FROM DAY TO NIGHT 
the footage above is my shot where i transition my trailer from day to night using mirroring and a quick cut into a fade. because i didn't film my trailer at night i had to use some of the tools in Movie Plus X6 to lower the contrast and brightness of the clips and i also added in a slight blue tint so it looks more luminous as i found that the tint of blue is becoming more and more common in horror movies. considering that i had to edit the night atmosphere in i dont think it looks too bad. im going to turn down the brightness abit more and ask my audience using YouTube which one they prefer which is better than me deciding myself because i have to make what my audience wants to see.

the two images above are screen shots of my trailer but the difference is that it is the same scene. because in the trailer this scene should have been filmed at night i lowered the brightness, contrast and exposure so i could create the illusion of night. i think the thick fog made it alot easier to do and i have had positive feedback from peers saying that they actually thought i filmed this scene at night which is evidence of my editing working.

Research into Similar Products

now that my filming is complete im now starting to look into the second part of my project with is my the ancillary product to go with the trailer which is going to be a poster. im going to look at different posters of my genre so i can get an insight into what they should look like and so i can get inspiration on how i can make mine.


the poster for scream is a little dated but it is still up to scratch with all of the other modern day horror posters out there. i like the scream poster because it is so simple and yet so effective as  the image inst spectacular but due to the effects they use on the image it makes the image stand out for its genre so much more than if it was in color. The text for the title inst fancy or extravagant it is just generic and bold which due to the other colors they use makes it work.











this poster for Jennifer's Body is a good poster to look at due to the genre of the film as it isn't a typical horror film as it slightly dips into teen romance but it is predominantly horror. i looked at this poster as it is good to look into genre crossovers so i can look at both formats of posters for inspiration. unlike the scream poster the image they use for Jennifer's body is quite bold and attractive to the eye due to the main characters sex appeal which relates to the cross over of the genres but then we look at the dark colors surrounding the female which goes with the horror aspect. the font on the title is more to relate to the teen romance as the font is for a cheer leading team but the color contrasts with the other dark colors which makes the whole thing work.

this poster for A Nightmare On Elm Street isn't the same as the other posters due to it being a teaser poster which means it wont tell you the cast or have any production lines as it isn't the final poster it is only made to be mainly displayed online to make people aware of the existence of the film as when this poster came out the film was still six/seven months from release. the image and colors used just scream horror film at the audience with the low angle making the villain in the background look so much bigger than he actually is and the red colors and blood on the floor just show the audience what type of film to expect from looking at the poster.

Drafting And Planning

Now that i have finished filming i have start to edit my clips and due to my previous blog post http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-same-old-stuff.html i know what film identification i will be using at the start of my trailer. i will need to locate a clip of the opening to dimension films as i will need to download a copy so i can insert it into my trailer as every film trailer has i film identification on it so once i have located one i will put it into the start of my trailer. i will also need to have a classification screen at the start of my trailer and at the start of the year i thought i would be using a red band screen which shows that the following trailer inst suitable for people under the age of 18 as at the start of the year i thought my trailer would contain content that would showing at an 18 level certificate but looking back on my footage i will just use the green classification screen as my trailer doesn't have any foul language or violence so it wouldn't be necessary to use a red band screen. the green screen will be shown for the same amount of time as if it was the red band trailer as the time the classification screens are shown for are usually the same time all round so it will be shown for around 5-6 seconds which will give me enough time to do the small voice over phone call at the start of my trailer i was planning on doing.

Organisation

Now that all of my filming is done i can focus on the rest of my project which is getting my editing done and starting to think about the ancillary products that we have to produce. due to my research into editing styles ( http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/research-into-similar-products-fades.html  - http://j4ka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/aaaa.html ) i know how i will edit my trailer with the predominant use of quick cuts into fades so due to my advanced planning i am confident that the editing process should pose a large problem as i have already planned out every transition from scene to scene. i already have a good idea on how my ancillary products will turn out as i have drafted out a few designs for posters but i will need to make sure that the poster goes well with the title but if it doesn't i will more than likely just change my title which will probably be a last minute decision decided through my target audience as i will go to twitter or Instagram to ask them about my designs and fonts as it is better to use social media to talk to your target audience as that way i dont have to go to them directly they will see my entry on social media and answer it on their own accord due to their interest in the subject. i will also need to think about music to put in my trailer as it will be easier to decide what should be in my trailer when it has been put together as i can compare and contrast what looks better and if need be i will go to social media again and use YouTube to ask my  audience and give them two of the same clip but with different music and which ever one they prefer i will use.

reaserch into similar products

now that i have finished filming i have started to look into my editing process so i will need to look into what film distribution company i will use as they will need to feature in the film identification at the start of my trailer and they will have a small feature on the distribution and cast lines of my poster. the distribution company for my trailer is quite important as i cant use a company that doesn't relate them self with horror movies as it would look quite unprofessional and i need to think about weather i would want to use an independent film company which would be a viable option as i would feel better with the quality if i was saying that an independent film company was backing my film as the poor quality of the cameras wouldn't be a problem if my film was portrayed to have a low budget.
the two film distributors i have been looking at using are Studio Canal and Dimension Films which dont stand as independent distributors as they make alot of money but are edging more towards big six than they are mini majors as they are intertwined with a few of the big six companies.

I looked at Studio Canal because of the genre crossovers they have distributed such as Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Dead and The Worlds End as all three of these films are both comedy and horror which could be an interesting thing to back my trailer. but i think i will have to choose Dimension Films because they are predominantly known for producing horror films so by choosing Dimension i will have a range of horror fans interested in my film due to the use of Dimension films as they have a reputation of producing high quality horror movies.