How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When I had chosen to make a trailer, I started off with watching a different range of trailers. Ones that use lots of short clips and ones that perhaps used just one long clip as a cliffhanger. When I planned to use the horror genre, I studied not just the trailers old and new but their budget, their success and whether that film has be re-made. As I found it interesting how a different director could take a existing film and change it, make it more modern, more successful and use different forms of conventions to make it more scary. I Googled and used websites to get inspiration and ideas for the ancillary tasks, looking at posters and magazine covers on not just horror films but other genres too, to see if I could work with both and make a unique set of tasks.


I used email on Youtube to ask permission to use the owner of our audio. I used email and text with Tyler (camera man), Matt (actor), Annabel (partner) and others working on the trailer to inform them of and changes in ideas, dates, location changes and any other important information to do with the trailer.


We created a easy to follow questionnaire using Microsoft word as it was quick and easy for us but also simple for the person to fill in. I also used Word to create the risk assessment as that was also something that needed to be kept simple and easy to read, as we also looked back at it now and then. I found using online graph makers was the easiest way to make the pie charts for the questionnaire results as I would put in the information and the graph would would be created for me, I could have used power point but I felt using the online program gave me more control over the options on what my graph would be like.


For the construction we used two different cameras to film it with, to get different camera angles on the same shot. When it came to the lighting we in fact used two phone torches, this worked for us as we didn't want our scenes to be bright. If the scenes were that little too dark we knew we could brighten them when editing.
We used Premier to edit which is full of options and effects. As I didn't want our trailer to be heavily edited, I mainly used the fades, to fade clips in and out and the slow motion settings. It became most useful when coming to audio as you could be really precise on when the diegetic and non diegetic sounds are fading in or out. I could also remove them completely from a certain clip once I had taught myself how to do so. All the audio sounds and music I used were off of the Youtube video mentioned.


Both ancillary tasks were created in Photoshop. We were both familiar with Photoshop so felt this was the best program to use. We used a range of tools, from simply cutting part of a picture to the more tricky job of brightening and removing the background of the magazine front cover, which at first (due to lack of light when shooting) was too dark and untidy for the cover.


 We have used this Blog to update our work to show our progress and changes. Even the little Blogs are important. For example when we have an idea and then do the write up of it later when it is complete. I have enjoyed using the Blog as it is easy to access and me and my teachers can look back at the work that I have already done. I can also use the Internet easily for help when posting and create drafts and come back to them in a later date and complete them.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This is the image we chose for the start of our trailer, it think it's important to begin with the certificate so that the viewer of the trailer is given the correct information about what is about to be seen, what the sort of target audience is to be expected and can almost get themselves ready to watch the trailer but making sure there watching the screen (where ever it may be) and sitting comfortably. Our reason for using the green certificate banner is because when researching horror films, most of the film companies used it, it's popular and recognisable.

When discussing camera angles and editing for the trailer it was clear the best option to get an effective trailer would to edit in quick, snappy clips and film at dramatic camera angles, using mainly close ups throughout. Doing this also can get a lot of the story in by giving clues, but not by showing too much of the actual film. We discussed and tried other techniques also but we went for the idea we originally had, although some other changes were made to the editing aspect, like after viewing some clips we decided they would look better in slow motion, to create a more dramatic, important feel to that particular clip.

We made the risky decision of covering the main title with the picture, but we came to the conclusion that the magazine would have already had issues out, so it would already be a well known film magazine. There for people would already recognise the title whether it were covered slightly or not. In some cases the buyers of the magazines will have had there eye drawn to the pictures or text if it is of particular interest to them whether they are a frequent buyer of that magazine or not. So this is another positive reason for having the picture over the top of the main title.

 

 

 

It took a lot of re-arranging to get the look we wanted for our poster, I wanted the bottom of the picture to be the main focus and use more of the top part of the picture to be the plain background to add text to. But during the editing we found there was too much text to all be gathered at the top which caused it to look messy. We have followed the forms by having all the credits at the bottom of the poster. The left leg is bent almost in a creepy looking way which causes the very centre of the picture to be mostly empty, this means looking at the picture you look else where. We have successfully made the viewer view the top first were the skirt and title are seen and follows the bat and right leg down to the blood and other details in black.

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?

Just like the shots in the trailer we wanted the ancillary tasks to catch the audience's attention. We used a long shot for the establishing shot as this would show a simple but nether less interesting background, it also shows the character and including the bottom of the skirt suggests the character is female. Having no face included on the poster makes the viewer want to see more, you get a sense of uncertainty looking at it. All three ancillary tasks include obvious features as to what film it is and I think that they all match well without being too similar to each other.

Although we wanted both pictures to match in some way, we didn't want the character on the magazine front cover to be in character, we wanted it to be more about the actress herself. But because we wanted them to match (so our target audience would recognise them easily), we have taken a prop used in the trailer and posed the actress (me) in a way that she wouldn't be posed in the film. We have also used red detailing on the magazine front cover to match the cartoon looking blood seen on the film poster and clearly shown the face of the actress, so people that have already viewed the trailer will recognise the actress and will pick up the magazine. I think the picture we used for the film poster is successful however it isn't clear that it is the same main actor, as it consists of just my feet/legs, however I dressed in the same outfit as the trailer for this shoot so that the audience recognise that its is the same character. Increasing the constrast when editing shows the darkness in the film and suggests horror and drama.

The use of colours is important. We have used white to make text or pictures stand out but at the same time making sure there is still the dark element. The white background makes the magazine cover look clean and proffesional and the white text on the film poster brings out the title clearly over the picture. The actors names are smaller and in black as we wanted to keep the more obvious text very simple, so have kept the most important parts (the title and realise date) in white at the top.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Right at the beginning we did a simple questionnaire to help determine our target audience.
We then created another more detailed questionnaire where we were able to see what our target audience enjoyed about horrors and what they didn't enjoy about horrors so we could really focus on starting to create a trailer that would suit there feedback, so when showing them the finished product we should get a good reaction.


We showed our friends which were around the same age as our target audience more so around the end stages of editing. Comments from them were positive, but we had some comments on things we could change, these were mainly from the students interested in film or that took media studies also. We took this into consideration, as we want to listen to our target audience as much as possible. We also felt by getting someone to check it was a good idea as there could be little mistakes in editing we have missed out as we have watched it through so many times whilst editing. For example in two different clips filmed on different days there was different items on a desk in the background, Annabel had noticed this but I had not during editing. So we filmed it again and changed it. Professional film makers get there progress checked for mistakes and improvements by lots of people so we felt this was necessary. When we had completed the trailer we showed a similar group and some other people of different ages (15-28), there feedback was positive, including our classmates which were working on similar projects. We also found on doing this that even people outside our target audience main age found our trailer and the story interesting and said they would watch it.
Throughout the filming of the trailer we showed our two teachers certain clips for feedback and ways we could improve them if we felt they would need re-filming (we discussed this with them). Also throughout the editing stages we would ask them to watch what had been put together for feedback on how the editing is going and generally to see how we were getting along.


Targeting young adults and teenagers as apposed to families is something that becomes successful in the film industry. As this audience has more of a disposable income, they can afford to go to the cinema and buy DVDs as they will make a small amount of money through a job, ema or money from parents but will not be paying bills and buying food as a family would. A family may not have as much time or money to take several trips to the cinema in a year. And usually younger viewers at the cinema would go with there parents, which would mean only young teenagers from age 15+ would go to the cinema by themselves.

Removing Audio On Premiere Pro.

1: On most of the scenes I wanted to remove the audio completely, so only the soundtrack was being played over it. I started by selecting the area of the video I wanted to remove the audio on.

2: I use the audio options on the chosen clip and added the first stage of removing the audio by clicking on the small circle shown in this picture.

3: I then added a few stages throughout the chosen clip which removed the audio.

The trailers music and sounds.

Annabel and I knew we wanted the audio to be very simple in the trailer. We did not want one whole song throughout the trailer. We want the music to create tension and help tell the story.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3AaOuMbMsw
The maker of this video is by dalesfilms on youtube. He has given permission for people to use his video for work such as my trailer im creating, if you credit his work.
These set of sound effects and music are perfect and will also make for easy editing as all the sound effects and music is in the same block, which means I can just cut where I want to add a sound to a certain part of the trailer. Some of the tunes sound although they should belong in a sci-fi film or trailer, I would like to use them to add a sense of mystery but I do not want the genre to come across wrong by using them.

Final Finished Trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zUh_9gwX8o&feature=plcp&context=C4ca64c1VDvjVQa1PpcFMP6swa5G3adC4idt2EXX4C7VEsctJCr4g%3D

My trailer.

This is the last draft before it will be finished.
Some numbers have to be removed from the stairs scene and a few other things need to be added.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm3i4k1F07U&feature=youtu.be

Flat plans for Ancillary task - Poster

I like this because all the text is on top which means the feet and bottom of the bat will be the main focus and that is the most interesting part of the picture, however it could come to look a little empty and boring if not done correctly.

The title in this is clear and is noticeable which I like but I think there is too much text at the bottom. If we do put the text at the bottom it will have to be a different layout to this design.

-Most of the layout will be decided when in the process of editing as the best way to tell if it looks right is to move around and change when you have the image and all the text together.

Ancillary Task- Final Magazine Front Cover.

Final draft of script / editing.

There has been lots of changes to the script after several discussions. We decied that the first draft of the script included lots of things that were not nessiserly needed in the trailer. We wanted to change it so that the footage in the trailer would be the most important and would show the story without giving too much away.

This is the final script:

Location- Kitchen

*Matt on phone in kitchen*
Matt: Ok, ok I gotta go, bye.
*Hangs up phone as Shannon enters*

*CUT*
Location- Bedroom


*Cut to Shannon finding paper*


Location: Top of stairs
*Both characters at the top of the stairs*
(Short clips of argument, including Matt reaching for baseball bat beside him)
*Matt hits Shannon with bat*

*CUT to Shannon falling down stairs* (Camera angle shot from top of stairs)


*CUT to Matt digging (Long shot)
*CUT to Matt dropping Shannon (with cloth wrapped around)*


Location: House and Woods.
-Matt pulls car into drive
-Opens and enters front door
*CUT *
-Shannon's hand appearing to come out of the ground
-Bare feet moving on mud (with cloth around legs)*
*CUT*
-Matt turning off  (bedroom) light
-Matt walks past mirror and sits on bed
 (As above action happens, Shannon will walk past other side of bed but only been shown in the mirror not in main shot.
*CUT to Shannon stood over bed going to hit with the bat* (Towards camera as it blacks out)


*CUT to end title then fades into actors names and film company details*

Ancillary Task- Drafts- Magazine Front Cover.



When researching magazine front covers, we came across these two. They both use a feature we would like to use, which is the reel that includes several pictures. The only problem is both magazines are for a completely different genre so in our first draft we have tried to make the reel our own and changed the reason that it is there.

Draft 1:

In this draft we have kept a simple title and placed the text around the sides so that we can easily place the image and move the text around afterwards. We have added the film reel and have used it to include pictures of backstage when filming.

Draft 2:We decided the bar code, issue number and price should all be closer together and by the title so all of the purchasing information is in one area and does not distract from the rest of the features on the cover. 

Draft 3&4:
The image has been added and we have tried different puff shapes to include text in. I don't like either of these as they doesn't really have any relation to the theme of our front cover and they also don't stand out as much as we want it to.

Draft 5:
This draft is work in progress. The image has been moved which means the title is now covering too much of the face. In the final cover we will edit the title and head so the head overlaps the title, this gives a professional finish. We have placed a puff, I like the shape as it's in your face, I'm just not sure that the red text works as we already have the red title above it. Also in this draft we have added a strip of colour down the side of the cover at the opening, inspiration for this came from the total FILM magazine except that had have it on the other side of the cover, I prefer were we have chosen to place it as the reader will notice it more as they go to open the magazine, the text on the strip however will be the same way as the total FILM cover as the reader will not have to turn to the magazine slightly to read it.

Draft 6:
The head is now over lapping the title, but not too much so the viewer can see the title clearly.

Draft 7:

The red text in the puff now looks so much better white, it matches the background and the black behind it brings it out. Also we have started to add the sub titles with coloured backgrounds, similar to how the total FILM text is displayed. I had the idea to use colours that are included in the pictures on the reel, so that there are not too many colours going on around the cover. Our eyes will be used to seeing the same colour.

Draft 8:
Again any other sub title has been added with another colour that has been included in the pictures below. I still think this is a good idea, on the other hand I do not think the two colours work together both being sub titles.

Draft 9:
The last sub title has been added to organise the text into it's correct order and location although I think two of them are too extended, so that will be changed.

Draft 10:Squares have been shortened.

Draft 11:
Because having two different colour subtitles didn't look right, we moved the yellowy colour to be the end of page strip and kept the grey for the subtitles, I think this works well, because we can use both colours and they now compliment each other.          

Draft 12:
The text has been added to the strip. The colours in the strip have already been used throughout so there is not lots of new colours being added.

Draft 13:We felt as if there were to many gaps in between the bottom of the picture. We didn't want to have too much going on but we did place another puff in the bottom right so there was just the right amount of white background being shown. We used the same colour as the puff so it was just as obvious but didn't use white round the edges so they look different. We put the added one overlapping the strip so it jumps out more.

-FINAL MAGAZINE FRONT COVER-

Devloping ideas - Poster

This is the poster for horror/thriller film 'The Crazies'.
The face isn't shown in it, which creates a feeling of wanting to know what the face looks like. I think this would be easy and cheap to re create something simiular. It does not give anything away or show the story line at all, you get a slight peek into the type of location and weapons, I would like to bring this across in our final poster design. Having all the text together at the bottom does not distract from the image which creates a clean layout. There is a slight vanishing point to the picture as your eyes follow along the blood to the door, when taking the picture for our poster I will think carefully about where everything is placed.

Chosen picture and it's changes.

   Before

After

This is the chosen picture. We have chosen this as the most preferred pose as the actress (me) is herself and not the character starring in the film, the inspiration for including the bat was from the total FILM front cover were the actor is himself but with blood on his face suggesting the violence from a film that he is featured in.

This picture went through a few changes on different editing software.

Background - The original photo was taken against a plain background, this background however was not a solid white, so using the Photoshop pen tool and magic wand I removed the background so it was transparent ,meaning when placed on a white background, it looks as if that was how it was originally taken. Editing the hair was difficult, as the magic wand could not do this properly, however I used a tool called Refine Edge, which does a good job at working out where each strand of hair was. There is a small issue with bits being left around the hair but these can be removed by a eraser or can be hidden by well placed puffs or text.

Lighting - The lighting in the original photo was bad, we wanted to shoot on a flat background so it was easy to edit but that means being inside with less natural light. Due to not being able to afford expensive lighting equipment we tried our best to put light on the face, knowing a lot of brightening would need to be done on Photoshop. We were not completely uncomfortable with this idea, as several magazine front covers are heavily edited.


Body-  I have edited the body ever so slightly, bringing in the waist so there is an equal shape on each side. It came out well, as it does not look like I have edited the body at all. I used the bulge and pinch tool on fotoflexer.com.
The pose is sexualised slightly because of were the hand is placed and the plain facial expression. Viewers of magazines are used to seeing this so using this pose will help give the cover a professional look like other top magazines. Red lipstick, dress and nails has purposely been used to show fear, death and violence. It also matches the colouring on the bat and will suit the red title we plan on using,

Ancillary Task- Final Film poster.

Ancillary Task - Drafts - Film Poster.

Draft 1:
This is draft one of the magazine poster, it's quite plain and does not have the image added yet. We have decided that we do not like the way some of the text is stacked in this draft.

Draft 2:
This draft looks a lot more organised. We lost the slogan and featured the time that the film will be released as we think think this is an import feature to include in a film poster

Draft 3: We felt in the last draft that there was too much happening at the top of the poster so made the actors names and other important information smaller and added it to the bottom. We want it to be readable but not distract from the image when added.

Draft 4:
The image has been added and more information has been included at the bottom of the poster. I can't help but notice that in this draft there is too many red tones, although we wanted to have red colours throughout our poster and magazine front cover to symbolise death, fear and blood I would like to see what colours we could change the text to.

Draft 5:
We have changed the title to white to stand out more from the dark background at the top and have changed the other text to black so it does not stand out as much. I want to include more red in the picture although I did not like the text in red. I would like to do something like the poster with the rake being carried with a trail of blood on it, in photoshop.

Draft 6:
Just a re-arrange of the title to a place we think works better.

Draft 7:
This is where the blood has been added. We carefully chose the right shapes that would suit the bat best and fit neatly.

Draft 8:
Here there has just been a few highlights and colours added to the blood using the brush tool, to make them stand out more and look more life like.

Draft 9:
After debating which looked better we decied to remove the second blood stain as, in real life you wouldn't have blood placed there as gravity would mean it would only be at the end of the bat in thoery.

Draft 10:
One small change before the final poster is completed. Although we don't want the text at the bottom of the poster to be too ovbious, we felt the opacity was a little too low, so we brought it up a bit to the perfect percent.

-FINAL FILM POSTER-

Photoshopping blood on bat.





This is the image I am using for the blood effects. As you can see, here I have used the lasso tool to go round the chosen shape and copied it ready to be pasted onto the poster picture.

Here the blood splat has been posted onto the image.



 



I have made the shape smaller and placed it on the bat using the move tool.

I've adapted the opacity on the shape to create a blended in look. There are further steps to make the blood more blended in, but we decided we liked how it is like this and that we want it to stand out from the picture anyway.

Just a picture of anything blood splat being added above the other one, to see if it looked even better with more than one.
I think I like it with more than one as it stands out more and looks more realistic.

Flat plans for Ancillary task - Magazine front cover

Grouping the three pieces of text together on the left hand side could risk covering the picture too much. We want the picture to be an important part to the cover, so the text must be kept simple and relevant to the magazine itself.

Although I like this design because the image will be seen clearly and the layout works. I think too many puffs are included. I like that there is a strip of information or pictures at the bottom, on the other hand there may be too much at the bottom in this layout.

We wanted the front cover design to be simple but I think this version is too simple and the layout doesn't work.

This design, in my opnion, works best because it does not include too much unlike the others. It's keeps it simple but pleasing to look at.