Wednesday, 9 April 2014
Evaluation 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Evaluation 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
For this question I have added a voiceover to answer the question. Below there are some screen shots from the final film trailer which link in with the voiceover, however I couldn't add a screen shot for all the feedback as some is comments on sound etc. I have also attached the screen shot of the feedback from YouTube which is spoke about in the voice over.
Evaluation 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We wanted the promotional package to appeal to a mainstream audience. This is because its a horror film and many existing horror films have become successful and have a mainstream audience. A niche audience wouldn't really work for our film as horrors are quite popular and films such as 'The Hitcher' have become quite popular and successful with their audiences and that's the type of film we have based our trailer on.
I think the film trailer, magazine and poster all link/work together because they all contain similar elements, for example we have used the same font for the title of the film throughout, on the magazine cover, the poster and in the trailer. This links together because they all share the same font and colours and haven't changed at all. We also used pictures of the main character from the trailer on both the magazine and poster cover which links them together as you could tell straight away that they create a promotional package. We also thought that if people who don't have the technology to watch the actual trailer then the poster and magazine would have the same effect as they all share the same/similar elements throughout which would still attract them to go watch the film even if they don't get to watch the actual trailer.
I think there were a few elements that were successful in each product. For example the trailer, I think that showing each setting in the trailer worked well because from researching many horror trailers we saw that this is a convention many of them do. I also think the title on the trailer worked well as it was similar to other real trailers we had seen when doing our research. The other successful thing about the trailer itself was that we added in lots of different camera angles to show the strengths of the characters, for example we used a worms eye few of one of the characters to show the audience how powerful she was. I think this was successful because it tells the audience a little bit more about the character before the watch the whole film. There were also successful elements on the magazine front cover, one of these was using the main character as the big main image. This is because it stands out to the audience and shows the main character straight away so they can see who's going to be starring in the film. Also the photo was edited on Photoshop to make it look more professional and stand out more to the audience. The next successful element on the magazine was the cover lines, this is because this is a convention on film magazine front covers and we added them in to make it look more professional and make it stand out to the audience more if they can read briefly what's going to be inside the magazine before they buy it. There were also successful elements on the film poster that we created for the promotional package, for example the slogan at the top of the poster. I think this was successful because it stands out to the audience and tells them a bit more about the film before they watch the trailer or the actual film. Also this is a convention of film posters which is why we added it and why it works well. Another successful thing about the film poster was the big main image of the main character, this is because most posters have a big picture as the whole background, also it shows the audience who the main character is straight away, and because she has blood on her and its a dark background they can tell straight away its a horror before seeing the magazine or watching the trailer. Over all I think each product was successful in some ways as they all link together and work well together to make the promotional package.
Throughout making the promotional package there have been a number of difficulties that we have had to overcome. One difficulty that we had to overcome was the filming. This is because we didn't film everything in one session we had a number of different filming sessions but on certain days when we wanted to film we couldn't make it or the lighting was different so some days it would be darker which affected the trailer when we put it together. To overcome this we had to arrange more filming sessions to be able to film enough and have the right weather and daylight etc. This was quite important because else the trailer wouldn't make sense if it was night at one point and day time at other points. Another difficulty we had to overcome was the editing of the trailer. This is because we needed to add in different effects and transitions at certain points in the trailer but we didn't know exactly how to do this. To overcome this we managed to figure out by doing it after searching on the internet. We found out how to speed up and slow down clips, add in transitions, mute out the sound on a clip, insert sound effects etc. This was useful because without searching and figuring it out we wouldn't of been able to add in these things and the trailer wouldn't of been as good. This was a pretty easy difficulty to overcome as it didn't take long to find out how to do things on final cut after searching on the internet.
A difficulty we had to overcome with the film magazine was adding the title 'Total Film' this was because we needed to get the exact same font as the real magazine which meant we had to Google what the font name was and download it. However the computer for some reason wouldn't let the file download which became a problem. To overcome this I figured out a way of cropping the title from a real magazine and adding it onto ours. To do this I had to use a programme called Photoshop to edit the magazine, this was quite easy but I had to zoom in really close because at first the magazine title had white bits around the outside which I then had to edit out to make it look professional. Overall this difficulty was overcome and I managed to fix the magazine to make it look better and realistic. Another problem was thinking where to put the title of the film and what colour to have it. This was because we didn't want to make the title too bold as we wanted the audience to catch the attention from the main image and then see the title of the film, also we didn't know what colour to have it as we wanted it to stand out but be different from the other titles on the front cover. In the end we asked a few people what they thought to get audience feedback. From doing this we was able to find out what they preferred and then change it to appeal to them. If we couldn't overcome these difficulties then the magazine wouldn't of turned out how it did and it wouldn't fit what the audience wanted to see.
There were also difficulties with the film poster that we had to overcome. One of the main difficulties we had to overcome with the film poster was adding the title. This was a problem because the picture we used as the poster background had a dark side to it and the side that the dark bit was, was where we wanted to place the title. To overcome this we had to change the colour of the title. This meant that we had to have the title in a white colour so that it would stand out from the black dark background. However the title was a little too big to fit in this place because there wasn't enough dark background for it to fit on which meant it overlapped onto the picture of the main character which was light. However we overcame this problem because we edited the photo on Photoshop to add blood on to the main characters arm which was red so that the main title would still fit in the place we wanted and still stand out as it would be on a black and red background. If we hadn't of thought of this then we would of have to of positioned the title in a different place which isn't what we wanted. We were lucky we thought of this idea because the title worked well where we put it and still stood out to catch the audiences attention. Another problem we had to face was where to put the slogan of the film. This was because we wanted it to attract the audience so that they would read it and it would draw them in but we didn't want it to over power the main title. To overcome this problem we put it at the top in the same colour writing and font but made it smaller so it would fit on one line so that it didn't over power the main title. This worked well in the end because we managed to find a place where it would stand out to the audience but not too much to over power the main title. Over all I think the poster worked well in the end as we put everything where we wanted even though we had to over come a few difficulties.
Even though we have finished our promotional package there are still a few weaknesses with each product. One weakness with the trailer is that I think we should of added a few more settings as from researching different horror film trailers I counted that each one normally show at least 10 different settings where as in our trailer we don't have that many. This is a weakness as it doesn't have one of the conventions of a horror film trailer. However we didn't do this because we didn't want to give away too much about the film in the trailer as we wanted the trailer to draw the audience in and want to watch it to find out what actually happens. Another weakness with the film trailer is that it doesn't have any music where as all the other existing horror film trailers that we researched contain some sort of music. Our trailer has a sound effect at the beginning and a voice over at the end and a bit of dialogue. This is a weakness because we should of added in some quite music in the background that could be played throughout to build up the tension when the audience watch it. However this wasn't really important because the trailer still works well how it is and not having music doesn't effect it really bad. Even with the weaknesses I am still happy with how the trailer has turned out because it works well and from receiving audience feedback we have changed it to what the audience want which means it should appeal to them more.
A weakness that the film magazine has is that we didn't add many cover lines on the front. This is because from researching total film magazines I saw that many of them have lots of cover lines and we only added two onto ours. I think it would of been better if we added just 1 or 2 more smaller ones, this is because they explain more about the magazine which means it might draw the audience in more and make them want to buy it if it tells more about the film. However this isn't a big issue because you could argue that it doesn't need lots of cover lines because it might make the audience buy it more if they don't know what's going to be in it as they might want to find out for themselves. I think another weakness with the product is the 'welcome to the movies' this is because I think it should of been smaller and more in the centre because it doesn't need to stand out and its not a main heading. However this doesn't effect the overall product but I think if I was to redo this I would definitely make it smaller or take it off the magazine. Overall with these weaknesses I still think the magazine works well as it stands out to the audience and contains many of the typical conventions of a film magazine.
The film poster that we created also has some weaknesses. The first weakness is that it doesn't have much writing, for example some horror posters have more writing on or characters names at the top of the poster where as we didn't do this on ours. This doesn't effect the over all product too much though as not every poster cover contains this which means it would still appeal to the target audience. Another weakness about the film poster is that we didn't add a billing block which is a main convention of horror film posters. Without this the poster looks really plain and not as realistic as it would with a billing block. However we still have the other conventions such as big main image, slogan and release date/coming soon. This should of been improved however it didn't get added.
We wanted the promotional package to appeal to a mainstream audience. This is because its a horror film and many existing horror films have become successful and have a mainstream audience. A niche audience wouldn't really work for our film as horrors are quite popular and films such as 'The Hitcher' have become quite popular and successful with their audiences and that's the type of film we have based our trailer on.
I think the film trailer, magazine and poster all link/work together because they all contain similar elements, for example we have used the same font for the title of the film throughout, on the magazine cover, the poster and in the trailer. This links together because they all share the same font and colours and haven't changed at all. We also used pictures of the main character from the trailer on both the magazine and poster cover which links them together as you could tell straight away that they create a promotional package. We also thought that if people who don't have the technology to watch the actual trailer then the poster and magazine would have the same effect as they all share the same/similar elements throughout which would still attract them to go watch the film even if they don't get to watch the actual trailer.
I think there were a few elements that were successful in each product. For example the trailer, I think that showing each setting in the trailer worked well because from researching many horror trailers we saw that this is a convention many of them do. I also think the title on the trailer worked well as it was similar to other real trailers we had seen when doing our research. The other successful thing about the trailer itself was that we added in lots of different camera angles to show the strengths of the characters, for example we used a worms eye few of one of the characters to show the audience how powerful she was. I think this was successful because it tells the audience a little bit more about the character before the watch the whole film. There were also successful elements on the magazine front cover, one of these was using the main character as the big main image. This is because it stands out to the audience and shows the main character straight away so they can see who's going to be starring in the film. Also the photo was edited on Photoshop to make it look more professional and stand out more to the audience. The next successful element on the magazine was the cover lines, this is because this is a convention on film magazine front covers and we added them in to make it look more professional and make it stand out to the audience more if they can read briefly what's going to be inside the magazine before they buy it. There were also successful elements on the film poster that we created for the promotional package, for example the slogan at the top of the poster. I think this was successful because it stands out to the audience and tells them a bit more about the film before they watch the trailer or the actual film. Also this is a convention of film posters which is why we added it and why it works well. Another successful thing about the film poster was the big main image of the main character, this is because most posters have a big picture as the whole background, also it shows the audience who the main character is straight away, and because she has blood on her and its a dark background they can tell straight away its a horror before seeing the magazine or watching the trailer. Over all I think each product was successful in some ways as they all link together and work well together to make the promotional package.
Throughout making the promotional package there have been a number of difficulties that we have had to overcome. One difficulty that we had to overcome was the filming. This is because we didn't film everything in one session we had a number of different filming sessions but on certain days when we wanted to film we couldn't make it or the lighting was different so some days it would be darker which affected the trailer when we put it together. To overcome this we had to arrange more filming sessions to be able to film enough and have the right weather and daylight etc. This was quite important because else the trailer wouldn't make sense if it was night at one point and day time at other points. Another difficulty we had to overcome was the editing of the trailer. This is because we needed to add in different effects and transitions at certain points in the trailer but we didn't know exactly how to do this. To overcome this we managed to figure out by doing it after searching on the internet. We found out how to speed up and slow down clips, add in transitions, mute out the sound on a clip, insert sound effects etc. This was useful because without searching and figuring it out we wouldn't of been able to add in these things and the trailer wouldn't of been as good. This was a pretty easy difficulty to overcome as it didn't take long to find out how to do things on final cut after searching on the internet.
A difficulty we had to overcome with the film magazine was adding the title 'Total Film' this was because we needed to get the exact same font as the real magazine which meant we had to Google what the font name was and download it. However the computer for some reason wouldn't let the file download which became a problem. To overcome this I figured out a way of cropping the title from a real magazine and adding it onto ours. To do this I had to use a programme called Photoshop to edit the magazine, this was quite easy but I had to zoom in really close because at first the magazine title had white bits around the outside which I then had to edit out to make it look professional. Overall this difficulty was overcome and I managed to fix the magazine to make it look better and realistic. Another problem was thinking where to put the title of the film and what colour to have it. This was because we didn't want to make the title too bold as we wanted the audience to catch the attention from the main image and then see the title of the film, also we didn't know what colour to have it as we wanted it to stand out but be different from the other titles on the front cover. In the end we asked a few people what they thought to get audience feedback. From doing this we was able to find out what they preferred and then change it to appeal to them. If we couldn't overcome these difficulties then the magazine wouldn't of turned out how it did and it wouldn't fit what the audience wanted to see.
There were also difficulties with the film poster that we had to overcome. One of the main difficulties we had to overcome with the film poster was adding the title. This was a problem because the picture we used as the poster background had a dark side to it and the side that the dark bit was, was where we wanted to place the title. To overcome this we had to change the colour of the title. This meant that we had to have the title in a white colour so that it would stand out from the black dark background. However the title was a little too big to fit in this place because there wasn't enough dark background for it to fit on which meant it overlapped onto the picture of the main character which was light. However we overcame this problem because we edited the photo on Photoshop to add blood on to the main characters arm which was red so that the main title would still fit in the place we wanted and still stand out as it would be on a black and red background. If we hadn't of thought of this then we would of have to of positioned the title in a different place which isn't what we wanted. We were lucky we thought of this idea because the title worked well where we put it and still stood out to catch the audiences attention. Another problem we had to face was where to put the slogan of the film. This was because we wanted it to attract the audience so that they would read it and it would draw them in but we didn't want it to over power the main title. To overcome this problem we put it at the top in the same colour writing and font but made it smaller so it would fit on one line so that it didn't over power the main title. This worked well in the end because we managed to find a place where it would stand out to the audience but not too much to over power the main title. Over all I think the poster worked well in the end as we put everything where we wanted even though we had to over come a few difficulties.
Even though we have finished our promotional package there are still a few weaknesses with each product. One weakness with the trailer is that I think we should of added a few more settings as from researching different horror film trailers I counted that each one normally show at least 10 different settings where as in our trailer we don't have that many. This is a weakness as it doesn't have one of the conventions of a horror film trailer. However we didn't do this because we didn't want to give away too much about the film in the trailer as we wanted the trailer to draw the audience in and want to watch it to find out what actually happens. Another weakness with the film trailer is that it doesn't have any music where as all the other existing horror film trailers that we researched contain some sort of music. Our trailer has a sound effect at the beginning and a voice over at the end and a bit of dialogue. This is a weakness because we should of added in some quite music in the background that could be played throughout to build up the tension when the audience watch it. However this wasn't really important because the trailer still works well how it is and not having music doesn't effect it really bad. Even with the weaknesses I am still happy with how the trailer has turned out because it works well and from receiving audience feedback we have changed it to what the audience want which means it should appeal to them more.
A weakness that the film magazine has is that we didn't add many cover lines on the front. This is because from researching total film magazines I saw that many of them have lots of cover lines and we only added two onto ours. I think it would of been better if we added just 1 or 2 more smaller ones, this is because they explain more about the magazine which means it might draw the audience in more and make them want to buy it if it tells more about the film. However this isn't a big issue because you could argue that it doesn't need lots of cover lines because it might make the audience buy it more if they don't know what's going to be in it as they might want to find out for themselves. I think another weakness with the product is the 'welcome to the movies' this is because I think it should of been smaller and more in the centre because it doesn't need to stand out and its not a main heading. However this doesn't effect the overall product but I think if I was to redo this I would definitely make it smaller or take it off the magazine. Overall with these weaknesses I still think the magazine works well as it stands out to the audience and contains many of the typical conventions of a film magazine.
The film poster that we created also has some weaknesses. The first weakness is that it doesn't have much writing, for example some horror posters have more writing on or characters names at the top of the poster where as we didn't do this on ours. This doesn't effect the over all product too much though as not every poster cover contains this which means it would still appeal to the target audience. Another weakness about the film poster is that we didn't add a billing block which is a main convention of horror film posters. Without this the poster looks really plain and not as realistic as it would with a billing block. However we still have the other conventions such as big main image, slogan and release date/coming soon. This should of been improved however it didn't get added.
Monday, 7 April 2014
Evaluation 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have taken 14 different screen shots of different things throughout the final film trailer that I created. The screen shots will show different things for example props, costumes, setting, camerawork etc. Before creating the film trailer I did some research into real media films that I could relate to as they were from the same genre and also use ideas of how to set out the trailer I created. The main film I chose to look at was 'The Hitcher'. This trailer had a total of 95 cuts and about 10 different locations throughout the trailer. This was useful to know because it gave me a rough idea of how many of each I would need to include when I made my own.
The first screen shot I have taken from my finished trailer was the title 'Psychotic'. The title is a main convention in existing horror trailers. We decided to put the title at the end of the film which most trailers do, this is because the audience will watch the trailer and then find out what it's called at the end. Our title was red writing which suggests horror and it's placed on a black background which also shows it's horror, this is also a common convention across most horror trailers which is another reason why we chose to do this. I think over all this worked well because it makes the title stand out as its in red writing. I think the font that we chose to use was a good idea because its a simple font and not too dramatic, also we knew the target audience would like it as we did a font title questionnaire to find out which ones the audience would like.
As well as creating a film trailer we had to create a film poster and magazine cover as part of the promotional package. Below is a picture of both the poster and magazine. I think the magazine front cover that we created shows a lot of the main conventions that most film magazines contain. The first convention it has is a big bold title that stands out to the audience. Obviously we had to have this title as its the same font and title style that the 'Total Film' magazines use but its still a convention. The next convention is the bar code, this is because every film magazine has a barcode. The main convention we have stuck to when creating our film magazine was the big main image on the whole page. We chose to use a big picture of our main character as the background. This is because it advertises the film straight away as its the main character from the film, also it stands out to the audience especially as she has blood on her arm as it will appeal to them if horror is what they are looking for. Another convention we have used is the title of the film itself, on the left hand side we have included the title of our film in the same font that we used in our trailer. This is a convention because many films include the title of the main film they are trying to advertise. We also added little cover lines on each side of the magazine front cover, this is also a convention because from researching different film magazine front covers we saw that they all have cover lines explaining briefly what's going to be inside the magazine and what it contains. Over all I am happy with the magazine front cover as I think it looks realistic. However if I was to redo this I would probably make the 'Welcome to the movies!' smaller and in a different font and I would also maybe add pictures of the other characters to the background and add a few more cover lines.
The poster that we created contains a lot of the conventions that horror film posters contain. For example we have the main image as the background which is also pretty dark which shows straight away it is either going to be a thriller or horror. The main image we used is also of the main character which is a typical convention for some horror films. The title we used wasn't really a typical convention because most horror film posters have a big bold title that would stand out straight away, we stepped away from this convention and used the same font for the title we used on the trailer and added this to the poster, the only different thing was we made the title white and not red like the trailer. It does still kind of stick to the convention of a title standing out because its on a dark background and its in white which makes it stand out, also its the biggest writing we have on the page. The next convention that we used when making the poster was the 'Coming soon' or release date. We decided to add 'Coming soon' on the bottom of our poster to let the audience know it will be in cinemas soon to get them excited and want to see it more. Another convention that we have used is a slogan, this is because many film posters have a slogan that links in with the film trailer. The slogan we used was 'The truth is hidden in the silence.' We used this slogan because we thought it worked really well as in the trailer you don't get to find out who the antagonist is. We put this at the top of the poster so that the audience would see it clearly and probably read it first to grab their attention. The last convention that we used was the billing block at the bottom of the poster. We added this to the bottom of the poster because most horror film posters that we researched had this at the bottom saying who the main characters were etc. I think over all the film poster works well and stands out to the target audience.
I have taken 14 different screen shots of different things throughout the final film trailer that I created. The screen shots will show different things for example props, costumes, setting, camerawork etc. Before creating the film trailer I did some research into real media films that I could relate to as they were from the same genre and also use ideas of how to set out the trailer I created. The main film I chose to look at was 'The Hitcher'. This trailer had a total of 95 cuts and about 10 different locations throughout the trailer. This was useful to know because it gave me a rough idea of how many of each I would need to include when I made my own.
The first screen shot I have taken from my finished trailer was the title 'Psychotic'. The title is a main convention in existing horror trailers. We decided to put the title at the end of the film which most trailers do, this is because the audience will watch the trailer and then find out what it's called at the end. Our title was red writing which suggests horror and it's placed on a black background which also shows it's horror, this is also a common convention across most horror trailers which is another reason why we chose to do this. I think over all this worked well because it makes the title stand out as its in red writing. I think the font that we chose to use was a good idea because its a simple font and not too dramatic, also we knew the target audience would like it as we did a font title questionnaire to find out which ones the audience would like.
The next screen shot is to show another title that we added right at the very end of the trailer even after the main title. This writing says 'Coming Soon'. We decided to add this because most trailers give a release date or say coming soon to let the audience know that it will be released in cinemas soon. This was an important convention because lots of different trailers tell their audience when the film will come out by giving them an exact date or just by saying 'Coming Soon'. The writing for this was the same as the title, red writing on a black background. We decided to use the same font because we looked at different horror trailers that already exist for example 'The Hitcher' and they do this as well.
The third screen shot is of the setting which is the forest. This is a typical convention of a horror trailer because many trailers show the main setting to let the audience know where the film is going to be set, this is normally with a mid shot or long shot, and the screen shot shows we have used a mid shot for this. Throughout the trailer we decided to show the different settings as we didn't just have one throughout the whole thing. We included quite a few scenes from the forest setting so the audience know straight away partly where its set and what's going to happen. We also chose a forest setting because its scary and horror like and a typical setting. I think this worked well as it establishes the setting for the audience so they know exactly what genre its going to be, also it grabs the audiences attention and makes them more excited and builds more tension.
The fourth screen shot is of another setting which is the main characters house. I have decided to add this screen shot as well as it shows another location in the trailer. This is a main convention because in most horror films they show quite a few different settings from throughout the film which is what we have tried to do in ours. I think this works well because we have a number of different shots throughout the trailer of each different setting which shows the audience where it is set to give them an idea of what could happen, this might make them want to watch it more. However I think if I was to do this again I would probably add a few more settings as in most of the horror trailers that I researched they had at least 10 different locations/settings.
The fifth screen shot I have chose is of the car. This screen shot shows a prop that we used in the trailer. The car was used as a prop as it shows how the group of girls got too and from each destination. This could also be classed as another setting as it was used quite a bit in the beginning of the trailer. The horror film trailer that we used as inspiration also used a car as a prop, this is another reason why we thought we would use it in ours. I think it worked well as it explains the story line from the beginning to let the audience know what could happen towards the end of the actual film also it makes the trailer seem more realistic as many horror trailers contain some sort of transport.
The sixth screen shot I have used is a worms eye view camera angle of one of the characters. This shot shows camera work as it shows that we have used a worms eye view shot. This camera angle could show that the character is quite powerful in the trailer because she is up high and could suggest she is more important than the other characters in the trailer. This might show the audience that she is the antagonist in the trailer if she is stronger. We decided to use this camera angle as we have seen it used in other horror trailers that we previously watched. I think this works well because it shows how powerful the character is so that the audience know before they watch the whole film.
The seventh screen shot I have chosen from the trailer is of an over the shoulder shot of the main character looking into the mirror. This shot was from the ending of the trailer, we decided to use an over the shoulder shot because it shows her expression in the mirror but you can still see her without looking at her face in the mirror. This was also because she was trying to wash blood off her hands and then it shows she's worried in the mirror as it wouldn't come off. I think this worked well as it was a good way to show how she was feeling and show her expressions, if I was to do this again I would of filmed from a bit further away from the mirror which might give a better effect.
The eighth screen shot was of an editing technique that we used in our trailer. The transition that we used was a fade. We faded from one clip to another clip in our film, this was because we thought it made it look better and add a better effect instead of having a straight cut. This was also used because it flicks from one scene to another, house to car. I think this worked well in the trailer because from researching different horror trailers we saw that some of them do contain different transitions and they are normally a fade effect. The pictures of this one show the fade from the house to the road sign.
The ninth screen shot I have chosen is of the green rating screen that most trailers use. This is a common convention of film trailers because lots of them use this at the beginning of the trailer. These indicate to the audience if the film is approved and for which audience. We used this as we saw lots of trailers we watched included it at the beginning so we did to. I think this works
well as its a convention of many horror trailers and it indicates straight away that its a trailer.
As well as creating a film trailer we had to create a film poster and magazine cover as part of the promotional package. Below is a picture of both the poster and magazine. I think the magazine front cover that we created shows a lot of the main conventions that most film magazines contain. The first convention it has is a big bold title that stands out to the audience. Obviously we had to have this title as its the same font and title style that the 'Total Film' magazines use but its still a convention. The next convention is the bar code, this is because every film magazine has a barcode. The main convention we have stuck to when creating our film magazine was the big main image on the whole page. We chose to use a big picture of our main character as the background. This is because it advertises the film straight away as its the main character from the film, also it stands out to the audience especially as she has blood on her arm as it will appeal to them if horror is what they are looking for. Another convention we have used is the title of the film itself, on the left hand side we have included the title of our film in the same font that we used in our trailer. This is a convention because many films include the title of the main film they are trying to advertise. We also added little cover lines on each side of the magazine front cover, this is also a convention because from researching different film magazine front covers we saw that they all have cover lines explaining briefly what's going to be inside the magazine and what it contains. Over all I am happy with the magazine front cover as I think it looks realistic. However if I was to redo this I would probably make the 'Welcome to the movies!' smaller and in a different font and I would also maybe add pictures of the other characters to the background and add a few more cover lines.
The poster that we created contains a lot of the conventions that horror film posters contain. For example we have the main image as the background which is also pretty dark which shows straight away it is either going to be a thriller or horror. The main image we used is also of the main character which is a typical convention for some horror films. The title we used wasn't really a typical convention because most horror film posters have a big bold title that would stand out straight away, we stepped away from this convention and used the same font for the title we used on the trailer and added this to the poster, the only different thing was we made the title white and not red like the trailer. It does still kind of stick to the convention of a title standing out because its on a dark background and its in white which makes it stand out, also its the biggest writing we have on the page. The next convention that we used when making the poster was the 'Coming soon' or release date. We decided to add 'Coming soon' on the bottom of our poster to let the audience know it will be in cinemas soon to get them excited and want to see it more. Another convention that we have used is a slogan, this is because many film posters have a slogan that links in with the film trailer. The slogan we used was 'The truth is hidden in the silence.' We used this slogan because we thought it worked really well as in the trailer you don't get to find out who the antagonist is. We put this at the top of the poster so that the audience would see it clearly and probably read it first to grab their attention. The last convention that we used was the billing block at the bottom of the poster. We added this to the bottom of the poster because most horror film posters that we researched had this at the bottom saying who the main characters were etc. I think over all the film poster works well and stands out to the target audience.
Final Poster
I have uploaded a final picture of our final poster that we created for the film. This is a final with the improvements made that were suggested from the audience feedback we received. I am really pleased with how the final poster has turned out as it looks just like real film posters that have been made. If I was to do this again I think I would of researched lots more different film posters to get a wider range of ideas and this would then maybe make the poster look better. Although I am really happy with this, especially as it has been changed from the original.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Final Magazine
This is the final magazine front cover that we have created for our film trailer Psychotic. I am really pleased with how the magazine front cover has turned out. This is because I have included all the different conventions that film posters have. The magazine was harder to create than I thought, the first thing was we had taken lots of photos of our main character so it meant we had to choose the best one. I then also had to edit the photo to make it look more professional, this was hard in some ways as I had to get used to using Photoshop. It was quite hard to add the title 'Total Film' on the top of the magazine as I had to edit it onto the picture with Photoshop and crop out all the little white bits around the outside. The thing I would change about the film magazine is that I would add more writing onto the front and maybe in a smaller font. However I think the magazine front cover has turned out well in the end because it contains all the different conventions and fits in well with our final trailer and poster.
Film Magazine and Poster Feedback
We asked lots of different people to tell us positives and negatives about our film poster and feedback. We asked different people from media groups what they think we should change about the film poster. Some of the feedback we got about the poster is that it should have a billing block on the bottom of it and something such as a age logo. We took this advice on board and changed our film poster so that we had these things on it. This was helpful as it meant we was able to improve the poster to fit the needs of the audience. We also asked people about our film magazine, they said we needed to perhaps change the font and make it smaller and remove the white from around some of the writing on the front. We made these changes to both and then we were able to come out with our improved poster and magazine to get a better grade.
Film Trailer Feedback
We uploaded our film trailer onto 'YouTube' to get feedback from our audience to find out what things need improving and what things worked well. From uploading this we found a few things that our audience think could be improved.
One comment we received said they think it should have more sound in it at the beginning, for example music or a sound effect to add more effect so its not just silent. Another comment was about adding more titles such as a release date and making the main title at the end smaller. Another comment that we received said there should perhaps be more non diegetic sound added into the trailer to create more excitement. The last comment we received was a positive saying how we had lots of fast cuts throughout the trailer which built tension.
I think the comments that we received were really helpful as we were able to make the changes to improve the trailer overall to the target audiences standard.
One comment we received said they think it should have more sound in it at the beginning, for example music or a sound effect to add more effect so its not just silent. Another comment was about adding more titles such as a release date and making the main title at the end smaller. Another comment that we received said there should perhaps be more non diegetic sound added into the trailer to create more excitement. The last comment we received was a positive saying how we had lots of fast cuts throughout the trailer which built tension.
I think the comments that we received were really helpful as we were able to make the changes to improve the trailer overall to the target audiences standard.
Thursday, 20 March 2014
Film Poster Unfinished
This is the first draft of the film poster that we created. We created a first draft so that we could show our audience and get feedback on how to improve. I thought this was a good first draft although there are many things that need adding to make this better. We decided to ask people from different media groups what they think we should change or add.
Camera Angles Throughout the Trailer
When filming for our trailer we decided that we needed to use a variety of different camera angles as lots of different thriller trailers that we have watched have lots of different angles throughout. The shot above shows an over the shoulder shot of one of our main characters. This was used to show which character was in the cut, but also to show the scene and where she was at the time. We decided to include this shot because we thought it was a good shot to show the character and setting at the same time.
This next shot was a shot of just the characters feet. We decided to use this camera angle because it just shows the characters feet walking along. This was a good shot when used in the trailer because you can see the pace she is walking at to show her emotions. For example if she was running you would know she is obviously running away from something. In this shot it shows our character just walking at a normal pace. This also shows that the day it happened was a wet rainy day.
This shot of one of the main characters in the film is called a worms eye view. We used this camera angle because it shows the main character from far back and makes her look like she's up really high. This could suggest that she's a main character and much bigger and braver than the other characters shown in the trailer. We decided to use this angle because you can see her whole body and see exactly what she is doing, also it shows her high up so you know straight away she is standing on a bridge.
This shot of our other main character is a mid shot. This shot shows the character from the waist upwards. We decided to use this shot because she is just coming through the door which meant that not much is happening so we didn't need to include her whole body, also you can tell and read her body language just from seeing a mid shot. I think this works well because she has just come through the door so its only a quick cut but you can tell she's annoyed and upset straight away.
This shot of the car is a long shot, we decided to use this shot because it shows the setting/location in the background and it also shows the whole car. This was a useful shot because you can see straight away that they are driving somewhere but you cant see any of the characters emotions so you don't know what's happening exactly. I think this is a good shot because it establishes the setting and what's going on at the same time.
I think if I was to redo the filming, I would add in more camera angles to widen the variety and also try and film in more locations to make it look like its across the whole day, for example include some shots from the evening etc.
Final Trailer Title
I think if I was to do this again I would probably make it a little bit smaller. This is because it does look a little big when compared to real life trailers, only a slight bit, although other than that I am pleased with it and I think it works really well.
Billing Block Research
For our poster we need to create a billing block to go at the bottom as this is a main convention of film posters. We found a template version of a billing block on Google. This was really useful because it told us what order they write them in so we had a rough idea. We are going to create our own and add in our own producers and directors names to put onto our own film poster. This is important that we add it onto our own film poster because its a main convention.
Also I researched different film trailers from the same genre and saw that most of the posters had a billing block, from seeing this I decided straight away that I was going to add one on to the end of the poster. From all the thriller film posters that I have researched I have noticed that they all have a billing block and they are always at the bottom of the poster. This made me think when I come to making the poster for our film I will put the billing block at the bottom so it sticks to the normal conventions of a thriller film poster.
The Hitcher
Also we watched this trailer a few times to figure out when we should add our titles in and what titles we should add into ours. This helped us a lot because we could see the timings of when the main titles came in and when the names of the directors came in etc. We also wanted to see where abouts on the screen the titles were, so for example where the main title actually appeared on the screen. The main title in this film appears in the middle of the screen. After seeing this we then changed our film and made the main title 'Psychotic' in the middle of the screen with a plain black background.
I think this was useful as it gave us a lot of ideas and help with where to time and put things for our own trailer. However I think if I was to do this again I would watch lots more trailers to see where they all add things in etc to help.
Tagline Questionnaire
We came up with a number of different taglines to use for our film but we couldn't decide which one to use so we decided to write them out as a list and hand them out to people who fit our target audience (16-24) to find out which ones they prefer.
Which tagline do you prefer?
Which tagline do you prefer?
- Its a state of mind 4
- What could possibly go wrong 2
- Everyone has their breaking point 1
- Greet everyone with a smile 1
- No one cares whats inside 2
- Monster within 3
- Psycho is an understatement 2
- Not just another horror movie 1
- The truth is hidden in the silence 4
From handing out this we was able to see which one everyone preferred. The numbers at the end show how many people picked each tagline. There was a draw between number 1 and 9 which meant we had to decide out of them two. We picked the last one 'The truth is hidden in the silence.' This was because it doesn't give too much away about our film trailer but it tells them more about it without saying too much. It works because it lets them know that there is more too the story and that the actual truth of our main character having a mental disorder is hidden.
Rouge Pictures
Rouge, which is also known as Rouge Pictures is a subsidiary to the film studio company Relativity Media. Some of the films that Rouge Pictures have released are Sean of the Dead, The Hitcher, The Last House on the Left and The Unborn. The distribution and marketing part of Rogue Pictures were moved to Universal to accommodate Focus Features this allowed Rogue Pictures to have more control of their parent company. We have decided that we are using Rouge Pictures as an institution for our film trailer, this is because they already have released films that are from the same genre our film will fit into.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Font ideas for poster
As well as creating a film trailer we also have to make a film poster to promote the film. We have been planning our poster so that we have a rough idea where we want things to go on the poster and how we want it to look. We have had a look at a range of different fonts that we could use on our poster that would stand out to the audience. We had a look at the standard fonts on a word document and a PowerPoint document, these fonts didn't really appeal to us as they didn't have the look we wanted. After deciding we didn't want to use any of the fonts from them we decided to do some online research into different fonts. We had a look at different fonts real thriller film posters use to get some ideas. We found a website called 'da font'. This website gives you a range of different fonts to use and you can type in your own word so it comes out in the font. We found a few different ones that we liked that we would consider using for our poster title. These are below:
We haven't fully decided which one we are going to use yet as we are going to decide when we have finished doing the rest of the poster. I like the second one as it has an effect straight away and tells the audience that it's going to be either a horror or a thriller. I also like the last one because it has a thriller look to it and it's bold so it catches the eye straight away.
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Taglines
We have come up with different tag lines for our trailer. We thought of some ideas that we might use, we want to make sure that they relate to the trailer and the plot. Below is some of the tag lines that we have come up with:
Its a state of mind
What could possibly go wrong
Everyone has their breaking point
greet everyone with a smile
No one cares whats inside
Monster within
Psycho is an understatment
Not just another horror movie
We need to decide out of these tag lines above which ones we are actually going to use.
Its a state of mind
What could possibly go wrong
Everyone has their breaking point
greet everyone with a smile
No one cares whats inside
Monster within
Psycho is an understatment
Not just another horror movie
We need to decide out of these tag lines above which ones we are actually going to use.
Creating the Poster
At first it was pretty difficult to find the right font for the top of the poster I am creating for the film trailer. Eventually I used a website called 'Da Font' to find a font that would work well and fit in. The font I found fits well because it has a scary look to it to fit into the right genre. I also had to edit a photo on Photoshop to make it look professional and make it fit onto the page correctly. This was quite easy although it took a while to get the picture to look better. Another thing was I had to think of a tag line that was appropriate to add onto the poster as its a convention that many posters have. Another thing that was quite difficult was choosing colours, this is because I didn't want the background to be too dark or too light else it would make the poster look funny with having the main picture as the main character.
I finally managed to get the photo onto the page without it looking funny with the title etc. I think the poster went well as everything fits together to make it look real. If I was to do this again I think I would of took more photos of the main character, edited them all and then chose from them all so that there was a wider range. However I think the poster worked well as it looks professional.
I finally managed to get the photo onto the page without it looking funny with the title etc. I think the poster went well as everything fits together to make it look real. If I was to do this again I think I would of took more photos of the main character, edited them all and then chose from them all so that there was a wider range. However I think the poster worked well as it looks professional.
Creating the Magazine Cover
At first I found it hard to start making the magazine cover, this is because we are using 'Total Film' and it was hard to find where the font for the title came from. The font for the title is called 'Eagle Bold'. However programmes such as word or PowerPoint don't have this font which means I had to go on Google and search for it myself. Eventually I figured out how to do it which meant that I was able to put the title onto the page to start the magazine cover. We had to take pictures of our main character to put on the front of the magazine. These pictures need to be edited before we could add them to the front cover because we want them to look professional and attract the audiences attention.
Filming
We have finished all our filming for our trailer now. The filming for our trailer was important as we had to make sure we filmed everything before we could start editing it. Once we had finished filming everything we uploaded it onto the iMacs. When we were playing it on the iMacs we realised that there were a few problems, these were the background noise because of the weather. We filmed a few of our clips outside but because there was no dialogue in the clips we were able to overcome this problem. This is because where we filmed outside you could hear the wind in the background, luckily the clip had no speech which meant that when we were editing we were able to edit the clip and mute the sound so it was silent as we would be adding music at the end anyway. Most of the filming was all ok although there were a few things we had to re film because of problems such as camera angles. We made sure in our filming we added different camera angles such as close ups, mid shots, long shots, birds eye view etc.
We also had to make sure in our filming that we stuck to the same conventions as a real thriller/horror trailer, these would be things such as the setting. As trailers are about 2 minutes long we had to make sure that we filmed enough, this was because even if it looked like we had done a lot of filming, once we had edited it all it would look like we had done hardly any filming because the clips would be cut really short as trailers have really quick cuts. When we edited it all together we realised we had done enough filming because we had to add in time to be able to add in titles and institutions.
Over all I think we managed to film everything ok and had it all done in time to be able to start editing. If we were able to do this again I think we should of started filming earlier and filmed some of it in a darker setting so later at night when it started getting darker. However I think the filming we did was good and still worked well once editing.
We also had to make sure in our filming that we stuck to the same conventions as a real thriller/horror trailer, these would be things such as the setting. As trailers are about 2 minutes long we had to make sure that we filmed enough, this was because even if it looked like we had done a lot of filming, once we had edited it all it would look like we had done hardly any filming because the clips would be cut really short as trailers have really quick cuts. When we edited it all together we realised we had done enough filming because we had to add in time to be able to add in titles and institutions.
Over all I think we managed to film everything ok and had it all done in time to be able to start editing. If we were able to do this again I think we should of started filming earlier and filmed some of it in a darker setting so later at night when it started getting darker. However I think the filming we did was good and still worked well once editing.
Editing
Once we had filmed everything we needed to film for our film trailer we had to upload it onto the iMac. Once we had done this we had to use a programme called Final Cut Express, this is a programme that's used to edit the clips and put the film trailer together. As we had already used this program for our AS coursework we already had a rough idea of how to use it and had knowledge which was an advantage. Editing the trailer wasn't that bad as the skills we already had we could use again, also we were able to improve our skills as we could learn new things. We learnt new things whilst editing as we learnt how to speed up and reverse clips, this was useful because in our film trailer we wanted to be able to speed up and reverse. We also learnt new other things, the good thing was because we had already used the program we knew how to add the basics such as titles so we could improve this and try and add different titles and effects to make the trailer look more realistic. Over all I think the editing wasn't as bad as we had basic knowledge and we was able to improve the skills and learn new things as well as putting the trailer together.
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