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.

Trailer - First Draft

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.

Pictures for the Magazine

Pictures for the Poster

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

This is the final title we came up with to put onto our final film trailer. We decided to use this font from looking at other film trailers from the same genre that already exist. From doing research into other film trailers we saw that the font for their titles wasn't anything big or dramatic it was just plain and simple. From seeing this we decided to have a look at the fonts that were already on Final Cut Express. After looking at all the fonts we found a title that looked similar to all the existing trailer titles. This one above in the picture is the one we have decided to use in our trailer. I am pleased with this font because I don't think it needed to be any bigger or any more dramatic because it stands out anyway as there is a plain black background with red writing. Also because this is similar to other real trailers it makes the trailer look more professional and real.
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

I decided to research the thriller trailer 'The Hitcher'. This was because its a film from the same genre, the main reason why I chose to research this trailer was to see the different titles that they have added and the times that they add them. We got a lot of inspiration from this film from looking at the editing. This was because in their trailer they have used lots of quick cuts but also added in fades etc. This was useful to see because from seeing them use it in their trailer it inspired us to use it in ours, and we did.
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?

1. Its a state of mind 4
2. What could possibly go wrong 2
3. Everyone has their breaking point 1
4. Greet everyone with a smile 1
5. No one cares whats inside 2
6. Monster within 3
7. Psycho is an understatement 2
8. Not just another horror movie 1
9. 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

New Line Cinema

New Line cinema is a film studio from America. It was founded in 1967 as a film distribution company but then it became an independent film studio. In 2008 they merged with Warner Bros. New Line Cinema are known for releasing films from a horror or thriller genre. Some films from this company are, Texas Chainsaw, The Conjuring and The Butterfly Effect.

We are thinking about using this institution in our film as it has released lots of different films from the same genre we are doing our film trailer for. This is why I chose to research it so I knew more about the company for if we are going to use it on our film.

Voice Over

Mental Disorder is defined as a psychological disorder of thought or emotion, it is a more neutral term than mental illness or mental disease. The pain I feel is constant and everyday I gain no deeper knowledge of myself, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want them all to suffer. I became a completely dysfunctional, miserable person, completely uncommunicative and aggressive. But yet I will greet people with a smile just to make my presence known. I have all the characteristics of a human and people may say they have comparable similarities, but their is no real me, just a disfigured mind and an uncontrollable rage. The question I ask you, is evil something you are or just something you do?


This is the final voice over that we came up with. We thought we would add in quite a lot of detail and make it long so that it explains the story and doesn't leave people too confused. We also decided to leave it on a question to make the audience think about the film and what its going to be about to make them want to watch the whole thing. This voice over worked really well because it fit in with the right times on the actual trailer and told the story really well. However I think if I was to do this again I would probably make it less detailed but not too un detailed. This is because I don't want it to give away too much but I want them to have to think about it instead of just being told what's happening etc.

Film institutions

An institution is an organisation, establishment, foundation or society which is put to the promotion of a particular genre of film. Every film contains an institution as it is a worldwide business and usually sets the scene of what is yet to come in a film. For example a Disney institution would show that the film was based at a younger target audience, more for children than anyone else.

Most films have one or two institutions which the film are made by. Some of the most common ones are New Line Cinema, Warner Bros, Universal, 21st Century Fox. Each film institution create different genres of films. For example New Line Cinema are known for horror and thriller films but also do other films as well. We need to decide which film institution we are going to use for our film and we will decide this by seeing which institution make thriller/horror films.

New Line cinema is an institution that have made a few films that are thrillers/horrors, they have made The Conjuring, Final Destination, Friday 13th and The Hobbit. This institution would be a good one to use as they have already made films from the same genre as our film trailer.

The 20^th Century fox is a film institution which is one of the 6 major American film studios, it was founded in 1935. Some of the successful films created by 21st Century Fox are Avatar and Star wars. They normally do comedy films and family genre films; they also do some horror films. When it comes to horror films 21st Century Fox prefers to distribute them rather than produce them, so I’m not sure if we would use this as our film institution for our own film we make.

I have researched different institutions that might link into our film genre and might not. Universal pictures is film institution company. It was founded in 1912. It is one of the older American film studios. Some of the well-known horror films that are used with the universal pictures institutions are, Drag me to Hell, The Strangers and Dead Silence. This film institution don’t just do horror films they do other genres of films as well.

Creating Titles

For the film trailer we have to create titles to add in. We need titles for the producers and an actual title for the film. When we finished editing our trailer we had to think about adding in our titles. We first started to add them in on Final Cut Express where we edited the trailer, we couldnt find fonts that we liked that would fit into the trailer so we decided to make the titles on iMovie. Making the titles on iMovie was a lot easier. Also on iMovie they have much more fonts and effects. We made two titles both in the same font and colour. Below there is an image of the finished fonts we have made.

Creating Music for the Trailer

To create the music for our film trailer we have to use a programme called Garage Band on the iMacs. To create the music there are a list of categories that you can choose from and they play different sounds, for example you can add vocals, sound effects or just musical instruments. We thought it would be easy to make the music for the trailer however when we started to make it we didn't realise how difficult it would be to actually get it in time with the flow of the trailer. For example there are certain parts of the trailer where the main events happen and there would be a big build up to it, however it was hard to get this in the right place as you cant put it onto the actual trailer until it is finished. We over came this by playing the music along with the trailer at the same time, this was still difficult but it helped us time the music much better.

Total Film Magazine

When we make our own magazine front cover we are using Total Film. Total film is a UK film magazine that is published 13 times a year, every four weeks. The magazine started in 1997 and they give cinema and DVD news, reviews and features. Total film is available in print which is an actual magazine or they make interactive iPad editions. We have decided to use this for our magazine as Total Film advertise lots of different films from the same genre we are making our trailer for. Also this magazine is a popular film magazine. When we make our magazine front cover it will be similar to the one above although the title will be in red. We will have the main image as the back ground just like the one above. We have started to make our film magazine but we are editing the main image on Photoshop to give it a better effect and make the picture look professional.

Magazine Template

We decided to make a template for our magazine cover, this was because it would help us when we come to actually making the real magazine front cover. The magazine we are using is called Total Film. For our magazine we are going to have the main image on the right hand side, this will be of our main character. Below the main image we will have the main cover line and on the left hand side we will have more cover lines. At the top of the magazine cover we will have the title 'Total Film', this will be in a red font. We want the main focus to be on the image so we chose to put this in the middle.

Settings/location

There are different settings/locations for a film, these are a house, the woods/forest and car. The house we are using is the main characters house as we film her in the house after the killing, the car is another setting as quite a bit will be filmed here as its when the group of girls will be driving to the location where they are camping, also the woods is a main location as its where everything happens and where the girls will be staying for the night.

Possible Characters in Thriller trailer

There are lots of different characters that could be in a thriller film these could be, mum, dad, teacher, son, daughter, police, old person etc. There could be any character in a thriller film, for example the police man doesn't have to be an actual police man in a thriller film he could be just an everyday man but his job might be a police officer but during the time of the film he could be off duty therefore the audience wouldn't actually know that he works for the police. Many thriller films for example 'The Last House on the Left' have a mum or dad with a son or daughter. This is probably a common convention as lots of thriller films are based on everyday life of a family, couples or a group of things etc.

Technology

There is a lot of technology involved when making a film trailer. The different things I will be using to make this successful are iMac, iMovie, final cut express, video camera, iPad, Microsoft word, YouTube and garage band.

The first thing I needed to start even making the film was a video camera. This was the main thing because we needed it to even start recording the film. We used a video camera for every filming session as it was the best thing to use when filming for our film trailer. Another thing we need to use to create our film trailer is Final Cut Express and iMovie. These are important because you have to upload the recorded pieces onto iMovie and then import them into Final Cut Express and start editing the trailer and putting it all together. These are both important because you need to cut bits out and edit parts of the film when you're putting it together to make it into a trailer. The other thing we use is the iMacs, these are important as they are what we use to do all our work on, we use them for blogging, editing etc. Another thing we used was YouTube to look at film trailers that already exist from our genre. This was useful because we could see what thriller films that normally exist contain. Also we need to use Garage Band on the iMacs to be able to make music for our film trailer. This was really important as we cant use songs that already exist so we need Garage Band to create our own thriller style music to edit onto our trailer. Another thing that I used was my iPad, this was to get ideas from other thriller trailers via YouTube. I also use my iPad to blog when I am at home etc.

Conventions of Genres

Each film fits in to a different category called a genre. There are different genres, they are horror, thriller, comedy, romance, and action etc, each of these different genres have different conventions.
The conventions of a horror film are blood/gore, killing, male being the killer, dark settings, guns etc. These are typical conventions of a horror film, this means this is what normally happens in a horror film and its what people expect to see. As soon as you recognise one of these conventions in a film you would know straight away that its a horror film.
The conventions of a thriller film are dark settings, weapons, chases etc. These are the typical things you would expect to see in a thriller film. Normally in a thriller you wouldn't see any blood or gore that's normally how you can tell that its a horror, they normally just try to kill people but don't normally show the blood/gory parts. Some people might prefer to watch a thriller film if they aren't into seeing blood etc.
The conventions of a comedy film are normal everyday setting, number of different characters etc. When watching a comedy film you can normally tell straight away that's its comedy as you would normally find most things that happen or are said funny. The setting would normally light and in an everyday setting and there would normally be an average looking person. Comedy
films are easy to establish and they are popular.
The conventions of a romance film are couples, cute settings such as house/hotel/beach, red or white colours etc. It is normally quite easy to tell if a film is a romantic film because you would normally expect there to be a couple in it and they would normally set the film in a house or a calm area.
The conventions of an action film are, car chase, weapons, city setting etc. Most action films normally have a antagonist and a protagonist, its normally a male who is the chaser and they sometimes have females in. Car chases are really popular and common in an action film as they normally chase one another and use cars etc. They normally carry lots of weapons in actual films such as guns, bombs etc.


Each genre contains different conventions some are similar and some are nothing alike. From researching all the different genres I think that the best one to create a film trailer for would be a thriller because it leaves you with a lot of ideas of what you can do. For example you could have your film as someone being stalked/followed etc.

Film Poster Draft/Template

As well as making a film trailer we also have to make a film poster and magazine front cover. Above is a drawing draft of our film poster. As you can see from the template that the main background of the poster will be images, half of it will be of the main character. The title will be the main thing at the top of the page and this will be in big bold red writing. Also from the title we will add an effect on Photoshop where it looks like there is blood dripping from the title to add effect. On the left hand side of the poster we will have a big picture of the main character. This will take up the majority of the poster because we want this to stand out as she is the main character in the film. This picture will be edited as well on Photoshop to make her look scary etc. At the bottom on the right side we will have a tag line and the release date which will also be in red writing. The background of the poster will be just plain white as we thought this would make everything else on the poster stand out to the audience. At the centre at the side of the main image we will have a picture of the other characters that are seen in our film trailer, this will also take up more room. The drawing of the poster is just a draft so the real thing might end up looking a little different.