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Sunday 27 February 2011

Aims Of The Production

For my A2 Media Coursework i have to create a teaser trailer, a poster to go with the film and a magazine cover of a related magazine that all incorporate the same theme and genre as if i were to be marketing a real life film. I decided to choose the horror genre as i felt this would be a fun film genre to do and their is a large amount of scope available when creating a horror film. Before i started any of my work i felt i would have to do research on all of the items that i would be making so that i knew their backgrounds and so that i can identify all of the conventions, as shown in the blog below i have made it so that they are in chronological order of what i done and when i done them so that when i am creating the peices i can relate back to my previous notes and from their be able to understand what i am trying to make and so that i can create it to the best of my ability so that it can withstand the competition of the modern day film industry.
I already had an interest in horror films before taking on this peice of work therefore i felt comfortable being able make a good peice for my coursework and make it work so that it would dipict the conventions of a typical horror magazine, poster, trailer as i have great knowledge of all aspects previously. i felt this was very helpful and gave me extra impitous so that i could make the magazine to the best possible standard.

 Below i found some posters initially of what i wanted my films to be like and have added them to the blog to give an idea of what i am aiming to acheive. I am choosing to make my poster and magazine first and then spend the large proportion of time on my trailer as i feel this will be the hardest part of my film to make strong and appealling to my target market. These are two very different posters and i chose them as for mine i would be looking to compile both aspects into the one peice so that it had many different aspects and would give the potential audience a great amount of knowledge about the film.

Storyline

My film is called FLASHBACK and is a film in the horror genre. The film is about a man who has died and is now in a second life. However he revisits his previous life and where he used to live, with it being a horror film however there is always a side issue which takes place. In this film that is a murderer who has also died but has been possessed by the devil, he has a face which is covered in scars and wears all dark clothing as he only appears at night and therefore cannot be seen with his dark clothing. However the main subject in my film starts of during the light hours and is discovering that he has been to the house before, however as the trailer proceeds we see snippits of the murderer in flashes, with the shots being flashes the audience does not get a full shot of the murderer so they have something to look forward too however at the end of the trailer we have a close up of the murderer with his eyes outstanding but this shot is very quick but is delivered with a large sound preferably a scream so that this stands out to the audience and gives them something to remember.

Process of Production - Film Poster

Below are screengrabs from my production of my film poster and how i started and got to a finished peice rather than just showing the finished project i am going to talk through the whole process.


Firstly i had a blank page which i gave a black background to and inserted the image onto the page and made the adjustments to the images so that it blends well with the background and does not look out of place in the centre of the page. I chose this specific image as i felt it depicts stephen the main charecter looking over his shoulder into darkness not knowing what could be behind him.


Following the first process i added the title and the slogan to the page making the title distinctive so that it stands out largely from most of the page. I chose it to be orange and resembling fire as it is very vivid and stands out, also i chose it to be smudged slightly so that it gives it an edge rather than being plain and not appealing to a horror genre. For the slogan i used red and orange to differentiate between 'not alone' and goes 'back to his past.'



Following making the title and slogan i added stars and paper names so that the film has been given a rating by papers, i done this so that i was following the conventions of a typical film poster and the poster also contained relevant professionalism.


To finish of the peice and make it as professional as possible i added the credits to the bottom of the page to follow the convetions and i also added company names as all the posters i looked at when planning contained these and therefore i felt that my poster would have to be the same.

Process of Production - Magazine Cover

Below is the production process of my magazine cover talking about the whole process of making the magazine cover and all of what i had done to make it and all of the fonts and colours involved and why i chose them.


For my magazine cover i used the same image as i had used for my film poster as i felt the customers would be able to instinctively tell which film the image was from therefore staying in their long term memory, i also chose the black background as it is a fairly mellow colour which flows well with most colours.


Secondly i added the masthead which i chose to be horror films as its obvious what the magazine is about rather than being a generalised film magazine. I also added the price and dates, i chose this magazine to be a monthly edition as it is specialised to horror and therefore if it was weekly it would not have enough information to be substantial enough to make a profit. I finally added the barcode in the bottom left corner again following the conventions of typical magazine covers.



Following this i added all the information to the page e.g. tickets to movie premiers as this is another convention of movie magazines therefore i felt it would look professional if i included it aswell. I used red font for this as red is reminicent of horror genre rather than being a colour such as blue.



I then added the strapline Uks most succesful horror magazine as a promotional method of attracting horror fans, and i included the slogan 'the film that comes with a twist' so that it adds to the film and makes it more interesting to the potential audience.


Finally i added the name of the film FLASHBACK and i used the same font as i had used in the poster so that when the audience sees the magazine they will instantly recognise the name flashback and be intrigued into purchasing the magazine.




Student Poster Analysis

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi59blg6FaClMb2QoKvoTkQ8-unNgwXegLjTI5LkojN6HEbeS6P4dj65GXUOrB8NJwkLGTlJajLuWzs5G5XJzYOWKZTW3l41WbitoHYWZenBAOF9pXafl-8zWavu9Ar3jTyoRCo8yzQ7wEv/s1600/film+poster+final.bmp

Above is the image of another students movie poster which she has created for A2 Media, i am looking to analyse it and say where she could have changed and any of her poster which i could use in my own poster.

The strengths of this poster in my opinion would be that the main image is of good proportion so that it dominates the page and allows the audience to catch a glimpse of what i see as the main charecter. I also feel that the main title is very positive as it looks appealing and most of all professional which is key to this peice. However i also feel that the Dolby Digital image is not very appealing and i feel that it has very little relevance, therefore they should look at removing this peice and therefore extending the credits at the bottom as i feel conventionally they have alot more people credited rather than the small number that this candidate has placed. The main problem with this poster is that the title and the image depict very different things, to me the image suggests a woman sitting in a sexual pose however the title depicts someone about to die therefore the match between the two is not very distinct and therefore hard to decide upon the genre that the film would be placed in.
For my peice i would look at using the title as i feel it is very professional and works well with the image which i feel my magazine does not do well enough i feel they are very seperate and therefore takes alot away from the image.

Student Magazine Analysis

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUXuA5imH2cdAiUUOQaLGJ_iQdTATWXKtgxan6vCRIH5Lfm6rdOeuK8lA3zDlUabaw7g_SOUNCZViX8JGBB6ZtVuEVcN_FvJi6Mh7QF8rDgkvudOhISSJGFFaSk_ztV5RFKe7qnnGIjXOC/s1600/front+cover+final.bmp

Above is a link to a students magazine which i aim going to analyse and compare to my own and see what i could have changed and what i could do differently.
Firstly i feel that this magazine follows most of the conventions of a typical magazine cover but i beleive that it is nowhere near the standard that i feel it should be at. My initial thoughts were about the image, and how it is a very pixalated image and the on screen image does not do the magzine much help therefore runining the page as a whole. Secondly i felt that the large purple star took the readers eye away from the important text too much, i felt it should be smaller than it currently is. Apart from these i felt the texts as a whole resembled that of a typical magzine cover and i felt they were formal enough to make it look professional. I also felt the masthead was very conventional of that of magazine covers and it works well with the other text which is placed on the page. The strapline at the very top of the page i felt was also very good and if i were to change mine this would be a possible change that i would make to it.
The other peices i may use from this page would be to move all the important under the masthead e.g. the barcode and website so that when looking at the price the customer will get the rest of the information in the same image.

Student Trailer Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNtJcTOisS0&feature=player_embedded

Above is a trailer of a student from a previous year who created a horror teaser trailer. On the whole i felt the trailer was exceptional for a small budget perfromance.
I feel the strengths to Brendans blog are that he has very good and sharp edits which make the trailer very watchable and give a good feeling of anticipation. I also felt that the sound clips that he had worked very well with the images on screen and he had collated the images well. However i feel that when the girl in the middle screams it is unrealistic as she does not seem scared enough as i would have expected her to be. This could be a small downfall to the trailer however i feel the overall feeling of the trailer is one that represents horror effectively. I feel this is a very successful trailer and for my trailer i could learn alot in terms of the methods of cutting he uses to make things much quicker on the eye adding to the level of anticipation that builds throughout the trailer. I also feel that if i were to do my trailer again i could use sound clips over the top of the trailer rather than just one theme song throughout as it breaks it up and adds a different dimension to the trailer itself.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Choice of Genre

There are many genres which i could have chosen to use for my trailer however i can only use the one therefore i evaluated the ones which i like and then chose the one which i felt would be most appropriate for me to use. The genres which i preffered were:
  • Horror
  • Action
  • Comedy


These would be the three most typical film genres that would be used therefore i found examples for each and identified ways i could use them or couldnt.


Firstly the horror genre, now my favourite horror film is friday the 13th so i chose to study this one, therefore i got the trailer from youtube and looked over it to make sure i knew it well and how i could film it.


With this film it is hard to carry out the same graphics and the fire which goes on however i used the conventions and similarities to analyse whether or not i could do a film like this, i felt that i would be able to carry out a horror film as the conventions are typically darkness gore blood. These can easily be portrayed but may be hard to portray them well.


The next genre is action now this is typically car chases or lots of fighting so at first thoughts i felt i may not be able to film it however i looked at the trailer of the new A team to see how its set out and wether or not i would be able to do it.



When looking at the trailer i felt i would not have resources to film a trailer like this for example the police chase would be hard to incorporate or any chase for that matter this therefore dented the chances of making a film like this, also the use of guns would be hard to film and hard to make look realistic therefore the chances of carrying out an action film were not at all great.

The third genre i have chose is comedy now for this i looked at The Grown Ups this is one of latest comedy films and felt it would be a good film to evaluate.



Comedy is very hard to copy as it is hard to translate the comedy to the audience therefore i felt it would be hard to portray the comedy well, so i evaluated grown ups and felt the way they portrayed comedy was ingenius and the actors were of such good quality that they brought the comedy to the audience very well so therefore i felt it was not possible to carry out comedy and would have to be one of the other genres.

Therefore by looking at all 3 genres i assesed that it would be difficult to make a successful comedy trailer as you would have to create peices of comedy in such a small time which can be hard for an amateur production, also for the action genre i felt it would be hard to incorporate the car chases and the shooting without it looking too obvious that it had been edited. So therefore i chose to go for the horror genre as i felt that i would be able to make a trailer magazine cover and poster that depicted the conventions of these peices well and would be an enjoyable process doing it.

Monday 14 February 2011

Hardware Involved

When creating a movie trailer and ancillary products such as a magzine cover and a film poster any A2 media student would require the same as myself.
  1. Firstly we have used a Nikon D60 camera to take the images i require for my magazine cover and poster we used this make of camera as it is one of the best on the market for medium to close up images and has one of the best reputations as an easy camera to use.
  2. Secondly we required a video camera to film the trailer itself, for this we used a panasonic S50 these are not the best video cameras you can get but they provide the quality required to make a succesful A level medi production, they are also very easy to use and do not require much knowledge to use.
  3. For the first two peices of hardware we required tripods so that the filming would not contain any shakes from the hand, therefore we use tripods with three sturdy legs so that they do not wobble in the wind giving the best possible film quality. This may not be classed as hardware but was an integral part in making the filming a success.
  4. We most importantly need a computer which has the software required and is a good computer with a reknowed reputation for film creation, at this moment in time the best option would be the apple mac however we did not have this at our disposal therefore we use a HP L1940T these are one of the best computers around for medi creation and have a very fast running speed therefore saving and other issues are dealt with easily.

  5. The final peice of hardware i required was a printer so that i could view the different peices i created before making a final decision on wether or not i felt the magazine or poster was complete. (HP Officejet Pro K850)

Sunday 13 February 2011

Audience Research

When creating a horror film the audience will typically be above 18 as most horror films have a rating of 18 and therefore it cannot be viewed by anyone younger. When creating a film it is key that you establish who you are aiming your film at so that you know how you are going to market your product and where you are going to promote it. Therefore i need to carry this out as for my ancillary products i am creating a magazine cover and poster which are both methods of production. I initially wanted to aim this at the 18 to 25 year old population but from user feedback early on i established that i could aim at a wider market therefore i am now aiming at the 18 to 30 year old market which therefore means advertising slightly more maturely and in differing place however this did not have a huge impact. When i had established my target audience i knew what i had to create and from there it was not too hard to establish what i had to create. However it does not just have to appeal to this market it can also be appreciated by other age groups and does not jus have to be subject to the target audience.
For example toy story would be aimed at children up to the age of 15/16 but may appeal to the elder population aswell.

Theme Song Choice

When making a successful trailer it is good to have a theme tune that will stick in the memory of the target audience and will be a very significant song that attracts the audience of the given genre. Seeing as i would be in the horror genre i felt the song or tune would have to be one that is of little melody and has a distinct feeling to it that make it resemble a horror film. For this i would not have been able to create my own peice as this is very hard for a student with my budget therefore i would have to use a video to mp3 converter and for this i used www.video2mp3.net as my website of choice as this had been suggested by my fellow media studies class. Therefore i had to find an appropriate song and for this i felt the theme tune to nightmare on elm street would be perfect for the film i was trying to create therefore all i had to do was collect the name of the link from youtube post it on the converter website and it would convert within seconds. I then simply saved it to my USB pen and entered it as a file to my trailer. To follow this i had to adapt it so that when a high point in the song came so would a different shot or a caption so that it was matching and therefore did not seem out of sync with the trailer itself. This theme tune was perfect as it was used in a very succesful horror film and would suit the film that i had in mind and could match the filming very effectively.
Below is the video from which i converted to a MP3 file.



Friday 11 February 2011

Choice of font for text in trailer

In the trailer there are many captions which claim many different peices some being slogans others giving information about the film. I based all the captions on what has been seen in the shot before and then i have captions towards the end of the film telling the audience when the film is going to be released what the name of the film is so that they have all the information they need. For this text i tried many different types of font eventually i cam upon Perpetua titling MT this is a very standard text however has a bit more of an edge than the other fonts have therefore hinting more at the horror genre. Initially i had the font in red as this depicts blood and therefore aims towards the horror genre however my title on my poster and magazine cover is in orange font therefore when i came to piling together the filming and the text i felt that orange font would be the better option as it would relate back to the poster and magazine rather than being alone as away from the ancillary products. However the final peice of text seen states the name of the film "FLASHBACK" and i wanted this to be the same as on the poster and magazine however i found trouble transfering it from photoshop across to the corel video store therefore i created one with the current text whilst i tested trying to get the large masthead across.

Health and Safety

When carrying out the filming it was integral that i made sure that where i was filming was suitable and that any potential hazards have been identified and i took extra caution so that when this potentially could harm me i make sure that i avoid it as best as possible.
I was fliming mainly at a class mates house therefore health and safety was not really a hazard however we used part of his house which was under renovation and there were peices of equipment lying around the area which i would have to make sure that i had moved or was aware of so that i could work around the issue.
To do this before we filmed we carried out an assesment of the whole area and any potentially harmful objects were removed from the area and we classed it as safe before the filming began therefore we felt fully aware of what could happen and therefore we were cautious in our movements.

Questionairre for primary research

When carrying out a film it is key to carry out primary research so that you are able to understand the needs and wants of your customer base. To do this i simply handed out questionairres around school to teachers and those in sixth form as they are most likely to be the main target audience. The questions included;


What would you expect from a typical horror film?
Most common words:
  • Blood
  • Gore
  • Weapons (especially knives and guns)
  • Fright
  • Darkness
What do you feel is too common in horror films?
  • Murders
  • Too much blood
  • lack of storyline

What is your favourite horror film?

  • Halloween
  • Friday 13th
  • Saw and sequels
  • Cabin Fever
  • What lies beneath

Do you think horror films should be shorter rather than longer?

  • For this question many people felt that they should be an hour to an hour and a half as if they last too long the production can become tedious and lose its best features therefore they should look to incorporate the horror into a shorter time period.

For these types of questions i got a mixture of results and they varied question by question therefore i simply added up all of the most common words which arose the most and they are names below the questions above. I did the top 5 as most of these words occured 5 or more times therefore outnumbered the rest which were mentioned significantly and had i used all the words to give me an idea i would have had too much information to deal with. I carried it out like above as i felt it was much easier to store everthing together and in easy to read detail. However this was slightly time consuming and could have been done in a graph format which would have shown the data in a different format but would not have suited all the above questions.

Storyboard Review

Storyboard review

On Thursday 23rd October I designed my teaser trailer, I brainstormed what I wanted my film to be like and then designed a rough trailer which and then I read through and thought of possible options I could use to make it better. I then created a flow chart which involved what clips came where and where the captions were situated. Following this I discussed it with my media teacher and then created a story board using all the idea I had created and put them into place using some but also changing some so that it would make the trailer better for it. I plotted my ideas into a storyboard template like the one shown below so that i had a hard copy and when it comes to filming i will be able to refer back to it and ideas will come back to me. I would simply draw a small icon which would enable me to remember what i wanted to film and where in the film they would slot in, it also enabled me to plan times so that i had a rough idea of how long each shot will be (obviously i would change this if it was not right when i start to edit.)
Firstly I had ideas of wanting it to involve a hotel and a man having flashbacks from a previous life this would be filmed in black and white to show that it is what happened in the past. This would involve the man wandering round an abandoned hotel and looking as though he had seen it all before as things become weird we see him bemused holding his face. I thought this would be adequate as it shows that he has seen it all before and that the film was becoming a bit weird. We have two captions in between these clips to break them up to add to the anxiety and to prolong the viewer seeing what happens. We see him back in colour so that the audience realises it is real life and it provides that weirdness as the audience has an idea of what is happening but doesn’t realise why. I added another caption so that the audience could digest what they had seen, then we get a flash of the knifeman for the first time (this is a ½ second clip) this then gives the audience an idea of what could happen. We go back to real life and see the man wandering around the hotel from his previous life and down into the cellar. The clip shows him walking off into the dark as if he is walking into the unknown. We then have another flash of the knifeman but closer to the camera to emphasise the size of the knife. As this clip ends we hear a large bang and the clip is of the door slamming shut. Following this we have the final shot of the knife mans eyes staring into the camera this leaves the audience with an idea of what is going to happen but also it leaves them hanging not knowing what could possibly happen.
When I had done this I felt good in myself knowing that I had created something which could be very good should I film it correctly. This made me feel confident about the filming and the next stage would be to think about how I am going to film it and the location of the filming. I then had to identify a person to play the knifeman and a person to play the man having flashbacks.
From today I have encountered a few possible issues that could occur when looking to film but I have also discovered many things that I feel if I can pull them off the trailer will be a great success. I am very much looking forward to filming the trailer as it is a very exciting storyline and if I am able to pull it off will be a huge success.
The difficulties that could occur would be:
·         Firstly the image of the man with the knife whether or not to film it as a still and then adjust the image so that I don’t have to move the camera about and risk losing a good shot.
·         Secondly when filming the man with the knife the lighting will be key as I want the man to be in half darkness half light and make the knife the focal point at the same time. This would mean that I may have to think about using a head torch to get the right affect as this only shines light onto image that the camera is looking at.
The successes would be:
·         The idea of the man walking down the stairs into the darkness as if he is walking into the unknown.
·         Another plus point is the idea of the man with the knife flashing in and out to give a dramatic effect and then the still of his eyes at the end as a finishing shot, which would be a good teaser for the film.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Magazine Cover and poster template

Before i had collected any images i firstly created templates for both the magazine cover and the poster so that when i had taken the images all that would be required is to place them onto the page and then work with them so that it works as either the poster or magazine. i felt this was the most time effective way of making the peices as fitting the image to the page is easier than fitting the page to the image. Also it gave me time to make sure that i had the right fonts and titles rather than rushing into them and they were not fully ready. Therefore i felt if i was to get the main peices of the page out of the way early i would be able to solely concentrate on making sure that the image which was going to be placed on the page was right for the page and gave the correct impression that was required from it.

Video Editing

Video Editing

Initially the class had little idea how to use corel video studio the editing software we had provided to us therefore i took it upon myself to play around until i could use it and then be ahead of the class when we came to learn as a whole. So i went on yourutbe and watched tutorials they had provided like the one in the video below so that i was a step ahead of the rest of my class and for me own knowledge so i could use the software to my advantage.

We first learnt how to transfer small clips from our documents to the Corel video studio. Following this we enhanced our understanding of how to cut the videos so that they are able to link in to the following clip. We then collected a large amount of small clips and put them together so that a small video was amalgamated. Movie film is taken at 24ths of a second. The key to this session was learning how to match different clips so that it runs as one clip whereas it is really many different clips adjacent to one another.
After we had made our videos we then learnt how to incorporate sound to the clip and mute the background sound so it matched our needs. We also managed add captions to the images so that we are able to show what the film is and release dates etc. I was able to slow down the soundtrack so that it complemented what was being shown on the screen therefore matching what was happening.
First Video Session Reflection
When I first carried out my videoing I identified that it would be easier to video in segments so that I could add it to the editing reel in pieces so that each piece of editing was perfect rather than doing it in full and have it rougher than it could be.
My first session involved filming two cuts of the trailer and this involved using an actor to walk down an abandoned hotel corridor as if he had lived in the hotel in a previous life, looking around in amazement because he knew this place but knew that he had never been there before. I chose one of my fellow media students to be my actor. His previous acting career was not vast in experience however he has a good acting ability and therefore I identified him as the perfect character for my film as he knew how to act and make it look realistic which is my main aim with this trailer. We used a hotel corridor which had been abandoned and was now not in use as a hotel. This added to the horror in the film as in an abandoned hotel what happens can be very unpredictable and therefore adding to the tension.
This piece of filming did not take long to film however I needed to get the acting right so that it didn’t look fake making it look realistic and acceptable in the terms of a horror film context. If I was able to achieve this it would evidently resemble a horror film rather than looking like an A2 media production. I identified by looking at previous A2 productions that the biggest error was that they left errors in which totally effected the overall end trailer as they were either too basic or there were just minor errors.
Therefore my first piece of filming was a success as it took little time to film, initially I had a setback as the file would not open on the computer however I realised I had filmed it using the wrong setting and it was just a matter of filming the small segment again. I was right to film it in parts rather than one large chunk in the long run

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