EVALUATION QUESTION 2

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

Films use a combination of trailers, posters and other advertising techniques. For our A2 course our main task was creating a trailer for a film. As well as making the trailer we also created our own film magazine front cover and a film poster. These three media texts need to compliment each other and create successful synergy between the three. It is important that each of the media texts links effectively. Through all of our media texts we had the main image of the murderer.

Below is a presentation for the products that were made to advertise "indignation" to a high standard: 

The trailer is the most important marketing tool for a film before its release, the trailer is used to draw in the audience and identify the key features of the film. The trailer highlights the areas of the film which are the most eye-catching and what will identify the film and make it recognizable for the audience.

First Copy of Magazine Front Cover

Here is the first copy of our magazine cover.

Editing the footage

These past few days we have been moving our footage around. We have started to re-arrange the order of the clips according to our new script. We have inserted our new footage of the old, boarded up building in Wigan. The clips we have collected will be transitioned from one to the next using a fade (to black/white depending on the image). To do all of this we have use Premiere Pro.

                                                         

The sounds that we have collected and created for our trailer such as the sound tracks backwards , heavy breathing, screaming, foot steps, doors slamming shut etc, are all successful. Yet we recorded the mother of one of the team members reading the reporter script. We thought that although her voice was good and fitted the part she did not have enough emotion and variety in her voice. We re-recorded this with another family member of the team and this now sounds much better.

To complete the trailer, we need to add the sound and preview screens/credits.

Magazine Front Cover Process

Here is the beginning of the magazine process. Firstly I looked at the different fonts on http://www.dafont.com/ which I then chose three fonts for the different sections on the magazine:

Dafont fonts -
Media Blackout - Main Titles
AppleBerry - Sub Headings
London - Small Text

I then looked at the other features of a magazine these inculded a main image, the title of the film with tag line and the magzine in big font, other films and little tag lines to join them, also other pictures and the barcode/issue number/price/date.

I began to build these up slowly, also to make the magazine look recent I looked at this website which gives all the upcoming films for 2012 .
http://www.movieinsider.com/movies/-/2012/

After choosing these things I picked out the two images I was going to use as the background, this displays an idea of what genre and then the two main characters that will star within the magazine.

I also chose another photo for a smaller story that we will be using to convey another story, this is an image I took whilst in New Zealand and it is the signpost that has Hobbiton written upon it. I'm not allowed to use/show the full image due to the film (The Hobbit) not being released yet, when visiting the set we are not allowed to show the full set after signing a contract.

 I then had to change the colour scheme due to the background images being quite dark so that the font won't be seen. I have chosen Red, White and Yellow to convey the text to keep the magazine simple but also make everything written visible.

After placing everything upon the background and formed the magazine cover, I began to tweak the little things that were noticaeable and didn't look right these included the main image of the two main characters who looked slightly orange so we used the auto colour tool to make them look more skin coloured. With this image I also went around the outline of the two characters as you could see the cutting out from the original image, so I made that less noticeable. I also had to change one of the fonts due to it being too thin and not very noticeable upon the background. The change was from "Edifice thin" to "London" so that they were thick enough and are easier to see. We also made the celluloid film reel stand out more by making it lighter.

As I had a space on the top right of the magazine I decided to add a sticker after looking at other magazine that also do it.

Therefore the magazine is filled however it doesn't look cluttered and the theme is still simplistic but catches the eye of the reader.

Titles for the Film Magazine

As we're not allowed to use an already existing magazine title, I have looked at and inspired my title from them.
I wanted to use a play on words to title the magazine as reel is related to film but also related to people speaking also known as "reeling off information". I have also use a reel of celluloid to imply this more and have kept the colour scheme simple as most film magazines only have three or four colours throughout the whole magazine.
I used the font "Media Blackout" from dafont.com and found the image of the celluloid film from google images.

This is my idea for the title. However, there will be more discussion about this and may be changed depending upon the front cover image and idea.

Filming; New Location

As we needed some new footage of an actual building, we didn't have to go back to Preston to get all our footage.

On the 2nd of December we went to get some covering footage of a building in Wigan. The building is rundown and looks the same as the Preston building that we previously filmed.

We took some footage of a scan of the building include a couple of good shots of birds going in and out of the windows

Film Poster Ideas

This is poster was an idea before we changed the name of the film.

 The name of the film changed so I decided to keep the background, font but change the name of the film.

This is myfinal idea for the poster, as we've looked at horror posters and they are simple and plain.

Tuesday 29th November- Reporters Script

Reporter Script; (16 April)

-This is the 6 'o' clock news. For the people of Preston, tomorrow will be the start of the 10 year memorial of the 14 victims of the Victor Thistle killings. The killings took place on the 17th of April to the 24th of April. This week is now known as the week of 'Indignation murders' to the people of Preston.

 -Today is the start of 'Indignation murders' week. It has been said that there have been sightings in Amounderness house.

-Two people have gone missing in the early hours of this morning, last sighted near the Amounderness House. Is this coincidence, a heartless prank, or are the killings of Victor Thistle starting again?
　
Other possible scripts- 


Tomorrow will be the ten year anniversary of the 2001 Indignation murders. Locals have been claiming to have heard mysterious noises coming from the abandoned Amounderness House.

Two people have gone missing in the early hours of yesterday morning, last sighted on the country road near Amounderness house. No one can be sure what has happened to the two teenagers, but their is no traces of them around the area. Police have released a warning to avoid the area, and if completely necessary, do not go alone, and go only in daylight.  (using long pauses)

Highlighting Letters in our Trailer

We have a looked at The Da Vinci Code trailer to display our ideas for the lettering used within our trailer to reveal the name of the murderer. It highlights the first letters from each victim and brings them together to create the complete name.
The section of the clip we're focusing on begins at 2 minutes and 12 seconds.

New Photoshoot: Empire Magazine and Action Shots

We decided to go and take a photo shoot and take pictures of more interesting, and more exciting action poses.

Below is the contact sheet on the different images that we took

Name idea

Bicycle For Two – based on the whistling idea, using the song “Daisy Daisy”  “But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle made for two.” Is very ominous towards the plot of the story, it could mean Joe and Taylor but it could also mean maybe the whistler wanting Taylor?

Monday the 14th November

Today I (Taylor) started to edit our footage together. As the script is now finished (sounds and footage) I started to try to plan out the footage and sounds following the script.

We all looked at our trailer so far and have all decided that we need more footage and so are going to do some voice recordings, and other things to use in the trailer.

Ideas for Sequences

From the clips we have gathered we have created a few scenarios that we could use to create the trailer as they work as sequences.

Cell:

• Blood drip on hand
• Zoom In
• Jump cut to other parts of the room
• Looks at the 'Help Me' blood splatter

Spinning Cell:

• Speed up footage
• Merge footage with text and footage with no text
• Stop on the wall
• Show the 'Help Me' writing

Running:

• Running
• drop the Camera
• Sound clip of people shouting run
• Fade to darkness

End:

• Joe moving the door handle very slowly
• open it quickly to reveal nothing
• Fade to darkness
• Whistling begins (song)
• Coming soon screen appeared

News Sequences:

1 - 10 Year anniversary (Beginning of the killings/murders)
   - Sightings in the building
   - Strange noises/happenings

2 - Anniversary
   - Revival of an old story
   -Two people have gone missing within the building, haven't been seen in a long time

Names of the film:

1. Amounderness House Murders
2. Whistler
3. Indignation

Film Poster Research

This research conveys that the film posters are very simplistic which therefore makes it more effective and will interest the target audience.

Film Poster:

·         Simple Background

·         Name of Film

·         Main image

·         Date/Coming Soon

·         Slogan

Total FilmFront Cover Break Down

Here is a break down of the front cover of Total Film magazine, we should follow these guidelines to create our own magazine front cover.

Magazine cover research

I have been researching the layout and look of film magazines such as Total Film and Empire.

All these magazines have one thing in common, this is that the main character is the focal point of the magazine. This means that for our magazine cover we should have the characters as the main focus with other little bits arounds to introduce the film slowly. These could be things such as the background, the title, the object the character is holding etc.

Also with the front cover of a magazine we also have to include other films, the pricing/barcode and other snippets from the film world, these could maybe include interviews.

Film Magazine Front Cover:

·         Simple background

·         Name of Magazine

·         Colour Scheme

·         Other stories

·         Main Image

·         Name of Film

Poster Criteria

I am beginning to try out different ideas for the film poster, however I was unsure about the criteria that needs to be on the poster as it has to promote/advertise the film. I then found this website which is a step by step guide to what to put on and how to make film posters, he has chosen to mimic an Alfred Hitchcock film.
http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/05/13/how-to-design-a-movie-poster-with-an-example/

Looking at these film posters they tend to be very simple with one object/character as the main focal point and then the title is the other bold thing upon the poster.

In my opinion if a film poster is too cluttered it won't attract the eyes of the audience because there will be too much to understand. If there is one main subject that doesn't give away too much of the plot and a strong title with gives the audience curiosity towards the plot for the film.

03/11/2011

Today we wrote up a list of things that we needed to do and downloaded the footage from day 1 and day 2 onto the D Drive.

We also started to look at the clips which we want to use/could use within our trailer and designed our storyboard according to this. Also using influence from our research to help us more so.


As we now have all our raw material we have made a list of things we need to do to finish the products.

Trailer:

• Storyboard of process
• Decide on which clips to use
• Decide what else is going to be placed in the trailer
• Choose the sound and graphics

Poster & Magazine:

• More research for film posters and magazines
• Start designing the poster (multiple copies for ideas)
• Display compositions

Blog:

• Sort the order of the blog out
• Post most, if not everyday about whatever is done in lessons

Board game photoshoot

For our printwork, I did a photoshoot of the Cluedo board game so that we have images to play around with and create different posters and other mock up of the our smaller tasks.
I took photos of all elements of the board game so that we have a lot to work with.

 I wanted to show all three elements that make the games so that we can use them if we need to.

 Taking pictures of each characters mean that we could use these to then show the who is playing which character for the magazine cover.

 The card shots were so that we could see each of the rooms/weapons/characters so that we have a selection of rooms to use.

 This is a potential shot that could be taken with the real characters too, meaning that they could mimic the figures and then can be manipulated  in the photo.



SCRIPT

Teaser Trailer

Genre: Horror (could be slightly comical)

Inspiration: The Cottage, Jumanji, Cluedo, Scary Movie


Plot ideas/developments- 
• A group of friends are having a gathering at a friend’s house which is conveniently placed in a desolate farm. They are sat in the living room with a pile of board games and lots of six packs of cheap larger. Start off with a light feeling, cheerful music, a nice relaxed feel
• They are talking; someone suggests a game of Cluedo as they spot it in the pile of games/ someone has brought the game ‘specially’/ they are bored of normal games and want to try something more adventurous. Reading the description on the box instantly entices the group into play without thinking of the consequences.
• As they begin to play players go out of the room for certain things, food, drinks, bathroom etc...
• People start to realise that their friends aren’t coming back, they start to investigate. They start to see that people are being killed off one by one.
• The people leave the game unfinished and split up to go in search of people who went missing. When people find others who have died, they begin to question why the murders are taking place...

The teaser trailer needs to be/include;
1. The characters. Clearly show what characters are playing the game and what characters they are given in the game
2. Music (adjusting to the happenings on screen)
3. Close ups (showing vulnerability)
4. Titles
5. Narrating- styled like Jigsaw (Saw films)
6. Sound bursts (The sound gets faster and louder as the flashes become quicker and tenser on screen).


Editing/Filming Ideas
1) When someone is killed, a fade out/ zoom out could be used and then a shot of the board game with the character on in the exact place where the person was murdered. The dice could roll and characters could move on their own- with a low grinding moving noise.
2) A sound or song can be used to show the coming of the “murder”. So when the song is played people will know something bad is going to happen (kind of like paranormal activity where when the time changes to night, people instantly get scared because they know something bad will happen). The music could come from the radio, a phone, TV etc.
3) Red herrings must be used so people don’t guess who actually is doing the murders in the trailer, they must be enticed to go and watch the film so minimum detail should be used to keep them interested.
4) Mood must start off soft and relaxing, then the shots must increase in speed and time until the cuts are quick and frantic, meaning the pace will increase thus making it a lot more frantic.
5) When someone dies, the focus needs to go on the specific colour that will represent their character in the game. This is so we know which character has died and who is clearly left in the game.
6) Close ups of the board game could be used, and positions could be used for where the different people are around the house.


Poster Ideas:
1) A line up of all the different characters with the different colours. Showing what type of character they are. Different poses.
2) Poster broken up with the different characters holding each weapon
3) Focus on the weapons
4) Someones eye with all the weapons and/or the characters reflecting from it