Friday, 11 March 2011
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Risk Assessment
In the production and filming of a film, be it home-made or a large budget hit, safety is of the upmost concern. Therefore, it is crucial that a risk assessment is drawn up and filled out before any filming can take place. This is my groups set of precautions and possible risks for our media project.
One of the main themes of our film is suspence. Therefore, we will be doing most of the filming in a forest or similar woodland environment. One of the main problems with filming in such an environment is that there are random hazards, such as fallen trees and tangled branches, among other things. As theses obsticles can be tripped over and at the possibility of breaking equipment or injuring actors/crew, they must be treated with prejudice. As such, we must be careful of where we look and set up for filming.
Another place where we will be filming is indoors on staircases for the first initial shots, where the doodler is sitting and ignoring passers by. This can be seen as hazardous as stairs are, of course, usually used quite frequently by other people. This means that due to the presence of filming equipment in this area, there is the potential for not only the damage of equipment, but also possible injury to unaware people. In order to bypass these possibilities, we will have to film these segments during a time perios where there will be little to no flow of people, meaning that this will have to occur during lesson time.
One of the main themes of our film is suspence. Therefore, we will be doing most of the filming in a forest or similar woodland environment. One of the main problems with filming in such an environment is that there are random hazards, such as fallen trees and tangled branches, among other things. As theses obsticles can be tripped over and at the possibility of breaking equipment or injuring actors/crew, they must be treated with prejudice. As such, we must be careful of where we look and set up for filming.
Another place where we will be filming is indoors on staircases for the first initial shots, where the doodler is sitting and ignoring passers by. This can be seen as hazardous as stairs are, of course, usually used quite frequently by other people. This means that due to the presence of filming equipment in this area, there is the potential for not only the damage of equipment, but also possible injury to unaware people. In order to bypass these possibilities, we will have to film these segments during a time perios where there will be little to no flow of people, meaning that this will have to occur during lesson time.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Differences between teaser trailer and theatrical trailer
In the initial process of advertising, it is important for the developer to build up as much hype as possible. Indeed, to "tease" the viewer about the film, leaving them wanting more. As a result, a teaser trailer is very commonplace to carry out the aforementioned tasks. Later on in the development stages of the film, a more in-depth trailer will be released. This is referred to as the theatrical trailer. There are similarities, such as the requirement to build up hype, but also important differences, such as length and other additional purposes. I will be going more in-depth into these differences to further emphasise these variations.
The most obvious difference between these two forms of trailer is their duration. Usually, a teaser trailer lasts for about a minute to a minute and a half. This is largely due to the fact that at this point, the film is in the planning stages, prior to production. This means that they have insufficiant highlights to show at this stage, and as such they must work with what little footage they have at such a time. I also feel that another reson for this is that if they release too much of the footage too early on, the fans will lose interest in the film, as they may become aware of the film's plot before it is even released. By contrast, a theatrical trailer is generally a minute longer, at two and a half minutes. This is partly due to the fact that the film is in its final days of editing, and thus they have vastly greater material to work with. However, there is also the fact that they can tease the audience with a much greater amount of footage than they could show prior to this point. The release date will now be imminant, and therefore they can risk letting more of the film loose.
The duration of each shot can also be seen as differing from both trailers. Generally speaking, when the teaser trailer is distributed, the shots are for the most part, very rapid and in quick succession. A good example of this is the teaser trailer for the remake of "Friday the 13th", as while initially there are a montage of slow shots, they are quickly replaced with the faster paced shots for the remainder. There is one exception to this rule, seen at the end, where Jason runs up to a girl and, apparantly decapitates her. I feel that the reasoning behind this is so that the audience cannot fully make out what is happening, thus leaving them in a state of intrigue and bewilderment. This also leads them to the assumption that if they want to understamd the synopsis, they will have to watch the film. On the other side of things, the theatrical release follows a chronological sequence, as it initially with slower shots, showing a care-free group of teenagers going places they shouldn't go. Then they see, as well as the viewers, a sinister figure of questional humanity, and they decide to investigate. This leads to them all meeting an inevitably horrific and gruesome death, synced with quick and sudden cuts. Initially, this sounds similar to the teaser, but the difference is seen in the smaller details. The main variation is that during the length of the trailer, there are several long shots, which help to break up the sudden cuts and build tension in the viewer. This means that it breaks free of the potentially repetitive style of a teaser trailer, which is the main development in the evolution of a teaser to a theatrical trailer.
Fan service, especially for a specific franchise, also plays a significant role in the appeal of a trailer, as the inclusion of a well-established character is pivitol to success. Again, this can be seen in both teaser and theatrical trailers for Friday the 13th. For the teaser trailer,. he is a crucial factor for the fans, as otherwise it would not be Friday the 13th, rather just another cliche horror film. As a result, even though his screen time in the teaser is very minimal, it is enough to show that this is a film in the Friday the 13th franchise. In the theatrical trailer, however, Jason has a lot more screen time, which helps to signify that he is the main focus point of the film, as well as showing that there is less fan service in this trailer, and more of a focus on the story of the film.
The most obvious difference between these two forms of trailer is their duration. Usually, a teaser trailer lasts for about a minute to a minute and a half. This is largely due to the fact that at this point, the film is in the planning stages, prior to production. This means that they have insufficiant highlights to show at this stage, and as such they must work with what little footage they have at such a time. I also feel that another reson for this is that if they release too much of the footage too early on, the fans will lose interest in the film, as they may become aware of the film's plot before it is even released. By contrast, a theatrical trailer is generally a minute longer, at two and a half minutes. This is partly due to the fact that the film is in its final days of editing, and thus they have vastly greater material to work with. However, there is also the fact that they can tease the audience with a much greater amount of footage than they could show prior to this point. The release date will now be imminant, and therefore they can risk letting more of the film loose.
The duration of each shot can also be seen as differing from both trailers. Generally speaking, when the teaser trailer is distributed, the shots are for the most part, very rapid and in quick succession. A good example of this is the teaser trailer for the remake of "Friday the 13th", as while initially there are a montage of slow shots, they are quickly replaced with the faster paced shots for the remainder. There is one exception to this rule, seen at the end, where Jason runs up to a girl and, apparantly decapitates her. I feel that the reasoning behind this is so that the audience cannot fully make out what is happening, thus leaving them in a state of intrigue and bewilderment. This also leads them to the assumption that if they want to understamd the synopsis, they will have to watch the film. On the other side of things, the theatrical release follows a chronological sequence, as it initially with slower shots, showing a care-free group of teenagers going places they shouldn't go. Then they see, as well as the viewers, a sinister figure of questional humanity, and they decide to investigate. This leads to them all meeting an inevitably horrific and gruesome death, synced with quick and sudden cuts. Initially, this sounds similar to the teaser, but the difference is seen in the smaller details. The main variation is that during the length of the trailer, there are several long shots, which help to break up the sudden cuts and build tension in the viewer. This means that it breaks free of the potentially repetitive style of a teaser trailer, which is the main development in the evolution of a teaser to a theatrical trailer.
Fan service, especially for a specific franchise, also plays a significant role in the appeal of a trailer, as the inclusion of a well-established character is pivitol to success. Again, this can be seen in both teaser and theatrical trailers for Friday the 13th. For the teaser trailer,. he is a crucial factor for the fans, as otherwise it would not be Friday the 13th, rather just another cliche horror film. As a result, even though his screen time in the teaser is very minimal, it is enough to show that this is a film in the Friday the 13th franchise. In the theatrical trailer, however, Jason has a lot more screen time, which helps to signify that he is the main focus point of the film, as well as showing that there is less fan service in this trailer, and more of a focus on the story of the film.
Monday, 7 March 2011
Friday, 25 February 2011
Evaluation for my magazine cover
Magazines can prove to be an important part of a movie's advertsing campaign, as they are readily availible to the masses through any mainstream distributer, such as WHSmith or Asda or likewise. In particular, magazines that specialise in the area of films, such as Empire and Total Film are very beneficial in a movie's advertisement, as they are run by people who are skilled in the area of movies. As such, i have created this magazine cover for my horror movie using the magazine Empire.
There are several differences between a normal Empire cover and my cover, as well as some similarities which are in keeping with the normal covers. One such is the magazine title. Normally, the title for Empire is very conservative, as it isn't very flashy or in-your-face, just being a simple font in red with all the leeters in uppercase. However, for my cover, I wanted to run with the theme of it being a horror special, and as such, I felt that I should alter the title to fit in with this theme. As such, I used the melt effect in photoshop to give the effect that the title is "bleeding" or "melting". I also removed the colour inside of the title, so the title is now hollow, bar some minor botches inside, which I feel add to the effect that it is falling apart, and as such melting/bleeding.
Another major change that I made was to the text used for the main stories and the columns. Usually, the text on the cover is very formal and conservative, favouring what appears to be the standard font. Presumably, this is done to give the magazine a more authoritarian and instructive feel. However, as my copy of Empire is, as mentioned previously, designed as a halloween special, I decided to alter the font to my preference. I achieved this through the use of a font called skribble for all the main fonts, bar the title and the price and date. This helped to add a creepier and more unique feel to my cover when compared to the normal cover of an Empire magazine.
There are several differences between a normal Empire cover and my cover, as well as some similarities which are in keeping with the normal covers. One such is the magazine title. Normally, the title for Empire is very conservative, as it isn't very flashy or in-your-face, just being a simple font in red with all the leeters in uppercase. However, for my cover, I wanted to run with the theme of it being a horror special, and as such, I felt that I should alter the title to fit in with this theme. As such, I used the melt effect in photoshop to give the effect that the title is "bleeding" or "melting". I also removed the colour inside of the title, so the title is now hollow, bar some minor botches inside, which I feel add to the effect that it is falling apart, and as such melting/bleeding.
Another major change that I made was to the text used for the main stories and the columns. Usually, the text on the cover is very formal and conservative, favouring what appears to be the standard font. Presumably, this is done to give the magazine a more authoritarian and instructive feel. However, as my copy of Empire is, as mentioned previously, designed as a halloween special, I decided to alter the font to my preference. I achieved this through the use of a font called skribble for all the main fonts, bar the title and the price and date. This helped to add a creepier and more unique feel to my cover when compared to the normal cover of an Empire magazine.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Evaluation of my movie poster
On the whole, i feel very pleased with my movie poster, as I feel that it encapsulates the basic feeling of the film in one shot. I feel that it does this through not giving away a large amount of the film's plot synopsis, while still giving a glimpse of what the film is about; something that all movie posters have to achieve.
I feel that the way that this has been is in the editing and use of effects, as there are some features that have been achieved through the use of effects, like the subtle blur around the centre image of the protagonist/antagonist and the vision of his mind behind, lit by the lighter. This helps, as it means that the whole of the image can be shrunken to a smaller size, which helps to pick out the smaller elements of the image, like the lighter which helps to light the whole of the image, which might be missed behind the text if the image was larger.
Another effect that I have used is the way that I have highlighted certain sections of text from the background. This can be seen with the slogan at the top of the poster, as well as with the title of the film and, to a lesser extent, the release date of the film. The way that I did this was to create a duplicate of the text, change the colour of the duplicate to a brighter colour, in this case white, and then place it slightly off and above from the first text. The reason for this was so that it made the main pieces of information on the poster stand out against the lesser sections. It also helped, through the use of a faint blur on the lower text, to add a slightly eery undertone to it, which helps to add to the tone of the poster.
I find that another beneficial factor to the poster is the layout of the poster, as it is a very minimalist layout, with most of the text and information being positioned towards the bottom quarter of the poster, while the slogan is just positioned at the first quarter of the poster. This is beneficial to the look of the poster as it means that there is more space for the image, which is what will grab the target audience's attention. This helps to make it a better poster, as the whole point of a poster is to build up hype about an upcoming film, and to leave a positive first impression about the film. As such, the layout is very important, as if it is cluttered and ungainly, it will leave a negative impression about it, which could potentially affect the net worth of the film in the future.
One important thing to point out about the image is that the image is deliberatly meant to be grainy and slightly blocky. Initially, it may seem that it was an accident or done through laziness or an unwillingness to edit the image properly. However, the reason for the grainyness on the image is that I wanted the poster to convey the belief that the film is a more independant style of film, where the use of a camera of such poor quality would be used. See the poster for Paranormal Activity for the effect that i was going for, albeit in colour.
Film certification was also another area that required thought, as the rating that a film has can affect how successful it is in the box office. I decided to give the film a certificate 15, as this means that it the film is more available to a broader range of viewers, which will have a positive effect on the film's potential net worth.
I feel that the way that this has been is in the editing and use of effects, as there are some features that have been achieved through the use of effects, like the subtle blur around the centre image of the protagonist/antagonist and the vision of his mind behind, lit by the lighter. This helps, as it means that the whole of the image can be shrunken to a smaller size, which helps to pick out the smaller elements of the image, like the lighter which helps to light the whole of the image, which might be missed behind the text if the image was larger.
Another effect that I have used is the way that I have highlighted certain sections of text from the background. This can be seen with the slogan at the top of the poster, as well as with the title of the film and, to a lesser extent, the release date of the film. The way that I did this was to create a duplicate of the text, change the colour of the duplicate to a brighter colour, in this case white, and then place it slightly off and above from the first text. The reason for this was so that it made the main pieces of information on the poster stand out against the lesser sections. It also helped, through the use of a faint blur on the lower text, to add a slightly eery undertone to it, which helps to add to the tone of the poster.
I find that another beneficial factor to the poster is the layout of the poster, as it is a very minimalist layout, with most of the text and information being positioned towards the bottom quarter of the poster, while the slogan is just positioned at the first quarter of the poster. This is beneficial to the look of the poster as it means that there is more space for the image, which is what will grab the target audience's attention. This helps to make it a better poster, as the whole point of a poster is to build up hype about an upcoming film, and to leave a positive first impression about the film. As such, the layout is very important, as if it is cluttered and ungainly, it will leave a negative impression about it, which could potentially affect the net worth of the film in the future.
One important thing to point out about the image is that the image is deliberatly meant to be grainy and slightly blocky. Initially, it may seem that it was an accident or done through laziness or an unwillingness to edit the image properly. However, the reason for the grainyness on the image is that I wanted the poster to convey the belief that the film is a more independant style of film, where the use of a camera of such poor quality would be used. See the poster for Paranormal Activity for the effect that i was going for, albeit in colour.
Film certification was also another area that required thought, as the rating that a film has can affect how successful it is in the box office. I decided to give the film a certificate 15, as this means that it the film is more available to a broader range of viewers, which will have a positive effect on the film's potential net worth.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
When producing an ad campaign for a movie, be it horror or otherwise, it is important that you make your product seem very appealing to the target audience, or better, the large percentage of movie goers. There are several ways to go about this for an ad campaign. One way is to have an ad campaign that is aesthetically appealing to people, which will intrigue them into seeing it. Another way to sell the film is to tag it to an important figure in the film industry, as this will have appeal to the people who are fans of them. This can usually be seen with the producer or director of films, like Peter Jackson or Quentin Tarantino, who both help to give films that have their name on them appeal to fans of their previous films. However, these methods are all futile if the audience is not moved, touched, or otherwise feels the desire to see the film, and as only the target audience truly knows what they want from an advertising campaign, they are a very useful resource for film producers who want to really get the public's attention. This is what I have learned from the audience research that my team received in the audience feedback session in lesson time.
How we gathered audience research for our first horror movie trailer was through showing the rest of the class our trailer on a large screen twice. The first viewing was so that people could get the basic gist of how our trailer played itself out and what the basic plot was. The second viewing was for note making about what was conventional about the trailer, which elements were particularly effective, which elements we liked most of all, and any flaws about the trailer. We were then handed the sheets back at the end of the note making and asked to verify why we said particular things about other the groups work. The cycle then started afresh with another group.
For our work, the vast majority of our team believed that it was a shambles, as it had an bizarre plotline that didn't connect together well at all, dodgy sound effects and sub-par editing. As a result, we were confident that the rest of the group would feel the same way about the first draft. However, while most of the feedback was indeed negative, there were some positive thoughts about certain elements, but I shall get onto those later. Firstly, the constructive criticism. One of the main complaints was that there was very little understanding of what the plot was about, as there was little explaining done in the shots and the texts slots didn't add any depth to it. As a result, people were confused about what was going, asking why there was a doodler, and why did he turn evil, and such like. This helped us to realise that the plot didn't have even to any depth to it at all. Another common fault was that the editing was incredibly sporadic and didn't help to add to the feeling at all. In fact, if anything it detracted from the experience, as it didn't link together any shots very well, and the aftermarket sound effects that we used were cheap, stock and sometimes completely out of place, the key example being a running noise with, bizarrely, a dinosaur or likewise monster in the background. However, as I mentioned previous, there were some positive reactions. One of which was the fact that there were some good shots in the trailer, like the random shot of a bird flying in the sky, which was said to be particulary effective. Another feature that was said to be effective was the variation of shots that were included, however it could also be seen as a hinderance as there was, as i've mentioned, no plot in the trailer.
We found that the feedback was on the whole, what we expected to hear about the trailer. We didn't expect any people to actually like any parts of the trailer though, so that came as a shock to us. However, despite some positive feedback and some areas where we could have improved our base trailer, we believed that it would still be pathetic when compared to the higher quality of some of the other groups products. Therefore, we decided to cut our losses to that trailer and start fresh with a new, simplified and improved idea. This product has proven to be a much higher quality product than the first one, most likely because we took the critisism to heart and avoided making the same mistakes twice.
How we gathered audience research for our first horror movie trailer was through showing the rest of the class our trailer on a large screen twice. The first viewing was so that people could get the basic gist of how our trailer played itself out and what the basic plot was. The second viewing was for note making about what was conventional about the trailer, which elements were particularly effective, which elements we liked most of all, and any flaws about the trailer. We were then handed the sheets back at the end of the note making and asked to verify why we said particular things about other the groups work. The cycle then started afresh with another group.
For our work, the vast majority of our team believed that it was a shambles, as it had an bizarre plotline that didn't connect together well at all, dodgy sound effects and sub-par editing. As a result, we were confident that the rest of the group would feel the same way about the first draft. However, while most of the feedback was indeed negative, there were some positive thoughts about certain elements, but I shall get onto those later. Firstly, the constructive criticism. One of the main complaints was that there was very little understanding of what the plot was about, as there was little explaining done in the shots and the texts slots didn't add any depth to it. As a result, people were confused about what was going, asking why there was a doodler, and why did he turn evil, and such like. This helped us to realise that the plot didn't have even to any depth to it at all. Another common fault was that the editing was incredibly sporadic and didn't help to add to the feeling at all. In fact, if anything it detracted from the experience, as it didn't link together any shots very well, and the aftermarket sound effects that we used were cheap, stock and sometimes completely out of place, the key example being a running noise with, bizarrely, a dinosaur or likewise monster in the background. However, as I mentioned previous, there were some positive reactions. One of which was the fact that there were some good shots in the trailer, like the random shot of a bird flying in the sky, which was said to be particulary effective. Another feature that was said to be effective was the variation of shots that were included, however it could also be seen as a hinderance as there was, as i've mentioned, no plot in the trailer.
We found that the feedback was on the whole, what we expected to hear about the trailer. We didn't expect any people to actually like any parts of the trailer though, so that came as a shock to us. However, despite some positive feedback and some areas where we could have improved our base trailer, we believed that it would still be pathetic when compared to the higher quality of some of the other groups products. Therefore, we decided to cut our losses to that trailer and start fresh with a new, simplified and improved idea. This product has proven to be a much higher quality product than the first one, most likely because we took the critisism to heart and avoided making the same mistakes twice.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Monday, 17 January 2011
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
The basic understanding of our plot line
The gist of our plot is that there’s these four guys who are us, and we are creating a horror film trailer inside of the film using a handheld camera, a la Cloverfield/Blair Witch Project. The subtle twist is that we also use different camera utensils, like a tripod, so w came film things that we wouldn't normally see. However, one of us, who is Sam keeps having scary dreams, and the things he sees in the dream, he jots down to get out of his mind. When he tells us, we don’t believe him, until the drawings become real and try to kill us. We try to escape, however we leave the ending ambiguous at the moment, to build up suspence.
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