Spoken Evaluation

Media Technologies

Whilst making our trailer, poster and magazine cover we had to use a lot of media technology. Some of the programs used were ones I was already familiar with. However a lot of them were somewhat tricky to use and it took time to get used to them.

To film our whole trailer we used a HD flip camera. This is something I have used before and it was fairly easy to use it. We decided as a group that using the flip camera would be the best option. We chose the flip camera to use because it is simple to work with and easy to upload and play back what you film. We also had to use a tripod with the flip camera when filming a lot of our trailer because without it the shots were shaky. I think using the flip camera was a good choice because we had no problems with it and it was quick and easy to upload the shots to the Macs.

To edit our trailer and put it together we used Final Cut Express. This is something we were not completely used to because last year we used a program called Pinnacle. However we had used it on a practice task were we made a music video so we knew how to do a lot of the edting already.

 One of the things that took some time to work out how to do was the split screen. This was because we hadn't done this before and therefore it took us a while to work out how to do it. We also had to get used to the different layout and settings on Final Cut Express because we were not familiar with them. Using Final Cut Express was very worthwhile because we gained a new skill in using a different program and also there were a lot more settings on Final Cut Express compared with Pinnacle so it was an overall better program to use.

Creating the music for our trailer was something we wanted to do ourselves. We knew that we couldn't use copyright music and that it would be possible to find some un-copyrighted music online. However we decided it would be great to make the music. We used Garage Band which is a program on the Mac specifically made for making music. This was fairly simple to use because you simply had to drag the different types of sound onto the time strip. I feel that using this program was a good choice because we were able to get the exact sounds we wanted and the music came out really successfully because it adds tension in our trailer.

Making our poster we had to use Photoshop. Me and Ella were mainly focusing

on using Photoshop because we are both very familar with the program because we use it in another lesson. Therefore it was very easy for us to use it and create the look we wanted. We also used Photoshop for creating both the Gif files in the trailer. This was a little more challenging because I had not made this type of file from Photoshop before. It took us a while to find out how to do it but the outcome of this was successful. Photoshop was a good program to use for our poster because we were able to merge the chess piece onto the photo of megans face and add text.

Audience Feedback

 We decided before filming our trailer that we would have to pick a target audience. We chose people aged 16 to 20. We did some initial target audience research where we found out what sorts of things people within this age group would want in a film and a trailer. We tried to consider some of the results we found from our research when making our trailer. We knew that a thriller may not be a typical genre that people in this age group would like. However by using Megan as our character we feel that people would be able to relate to her character because she is young.Above are a set of questions that we decided to ask people who had viewed the trailer. We decided to do this because we wanted to know if there was anything we could improve on or expand on in our trailer. We used a sample of 20 students which is a sample the same size as in our previous target audience research. I think that asking this many people was a good decision because it is a fair amount and was easy to find. Below are some of the results that we have put into graphs. Using graphs was something we felt would be good to do so that it was easier to understand the results. One question we asked our target audience was 'What sort of genre would you say this film is?'. We were please with the results we got from this question. Most people knew that the genre of the film was a thriller. Therefore we feel that our trailer must fit in with many of the conventions of a thriller trailer. Another question we asked was asking the audience if it followed the conventions of the genre they picked. Most people said it did which was something else we found positive from our feedback. We also asked if we felt the trailer built tension. When making our trailer we really were aiming for it to have a building tension. The feedback we got was that most people felt it did build tension. I think the audience felt the tension especially from the music and pace of the cuts.

After asking some of these questions we felt it would be good to get some more feedback in another way. We decided to post our trailer on facebook for anyone to comment on. We didn't have any specific questions for the audience because we wanted to know there general feeling about the trailer and wanted to leave it open for them to give whatever feedback they felt necessary. A lot of the comments we recieved were positive ones. For example someone commented on how the trailer builds tension and is dramatic. This is something we wanted the trailer to be and we chose our shots very carefully so that they were all building tension. Someone also commented on how the title gives it a good edge. We chose to use the smokey background on our title because not only have we used steam in the kitchen scene but we felt that this had more of an interesting look. Also, the fact that the smoke is all over the place and then it comes together as a chess piece is similar to the way that the film will be confusing but will then come together at the end. We felt that the title looked effective and gaining this feedback from our target audience has confirmed that this was a good decision. A negative comment we recieved was one that said they thought they could see franky in the background. The person did not understand that franky was supposed to be in the shot because she was her friend in the clip. The idea of this shot was that Mia was laughing with her friends, then opened her locker to find a chess piece. Although we understand it, it is clear that it looks confusing to other people when watching it. However we will not be able to change this now but it is something we are aware of.

After getting feedback from some of our target audience, we also got feedback from our media class about our trailer, poster and magazine. This was helpful because we are all media students they knew what they were looking for. We got a lot of positive comments about our trailer and one of these was 'collection of shots shows good knowledge'. We were very happy with this comment because having a variety of shots is something we knew would make our trailer look more effective. We also got some negative comments about what we could have done better. One of these comments was 'unclear storyline'. This shows that the target audience may not completely understand the trailer. This may make them more interested in seeing the film which is what we wanted. However it could also put them off and make them not want to see the film. We chose to have a lot of random clips because after looking at other trailers we saw this is what they had. This may be why it is somewhat confusing to watch.

Effectiveness of Trailer, Poster and Magazine cover

Our trailer along with the poster and magazine cover was aimed at a mainstream audience. We chose to aim it at a mainstream audience because we knew this was a large audience and that thrillers are popular with mainstream audiences.

One element I feel has worked very well on our trailer is the variety of types of shots. Using a lot of different angles and types of shot was something we knew would be important. We decided to film things in many different angles so that we could see which angles worked best. Also, we knew from looking at other trailers that using a variety of camera angles would be important. In our trailer we have a range of shots such as close ups, mid shots and long shots. We had to choose very carefully which type of angles and shots would work for each part of our trailer. We chose to use close-ups of Mia when we wanted to see her emotions. An example of this is when we have a close up of her face looking at the chess piece. This works well because you can see clearly what it is she is looking at and you can also see her confusion. Another type of shot we used was a long shot of her running away. We chose to use a long shot for this because we wanted to be able to see the setting more and also her whole body running. This shot works well because you can see a different setting in the trailer. We also have filmed from different angles such as the high angle shot looking down on Megan in the bath and the low angle shot looking at her put the chess piece in the bin. I think that the variety of shots we have used is something that really makes our trailer work well. The amount of angles and types of shot means that the trailer does not get boring to watch and therefore engages the audience.

Something else that I think is very effective is our use of a non-diegetic sound. After looking at trailers such as 'Disturbia' and 'Iron Man 2' we saw how none diegetic speaking can be used successfully in trailers because they give the character a chance to talk about something in the movie. This means the audience can gain a greater understanding of what the film is about or something it includes. We used some non-diegetic sound of the character in our movie making a phone call to her doctor. In this phone call she sounds worried and clearly sounds as though she is going slightly insane. We wanted to have he calling a doctor because this means she knows there is something wrong with her. We felt that this would be something the audience would find interesting because they would wonder what was wrong with her. I think this is a very successful part in our trailer because not only does it keep the audience guessing about the content of the film but it also makes the piece feel more like a trailer and less like a story.

Another element of our trailer that is quite successful is the music. When looking at other thriller trailers we noticed how the music was often quite intense and had no singing included. Therefore when creating our own music we decided to bare this in mind and we didn't include any singing. I think the music works well because it builds up and gets more intense along with the trailer. This helps to keep the people watching the trailer engaged. The music also fits in with the feeling of confusion in the trailer. I also think the way that the music fits in when the release date and billing board comes up sounds very effective. We also used more dramatic sounds in the parts of the trailer where the chess pieces were. This was a decision we made because we wanted these parts of the trailer to stand out therefore by using the dramatic sound they were enhanced. Another sound that we deliberatly chose to keep in the trailer is the sound of the water running. We kept this sound whilst we saw the mans feet going up the stairs so that it is clear that he is in the same house. I think this sound works well because it means there is obviously someone in her house and this is the same person that opens the door.

One of the difficulties we have overcome in our trailer is when filming the kitchen scene. We wanted to be able to see words appear on the window in steam. This took some time because we had to get the right angle so that the words were visable. However, we overcome this by filming this shot from many angles and picking one where you could clearly see the words. Also, in this shot we wanted to see Mia making tea and the kettle causing the steam. However, we found that the shot would be too long because the kettle took a long time to boil. We overcame this problem when editing because we cut the shots right down and put a few of them together. This made this part of our trailer fairly successful. However I feel it would have been better if we had taked some more time getting the exact right angle to be able to see the words on the window.

One thing I feel had not been greatly successful with our trailer is the amount of settings used. Although we orginally planned to film in my house, a party and outside shots. We ended up having mainly clips of inside the characters house, and at school. I think these shots work fairly well however by using more settings it would of made our trailer even more interesting. I also think it would have meant that the audience would be more engaged and interesting and the trailer would have looked even more like a real trailer and less like a short story.

When looking at our poster, one of the things that has worked well is the image we used. When taking this photo we knew exactly how we wanted it to look. We planned well how we wanted her to look and what angle we wanted the photo. This meant that we knew exactly what we wanted and I think this made it easier for us to get a successful image. I think this image works well because she is gazing into the camera and this is something that helps her to connect with the audience. I also like the fact that the photo is in black and white because these colours are typical of a thriller movie and create a sense of mystery.

A problem with the poster is that the chess piece we have placed on has not been edited that greatly. I think it works fairly well however on the left of the chess you can see that it has been cut out and put onto the image. To improve this we could of taken more time to carefully edit the photo. However this does not make our poster un-successful because it still looks very bold and the chess piece means that the title makes more sense because there is a clear indication that chess plays a large role in the movie.Also, even though we noticed that the line was very sharp, we thought it worked well because on the other side it is very blurred. The fact that it is a sharp edge means that the shape of the chess stands out and is clear therefore we haven't changed this.
Looking at our magazine cover one of the elements that works well is the text we have used. We took a lot of time arranging this text on the magazine cover. We also looked at other movie magazines so that we knew how much text we should include. Using a variety of sizes and colours of font is something that makes the magazine cover look very realistic. Also we made sure that the text did not take over the magazine cover or take away the focus from the photo. After we were fairly happy with the way the text looked, we printed the magazine cover and checked that all the text was read-able and not too small.
Something I feel is not that great about the magazine cover is the image used. I think that the quality of this photo is not that great because it appears to be blurred in places. However this does make it appear that the image has come from the movie and that she is walking in the dark.We chose this image out of around 60 photos that we took.Although it is blurred in places we felt it would work well because it really looks like it has come from the film.

The conventions in our trailer- Evaluation

The first print screen from our trailer that I have included here is of the 'Dimension Films' logo. We decided to include this in our trailer because it is something that is a real company logo and is in many other trailers. This was something we found out when looking at other trailers during our research stage. I feel this works well in our trailer because it makes it appear more professional and realistic. Also, it is similar to what you would find in a real media trailer.

The next print screen is a close up of Megans face. A convention of a thriller trailer is that they have a lot of tension and emotion. Therefore by using this close up we wanted to add mystery and really show how the character was feeling. In this shot she is looking at the chess piece and looks confused. We told her to look confused because we wanted this confusion to connect with the audience. It is conventional for thriller trailers to be confusing and this is why we included clips of Megan looking this way. I think this has worked well because you can see she is clearly confused and this is something that makes the audience keep guessing what is going on. This also teases the audience and makes them wonder what is going on because they will wonder why she is looking at the chess piece in this way. The prop which is the chess piece is essential to this shot. We used the chess piece because it is a vital part of our storyline and the movie title itself is 'Checkmate'. This works well because it makes the audience more aware that the chess piece could be a bad thing in the movie. The setting we used for this clip is in school. We wanted to have a variety of settings in our trailer because we knew that this was conventional of trailers. It is not often that trailers only include a few settings. A school setting is something we thought would work well in particular for our trailer because she is a young girl therefore it makes sense for her to be in school. I think this setting works well because it lets the audience know more about her and the fact she is young. This is something that makes our trailer conform to conventions of a trailer because we have used a typical setting for the age group chosen.

The shot above of the chess board is something that is included in various parts of our trailer. This shot was important for us because it includes the main prop for our trailer. We have seen that in other thrillers such as 'V for Venditta' the props can play a vital role in the film. Therefore we wanted to have this shot of the chess board. This makes our trailer conventional because it uses a specific and symbolic item a lot. We used a more interesting angle for this shot. We chose to use a lower angle looking through the chess board. Using a variety of angles in our trailer is something we knew would be important because trailers usually have many different types of shot. Therefore using this different type of shot helps even more in creating a conventional looking trailer.

The next screen shot is of Megan in the bath. We wanted to have a scene of the character trying to drown herself. We chose to do this because we felt it would be a shocking and interesting scene in both the film and trailer. This is something that is often seen in thrillers. I think this works well because it keeps the audience engaged in the trailer because it is a shocking shot. Usually in media when someone is trying to drown theirselves they are un-clothed. We have challenged this convention by having our character clothed. I think in one way this shows how insane she had become because she is getting into the bath clothed. However, this may be something that the audience don't understand from the trailer alone therefore it may be slightly confusing to watch. Overall this shot works well. I like the fact that there is no real sound in this shot but you can hear the music. Also I think the angle is effective because you can see her face clearly. We edited this shot by making it longer. We wanted the clip of her submerged in the water to be quite long so that it was clear she was trying to drown herself. I think this has worked quite well because you can see she is uncomfortable. However, it may have worked better if we had filmed more short clips of her underwater and put other shots in between.

The next is a split screen shot that we have used in our trailer. In our original storyboard we thought about using a split screen. We later developed this idea because we decided to use a different shot than what we had planned in the storyboard. We saw when looking at other trailers such as 'Disturbia' that using a split screen can be very effective in creating an interesting look. The split screen that we have used works fairly well because it looks quite professional. However I feel it would have been even more successful if we had used two different shots on either side of the split screen. Something else we could of tried out was using a split screen of four parts. This is what we saw in the 'Disturbia' trailer and therefore our trailer would have been very similar to real media.

One shot above is of our title on the trailer. We wanted to create an interesting and unique title. When looking at other trailers the title of the film was usually at the end of the trailer. We have conformed to this convention because we put the title towards the end of our trailer. We also noticed that a lot of trailers have a fairly simple font used for their title. Therefore we used a simple but clear font on our trailer. I feel that this font works well because it is easy to read but looks bold because we put it in capital letters. This makes it stand out well and this is something we wanted. We also made a GIF to use in the background. This is something we decided would make our title more unique and would develop it even further. This works very well because it shows the chess piece which links in clearly with the rest of the trailer as well as with the title of the film.

The shot of megan sitting down on the phone is one that we filmed in a bedroom. Looking at thriller trailers we found that people were often seen in dark rooms and therefore we used a low light in this shot. This works particulalrly well because it adds to the tension and looks fairly creepy and mysterious. The costume that she is wearing is fairly simple. We got her to wear casual, fashionable clothing. This is because our target audience is younger people. Also, we didn't want her to be wearing anything brightly coloured because this would take away the dull and creepy feeling of the shot. I think that the clothing we used throughout the trailer works very well because it is not too bold or colourful, however it also suits the age group because she wears fairly fashionable clothes.

The final two screen shots from our trailer are of the release date and billing board. We knew after looking at a lot of trailers that they all included the films release date. Therefore we knew this was something that would be important to make the trailer similar to a real one. We used a clear, bold font and used the colours black and white. We wanted to use simple fonts and colours so that they were not only easy to read but the colours are not colours that people would associate with a rom-com genre, they are clearly more dull colours which means they relate well to a thriller. I think this works well as it looks simple yet effective. We also knew that it was conventional that trailers have a billing board in them. We chose to put this at the end of the trailer because this is where many other trailer position their billing boards. We used the same colours which were black and white because we wanted the title, release date and billing board to have the same colours.This works well because it makes our trailer very conventional which means it looks like a real media trailer.

When looking at our movie poster we have conformed to a lot of the conventions of a movie poster. For example we used colours for the fonts which we felt were suitable for a thriller movie poster. Also in our magazine cover we followed a lot of conventions of a magazine cover. More information on this can be found in the rest of my blog.

Our Gif for the title

Using Photoshop I was able to create this gif file with another member of our group. We wanted to create this to use on our trailer for the title. It was fairly tricky to create this because we had to make each frame on Photoshop. This took some time however I think it was worthwhile. This GIF works well on our trailer because it makes the title more interesting. I really like the way that the chess piece emerges from the smoke. Overall I feel that this was something that worked well in making our trailer even more successful. 

More Editing

After filming some more clips we had to edit the trailer even further. During this process we filled up the gaps in the trailer and added some more complicated parts that were interesting to edit. We decided to fill the gaps so that the trailer looked complete and more professional. Also we wanted the trailer to be full of different clips from different settings. Therefore we filmed in school. This came out quite effectively because there are now a lot more settings and types of shot in our trailer. I think the shots we filmed make our trailer even more successful. I particularly like the shot of megan looking at the chess piece. This not only is a close up which is something we haven't used a lot of, but it shows a strong connection to the name of our trailer. This was the reason we took this shot in particular. I think it works quite well because she looks like she is intrigued by the chess piece and this also adds mystery to the trailer. One of the final things we decided to change in our trailer was the ending. We had to include a date for the film, the title and the billing board. We had to include these because they are essential for all trailers. I am glad that we added these in at the end because this is conventional of a trailer. When looking at other trailers I have seen that they put the title of the film at the end. Therefore this is where we placed the title of our film. I think this works well because it makes the trailer look more professional and it means that the people watching the trailer will know the name of the film which is very important. Also, we added some more writing at the end of our trailer that says 'How will you play?'. We added this because we wanted to create an interesting piece of writing which would engage the audience and keep them wondering about what the film would include. We added very short clips of the chess piece in between each word. We chose to do this because it is a more complicated piece of editing which we thought would make the trailer more interesting to watch. I think that using this writing works well with the trailer because it shows that we have edited in varied ways and also adds tension to our trailer.

Finished Trailer

Behind the Scenes

Here is a behind the scenes video. We took clips to show how we organised our filming day and what we did to make the clips look effective. 

Filming 2

After editing all of the shots we had. We realised we would need some other shot so we decided to film some. We were going to film what we originally planned which was shots of Megan walking home from a party and party scenes. Unfortunately we could not get the group together to film this so we had to leave this part out of our trailer. We realised that these were not essential to the trailer and that it would be better if we filmed some more short shots. Therefore we made a plan of what we wanted to film. We wanted a clip of Megan finding chess in her locker, a clip of her running, her throwing a chess piece in the bin and her looking at the chess piece. We got all of these shots filmed fairly quickly and successfully. However we did not use a tripod when we filmed these clips so they could be slightly shaky. Megan was using similar casual clothes in these shots which is what we wanted. We filmed the close-up of her looking at the chess because we realised that our trailer didn't have a lot of close ups in. These shots were fairly rushed therefore they aren't as good as they could have been. However, I think that once we edit them in they will make our trailer more successful.

Starting Editing

After doing our first filming day we began to edit the clips. We uploaded the shots to the mac and then opened final cut express. We added the shots that we needed one by one and began to cut and edit them. The main transition we used was the fade in fade out transition. We used this because it looked quite effective and professional. One of the things we found interesting to edit was the split screen. This was something we had planned to do since we made the storyboard. This was slightly tricky but after editing it it looked quite effective. After editing some of the shots we decided to focus on making the music. We created our music on garage band which we found quite simple to use. It was simple to drag the pieces of music and instruments we wanted on and move them around. You could also cut them and change how loud they were. The music we have created is quite tense which is what we wanted because our trailer is a thriller. After making the music we had to make sure it would fit in with our trailer so we went back to editing the shots. We used some lighting tools and effects on the shots of Megan in the bathroom. This was because we wanted the part of the clip where we turn the light off to be even darker. Something else we found interesting to edit was slowing down and speeding up certain shots. One shot that we slowed down was the shot of Megan in the bath. We wanted this to be longer so that it looked more like she was drowning. We also made some of the chess piece shots faster and some slower. We cut the sounds out of some of the shots because they were not needed. This was fairly simple to do. Editing has been an interesting process and we have learnt a lot about how to use final cut express. I have enjoyed editing some of the trailer and working with the group to make decisions on how to edit the shots effectively. These are two screen shots of our music development. In the screen shot below there is a lot more types of sounds. We decided that this sounded a little messy therefore we changed it a lot. The screen shot above is one which is of the updated version of our soundtrack. This is a lot neater and more organised. It also sounds a lot better and fits in with our trailer more effectively. 

Filming

We started our filming on 13th of february. On this day we planned to film most of the clips that we would use in our trailer. During the day we used flip cameras and tripods when possible. It was important that we used tripods because without them the clips would not have been as good. We chose to use the HD flip cameras because they are simple to use and easy to upload. We began by telling Megan what costume to wear. It was important that we made sure the outfits suited the clips and the time of day that it was supposed to be. For the clips of her walking down the hallway we got her to wear casual clothing. This was because we wanted this clip to be during the day. I think this outfit works well in the clips of her in the hallway. We got some shoes and created muddy footprints on the floor so that it would look like there had been a man in the house. We filmed clips from different angles of her walking down the hallway. Also, we got some shots of the floor with the muddy footprints on. The main problem we had when filming the floor was that the clips looked a little shaky however we kept them because they are only going to be short clips in the trailer. Also during this day we filmed the chess pieces moving. For this we had some trouble with lighting. We wanted the clips of the chess pieces to be dark however we couldn't have them too dark because the chess would not be seen. Therefore we decided to use a lamp in a dark room. We got several clips of someone moving chess pieces around the board. We tried to get different angles and also got different speeds of the chess moving. This is because we want these clips to break up our trailer and we want the slow moving chess clips at the beginning and the fast moving ones at the end. These clips looked quite successful when we looked over them. Whilst filming some shots in the bedroom we had to be careful that the room looked quite dark but not too dark that we couldn't see Megan. The clips of megan in bed were meant to be of her having a nightmare. We are going to use this as a short clip that will add tension. Also in the bedroom we filmed a shot of Megan waking up, seeing the chess piece and walking over to pick it up. This is a shot that we are going to use near the beginning of the trailer. This is a fairly successful shot however we could have filmed a close up of her face looking at the chess piece. Another part of the trailer that we filmed on this day was one of Megan in the bathroom brushing her hair. In this clip Megan is brushing her hair and the bathroom light turns off and then on again. We wanted this clip because it adds to the mystery of the trailer. We used a tripod when filming this shot so it should come out fairly well. Another scene in the bathroom is one of Megan in the bath. We wanted this scene to look like She was trying to drown herself. Therefore we had shots of her turning the tap on, in the water and sitting up out of the water. We are going to put shots in-between these to build the tension even more. Overall, this was a fairly successful filming day. We got a lot of the trailer parts filmed. However we didn't film the clips of Megan walking which we were originally going to film on this day. We may film these later on. Some of the shots look really good quality however some of them could have been better. We will need to film more clips of Megan because we don't currently have enough for a full trailer. 

Filming Schedule

This is a list of the props we would need on our main filming day. We made this list so that we could make sure we had everything we needed for filming and that we could get a lot done on the day. This was quite helpful because we were very organised and none of the items were forgotten.

Here is the plan of what we wanted to film on the day. We made sure we noted everything we wanted to film during the day so that we had a clear idea of what we were aiming for. However later when we began filming we realised that a lot of the clips took longer than we expected. The filming schedule was helpful because we looked at it several times during the day to check that we had got all the clips we needed.

Our production company

This is our own production company logo clip which we have created to use at the beginning of our trailer. We decided to do this because it would be challenging to create and we also wanted to have our own production company and not one that is already used. We chose to make the eyes slowly appear and when we add this to the trailer we can add some sound to make it more dramatic. We made this as a gif file using photoshop. We then added it onto final cut express and cut it into sections and added fades. This was because it looked a bit jumpy without cuts and we wanted the eyes to look like they faded in. I think that this  is something that will make our trailer more effective and the logo looks quite creepy and therefore fits in with the genre of the film. One problem with this animated logo is that when we finally added it to our film we noticed it was a little blurred. Also, the words and eyes move around a little bit when we play the clip. However this isn't too much of an issue because it does not take up too much time in the trailer.

Animatics

Here is our animatics which we created as a trial of our trailer. We did this so that we could look back at it and remember what clips we were going to include in the trailer and in what order. The animatics also helped us imagine what the real trailer would be like. We also added some music which we made to add to the tension of the trailer. When making our real trailer we will try to stick to the clips that our in this animatics. However, we may decide to change some of the clips or make some of the shorter. We may also think of other shots to include when we begin filming. We may need more fast pace cuts in our real trailer to add more tension and make it seem more like a professional trailer. The angles in the animatics may not be exactly the same as the ones in our actual trailer because we are going to try and film the shots in a variety of angles. One thing that we all agreed we would want to use in our trailer was a split screen. We feel that this will be something that may be challenging to edit but will look quite effective in the trailer. Because these are only drawings they are not that accurate therefore our trailer will differ quite a lot from this.

Doing the animatics has been helpful because we now know exactly what we need to film and we have organised what will go where in our trailer. It has also helped us think about where we will film and what sorts of camera angles we want to use.

Final Movie Poster

This is our final movie poster. We edited most of our poster using Photoshop. As a group we helped each other out with how to edit the photo. We started by opening the photo on Photoshop and changing it to black and white. We then had to add the chess piece that we had photographed. This was very tricky because we had to cut around the chess piece and place it on so that Megans face was still visable. After editing the chess piece on we had to add the writing and billing board. This was fairly simple for us however it took a while to add the billing board. Overall I think that our poster looks quite effective. I like the image on the poster because it really gives off a serious vibe which is what our movie will also feel like. I like the fonts we have used on the poster and I also think that the billing board looks realistic and professional. To improve our poster we could have taken more time to edit the chess piece on so that it looked clearer.

Final Magazine Cover

 This is the final draft of our magazine cover. After a lot of edting and arranging the fonts and images on the piece, we were finally happy with the way it looked. We decided to call the magazine 'Cine Mag' and we put this on the cover in capital letters because we have seen that this is typically what magazine titles look like. One of the things we knew we must include was a bar code. This makes our magazine cover look more realistic because that is what all magazine would have on them. We also had to include the price of our magazine and the date it was released. As well as this we added a website name to the top of the cover and the issue number of the magazine. We decided to use this image which is a photo of Megan in character. We felt that this photo really captured her emotions that she would be feeling in the film. We also felt that the image was of high quality and it fit in with the writing on the magazine cover. On the magazine cover we used similar fonts to the ones we used on our poster. These fonts look quite professional and stand out on the poster. We had some difficulties when choosing font colours and sizes that would be easily seen. The main colours of font we used were grey, black, white and red. These colours are typical of horror or thriller movies and therefore I think they fit in well. As well as the name of our movie and our actress, we knew we had to include information about other movies that the magazine could include. However we made sure that our movie was the main focus of the magazine. We did this by making the font of the actress very large and bold. The name of our movie is also very large and stands out on the magazine cover. We used Photoshop to edit the image on the poster however we did not need to change that much about the photo. I feel that our magazine cover is fairly successful and I particularly like the layout of the writing because it looks professional and neat.

Poster Development

Here are some images of the development of our movie poster. We decided to include a photo of Megan looking very distraught. We achieved this look by smudging her make up so she looked like she was crying. We also had her gazing into the camera because we saw during research how important the gaze of an image can be. Getting Megan to have a serious expression on her face was something that was essential for this photo to be successful. We then had to decide on the colours that we wanted on our poster. We chose red, black and whites mainly because they would stand out well on a poster. We also chose these colours because they are typical of a thriller poster.

Whilst developing the poster we decided that we wanted to change the image to black and white. We feel that this adds more mystery to the poster and therefore it fits in well with the genre of our film.Whilst thinking about the layout of our poster we had to consider what we had seen on other movie posters in our research. We knew that the poster must include a billing board and we saw in other movie posters that it was usually placed at the bottom of the poster. Therefore we decided this would be where we would put it. Also, we knew we had to include the date of release on our poster. We decided to put this at the very bottom underneath the billing board and chose to have it in a fairly large font. We then thought about where we would put the title and the main actresses name. The font we used was chosen because we all feel it looks quite professional and like a thriller kind of font. The name of the movie had to be the largest size font on the poster so that people would see it clearly and because it is the main focus. We added a chess piece to the side of the photo because our movie has a lot about chess involved in it.

Development of magazine cover

Here are two of the photos we took on our photo shoot and added to the poster plan that we had already made. The one above is a photo which we originally took and wanted it to be an in character photo. We then felt that it would look better as an out of character photo. Therefore we edited it using photoshop and tried to make it appear as though she wasn't crying and was therefore out of character. We also changed her lips in this photo because in the original her lip stick was smudged. I think this is an attractive photo and therefore would work well as a photo for an actress. The was her hands are in this photo makes it look quite innocent. I think this is a good photo on the poster however I dont think this photo should be used for our final magazine cover. To improve this I think we should add more small writing on the cover because I have noticed that on most magazine covers there is a lot of information about what is inside. 

Production of Poster and Magazine photos

Last week we got together as a group to take the photos we would need for our movie magazine cover and poster. We chose to use just Megan for all of the photos as she is the main character in the movie and because on most magazine covers they only photograph one person. During the photoshoot we decided we would take photos in character and out of character for the magazine cover. This is something we felt would be important because we couldnt agree as a group as to which we would prefer. Therefore we took photos of both so that we could decide at a later date which we would use. We have seen when researching that magazine covers about movies often include the character on the front cover but also can have the actress or actor. We also had to take the photo for our movie poster which we thought out carefully and thought particuarly about the lighting the photo would have.

We chose to take photos of Megan out of character first. For this we chose to have her wearing normal, girly clothing. We also decided to do her make up quite bold so that her features would stand out in the photo. We tried out several different angles for the shots and also tried a variety of close-ups and mid-shots. When taking the photos we had to bare in mind that the title of the magazine would have to fit on the top. We all took turns to take photographs and many photos were taken. Using the black background is something we thought would make our photograph appear more professional. After taking photos of Megan out of character we then got her to change clothing for her in character photo. We also smudged her make-up and tried to get megan to cry. In these photos we also took shots from a variety of angles. For the in character photos it was important that Megan looked serious as the character in our movie is going through a hard time. This is something that we had to have several attempts at because we wanted the photo to portray a lot of deep emotions to the audience. Finally we had to take the poster photo. For this we simply wanted a shot of megan looking into the camera. However we also wanted the lighting to be dark on one side of her face. This is something that was challenging because the lack light meant a lot of the photos came out blurred.

Overall we had taken a lot of photos on the day. Some of which came out quite well and were very high quality. As a group we have been discussing and looking at the photos and trying to pick out which ones we want to use. This is something that we are finding quite challenging and therefore we may decide to ask some people from our target audience which photos they prefer. After choosing a few photos we will also have to edit them accordingly. The lighting in the photos for the poster is something that did not come out very well. We may have to take some more photos for this if we cannot edit them enough to improve them.

Magazine cover draft

After researching into magazine covers and their conventions we decided to plan a draft of the layout we wanted for our magazine cover. As well as laying out the magazine cover we chose fonts we thought would suit out magazine and colours that would look effective and attractive. Here is the magazine draft we have created but we have not used the actual photo as we need to take it for our real magazine cover. Firstly we decided to make a new name for our magazine. As the magazine cover would be advertising a film, we realised we needed the magazine to be a movie magazine and tried to think of magazine names from this. We finally came up with the name 'Cine-mag'. I think this is a successful name as it is short and catchy but is also to the point and tells people who see the magazine that it will be about movies. After deciding on a name we had to add this to the magazine cover plan. We decided to have the title at the top of the magazine as this is conventional of all magazine covers. We also had to choose how big we wanted the title and the font and colour. We knew we wanted the title to be in a big font and that we were going to use three main colours on the magazine cover which are red, white and grey. The colours we used for the title is white because this stood out a lot on the image we used for this plan however if the white title does not stand out on the photo that we take for our real magazine cover, we may have to change the colour of the title. The photo we used is a photo we found on the internet. We only placed this photo on the magazine plan so that we could get a feel of what the magazine would look like with a photo. We included a lot of other text on the magazine cover such as the name of our actress. Having the name of the actress was important as we would include an interview with the actress if we were to make the whole magazine. It was important for us to not have too much writing on the front cover as this would overwhelm the page and less focus would be on the image. Therefore we only included some text that we felt would be important. Most of the text we have added on the front cover is in the same font. We chose this font specifically because it looks quite professional and therefore makes our magazine cover draft look more realistic to a real magazine. So that the font didnt look boring, we used different sizes and colours of the font on our draft. This makes the magazine cover look more interesting and also eye-catching. All the font on our magazine draft is quite big which we felt was important so that people could read a lot of it from a distance when looking at magazines in a shop. We also included a price on the magazine draft because we saw that most magazines we looked at during research had a price on them. As well as this we put a barcode on the draft in the right bottom corner and I feel this makes the draft look a lot more realistic. Overall I feel that this draft is quite successful however after we have taken our own photos for the cover we may have to change some of the font colours and sizes slightly.

Media Theory 'The Gaze'

Jonathan Schroeder says that: 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view'. The media constructs the actor's/actress's body and position for the pleasure of people who are watching the films. This is often in a sexual way because people feel less ashamed of doing so in a cinema as the people are around them are not aware it is happening.'The Gaze' can be seen not only on posters but on magazines, tv and photography.

• the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person in the text.
• the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one person at another within the world of the text - this is often portrayed as a point of view shot in film and television.
• the direct address (or extra-diegetic) to the viewer: the gaze of a person shown in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the person watching the film or reading the magazine.
• the look of the camera - the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people pictured.

Male facial expressions in women’s ads

There are fairly direct parallels with the above - the carefree, practical, seductive, comic and catalogue. The other two male expressions selected as types - the thoughtful and the self-reliant - have similarities to the female introverted and cool, though the thoughtful is far less introverted and the self-reliant more smug than aloof or reserved, but there are no counterparts to the narcissistic or kittenlike.


The Gaze on British women’s magazines:

Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.

Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.

Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.

Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification created to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

We will most likely use some sort of 'The Gaze' on our magazine cover. The gaze we will use will be a female gaze trying to attract men. However we will not want to make the gaze of the women on our magazine look romantic or sexual if we are using the women in character from our movie. On the other hand if we do a photo of the actress as herself on the magazine we may choose to have a romantic or sexual gaze so that we will be attracting men. In order to attract the whole of our target audience we will have to think carefully about 'The Gaze'.

Production Company logo

Here is the logo that we have created for our production company and we will include this on our poster and trailer. We felt it was important to make our own logo so that we would be able to include it in our trailer. Before we could begin creating this we had to think of a production company name in our group. We had to think about a name that would suit a thriller movie and would sound effective. After coming up with many other ideas we finally decided on the name 'Night View Productions'. I think this is a successful production company name and it looks good on our logo. After thinking of a name we then thought about what colours we would want on the logo. We decided that we wanted black and yellow as they stood out next to each other and they suited our movie as it is a thriller. We then thought that we had to use a simple image on our logo. Therefore we chose these cats eyes as they are simple and fit in with the name that we came up with. We had to edit the image we chose on Photoshop so that is was more simple and bold. Finally we added the name of the company on and we tried out several fonts until we eventually chose this one. Overall I think that the logo we have created looks quite effective because it is simple and the colours look attractive.

Target Audience Research Results

After making our questionnaire we handed it out to 10 boys and 10 girls. The questions we put onto the questionnaire are all about finding out what our target audience of young people want from a film. We decided to find out what both male and females would want from a film which is why we made sure we asked the same amount of boys and girls. Once they had filled in the questionnaire we collected them in and looked at the results. We then decided to put them onto graphs so that the results would be easier to analyse.

One question that we included on the questionaire was 'Do you like the 'hero' to be a boy or girl?'. These are the results we got. The boys we asked and the girls we asked on this question came out with the same results. From the graph you can see that more people wanted the hero of the movie to be a male character. We considered using a hero in our movie but later realised that we did not need to include one. However the victim in our movie is a girl therefore we feel this is something that our target audience would like.

Another question we put on our questionnaire was 'Do you want the main character to be a similar age to yourself?'. We asked this because we wanted to think about what age the people in our trailer would be. All the girls we asked said yes they did want the character to be a similar age to theirselves. However the males that we asked did not all say yes but more of them did. Therefore we felt we should use characters that are a similar age to our target audience.

We also included the question 'What film do you prefer?' as we wanted to know what sorts of films our target audience enjoy. None of the people we asked said that the enjoyed sci-fi films and this was a good result as we do not want to do a sci-fi for our movie. Three girls that we asked said that they enjoy rom-coms however we decided not to do a rom-com as boys in our target audience are not attracted to these movies. One girl and four boys said that they enjoy watching comedy films but in our group we did not feel that we would be able to create a trailer for a comedy film successfully. Five girls and three boys that we asked said they enjoyed watching thriller films. This was the second highest of the five options and a thriller is what we have decided to do for our trailer.

The final question we put on the questionnaire was 'What kind of ending would you prefer?'. The options we included where happy, sad and not expected ending. Most people said they liked an not expected ending and only three boys said they wanted a happy ending. Therefore we decided to have a not expected ending in the plot of our film which we felt would be very good as it is typical of a thriller.

Magazine Covers Analysis and Research

I have decided to look at Magazine covers for 3 different movies and 3 different magazines. I have done this so that I can compare them and look at the similarities and differences. Also so that I can get a good idea of what makes them successful.

This is a magazine cover advertising the release of the film 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4'. The magazine 'Empire' is a very popular movie magazine which usually advertises a film on the front on every issue. It is made clear in many ways that this magazine is advertising the film 'Pirates of the Caribbean 4' as the star of the previous films is on the front cover. Jack Sparrow is the character from the film that is included on the front cover and this is because many people have seen him in the previous films and will already be familiar with the character. Also it says in the circle on the left side of the poster 'pirates 4  the on-set exclusive' which tells the people who see the magazine that information on the new movie will be in the magazine. Although this font is quite small it stands out as the circle it is in is black and the font is white and therefore the high contrast makes it stand out even more. Also the 'Pirates 4' part is in bright yellow which stands out very much on the poster. Another piece of information that tells people the magazine is focused on the film is on the right where it says 'Captain jacks all-new crew'. This gives people an insight into the film as it tells them that the main character will be joined by new characters in the film. The photo of Johnny Depp on the front cover is him in character as Jack Sparrow. This is done so that people will know straight away what film is being advertised. This image of Jack Sparrow dominates most of the space of the page, it even covers up some of the title of the magazine which shows its importance. It is important that Johnny Depp is dressed as Jack Sparrow because the magazines aim is to advertise the film and not the actor. This image of him is looking into the camera and therefore connects with the people who see the magazine cover. He is also holding a gun in this photo which shows people the role he will be playing is a fierce one. His overall look is easily seen to be a pirate and his facial expression is quite serious. Although this magazine is mainly focused on the release of Pirates of the Caribbean 4, the front cover also mentions other films on the right such as 'Transformers 3' and 'Green Lantern'. It is important that the magazine mentions other films on the front cover as some people may not be interested in the Pirates of the Caribbean films but may be interested in one of the other films mentions. Therefore all people who see the magazine cover will be able to find something they want to know more about. The title of this magazine is very bold and in red which is the same for every issue of the magazine. The title stands out a lot and is in a very large font. Although the title is an important part of the magazine cover, because people are familiar with this magazine it does not matter too much that some of the title is covers by Jack Sparrows head.

On this magazine cover the film being mainly advertised is 'Transformers 2'. We know this because the name of the film is written above 'Megan Fox'. Although the font isn't very big people will know that the film is being advertised because in the photo Megan Fox appears to be in character and people will remember her from the first Transformers film. The name of the film stands out as it is a black bold font against a red background. Most of the magazine cover includes red, black and white which is fairly typical of magazines about movies. These colours stand out well and look very bold and eye-catching. The image on this poster is of the famous Megan Fox. This photo is of her in character from the move Transformers and this helps to advertise the film even more. Her pose in this photo is quite serious looking and she also looks somewhat scared. This shows that the film she is in is more of an action or adventure because she does not look happy which is how she would look if she was starring in a rom-com movie. She has been used on this poster as she is very famous and people will recognise her and want to know about the new film she is in. Also this photo of her will attract men to the poster as she is a good looking woman. The image takes up all of the background of the cover and this shows it is something that will be in the magazine. Also no other photos are included on the poster which shows that the magazine is mainly focusing on attracting people who want to see transformers which would mainly be men. The title of the magazine had been placed over the photo in this magazine which is different from other magazine covers where the image over-takes the title. This may have been done because the magazine is not as popular and they wanted the name of the magazine to be seen and remembered. Other movies have also been mentioned on the front cover but Megan Fox's name stands out the most which suggests the magazine will include and interview with her. Most of the text on this magazine cover is in capital letters. This is done so that the words stand out more when people look at the cover. This is something that is done on most magazine covers and makes the words seem more bold and eye-catching.

Here is a magazine cover which is mainly focusing on the film 'Twilight'. At the top of the magazine cover is says the name of the film which stands out a lot as it is in a black, bold font and has been placed on a grey background colour. It also stands out as it has been postitioned at the top of the cover and is in a circle. As well as the name being at the top of the magazine cover, it has also been put in a very large font at the bottom of the magazine. The font is very large and bold and stands out just as much as the title of the magazine. This makes it clear to people that the magazine will be very much about the film 'Twilight'. As well as the name of the film being put on the cover, it also says underneath the name of the film 'if the vampire movie explodes, so will their lives, Are they ready for the fame?'. This not only tells people that the film is about vampires but suggests that the stars of the film will be interviewed in the magazine. The image on this magazine cover is of the twilight star Kristen Stewart. In this photo she is not in character and this helps to advertise her as an actress because she was not very famous when 'Twilight' was first released. The photo is quite close up to her face which helps the people who see the cover connect with her. Her facial expression is quite happy and she is looking into the camera which will make people more drawn to the magazine cover and to her.

After looking at all of these magazines and analysing them I have noticed some conventions that they all include. All of these magazine covers have only three or four main colours for their fonts. This is something that helps to make them successful and is something I think we should think about as a group when producing our own magazine cover for our movie. Also most magazine covers have barcode or price tags on the front cover. Using a barcode or price tag on the front of our magazine cover is also something I think would be important as it would make the appearance of our magazine more realistic to an actual magazine cover. All of these covers also have a large title which is placed at the top of the magazine cover and is in a bold font. I feel it will be very important for us as a group to discuss magazine titles and I think having ours placed at the top of the magazine cover is something that will be very important. The images in all of these magazine covers are only of one person from the movie. Therefore we will probably only use the main character of our film on the front cover of our magazine. None of these covers have too much small writing on them. They all have large font which is easy to read and is in a colour which stands out. When producing our cover we will have to try and only include text that relates well to our magazine and is most important.

Target Audience research

In our group we have been thinking about a target audience. After debating on this we decided that our target audience would be young people around the ages of 16 to 20. We felt that making a questionnaire for people to fill out may be something that would help us plan more towards our trailer. On this questionnaire we have questions that relate to our target audience and I feel that this will be helpful for our group. After handing the questionnaire to around 20 people we will gather the results and may analyse this and see what our target audience enjoys. We can then use this research to give us a better understanding of what our target audience might want so see in our trailer, poster and magazine cover. Making pie charts of the results is something we can also do to further our research into target audience.

Creating our poster plan

In the group we had been talking about a name for our film and now we had to begin to think about what our poster would look like. We decided to plan what we wanted on our poster and started by thinking about fonts. Looking online our group found many fonts and chose a few which we felt would suit our poster and film.

These are the five fonts that we decided to compared to each other. We picked our favourite after we all looked at them and chose to use the fourth one. We felt this one looked the most professional however it also looks quite simply and would not overpower the images in our poster. Also we liked this font as it was all in capital letters and this looked more effective on the poster and stands out more to people. Compared to the other fonts here, the one we have decided to use on our poster looks quite simple but after looking at other poster we have seen that most thriller posters have simple fonts for the titles.

This is our final poster plan which we think will be very helpful to us when creating the real poster. We have included the font and title that we will be using on our final poster. We have also added other images which we found online and placed them where we think we would like to place them on our real poster. Looking at other thiller posters we saw that most of them had one persons face on the poster. Therefore we decided to follow this convention and put our main characters face on our poster. Also we thought about using a chess piece on our poster because this links in with the name of our movie and also fits in with the plot and trailer. We are going to make our poster portait because we will be using a portrait photo of the girls face and also as we feel that most thriller posters are portrait. On this plan for our poster we placed the title at the top and I think this looks successful as it stands out quite well but does not take the focus away from the photo and chess piece. Also we have included a billing board which is something we will have to include on our poster. We added the billing board at the bottom because this is where most poster places them. The colour font we decided we are going to use for the billing board is red. The colour red is something that we noticed was included in most thriller posters as it adds a sense of intensity to the poster as well as indicating it is either a horror or a thriller. The other colours included on our plan are mainly black and white. We chose to use black and white because these colours are fairly simple and are typically used on thriller posters. One thing I feel that could make this poster plan better is to change the colour of the title slightly so that is stand out better over the top of the chess piece.