Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The stages of each aspect the project includes being, the creation of the poster, magazine cover design and the trailer itself. The conventions of real media products have been a real challenge to achieve but what i and the group have successfully managed to use and develop further to achieving our own goals. This will hopefully be demonstrated throughout our whole project.

Ancillary task 1 - poster design

My poster design was influenced massively from research i did on professional posters using a variety of horror based genres such as, gory, creepy and mysterious. These aspects allowed me to view the different ways each effect gets presented to the audience and how effectively they do it.

I analysed each technique every individual poster uses and noticed there was a lot of variation due to the fact each storyline of the films they were representing were very different. Take the Grudge for example, it's wanting to convey an image across to the audience that is creepy and mysterious, so literally the poster uses a subject, "The Grudge" to look directly at the camera to the audience behind a red and black background. These colours represents death, blood and danger. But it only reveals half of the subjects face which meant the audience were unsure of what they were actually looking at. I took allot of inspiration from this poster throughout the production of my own and once we had discovered the storyline our film trailer was going to follow i was able to create a clear image of what i wanted my final poster design to look like and what effects i wanted to show to the audience.  

 

Here is my poster again to show the next few points i want to make about the effects i aimed to achieve. I noticed the majority of poster i analysed used red somewhere within it, but not all posters use this technique. However i believed it would be more conventional if i chose the two colours red, black and white for my poster as the colours fitted really well together and what each colour represents what i wanted to show within my poster. This is why i used black for the background that looks as if it's closing in on the two characters and red for the title of the poster which gives the impression that, this is the reason. The two characters are also looking out an opening where a window frame would be inside the building giving a sense that they are trapped and out there was the freedom they had which is now taken away. All these aspects are what lead to the effect i am trying to achieve with this poster, making it creepy, mysterious and making the audience want to know more not only about the characters and why they feel trapped, but what the "Watcher" itself. I also added the text content at the foot of the poster and a logo which made it look more professional and conventional to develop my poster even further. 

Ancillary task 2 - Magazine Design

I took a lot from my magazine analysis when creating my own magazine design. Main aspects being the layout, colour schemes, mast head representation and images. Within each of the different types of film magazines i analysed, Total Film and Empire. These aspects are what made each of the magazines stand out as they used them effectively and what made the magazine still appear conventional. The first and main feature i noticed from my magazine analysis is that each represents a variety of films but makes mainly the cover colour theme layout and image match the genre of the main focused film. A great example of this is the "Total Film" magazine featuring "Inception" i analysed. The film itself is set out in a dream world, and the storyline is confusing and what some people may find hard to follow, and this is shown on the cover using different effects. These effects are, firstly the image it has chosen what we presume the main character of the film and represented what he is all about using an image of him in a suit and holding a gun. This automatically gives the impression of action and dilemma to the magazine cover and using an subject from the film is what i seen as conventional in a the production of a magazine cover. You can also notice the background colour and imagery, it shows a city from a birds eye view and the man standing within it for the bottom half of the magazine. These two images and the man himself are all joined together by using a blue glow looking aura around the man which links the two images really well together. These are the main priority's i seen to put into my own magazine cover however i chose not to include a subject from the film as i previously used it for my poster and i wanted the magazine to appeal unique and still give the sense of mystery. So i began with choosing the background of the main setting the film took place, and tinted the colour red to make it look more disturbing and give an uncomfortable feel about the magazine. All mastheads in the magazine i analysed have the biggest font and usually a different one to the rest of the text displayed on the cover. The group already decided on the name "Ignition" for the magazine cover which fit in really well with the background colour of magazine, being red. I continued using this the red colour use for my house colour of the magazine and the colour white which made it appeal more conventional. I believed i captured the horror theme for my magazine but still displayed a variety of different featuring films. The main focused film featured in our magazine was obviously our own so i made the text font size and presentation different from the rest of the magazine to stand out and represent what the background is showing. I also noticed that all the magazines i did research on use headers or footers. These aspects are what also made the magazine look professional and i included in my own to make it look more conventional. 

 

Main Production - Trailer 

What i think not only myself but the group worked really hard on is the creation of the trailer, each looking at the effects were achieved in other trailers and how we can present the effects we wanted to achieve within our own. We each identified the main features other professional trailers use when presenting the different types of horror. What was conventional we deemed that was used in each trailer was creating a certain disturbing atmosphere and a sense of mystery within each of the trailer. This meant that the camera shots we used would have to vary and be presented in the best way, such as the use of establishing shots and close ups etc. Another way other trailers use to create suspense and tension is the shots they choose of the actors, what expressions they are using or how they are acting and also the dialogue they use in what are considered main parts of the film. The dialogue we noticed gave information about the storyline the film would follow and were used to give an introduction to the film. The trailers we analysed used dialogue both with diagetic sound and with recording over the top of certain clips. We thought it would be best to use recorded sound over the top of certain clips we made and also slides of writing which gave more detail about the storyline, which was another aspect we seen as conventional for professional trailers. 

It was also important to get across the best insight of what each character in the films personality is about, allow the audience to get to know them through the trailer. This was important for the main subject of what our trailer is about also, being the Watcher. So we used certain clothing to portrait this effect across which gave the effect we were aiming to achieve, leaving mystery and fear of the unknown on the audience. We also used some effects in our trailer, these enabled us to portray the presence of Watcher as an uncomfortable and very strange atmosphere. Each trailer is seen to summarise what the film on a whole would mainly be about but not give to much away and leave it on a cliff hanger. This is another effect we wanted to achieve when creating our own trailer, and summing it up meant using different conventions to emphasize certain scenes which made the basic concept the trailer was following smooth and made the characters leave more of an intense effect on the audience. But watching the trailer itself is more of a demonstration to the conventions we included throughout the production.

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

Throughout the production of the trailer and ancillary tasks i believe the combination of each achieve the effect we aimed for and still manage to show a lot of variation of what the film itself would be about. They each give an insight of what the film is about but display, for example the poster and the magazine show characters and setting bringing the two together to create an uncomfortable feel within both and create mystery of what the film trailer will feature. So i think the two ancillary tasks work well into the lead up to the trailer which will feature the main focus of the film itself and finally reveal the "Watcher". From the research of varies different genre of horror poster, magazine and trailers we were able to achieve a lot of variation within our own production making it very unique and leave a positive feeling about what the film would turn out to be on the audience, even though it would never be made. I believe because of making it appeal so conventional and professional, using the same set out of theme colours, layout on posters and magazine and techniques used in the trailer design to similar already produced aspects makes the combination of all aspects work really well with each other. This results in making it believable that the film would eventually exist and hopefully leave the effect of people wanting to see it.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

  

Ancillary Task 1 - Poster

Here is a display of some of the feedback i received from other students throughout each aspect of my project.

" I can identify just by looking at the colour scheme, layout and image that the genre of the poster focuses on horror and the way each aspect is used contributes really well with what effect you are achieving for the film itself."

"The image used is very clever in my opinion because of the composition of where the two characters are standing, makes you wonder why"

"The poster on a whole looks very professional and includes main conventions such as, credits placed at the foot of the page and a logo, only criticism i can add is that it could have also included an website perhaps in the bottom left, but on a whole good job!"

"I like the design of the title for the poster, as some alternative posters look tacky using a design for their mast head but you have pulled it off well for this poster"

Overall i am pleased with the comments and from the criticism i know where to improve when it comes to creating another poster, such as adding the website. However from the positive feedback i know what i should aim for future references, such as the image composition, background colours and design for titles. I aimed for the poster to achieve leaving a mysterious effect on the audience and hopefully make them want to see more and that the colour scheme and layout of the poster achieves the idea of being a horror based genre. 

Ancillary task 2 - Magazine Cover

"I like the magazine cover as a whole, however there seems to be a lot of un-used space and i would have preferred to see a subject in the magazine which may have been more conventional"

"I think the background image works well with the genre the magazine represents and the tint of red emphasizes this and matches with the house colour you have used"

"The layout of text, masthead and main film the magazine focuses on looks very professional and the tag line works really well, however perhaps the featuring should be placed at the bottom of the page and another use for the top"

"I find the magazine presents a rather disturbing image and the layout leaving all the space works well to convey this image to have more of an effect" 

When i made the final product of the magazine i knew not using an subject would be considered not very conventional however for the effect i was aiming to portrait i still think the magazine worked overall quiet well. There were some areas i could have improved on such as, adding a date, using the space at the foot of the magazine cover and adding who the quote was by in a different font and perhaps placing it in a box design to stand out. I feel i could make this magazine cover better the second time around and considered using a subject but i am pleased with the final outcome.

Trailer production

As soon as we put the video of the trailer on YouTube we received instant positive feedback without asking any peers. I believe we have exceeded our expectations when creating the trailer and from the feedback the hard work seems to have been pulled off. This is some of the information received about the trailer from other students.

"Throughout the trailer i think the transitions used in the areas you used it worked really well and emphasised the effects you were aiming to achieve whilst creating the trailer and the choice of music used made it look really dramatic and built tension throughout the whole trailer meaning any extra sound effects were not necessarily needed"

"You can easily identify what the storyline is leading to but it's clever how it doesn't to much away and leaves it on a cliff hanger for people, my self included wanting to see the final product if it were to be made"

"Simple storyboard with clever ideas is what i recognised throughout the trailer and you have executed it really well with the variety of shots used, the settings and locations and text to follow with the story line to keep the audience interested"

"The song choices worked really well with what was being displayed through the whole trailer making it look very professional and more appealing, this results a more powerful effect on myself and i can imagine others watching the trailer"

"The trailer really gives off a creepy and uncomfortable feel about it, and really succeeds in the feel of the characters being watched and tormented really well done"

I am very pleased of the final outcome of the production of the project on a whole but the trailer was something that i and the group could be very proud off. We aimed high with the trailer and i believe we have achieved pulling it off very well. 

How did you use media technology's in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of the project?

Research and planning

I used many sources for finding out the different research i needed to make my own final project. These included, finding suitable images and videos of posters, magazine covers and trailers to analyse using google, actual websites such as "Total film.com" and YouTube to find the movie trailers i chose. I then went on to creating drafts hand drawing of different posters and magazines which were scanned in using a computer to display on my blog. I used the blog on the computer which displayed the images so that i could easily analyse each aspect and effects the different ancillary tasks used and was able to view the videos on the blog also making it easier for me when it came to analysing. Using Blogger meant i could also work from home which was very convenient as i could work on it at anytime if i found something interesting to explain on there. Also using a computer meant i could create graphs/pie charts for the results of the questionnaire we did to display the results more clearly, using Microsoft excel.

Ancillary task 1 and 2 - Poster and magazine

After planning and research on the different professional posters of films already been made, i was then able to create my own including the same conventions using photo shop C5. The image taken for my poster design and magazine were in high definition giving the end product a better quality appearance. I used photo shop to edit both my magazine and poster, which included making the layout appear conventional and how i preferred the end product to look, this was good as i could see what it would look like in one place and use an alternative prospective to see which design i prefered. There were many effects i out to good use using this tool such as brush effects to blend background with images and titles. Also giving background images a red tint effect and black and white effect and also changing the colour of the sky in my poster to a light red giving emphases of the title in red. Also using Photo Shop i was able to try many different designs to make the title of my poster and magazine stand out and have the effect i was trying to achieve within each. Once i was happy with the final product of both ancillary tasks i saved the files as a JPEG so that i was able to publish onto my blog. Using Photo Shop was a great advantage when it came to the designs of my magazine cover and poster as it allowed me to use various rotations of layout, image placement and text and fonts. All the main aspects which made my tasks look more proffesional and appealing. 

Final Trailer Production

Throughout the trailer production we used three different camaras giving the trailer a various quality of shots adding to the effect of it meeting with the horror genre. We used the Tri-pod to acheieve getting low angle, high angle and mid shots and also to include all three of us in one shot. Using the tri-pod also allowed to to give the impression that we were filming with a different camera doing POV shots and being watched from in our case the Wacthers point of view. Once we captured all the footage we felt we needed to crate a trailer, we imported it onto a Mac This was so we could edit the trailer at any given time. We edited all of our footage using iMovie which is made by the same company, we also had to choose the audio we felt when well with the footage which we used safari to download the tracks after asking for permission. After getting the soundtracks we put them onto itunes as it is made by the same company we were using editing the trailer footage so they would communicate well together with no problems. We wanted the clips to be in sync with the music which a lot of the trailer did accidently when we added the actual soundtrack, however in parts it did not we just cut some of the footage shorter to fit in well and overall make the trailer have better quality. Using iMovie was essential in the creation of the trailer as it allowed us to use all these aspects and include voice overs and included many different transitions we used within the trailer itself. We used iMovie to then import the trailer onto YouTube which we then embeded to get onto our blogs, however the upload to YouTube took two attempts and the first had an error, we simply restarted the program and tried again and it managed the second time round. 

Final trialer

The whole group has put really hard work into this project and i am very pleased with the final result of the trailer especially. I believe on a whole we convey the main focus we are aiming to achieve throughout the trailer of the effect it will have on the audience. Research of different professional trailers gave us a good idea of what to include in our own trailer and what the best ways were to present it. At the beginning the me and the group were unsure of how to really start a trailer or what genre it should focus on however, once we figured what genre we chose a lot of ideas which were used and weren't used are displayed throughout our project and the hard work payed off. As a finishing touch of the trailer to make it look more professional and be more credible, we added trademark intros from Universal Studios and Touchmark Pictures. This could be classed as copyright infringement, which is slightly worrying for the myself and the group as it's something we do not want to come across but figured it was conventional when in the making of a film trailer.

Production of the Trailer

This post will describe the different propositions that took place during the development of our trailer which will include, Setting and locations, dialogue, soundtracks, weather conditions, cast and props and what effect each aspect had on the final trailer and some original ideas may have changed because the setting that was at the location could be used for better ideas to convey the best feeling we wanted to achieve on the audience.

Setting and locations

• The main footage of the trailer was set in an abandoned factory which the group had pretty much decided from the beginning as well as various other locations. The exterior and interior of the factory worked really well with the ideas the group came up with and helped us achieve the effect we were aiming for throughout the making of our trailer. For example using establishing shots of the exterior of the factory and from inside the factory we were able to get a uncomfortable presence and use the shots well, such as POV shots etc. to put emphases on this effect.

• Northumberland park - This location worked really well as it was surrounded by trees and a path which was included in the story board for an idea we had to display the watcher. What we did not plan however, was using the underneath of a train bridge which we found at this location we worked out really well with the idea we wanted to display.

• Jesmond Dene - The setting of this location gave the impression of a forest being in our surroundings. The day we filmed the scenes at this location was also very grim which added to the effect making the trailer more creepy and effective. We used the ideas we already came up with in the story board and used this location to express them through our trailer and improved the ideas.

• St James Metro - Once we agreed on the trailer aiming to be a horror based genre one of our first ideas was to film a train sequence underground because of the dark tunnels we could use and the platforms of each station we could use our ideas for effectively. We made good use of this location as we used scenes of the metro from the inside and out.

• Jacks house - We filmed the final three scenes at Jacks house which created a cliff hanger ending making the audience reply to the trailer and want to go and see the full film. we wanted to convey an introduction to whats to come in the trailer and the last three scenes in the trailer display this very well leaving mystery and suspence as to what comes next.

dialogue

• We were uncertain wether to use diagetic sound from filming for the dialogue or to record it seperatly to place over the top of different footage during the editing stage of the trailer. The group decided on using recordings to go over the top of the trailer as it sounded better and could be understood more clearly, resulting in a bigger effect the trailer would have on the audience and making it look better as a whole.

Cast 

• The cast will include myself, Joe and Jack. We didn't feel as if we needed any more characters for the trailer production and we had the advantage of using the tri-pod of shots we wanted to include all three of us in which worked out rather well. This also meant we had full control of what the final trailer would look like as we worked well in a group together and shared our opinions for each aspect of the trailer we did helping us make it the best we could.

Props

• We didn't want to give the impression of the focus of the film being the watcher himself to be a normal person, but to give him an appearance that would be unpleasant and looked at as creepy and strange to bring mystery to this character which is why clothing was important, so we tried to hide his face as much as we could using a hoody and a long coat covering most of his body. The characters myself and Jack were playing just wore casual clothing giving the impression that we were two people just like anybody else giving an effect that it could happen to anyone, making it more realistic.

Soundtracks

We wanted to use a song that would bring suspense, tension and ambient sound to the trailer. After a lot of research of the most suitable soundtracks we decided on the two we have chosen which i thought worked really well with the film footage of our trailer and transitions.

Unfortunately neither of the group received a reply to the emails we all sent. However, thankfully the artists is unsigned and will be more than likely to welcome the use of his song and receive credit for putting his name out there. But there still remains the underlying concern of copy write infringement. 



The second soundtrack we used throughout our trailer was found accidentally whilst searching for dramatic climax soundtracks. This soundtrack included everything we needed, suspense, tension building and the dramatic emphases on footage featured in the trailer. The group decided for the original second soundtrack we were to use was Mad World - Gary Jules which we all felt allowed the images and information being displayed on the trailer to get across or take in more from this song enhancing the audiences fear.

Insight of filming

You can vaguely see from this image that candles are set out in a corridor pattern. This gave the effect of the candles leading to something of importance. We used this layout for part of the trailer as we thought it was essential we get important information across to the audience which will leave mystery and gives the trailer a creepy feel. As you can see the factory had a very dark atmosphere as it is. This was a bonus as it was a natural environment which brought more realism into the trailer.

The idea here was to film two separate videos. One with the lit candles with the camera pointing down as if to give the impression someone walking down a corridor and a separate video where the candles were not lit. This would allow us, when it came to editing, to use the scene walking down the lit corridor and using a flash effect to display a similar scene with the candles unlit and back to being lit again. This effect would give the viewers a rather uncomfortable feel about this place and build a suspense to a dramatic occurrence.

At the end of where the candles lead we formed the shape of a doll, this would create again an uncomfortable feel and make the trailer have an creepy effect. The effect we wanted to achieve here was to allow the audience to be left the feeling of fear of the unknown, what could be doing these strange events and why? leave the trailer open and give more of a reason for the audience to seeing the film itself.

Another idea we had to put into the trailer was revealing the "Watcher" using the same flash or fade in and out effect with the candle in his hand to convey the idea of the candle being a symbol of some sort of great importance to the "Watcher". And for it to symbolise fear and use POV shots to capture this effect and put it across to the audience, displaying different reactions in urgency to achieve it in the best way.

Looking at the surroundings of the factory with more light, still remained discomforting the viewers and i have to say ourselves. But i believe the setting to be very effective to what we are trying to achieve within the trailer and using the setting well would allow us to do this successfully.

 This is a view of the outside of the factory and already you sense the presents of the building doesn't feel right. The area that the factory is located in is also very effective as you can see the surrounding trees and bushes with the hill in the background making the whole place look disturbing. Throughout the trailer we want to give the effect of to even enter this place would be very risky and dangerous and i believe images like this will achieve this effect.

Final magazine

 

This is my final poster design. I wanted the layout of the magazine to appear conventional but still grab the audiences attention which is why i chose the red tinted colour for my background image. I beleive the image conveys the idea of an horror based magazine, however their would be a certain theme colour and imagery used for different types of genre as i didn't want my magazine to aim for just horror. The group came to a conclusion that "IGNITION" was the name of the mast head we would use for our magazines as we thought it not only looked appealing but had a meaning we wanted to show throughout the magazine itself. This would be the beggining of something new or powerful in the world of films, to give a unique feel to our magazine.

For the colour scheme on the cover iused only two colours,red and white as i did not want to effect the imagery and the horror presence of the cover. The colour scheme also fits in well with the poster design and gives the film a certain theme to it also. I have used the title of the film that the magazine mainly features in the centre of the cover with a sub heading that reads "Fear the Unknown" leaving mytery to what the film will include and also a qoutation of what the supposive producers of the film said about it and effectivaly used "WATCH" in block capitals at the end of the qoutation to fit in well with title of the film itself.

Another feature that i chose not to include on the front cover of my magazine was a image of a subject and chose to use the scenery of the film trailer which will again achieve the effect of mystery and leaving the story line open, i did however used subjects (the two main characters) in my final poster design. And i wanted to show a difference between the two of ancillery tasks to see which would achieve the best effect on the audience. I have used recent and upcoming films on the front cover which just makes the magazine look it's part and came up with a subheading beneath each title. i seperated the title of each heading using the colour red matching with the mast head of the magazine and white for the information given about the headings. This will boost the appearance of the magazine on a whole and make it look conventional to proffesional magazines such as "Empire".

One aspect that i perhaps would have included on the front cover is using seperate images of perhaps subjects of the film trailer or the scenery to give more of an insight, however i thought the placement of the images did not fit in well with the rest of the magazine and one image by itself leaves the film open to what meaning it has and persuade the audience to want to read on.

Magazine names

After the analysis of alternative magazines we were able to come up with a better suitable name for the magazine than "END". We made some suggestions to what to name the magazine and gave them all the same design. Giving each the same design allowed us identify which was most suitable to go on the magazine.

Instead of concentrating on what words would look best on the magazine, it was a matter of the meaning of the word and if it could be recognised easily, which would be supported by the design used around the magazine name suggestions. Such as the film magazine "Total Film" it establishes what the magazine is all about using those two words and it's easy to remember and the name bases that the magazine can be based on any film genre. It also incorporates the word total into the word film making it look more advertising and professional.

Empire achieves a similar effect but uses a different word to get across the same overall meaning of what the magazine is all about. The word Empire for example means a large amount of something in this case it will be based on magazines, so an empire of magazines is the idea given across the chosen name for this successful film magazine company and still continues to be just as successful today.These are some of the names we came up with for our own magazine;

• Catalyst - Definition of this word is something that causes an event to happen or starts a reaction. which links in with horror genre leaving mystery. This gives the impression that something must cause the events that happen therefor having the same effect with the films based in our magazine. This name could suggest that events that happen in the audience lives are trivial in comparison to whats in store in the magazine.

• Requiem - This was more based on the trailer storyline itself rather than a magazine name, as we thought of the song "Requiem for a Dream" which is a fast pace soundtrack that could be played for our trailer, however it seemed this magazine name could also be suggested as a name for the film the magazine features itself.

•  Ignition - This is my personal favourite and i believe it best to be suited for the magazine itself, as it suggest the beginning of  something which could be as powerful as a fire and i want the magazine to suggest that it's the beginning of something which will have a powerful effect on the audience. This also goes well with the design we used for each masthead a it is a distinct red colour that stands out and ignition also reminds me of the colour red or something bright. 

•  Sentinel - Sentinel means the protection of ones being or object, and although the word has a good meaning it doesn't really fit in well with a magazine name. We don't want to give the impression that each copy should be protected but have a name that will display what the magazine is about and what the audience can enjoy reading.

•  Anthem - An anthem is an uplifting form of song or a composition of music, which is normally used in celebration of a certain group of people, or type of people. This effect could give of a similar effect but on the bases of film, so a celebration for films and suggests it's all about enjoyment making it a suitable name.

This is the design we used for each mast heading using photo shop. You can easily identify the names such as, "Requiem" and "Ignition" where the characters are close together are the most effective and don't make the magazine look tacky or off putting. The font used looks very professional and it's how i would a magazine masthead to look.

Magazine ideas

 

These are a couple of drats i created of my magazine cover, this gave me a good idea of what i wanted the final design to look like and include. The group already decided on the name "Ignition" for the magazine mast head therefor i was able to find a suitbale placement for it on my drafts and see what the title would appeal like spread out or to one side as displayed in the drafts. These drafts show a supposive subject image to be used in the background which is considered as conventional in proffesional magazines, however i have already used this convention in my poster and since the magazine's main focus was on the same film i want to show a different outlook of the trailer to give a better insight, from a posters point of view and a magazines. This ment that i would consider using a setting of the main location we filmed at for our trailer to give the best insight of what the film itself would include and leave a sense of mystery. 

I also gave each draft a seperate box for a different image to be displayed in as it is used alot in other proffesional magazines and i want to achieve that same look for my own. The use of bar codes in the drafts is the same reason why i chose to use them. I placed the bar codes in different locations on each of the drafts to get a good idea of what would appeal best for my final magazine which i could easily identify using these two drafts. I wanted to display the main focus of the magazine, which would be our own film trailer "Watcher" either to the centre of the magazine or to the left hand side with nearly the same size font as the mast head to emphisize the titles importance and that it would be the main focus within the magazine. The lines representing writing were used just to give me a good idea of the place of where i wanted each bit of information and i would concentrate on what each subheading and headings would actual say when it comes to the final design.

Final poster

 

This is the image I'm going to use for my poster design and what it looks like before i edited it. I like the contrast of light coming through the gap of where the window would be placed and darkness behind the characters and also the composition of the characters themselves. This gives the impression that the location where the two characters are standing is a dark horrific place and only darkness awaits you there. It's as if the two characters are looking out to freedom, but can't live it any longer and their trapped not in the building itself but in their own minds of freeing themselves of what they have seen in this place. 

The film is all about the "Watcher" and as this image only shows the two supposing main characters of the film it leaves mystery as what the story behind these two characters are and make the audience want to know more about not only them but the "Watcher" itself.I have used the setting of the factory which gives an insight to what the trailer will include and compliment what the trailer is about.

The main image display was to narrow therefor i placed the image on a A4 background which i then just coloured black to fit well with the border of the original image. I used the brush tool on photo shop C5 to then blend in the image with the black background and appeal as one singular image. I made it look as if the black was surrounding the two characters to give the idea of a trapping effect closing in on them but not give the effect of the setting trapping them, but being trapped within their own minds because of the setting and and the image itself leaves the suggestion of what the plot behind the film itself to be mysterious and make the audience want to know why they are trapped in their own minds because of this place and events.

I thought the blue sky from the original image didn't really give a horror feel to the poster so i changed the colour of the sky to red, resembling, blood, danger which was surrounded by the colour black representing death from the border as if that's all that awaits the two characters in the poster. I also changed the colour of the scenery displayed out the window pain to black and white which matched better with the background and gave more emphases on the red sky colour resulting in the main effect i wanted to achieve with this poster. There was also a gap in the wall at the top left of the original image which i just covered again using the brush tool to fit in with the background and make the poster look better on a whole.

 

Next step was adding the title "Watcher" to the poster, the name of the film itself which the group decided on. I chose to place the title at the top and centre of the window pane as it's where the audience would look first and realise what their actually looking at before analysing what the poster was trying to display. I wanted to make sure the font was bold and stood out from the rest of the poster which is why i gave the title a unique tribal appearing design, focusing on the letter "T" of the which symbolises/ resembles the film. I also gave each letter a etched out effect leaving printings of black and white with each lettering again giving the poster a unique appearance and give the sense of the word crumbling and look as if it had an evil presence. I chose to colour the title red as it went well with the lighter red used for the sky and stood out giving the effect of the "Wacther" being dominant over the two characters and give a sense that their being watched in the poster itself.

 

 This is my final poster design which i am overall very pleased with, as i believe i got the effect i was aiming to achieve throughout the poster and made it appear highly proffesional by adding conventional aspects. e.g logo, credits. Throughout the group we made our credits appear very simular as it is what mostly if not all alternative proffesional poster have used and we wanted to give that appeal within our own designs. By this i mean giving the names that the film features bigger font sizes and the film itself, the compant and the date a bigger font and a different colour that matches with the title used showing it to be important information. However what i did not include on this poster was a possible website that could have been displayed in the bottom right of the poster however it still remains to achieve the ffect i wanted throughout the design as a whole.

Poster logo

Symbol

The symbol is kept rather simple and the bracket looking border would keep the company name inside keeping it separate from the poster design and so the audience knows immediately what the particular symbol and words inside will represent.

Using red for the letter "i" the word "SOLiTARY" and making the rest of the letters capitals i believe will be an easy way to identify this particular company.         

After making the design of main focus, being the symbol and the word solitary for the company to be identified easily. I added Film Production to make the logo look more professional and make the final outcome of the poster design look better on a whole.

This logo is an alternative which i came up with to be used on our poster design. However Jack, in our group already came up with a suitable and i believe more effective logo to be used on our poster designs. the example is displayed below.

In order to make this logo Jack first made an outline box with black border, then used the white rectangle to add a black separation line for a partition. He used a calligraphy brush tool to draw the character T and then smudged the edges to give it a dynamic, moving, bloody effect.
He then added the "filmcorp" text into the right hand side of the partition to show the company credited name. After this he dublicated the text and rasterized the layer so that It could successfully be reflected, and then used the smudge tool again to create a water effect reflection to finalize the logo.

Again giving the poster an logo makes it look more proffesional and allows it to look better on a whole.

Poster Ideas

 

For my poster design i aimed to achieve the best image that won't give to much away about the supposing film it self but still leave a sense of mystery. And i believe this image captures this effect. The surroundings of the image is dark giving little away which is controversial in a horror based poster. The main focus of the image is vaguely displayed which could lead onto anything or anywhere, creating that sense of mystery, and i want the image to convey well with the chosen title of the film, "Watcher" which gives the audience little to take from but understand a general idea. 

The image is looking down on the audience making the opening, creating mystery which will predominately make the audience feel rather overcome by fear of the unknown. I took the image in the main setting of the trailer to display a sense of realism, this also gave me more understanding of the film itself and what the main aim i was to achieve. 

 

This was my first draft of the poster design drawn by hand which give me the idea of different options i could use for my final poster. I wanted to convey the idea of the "Wacther" looking over the characters in the film where an image would be displayed in the mystic ball the figure is holding. This would make it out that the figure was dominant over the characters and the shadow effect used for the image draws the feeling of darkness overcoming the characters. The title of the poster i believe will change as the storyboard develops to a word more suitable to the purpose of the film.

Final Storyboard

Scene 1:
Start in a car, driving down the bank of the Fish Quay
Diagetic sound is playing (from music in the car)
Camera pans right slightly to show the Factory from a low shot and the shot turns to high contrasted black and white
Music slows down slightly and gets low pitched

Voiceover/Narrative text flashes on and off

Scene 2:
Car door shuts
Flash of some birds flying
Flash of a speeded up POV shot of entering the factory
Sam lands in the snow from the other side of the fence
Jack and sam walk towards the factory
Narrative text flashes on and off

Scene 3:
Walk straight past a keep out sign and climb into the Factory
POV shot from Jack and Sams point of view as they walk down the first corridoor
WATCHER view with colour accent shot on the tripod from behind a beam.
Jack and Sam hear a loud bang from behind so they turn around and the camera pans straight past the Watcher who is behind a beam

Scene 4:
Sam asks for the camera and they swap
As soon as they turn round the Watcher has moved to the beam directly behind them
They both run out terrified and agree to never visit again

Scene 5:
Shows Jack/Sam brushing their teeth and they get a nosebleed
Flashes of the Factory
Shows them getting off the metro and the Watcher is out of focus far in the background
They walk through some trees and the Watcher is shown in the background again in every shot
Jack and Sam continue to keep quiet about what is happening to them and that they are always being followed whether they know it or not

Scene 6:
Shows inside the Factory with two burnt dolls surrounded by lit candles, dolls have sharp objects inside them and the Watcher is seen in the shadows

Scene 7:
Jack and Sam arm themselves to return to the Factory and destroy whatever is causing these events
When they get there, a line of candles leads down the corridoor to the same place the flash of the dolls are, the dolls are now hanging from the wall.
They hear laughs and then nothing.
Candles go out.
Watcher appears as music is fast paced and everything goes black
We see Jack and Sam leave the factory covered in blood but seem to be absolutely fine
They then both drop to their knees
A narrative scene is then flashed onto the screen again

Storyboard draft

These are the first initial ideas we came up with for our story board of the trailer. Aspects throughout the ideas may change andmay be continued.

• Scene 1: 
• begin with driving in a car (Camping trip) - Diegetic sound (upbeat) - Camara displaying different destinations out the window -  Actors explaining how good the trip will be (Text fade in then fade out)

• Scene 2: 
• Setting up camp (headlights shine on us) - (Holywell) fade in fade out - man in the background actors turn and the figure of the man is gone (Text fade in and fade out)

• Scene 3: 
• Walking up hill, POV of man looking at us, actors turn around and see the man running and hear a noice (Text fade in and fade out)

• Scene 4: 
• Actor come out at the top of the hill using a low angle shot behind actors displaying top of the abandoned factory and view of the forest

• Scene 5: 
•  Display the inside of the factory with dolls burnt and paranormal activity occurs spooking the actors. laughing noise run out.

• Scene 6: 
• One actor whilst brushing teeth has a nose bleed, build up of fast pase music to build tension strange events occur in different areas such as the metro etc giving the idea of the characters being followed.

• Scene 7:  
• Brushing teeth (nose bleeds)/ mirror refeltion activity. Fast pase dramtic music.

• Scene 8:
• Get the idea of being followed. 
• occurances on metro and different locations.

• Scene 9: 
• Back to factory find the root of the problems 
• Camara pointing at us with a shadow behind 
• Suspence fade to black with a cliff hanger ending 

Questionnaire draft

These are an example of the initial ideas the group came up with for a questionnaire in order to get other students feedback to take into account while creating the different aspects of the project.

Questionnaire:
1. Male or female?

2. Age 16-17 18+

3. What is your most preffered genre?

4. What style of horror do you prefer? (e.g Creepy, Paranormal, Goury)

5. What colour scheme do you suggest relating to the horror genre?

6. Can you come up with any suitable titles for a horror film?

7. Would you like to see a series of poster or just a single one on it's own?

8. What would you like to see on a horror poster?

9. Would you recconmend a house style used throughout the project?

10. What age group would you recommend this particular horror should appeal to?

11. Should the poster be toned down to appeal to a younger audience?

These questions were all asked to allow the group to have a arsenal of information relating to mainly the poster design as we felt feedback from other would be most helpful and could take ideas from the poster to even inspire when creating the trailer it self.

Questionaire results

• The class is split up into nearly even numbers which gave us unbiased results. This is very beneficial as there will be a variety of information giving more ideas for our ancillary tasks and the trailer itself.

                                   

• The average age group is seventeen, therefor it would be suitable for our target audience to aim at 16+. And use the information given from the questionnaires aiming to include every aspect of it.

• From the results you can identify that paranormal and creepy are the main vocal points of what genre the horror trailer would best be suitable for. What you can also notice is that these particular categories of horror genre are mostly used in the modern films today and that it must be achieving the best effect on the audience and it gives us a chance to be more clever about the dilemma in the trailer rather than making it violent and gory.

•  From the results black and red are the colours with the most preference which is conventional in most horror based magazine covers, posters etc. And in order to achieve getting the best out of the trailer and ancillary tasks it's deemed we don't brake the traditional colours, representing blood, gore and death.



                                   

•   The majority of people would prefer to see a series of poster rather than a single one, however i feel that having a series of posters of characters, locations and other aspects of the film will give to much away, as just having the poster will leave mystery and keep the storyline open, which is what i want this horror poster to achieve.

                          

  

• No surprise with the results here really, to get the best out of why you want the film trailer to achieve and what the horror is all about however our trailer particularly is a phychological horror based theme meaning the images will be more eary and leave mystery rather than in your face gory and disturbing. 

Questionnaire Final Draft

1. Are you – Male Female

2. Age – 16-17 18+

3. What style of horror do you prefer? (May tick more than one)
- Gory
- Paranormal
- Ghost
- Creepy
- Sci-fi
- Comedy

4. What colour scheme do you suggest for a horror themed genre?

.................................................................................................................................................

5. Are there any suitable titles you can suggest for a horror film?

..................................................................................................................................................

6. Would you prefer to see a series of posters or just one on its own?

..................................................................................................................................................

7. Should there be a house style throughout the project, if so why?

..................................................................................................................................................

8. Should the poster be toned down for a younger audience?
Yes No

9. Which name do you believe is best suited for the magazine?
- Catalyst
- Anthem
- Requiem
- Sentinel
- Inertia
- Ignition

Total Film magazine cover

 

The background used in this particular magazine cover not only Incorporates the mast head "Total Film" into the city, as if the buildings form letters. It presents an birds eye view of a city which relates with the film the magazine mainly basis on, and for the bottom half of the background uses a landscape view of the city with what we presume the main character of the film to be standing. The use of blue faded colour allows the two separate images to blend in together and give the image a aura making it the main focus. This puts emphasize on importance and purpose this character may serve and make the audience want to know about him and the film.

This magazine also sticks to the house colour used in most Total Film magazines, red and white. Also a colour which that would best be used for the main film being presented, for this cover particularly it uses silver. This blends in well the background colour used and stands out on top of the mans black suit. Instead of using the word plus, which allot of alternative magazines use, is a Plus sign itself. This makes the magazine look more professionally done and look more presentable as the audience can easily identify what is meant by the symbol.

The colour red is used to present the information that will make the audience want to read on and also for an adjective "Mind-blowing" which is used twice throughout the cover. This sums up not only the 27 films it presents in the context but, as it sticks out as being red it can be meant for the main film included on the cover. 

The way the man is dressed is also an aspects the audience must take in. Formal wear of the character suggest action, drama and it looks as if the man is concentrating on something we are unaware off and makes the audience think why this facial expression is being made. Also notice the gun he is holding, why? well that's for the audience to find out.

Empire Magazine Cover

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media.The first issue was published in 1989. It is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain. 

The first aspect that stands out with this magazine is the image used of "Iron Man". The image looks directly at the camera, drawing the audience in, which they can easily identify as Iron Man. The image also covers up part of the masthead, "Empire" which they are able to achieve as the magazine is so well known. The word "Empire" it self is presented with an added lighting effect for the letters, suggesting this particular magazine issue to focus the genre of action and fits along well with Iron Mans device in the centre of his body. This style also goes well with the colour of writing used for sub headings, blue and white.  

Alternative magazines tend to use a realistic background taken from the film itself that the image is being represented from, however this magazine uses the single image to cover the whole background leaving small space above the image for the colour theme, blue and black to add the house colour of the magazine itself, thus allowing the image to stand out and achieve a better effect of drawing the readers in. 

This magazine also incorporates words into a white background in a different font from the rest of the magazine cover and uses bullet points to keep the headings separate. The words chosen, "New Suit", "New Enemies" and "Same Attitude" have a great effect, as each heading is Incorporated with the film which effect the magazine cover has decided to use. This makes it look more professionally done and presentable to the audience. The exclusives of the magazine are all placed in boxes each containing a image of the film for the audience to easily identify and small quantity of information to make the audience want to read on.