Planning

The narrative of my film that I will be taking clips from will as follows: 

The film will begin with the main character waking up in their house as they normally would. I have chosen to begin the film here rather than when everyone lived in the city to make the film a mystery to the audience aswell. The main character will get ready as usual but begin to notice certain things such as the quietness of the world around them and the fact that the TV for example is showing a fuzzy black and white screen and won't work. I will include this in my trailer as a way of introducing the equilibrium and storyline. Then they will leave there house and take a walk to the shop where they will notice more strange occurrences such as the lack of people and the deserted way some of the cars look. This will also be included to give the audience a sense of the desertedness and allow them to see that a disruption has occurred. The film would then develop into more detail about how the shop is open but empty and they would see smashed windows and stained walls however, I won't include these events as they're extra detail that is not necessary for the trailer. The story would then develop into the main character seeing a shadow or dark cloaked figure but then as they look away and then look back it will have disappeared. Then upon inspection of an abandoned car they will feel the figure looking down on them causing them to run away in fright. This again would show more disruption and a montage of sequences similar to these will be used in my trailer to build excitement but not give much away. The main character would then be in a field hiding where they would begin wondering what is going on and where everyone is and how they can save themself. The film would then develop showing encounters with the figure and the character becoming stronger and exploring more around the city of which I will show certain shots of. This will be the characters attempt to repair the disruption. The film would end with the main character understanding what has happened and defeating the cloaked figures whilst on a mission to find and help everyone from the city. I will show none of this as I won't want to give too much away in the trailer. 

To complete my trailer I will need to use the following equipment:  

I will use this hand held panasonic HDC-SD40 camcorder. This will be what I will film my trailer on and I will borrow it from my media classroom. 

In order to make my filming look professional I will put the camera onto a tripod. This will ensure my filming is steady and give it a high production value. I can borrow a tripod from the media department at my college. 

When editing my movie I will use apple iMovie as I think it is good software that can do everything I need (e.g editing shots, sounds, colours) and I have also had previous experience with it and believe I would be able to edit a well done trailer on it. I can access iMovie on the apple computers at college. 

When it comes to the print pieces (the film poster and film magazine) I will use my iphone 5s to take the images as it produces very good quality images and is always easily available to me. I can also then easily upload my images to a computer to edit.

In order to edit and produce my film magazine front cover and film poster I will use photoshop to edit colours and add text and images. This will be available to me on computers at my college. 

I have never before used photoshop and so if I decide to use it as my editing software for my film poster and magazine it is important that I have a basic idea of what to do on it before I explore and find out more for myself. I have found these two videos online which have taught me how to add text onto the picture which will be an essential part of the editing process. I've also learnt some of the many ways there is the edit and change the colours of a picture.  

This is the model release form I got I got the cast in my trailer to sign. I only have 1 character in the trailer and therefore Ellie is the only one who had to sign and agree for me to film her and photograph her for my main and ancillary tasks. 

This is Ellie who I have used as my actress. I thought she was a good fit for the trailer as I had lots of positive feedback about the idea of using a female and also a lot of suggestions about using someone young who would be stereotypically more scared which would create a more exciting and tense trailer.  

This is where my trailer starts with Ellie waking up in her bedroom. 

I also am going to film in the house such as in the kitchen to allow the film to look realistic as Ellie will be going about her day getting ready and having breakfast. 

I will film parts of my trailer outside in places such as fields, streets, parks and alleyways to show the emptiness of the city. Also, alleys and fields can be seen as quite scary places to be which will add to the thriller element of the trailer.

I will also use this garage door in part of my trailer in order to produce a loud bang and create fear in my audience. 

Flash Card Deck created by Emily Proctor with GoConqr

This is what Ellie will be wearing at the start when she first wakes up and is in her house getting ready. I have chosen this outfit as its casual and would be a typical outfit for someone to wear for just chilling around their house.  

This is what Ellie will be wearing during the outside shots in the trailer. I have chosen this outfit as it looks very casual which is important as she starts in the morning just getting ready to go to the shop. I have also chosen her to wear black which is a conventional colour in thriller.  

I will be using my car as a prop in the trailer as the idea of having it abandoned in the street is a key way to show that some kind of disruption has happened.  

I will also use ketchup as a prop in my trailer in order to make a hand print that looks like blood. I think ketchup will work well as it is the same kind of colour and I can film this shot in the evening while it's quite dark so that it will be harder to tell that it isn't actually blood.

I will be using a phone as a prop as Ellie will use the phone as her alarm and also to call her friend in part of the trailer.

I will also be using a radio which will be the first sign that something weird had happened as Ellie will be unable to get signal on it.

When considering what music to include in my trailer I first decided to look at examples of what existing trailers have. Here are some examples. 



This is the trailer for the film prisoners. It starts off with no music, just the diagetic sound of dialogue and sound effects. However, when the story develops and the girls go missing non-diagetic music starts to play from then until the end. The music makes a beating sound and creates a suspense atmosphere. This is the only music track played. 




This is the trailer form the film The Hunger Games. The music in this trailer starts off as being quite slow paced and calm and relaxing. As Primrose's name is chosen and Katniss volunteers the music changes slightly to become dramatic as her and Peter make start their journey of being in the hunger games. When the countdown begins and they enter the arena the music silences to dramatise them entering and creates a tense atmosphere. Then when the numbers reach 1 a short fast paced piece of music is played to connote the action that is about to begin in the film as the hunger games start.

Just like the hunger games trailer, I am also going to include many different types of music. I want the pace of the music to change as action builds up and tension is created. I will also include silent parts which will accompany shots that are used to put the audience on the edge of there seat and build suspense. I like how in the prisoners trailer the soundtrack was quite plain with just a simple beating noise and so may try to include something plain like this in my trailer as I believe it built up a lot of tension. Here are some sound examples I have found.  




I will try to use more than one soundtrack as it's what my target audience want. Which ones I use will depend on what I believe works best with the action that will be seen on screen. 

I will also use sound effects such as a sound coming from the infected character and will enhance sounds such as car alarms, twigs and foot steps. These sound effects will make the my trailer look much more professional and add excitement to the film. Here are some examples of sound effects I may use. 



This is the sound of a car alarm that I will use for when Ellie see's the car abandoned in the middle of the street. 



I will use sounds such as a twig snapping within the montage of shots of Ellie as she becomes scared about sounds she hears around her. 



I'll use this sound when Ellie is first waking up and trying to watch tv or listen to music to show how she can't get signal which will be when she first realises that something is wrong and a bit strange. 


I'll use the sound of footsteps to connote how Ellie isn't alone and that some kind of creature is following behind her. 



I will also need to create a sound that the creatures will make when she see's them. These are two possible noises that Ellie may hear them make throughout the trailer. 

I have found all of these examples on copyright-free music website called freesound. 

Here is the storyboard I have created showing what the camera shot will look like on each shot, approximately how long the shot will last and an explanation of what will be happening on the shot. 

   

For  my ancillary products, the film poster and film magazine front cover, I have been using my past research and also looking at other examples to gain ideas about what the images should look like and what kind of text and other pictures I should include.Here are some film magazine front covers. 

 

Just like these, I will be making my magazine front cover an Empire magazine front cover. All the magazines use the same font and size for the EMPIRE title and all but 1 are in the conventional red colour. Sometimes the magazine name is in front of the main image and sometimes it is behind. On these examples it is in front where the main image is a close up shot. All of them have a main image ad the title of the film the main image is from is easily seen on 6/8 of them. All main images are between close up and medium long shot and all rather plain just showing the main character with a few also featuring props and other characters. Many of them also have smaller images advertising other films and headlines explaining what can be found inside the magazine. After looking at these conventions I have come up with the following ideas for my film magazine front cover: 

 

Here are some examples of film posters. 

The images on these range from close ups to long shots many of which show multiple characters. They include more of an insight into the genre of the film as more props and locations are shown compared to the film magazine images. All show the title and many also have smaller tag lines on them. Each film title has its own font which is branded and recognised as being related to that particular film. A lot also show other writing such as actors names and when the film comes out. After looking at these I have designed some of my own film poster ideas. 

This is the shooting script for my trailer: 

Here is the weather forecasts of the 2 days we are hoping to film on: 

This is a table showing what I plan to film on what day and what time: 

When thinking of a title for my production, I believe there are 4 main words, one of which should be included within the title. I think it is key that one is included as they give an idea as to what the film is about, a girl alone and isolated within an abandoned deserted place. 

 

This idea led me onto these title ideas: 

 

My favourite of these is you're never alone as I think it sounds quite creepy which is good as I believe my film idea of a girl alone with strange mysterious creatures is also quite creepy. It's also short which I think makes it memorable. 

All trailers have credits and titles in for example, the film title, a tag line, actors names, release date etc.. I also want to include credits in my trailer and so need to start by looking at where abouts to place them, in what order and what credits to include. 

Here is the trailer for The Martian which I have looked at as an example.

This trailer, like all others contains credits and titles. The first title to be seen is the production and distribution companies logos and names that have been involved in the making of the film. Next is the directors name which is seen as the trailer shows what the main story to the film is, a man surviving alone on Mars trying to contact home and get help.  As the trailer develops and he contacts home more credits are shown. The main characters name is shown followed by titles explaining how the film is based on a novel. The release date is shown next and then the title of the film and a tag line ends the trailer. Other actors and producers names are then shown afterwards followed by the release date again and the advertisement that the film will be in 3D.

Throughout the trailer the titles are written not over the film, but on a dark background that separates the action in the trailer. 

Although these are the typical conventional titles to be shown in a trailer, they arent always shown in the same order. For example, in this trailer for Jurassic World, we see some of the film before the production company and the release date is next to be seen shortly followed by a tag line for the film. Also, clips from the film continue being played after the title is shown. 

After looking at these examples I now have more of an idea of what titles to include, when to show them and how they should be shown in my trailer. 

When taking pictures for my magazine front cover and film poster I made sure to take a few pictures which were all very similar but varied in some way. Here are a few of my favourites for each ancillary product and my reasons behind the ones I chose to use in my final piece.  

These are two of my favourite pictures from the many I took. I chose to take ones of Ellie facing both towards the camera and away from the camera. I thought the setting I chose was very appropriate for the genre of the film and the trees and dead leaves on the floor also represent the loneliness and death from the creatures within the city. I also like how the lighting is quite dark, again connoting the thriller genre. Having the picture as a medium close up is conventional of magazine covers and so I chose to follow this convention. I wanted Ellie facial expression to give the audience a hint about the film and I believe I achieved this as she looks very scared and worried about the situation.  

This is the picture I have chosen for my film magazine front cover. I chose this one because I think that the way she is looking connotes that she is perhaps looking right at the creature. I preferred this idea as apposed to her looking towards the camera as I believe it's much creepier. 

These are my three possible pictures for my film poster. Like the magazine I think Ellie's facial expression again represents her as looking very scared as she stares at the blood hand print. The shots all also tie in well with the trailer as this is a location which is used. Although they all represent the original plan I had, they all differ slightly in how close to the camera Ellie is and the lighting (the flash). I chose to take a few different ones so that when I edited on photoshop I had a choice and could decide which one looked better once titles were added and colours were changed. 

I have chosen this one as I like how it is natural and dark as apposed to the flash in the second image. It represents the fact that Ellie is alone as the flash connotes someone else is there. Also, having the picture as less of a close up means that I will have more room to add text without covering up anything important (e.g Ellie's face or the blood hand print) 

In order to create my poster and magazine cover I used photoshop. I used the online tutorials I previously found in order to edit the colouring of my image and to add text. Here are some of the editing processes I did in order to create my final products. 

TEXT

For a lot of the text I added onto my designs I wanted to use the dead font walking font that I had found and used in my trailer. In order to use this I had to type my text on the website, screenshot it and then add it to my image. The problem with this was that I that had a white background around the text. In order to remove this I had to first use the magic wand tool which removed the majority of it. I then had to carefully go round each letter using either the rubber or the black brush in order to transform the typography from what it looks like in the top picture to its final look which is in the bottom picture. 

MAGAZINE CONVENTIONS 

On my magazine cover I added the conventions that are found on all/most Empire magazines. First I copied the magazine title and again used the magic wand tool and rubber to remove the white background from around the letters.

 I then copied a barcode from the internet and added this onto my magazine. I then used the font tool on photoshop to write out a date and price for the magazine. Originally i had the date and price below the barcode:

However, after further research magazines I found how placing it around the M in the Empire title was much more common. 

 The final thing I did which is conventional of magazines was to add a section advertising other films/ actresses that are included in the magazine. In my first draft I added a strip along the bottom in Empires conventional red colour and used the buzz word more. The advertised things were an interview with Jennifer Lawrence and an article about Ride Along 2. I wrote this using a white font on photoshop. 

I then decided that this red strip didn't look as professional as I originally wanted it to look. I therefore changed it to a white rectangular box going along the bottom of the magazine. I changed the sub images to films and actors relating to the thriller genre as this allowed me to advertise the magazine as a special thriller edition. I also changed the word more to a plus symbol as this was seen to be quite common on many of the magazines I looked at. I changed the typography to a thicker font to make it stand out more and placed it on dark red boxes over the top of the images. This red colour is the same as the plus sign. I believe its a good colour choice as it represents the thriller genre and may also connote blood. 

FILM POSTER CONVENTIONS 

A convention of film posters is to include a billing block which includes actors, peoples and companies names who were responsible for the making, production and distribution of the film. I have tried my best to create my own billing block on my poster and also included the logo's for the companies which is often also seen. The top image is my first draft however I thought that the typography was too big and didn't look like the conventional billing block. I also added the dolby logo as after more research I found how this was conventional of many posters. 

Having the release date or the words coming soon is another main convention of posters as they let the audience know either the release date or if it says coming soon it creates an initial interest in the new film and so they find and watch the trailer and find out more about it to decide if they would like it and go to see it when it comes out.  

I change the font and colouring of coming soon into the red colour that I used on my magazine and other parts of my poster and a font that I believe looked more professional. After having a second look at film posters I saw how the font of the release date was often quite a plain simple font. For this reason I changed mine from my chosen dead font walking font on dafont to a more simpler font that I found on photoshop. 

A tag line is another convention of films. They help to emphasis the film and give you a clue as to what could happen. For instance, in my case Ellie wakes up and thinks that she is alone to begin with until she see's the creature. The tag line also aims to be rememberable to the audience meaning it has to be quite short and snappy, which I believe mine is. I also used my dead font walking font which is my main font on all three products. I placed it at the top of my posters as it links on to the film title.

The final convention is to include the title. My title was placed towards the bottom of my poster as it is to be read after the tag line as a follow on. I did the title in large lettering in my chosen font so that it is large to stand out to the audience. 

I kept the lettering of the title and tag line in the same place and font however changed the colour into my chosen dark red colour. I also made the tag line slightly smaller to ensure that the tile is the biggest most eye-catching part. 

COLOURING 

This shows the colour change on my original magazine draft. Once I had all of my text in place I then experimented changing the brightness and contrast of my background image so that it looked professional, thriller like and also so that the text stood out as much as possible. The top picture is the original and after trying a few different things I decided that the bottom picture is  how I want my image to look. I think that the whiteness of her face creates a cold atmosphere which represents fear and the thriller genre. I also think that having the picture brighter allows the film title to stand out more against her black coat. 

I also changed the colouring on the poster and made it brighter so that the black title and tag line stand out more but the shot is still dark connoting thriller and creating a scary atmosphere.

In my final design I changed the colours again as it was less important for the title to stand out as I changed it to a red colour. On my final draft it was more important for the blood on the door to stand out and so I edited the contrast of my image which made the blood look much brighter against the door. 

FONT

For the typography on the poster and magazine that I did, using the fonts on photoshop I tried to choose ones that looked professional and also looked similar to the fonts used on real life magazines and posters. For my billing block I chose a small white font as this is conventional of billing blocks as although they are important to be on there, they aren't the main thing that needs to stand out to the audience. I used many different fonts for they typography on my magazine as this was seen to be a typical convention of the Empire magazines. I used ones which I believed looked professional and were easy for an audience to read. I stuck to the colour scene of having black and white lettering and often placed a box around the typography to make it stand our further.  

TITLE 

On the first draft of my magazine cover I originally had the title of the film in black. I chose this colour as I throughout that the fact that it was dark represented the thriller genre. However, after reviewing my magazine cover I decided that even through I had brightened the background image, the black lettering still didn't stand out well against the colour of Ellies coat and the dark floor behind her. I then started exploring what other colours I could make my title so that it still represented the thriller genre and matched in well with the colour scheme of my magazine. I decided that a dark red would work best as it's often associated with blood and thrilling and also, as the Empire title is a different shade of red, it fits in nicely with the colour scheme. This red colour is the same colour that I used for the plus and boxes on top of my sub images. I also changed the positioning of the film title from the bottom right to in the centre. I felt this would catch the audiences eye more as it is central, will draw attention the the title and image and also the red colour will be more eye catching. 

I chose to also change the colour on my title on my film poster from black to the same red colour as my magazine. I thought that this not only allowed it to stand out more and be more eye catching but it also helped me to create brand identity as having them the same colour and font would allow my audience to recognise that they are promoting the same film. 

SUBHEADING 

I changed the subheading on my magazine in order for it to promote a special thriller issue rather than saying it's action packed. I also changed it to "our" rather than "the" as I found this was more conventional and it helps explain the magazine itself. I added a white box around the subheading to make it stand out more against the dark background. I also made the edges of the box distorted as I believe it looks better and promotes the thriller genre more. 

FILM MAGAZINE 

Here is my first and final draft of my magazine cover. You can see all the changes I have made and how effective and better they look together on a whole. I stuck to the same kind of colours, and headings but made changes to increase its production value and make it look more professional. 

 

FILM POSTER 

I also did a first and final draft of my film poster. To start with I felt that some parts such as the colouring could be improved. I therefore changed the brightness and contrast of my main image, which allowed the blood hand prints to stand out more, and also changed the colour of some of my text to make it more eye catching and easily readable. Other changes I made were to make my poster look more professional and to follow the conventions such as with the billing block the coming soon. Here is my first and final draft showing all of the changes I have made together.