Finished trailer and ancillaries

Trailer:


Poster and magazine:

Organisation: Conventions of the Poster

It is important that my poster includes all the necessary conventions of a typical poster so that it seems professional and actually looks like a movie poster.

As you can see from this photo i have added in the film credits which details all of the people involved in the movie. Although a small touch it something that really pulls the whole poster together making it look like a professional poster. As well as this i also added in the release date, the URL and the logo of the company that distributed it "studio canal". These are all the small touches that really pull the poster together to give it that 'poster' look.

Here you can see i have added in the title of the film 'Beneath the shadows'. This is so that the audience know what the movie is called. The title also appear part of the colour scheme changing colour. I also added in the tagline "hunt or be hunted". Most posters include the tagline as it is something that promoted for the film and can be a memorable aspect of the film marketing. Just above the title of the film i added in an extra line "what lies..." this was added in as it was a convention i found on another poster for the movie hostiles which just above the movie stated 'we are all..." and then the title. I got inspiration from this as i felt it  fitted well with my storyline and overall design.

Here as you can see i also added in the cast at the top of the poster including the main three actors in the movie. This is so that the audience can see who is in the movie.  Beneath this i also added in three movie reviews from three different companys which entices the audience into the movie as they see that the movie is clearly good and is liked and so they know it would be worth the chance to go see it.






Overall i am really happy with the outcome of the magazine and i believe the conventions that i have added are all correct and effective.

Drafting and planning: Adding Movie reviews.

Just before i handed in my poster i decided that it would be a good idea to add in some movies reviews in the terms of the star system from three different film companies.  I thought that by adding in this simple convention my poster would be nicely pulled together and then i could be happy as i felt that at the top there was something missing and so by adding this it would finish off the poster.

As you can see from the image to the left i added in three different reviews from 'Empire', 'Total film' and 'sky movies'.  I decided to use these three companies as they are well known companies in the film industry and are easily recognisable and so would add more legitimacy to the poster and also more realism to it.
I also liked the design idea by having the stars follow the colour scheme of the split down the middle of the page which can be seen in the middle as half of the stars are in white then at the split they change to black.


I decided to use the company EMPIRE as this is a well known and trusted movie magazine and reviewer and so they can probably influence what and audience will see  as if they give a movie a good review people will think and know it is a good movie and so will want to watch and will be more inclined to watch it. Furthermore Empire the magazine company that i chose to advertise my movie for my second ancillary product so i thought that it would create a nice link between the ancillary products.

The second company i chose to use to review my movie was TOTAL FILM I decided to use this company for the similar reasons as choosing Empire in that it is a well established company that can probably sway people into watching a movie.

The last movie i chose to review the movie was SKY MOVIES this was a reviewer that was questioned as to why i would use it but after doing something research i found that sky movies would be the perfect choice to review my movie as the movie is a UK produced movie and Sky movies is a movie and broadcaster based in the UK. As well as this i found that a similar combination (Empire, Sky movies, total film) was used for a Uk produced movie called Legend which proved to me that i made the right decision to use these three movies together as they had been used for a similar movie to mine.

As you can see from the poster for the movie 'legend' which is a UK produced movie has used Empire. Total film and also sky movies. This therefore justifies my choices for the companies to review my movie as i can see that that the combination i used has been used before.

Research into similar products: Empire magazine conventions

As i have already decided that Empire magazine will be the company that issues and promotes the movie that i have created. Because of this i thought that it was imperative that i looked into the usual design layout and conventions for a typical Empire magazine.  By doing this i can refer back to the magazine to ensure that i am keeping to the conventions followed by this particular magazine. I used the magazine issue from may 2017. This was done for a variety of reasons one being that the issue is fairly recent so the conventions used will reflect what the magazine now uses in terms of conventions.

Masthead:
Empire magazine most often uses an established font that is recognisable to the audience. Commonly the masthead will be coloured in red which can be seen in the magazine to the left. Furthermore the colour of the masthead for empire can change depending on the house style and the movie that is being advertised.

Cover star:
The shot used for the cover star is usually a medium close up to show the body language and facial reactions of the star. Usually the shot will use direct address so that the star connects with the audience and so encourages them to read it.  If the issue does not use direct address it usually for the design process.

Main cover line: 
This is the main selling point of the issue of the magazine and so is the main attraction. To show this the main cover line will usually be in larger font so that it is easy to see by the audience and catches their eye. It may also be placed away from the rest of the cover lines to allow maximum impact for its issue selling point.

Skyline:
This is placed at the very top of the magazine so that the audience can get an insight into what else is featured in the magazine incase they are not interested in the main story.  It also allows the audience to see how much is featured in the magazine giving them more reason to buy the magazine and entice them into reading the magazine.

Coverlines:
These act as a way to advertise the rest of the big parts of the magazine and show what else is inside the magazine. In a way this works a similar way to the skyline as it shows the reader what else is in the magazine pulling them into wanting to buy the magazine.

Puff:
This is an incentive to make a particular stand out on the rest of the page to signify the importance to the reader and is something that may be exclusive to this issue and possibly this magazine. The most common way that this is done is by putting the text within a shape usually a shape.

Barcode/price/date:
The price and the date of the magazine is always featured above the "M" on the masthead and commonly the barcode will be near the bottom left hand corner. These are basically the finishing touches for the magazine but are still very important to the overall layout of the magazine.

From here i definitely will be referring back this blog post and also these magazines in particular the 'mummy magazine' to see that when my magazine is finished if i have followed the conventions of the empire magazine.

Drafting and planning: Film poster credits

To make my poster look more professional and realistic i though it imperative that i put a credits block at the bottom of my poster to ensure that it looks as much like a poster as possible. At first i tried to create my own using word but without the proper font it just looked messy and unrealistic. 

So from here i started doing my research to try and find a place where i could do and make the credits for the poster. I came across the website "abstract fonts" which had a free download for the font exactly what i needed called "steel tongs". Once i downloaded the font i was able to create my credits for the poster almost immedialty and for free.

STUDIO CANAL FILMS PRESENT A REEVES FILM PRODUCTION A LUKE REEVES FILM “BENEATH THE SHADOWS”

ADAM TOOLEY  PANASHE NYAMACANGA  WITH  BEN WILDSMITH 

cTILLY BOE FARMER dCHARLIE DONOHOE eKAI ALEXANDER fKATIE BROWN bCHLOE KIELY

aTAYLOR MORRIS p JAMES HARRISON jJOE STEVENS aLUKE REEVES (LUKE REEVES

As you can see from above using the font i was able to create a realistic credits block for my movie that i just had to copy over to the poster and i was done. 

As you can see i could perfectly implement the credits block onto the poster and they look exactly like what they should and i believe that by adding the credits block the poster as a whole was improved and looked a lot better and a lot more professional. 

Organisation: Inter titles

One thing that became apparent after i handed in the first draft was that i needed more inter-titles as one i hadn't finished putting them all in and secondly because i was told in my feedback that having more inter titles would help further develop the story and help move the trailer along.  So i thought that by adding in more inter-titles to the trailer i could help tell the audience more about the story and hopefully make it more clearer. To help connect the inter-titles with the rest of the movie i wanted to make them as simple as possible to help blend them in with the rest of the trailer so that their simplicity aids their creepiness and mystery.

So as i said i wanted to make the inter-titles as simple as possible. So simply i just designed them with a black background to go with the title of the film being shadows and also white text to hep them stand out.  Because i added in these inter titles i was able to get rid of some dialogue as i felt that these inter-titles did the job in explaining the movie and creating suspense and mystery around the movie in less the time then a clip would. 

I tried to play on the audiences need and want for information so in my intertitles i tried to draw them with the "and discover" and then make them have to watch the movie to find out what everything is all about with the "the truth" slide.

All of these inter-titles i believe perfectly fit in with my trailer and my film overall as the film is about going beyond what we know and discovering something we never know something that these inter-titles perfectly sum up.

Drafting and planning: influences for my poster

Now that my poster was a good idea i thought that i would be a good idea to go through where i got some of the ideas that appeared on my poster.

As you can see for my poster i got a lot of inspiration from the poster for the movie 'hostiles'. As you can probably see the main piece of inspiration i got from the poster was the use of the split down the middle of the poster and creating two different colour themes on each side and then using the heads of the main characters on the poster as the main piece of information. I felt that this type of design would be perfect for my film idea as my film is all about two different sides the good and the bad and both being connected and so for the protagonist side it was coloured in a brighter and a more stand out colour to represent the good while the antagonist side was coloured in black and white to represent the shadows and the mystery that is going on that side. 

As you can see here i also got inspiration from the hostiles poster in the title. Just at the top of the name of the film there is a little lead in line that states "we are all. . . hostiles" all though the we are all part is not apart of the title is something that just leads into the title as a type of tagline.  So as you can see below i really liked this idea of having a sentence just before the title so i added my own which stated "what lies... beneath the shadows". I felt that by adding the "what lies" part it added more of a suspense to the poster and a added layer of depth and just rounded of the trailer really nicely.

From here i of course added in the basic conventions of a poster in the form of the credits, cast line, release date and a tagline. 

Overall i am very happy with the outcome of my poster and i am very much happy with the inspiration i got for it as it led me to play around with different aspects in the design and allow me to create something truly special and unique that perfectly reflects my the story of my film.

Drafting and planning: Editing done on the POV shot.

When i got the feedback back from our teacher one of the suggestions that i got was that in my POV shot i could add flashing to make it seem as though the POV shot actually looked like someone running through the forest and is tired and so is opening and closing their eyes. When i got this particular feedback i was really happy as it something that i could add that was good and something that would immediately improve the shot and make it more and more realistic.

As you can see above i have now edited the POV shot so that now it looks even more like there is someone walking and panting in the shot as every couple of seconds the shots very quickly fade to black and then fade back again into the scene which helps very much make the scene look like someone is closing and opening their eyes adding to the overall effect of the scene.

As you can see from the image it did not take much effort to implement this editing technique. All i had to do was go to the end of the clip and wait for the little hand to appear and from there all i had to do was drag the hand over a tiny bit to add the effect.

So overall i am very happy with the outcome as it looks exactly like it is supposed to.

Research into potential target audience: Ancillary products: Feedback on poster designs

As i have now created my movie poster i thought that it would be a good idea to see what the reaction  of the target audience so that i could see where i was going right with my poster and also so that i could see where i could improve my poster.  As i wanted to get a more genuine target audience reaction i used the social media site snapchat and asked those on there for their opinion. Before the survey was given i told the people taking the survey the basic plot so that they be able to construct the basic narrative and so see if poster links to narrative of the overall narrative.  The feedback was as followed:

                                   






































This feedback from the audience was very much what i hoped for. The feedback showed me that i was in fact on the right tracks and showed me that my design was good as some feedback showed me that i had been able to match my poster to the narrative: "the left is obviously the protagonist and the right the antagonist.. gives an insight into the characters".  Another aspect that i was happy with was that the audience seemed to like the overall design and the split down the middle showing two different filters for each half of the poster and then having two different text colours which changed depending on the side of the poster they were on.

I was also very happy with the improvements that i was given as some of the improvements i was also aware i needed to do so i was glad it was picked up by others and also improvements that i was not aware of which would help me improve overall and make the best possible poster:

• Work on the faces to make them fit in with the background a bit better.
• Move ben wildsmith more to the centre of the page. 
• Make the 'good' side more colourful such as the grass to help it stand out.

So overall i am very happy with the posters feedback as the audience could clearly get the sense of the narrative and understood the reasoning for the design. Furthermore from here i now know that it is imperative that i go back and try and smooth over the faces a bit better so that they fit in a little bit more and so that the poster is more smooth. 

Organisation Getting music for my trailer

As well as the music that i already have added to the trailer i recently came across a piece of music that not only would fit in with the music i already have and the trailer overall. I wanted to use the piece of music on a particular scene just so that it was more effective and came across alot better then what it does without the music.


Of course because i found the music on youtube i had to try and find out how i could use the music and see if it was free or if there were any terms to using the song.
Sure enough when i looked in the description of the music there was some policy that i would have to abide by to use the song. They were as followed:

As you can see the policy for using this piece of music would allow me to use it. The terms that are required of me are quite simple in the terms that as i am not using the music for commercial gain but instead for course work the music is free but all i have to do is:

• Subscribe to the channel (which as you can see above i have already done so)
• And secondly i need to credit the author and creator of the music which i will do so below.

The music is also free if it is being used for school work which of course it is.


So i fully give credit to "fesliyan studios" for the music. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdEEFrPBkT5WLeRCl2qsEJQ

Now that i can use this piece of music i can now integrate the music into the trailer to help improve the scenes.

Research into similar products: The rite

One thing that liked about this was the main image of the cross. The cross symbolises so many things. Of course the cross it symbolises christianity which is a very deep
and well known thing within the world.  The symbol may symbolise that religion specifically christianity is going to be a focal point of the movie.

One thing that very much stuck out to me from this poster was the extreme close up of the male figure on the poster. The person takes up most of the frame of the  page making sure that when someone looks at the poster they will most defiantly look at him.  I also very much like how the main figure on the poster is looking directly at the camera which means that he is looking at the audience making a connection with them and also making them feel uncomfortable and unnerved.  The colour of the person has also been given a different shade to allow him to stand out but also give the character a demonic and metallic feel to him. I also like how the face is surrounding by darkness so you can only see his face and only his face makes the poster seem more mysterious. The fact that he is positioned within the cross suggests he is involved with something to do with the religion.

The colour used on the poster is also something that i really liked because the old decaying red used on the outside of the cross instantly suggests that this film is a horror and could also suggest that there is going to be blood and gore and this is centred around christianity.

I also very much liked the typography that was used on the poster. They have used a type of old and medieval style. I believe that by having this type of typography the poster comes across as more mysterious and creepy giving it that religious and horror vibe continuity throughout the poster.

Drafting and planning

For my poster design as you already know I wanted to include a feature of having the faces of both my protagonist and antagonist on the poster. However this idea came with a problem. When I inserted the two faces onto the page the two faces looked very out of place and basically looked like floating heads on the page. So I knew that if I wanted to keep this design I would have to find a way of fixing this problem and fade the faces better with the background so that it would look professional.
I then inserted the image into paint.net where I found a cool little feature that enable me to get the design I wanted by fading the photos in with the background:

As you can see when I inserted the face onto paint.net the face looks really unprofessional and looks stuck on.  So when I put the face into its own layer and double clicked I found the solution to the problem

When clicking on the layer I could choose to change the photos mode and when I flicked through each one to see their results I found the perfect one. "Reflect". The reflect mode did exactly what I needed it to. It smoothed the photo out but also blended it in much better with the background making it much more realistic and professional.

So as you can see from the photo after I added in the effect the faces came across much more smoother and professional. They appeared more faded with the background giving it the desired effect instead of making the face look stuck on. Because of this tool I can now complete my poster with the design that I wanted. 

Organisation: Shooting for the poster

As well as shooting the images for the main image of the poster i also needed to get some photos of my main characters to add to the page so that i can achieve the desired design of my movie poster.
When you see the photos it will become apparent that i will need to crop and redesign the photos so that there is no background so that it will easier to integrate the photo onto the poster.

Drafting and planning: Results of the shoot

As i said in a previous blog post Sunday  i took some photos for my ancillary products. These included various different shots of the lickies castle to ensure that i had enough to chose from from different angles.
I am very happy with the outcome of the shoot as i managed to get the desired shots of the castle and now that i have them i can start the work on my ancillary products as i already know the basic design.

Organisation: Shooting dates for ancillary product

This Sunday i will be taking the necessary  photos that will take the form of my ancillary products. I will travelling up to the licky hills as this setting is where some of my trailer is actually shot and so will make a nice link between trailer and poster.  I am hoping to use the licky hills castle. I wanted to use this in the shot because as i have already said the licky hills castle is already featured but also just for the fact that i do believe it would add a layer of impact and really have something eye catching on the poster.
The shot that i am going to use will hopefully be an extreme long shot as i am hoping to replicate the poster for the movie "hostiles" as i have now got inspiration from this poster and want to try and do this type of design by having the split down the page with two different colour filters on either side and my plan was to have the lickies castle feature in the bottom part of the poster as this would make the poster more my own and add a nice feature to the poster.

I will be getting to the castle at around 12:00 to ensure maximum sunlight and time to take enough photos to ensure i have a variety of shots to choose from. Tomorrow i will add the photos of the shoot in a blog post to the results of the shooting.

Research into similar products: Black swan poster

In this blog post i will be looking into the movie poster for the film "Black swan".

The main thing that stuck out to me in this poster was its main image. The poster is entirely dominated by one image which uses the technique of close up to display the information.  What i really liked was how the actress who is the main actress for the film is looking straight at that the camera and so straight at the audience in a technique called direct mode of address. This allows the the audience to be drawn into the poster and be attracted by it as it is almost as if the main image is trying to connect and speak to the audience drawing them in to not only the movie but also the film making them interested in watching the movie.

Also the main image stuck out to me because of the main feature on the face. It is almost instantly noticeable that the character has a crack running down her face. I really liked the inclusion of this feature as it generates a certain degree of buzz and mystery around the character as people will want to know why this is featured. I like how it seems to suggest that the character is unstable and may have a personality disorder all in which just adds more interest into the character, poster and movie. It also makes the character seem like a doll that is fragile but is also important. And so i really how just this one feature can tell us the audience so much about the character and the movie.

Another thing that i also really liked about this poster was how they used colour. The colours all really work well together to make the poster look really unique and make it stand out. I like the use of the black background because not only does this allow the main character to stand out even more but it also adds to the story that is tying to display that the character that is shown to us is dark and mysterious but is also slightly confused shown by the bits of white also displayed in the poster. The fact that her feather on her head is white may show how she bits of good in her or at least starts the movie as a good person but by the inclusion of the colour black highlights how she may be corrupted because of her fragile nature which also connects to the crack down her face.

The film title is located near the bottom of the page and is in a simple bold black font. This allows it to be effective by being so simple and also allows it to stand out even further making it be seen even more by the audience so that they know what the film is called.

The poster also includes a quote from 'EMPIRE' which says good things about the film which further act as a way to promote the film and make it more appealing to the audience as they know they can trust the movie as a critique has shown that they believe the movie to be good. Another typical thing the poster includes is the names of the main actors. This may attract audiences to the film as if they enjoy the work of the actors in previous movies they are more incline to check the movie out.

Overall i thought this was a really good movie. I really liked the simplicity of everything and how that simplicity worked really well over the whole poster and made the whole thing more effective. Because of this i do believe that i will look back on this poster to help me as i do not want to create something that is too complicated but rather something that displays all the information it needs to even by not being too informative.

Drafting and planning: First draft feedback from teacher.

So as i said in a previous blog next lesson we were getting feedback for our first draft. This week we got our feedback.

When i sat down with my teacher i was able to see properly what my trailer looked like and also be given the constructive criticism that i needed to go forward and be able to complete the trailer.  Our teacher offered some suggestions for improvement:

Some suggestions:

• Intro needs music to accompany or maybe move the ident there. 
• The intros panning shot is too long and need to be split up with inter titles.
• POV shot could be flashed
• The ident for 'this year' could come a lot sooner
• Editing from 1:57 needs to be tidied up. 
• Add in the credits at the end of the trailer. 

So as you can see my teacher was able to really help in some areas that i needed help in.  I knew that my panning shot needed sorting out and after talking with my teacher about it we came to the conclusion that it wasn't really needed and could be worked around and do other things that made it more interesting and also helped me with timing within the trailer. 

Also my teacher gave me some very positive comments that helped me assure that i had still done some good things on my trailer and was in fact on the right tracks. 

My trailer did good:

• Overall my teacher got what the trailer was about especially in terms of the technical codes
• The trailer as a whole has promise (just needs to finish the filming)
• Ending was good and showed promise. 

So know that i have this information i can now move ahead and make the necessary changes i need to to make the trailer the best it can be. Overall i was very happy with the comments i got back and i knew the reasoning behind the comments which only made them better for my project overall.

Research into similar products: Silence of the lambs poster

In this blog post i will be taking a look into the poster for the movie silence of the lambs.

One thing that immediately stuck out to me in this poster was the posters main image. The image used is clearly an extreme close up. This is really effective because its simple design and camera shot can make the audience feel more uncomfortable and make the audience feel creeped out because it is not a natural looking poster.  This type of shot also allows the audience to feel up close and personal to the subject of the poster.

Another thing that i really liked about the image was how the image seemed to be tinted a blue colour, this seems to be really effective and look really cool. It gives off the feeling of decay and death but also seems to make the subject of the poster seem lifeless adding the overall effect and intrigue of the poster.  This also adds a little bit of an edgy feel to the poster. What i like about this is the colour contrast used in the eyes of the poster. The eyes seem to give one of the two colours in the poster. The colour grabs the attention of the audience and draws them into the poster. There is also the effect of direct mode of address where the subject is looking straight into the lens and so effectively are looking into the audiences eyes creating more of connection  between the subject of the poster and the audience while also giving a more creepy look to the poster.

The poster also shows the use of a moth being covered over the mouth of the subject of the trailer, this may suggest that there is a link between the animal and the moth and maybe that the women voice is being silenced. After looking into it the moth i found out that the moth is actually called a "dead heads moth", after learning this it became clear that there was a link and a reason for using the moth as it suggests that there is death in the movie and so also adds a bit of edginess to the overall poster.  And actually another cool thing that i found on the moth was that when zoomed in on the image there is actually a women shown on the moth, this is very cool it can be seen as a hint at who are the victims of the movie and who is in danger.

The title of the film is something that i really liked. The title isn't flashy or even that big, the title on the poster is fairly small. I liked this feature because it makes it seem more creepy and more hollow because the it doesn't draw the audiences attention its just kind of there laying in the back ground which adds to the creepiness.

Research into potential target audience: Film poster idea feedback

In my previous blog post i spoke the design that i had mocked up for my movie poster. To see if this was a good idea i decided to ask my target audience using Instagram to see what they thought of the idea. In doing this i could see if my idea was good and indeed worked.  The feedback was as followed:

I am really happy with the feedback i got from my target audience. It showed that the poster i had created was 'unique' and the poster i had created was good so from here based on the feedback of my target audience i definitely think i will use this design for my poster.