FINAL TRAILER

We have had to compress our trailer using Movie Maker on Windows as the Quick Time version has a large file size. Please watch on DVD for full quality.

FINAL POSTER

FINAL MAGAZINE COVER

Evaluation of How Products Worked Together

We are presenting our evaluation of how our products worked together as a video tutorial on how to run a successful promotional campaign. Clearly, the main way to run a successful campaign is to have your products working together well. In this video, we are assuming that the film our trailer is based on has been released and been very successful, so we are using our campaign as an example of what works.

As with other longer video content, in a good quality version, this video exceeds the Blogger upload maximum so please view on DVD for full quality. This version is just an indication:

 

Evaluation of New Media Technology

Please see our presentation on how we see the way new media technology has affected our work using the link below:

New Media Technolgy

Evaluation of Audience Feedback (2)

Creating our presentation on audience feedback made us realise how much we valued the feedback we had been given and how much it had helped us to progress. We realised that for us, its main value had been in confirming how an outside viewer saw our products, as we were unable to take up this stance for ourselves effectively or maintain it for long. We did not get much feedback that surprised us or pointed out things that we didn't know about - but it did help us see how much little things we had noticed mattered relatively to the outside audience.

Because we realised the value of the feedback, we arranged for the Year 12 classes who had given us our earliest feedback to look at our products again shortly before the final deadline. We thought they would be a good audience because they would be able to see the difference between the products as they first saw them and now, and we thought that might be quite motivating. We also thought having seen them so early, they might have some investment in them and want to give good quality feedback. We also knew they were under a similar deadline and were likely to be quite realistic in their ideas. Finally, we have recently given them some feedback in return.

Thinking this through made us realise how much we have learned about the contexts of audience feedback and how much this affects its value to you.

Reassuringly, the group proposed very few changes. The minor adjustments we have made reflect small things that they noticed and pointed out quite tentatively. However, it is useful to know that even an outside audience spot these small mistakes:

 Trailer

The addition of the ident (as well as other formal features such as the credits at the end) received a lot of positive attention. We worked hard to make these as authentic as possible, and in the case of the ident, as a good and memorable product in its own right, so this was encouraging.

We re-voiced two sections where the sound wasn't good enough quality. The scene with the caretaker was difficult as we needed to add in ambient sound of sweeping as well, so this was tricky, but we feel both scenes have worked out well and you can't tell we re-recorded the sound afterwards, and the dialogue is certainly clearer with less distracting background sounds:

Poster

Three very small changes are made on the basis of the audience comments. They felt that the 'from the makers of...' might be hard to read so we added a drop shadow that helps it stand out (it is much clearer in the full size version anyway).

We also added small logos for e.g. sound editing to the billing block as we had on the trailer to maintain consistency and fulfil institutional requirements - this was picked out in feedback and we were surprised how much was noticed, so this was a good lesson.

Finally, we continued the blurring of the image of the hand / watch slightly further up the main character's back as we agreed with the feedback that this was necessary to make the direction of the reflection ambiguous.

Magazine Cover

Changes here were again very small. We slightly decreased the reflection on Gaby's face - in fact, we played around with this a lot as one person commented that they weren't sure if it was a reflection or of she had bad skin! We could see what they meant but felt that the presence of the water made it clear. We slightly reduced the opacity of the reflective layer and smudged some of the ripples further into her hair to try to iron out this problem.

We also changed the positioning of the bar code as we agreed the original positioning took away some of the impact of our image. We rely heavily in Gaby's facial expression to give this product power as there is not a lot of space to add other detail, so we agreed it was best to leave her as exposed as possible.

We also worked a little more on making the text stand out - we have a deliberately muted colour palette here but even so, the reader needs to be able to see the text clearly, so we added a similar drop shadow to the poster text and added a bolder font where needed.

Evaluation of Audience Feedback

This is intended to be viewed on DVD - please see the DVD sent. We discuss the feedback we received in our role as producers, as if in a DVD extra. However, you can see a version here on the blog in reduced quality. It has been split into 3 parts to meet Blogger uploading criteria.

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluating Forms And Conventions

Evaluate how your products used, developed or challenged the forms and conventions of real media products.

Magazine cover

 

1. Film title

 

• We used a large red font as this made it stand out on the page and catch attention - red might also connote the genre.
• This is the same font we used on the poster for our film. This meant that people would recognise that they are both for the same film and that they are related.
• We relied on a knowing audience to realise there is a relationship between the magazine cover and the poster.

2. Main image

• When deciding our main image we had many problems as there were so many possibilities. To decide this we had to make an overall layout to decide the type of image we needed and how big it needed to be.
• The first idea we had was of our main actress from behind. It was of her looking backwards.
• This picture pixellated a little when enlarged but we did not realise this until we put it on the photo editing software Photoshop and resized it.
• We then decided that we needed to make a new image and now it is a close up of our actress’ face. This came about because we noticed that this is common with our genre - where the main focus is psychological, th camera is closer to the actor than is common on a magazine cover to hint at the mental turmoil and the emotional consequences. It does affect the standard layout, however, as a close up needs to be posititoned to the side rather than centrally as is most common with the main image.
• We put a computer screen next to her face to improve the lighting as we originally had many problems with this.

Close up of character for emotion-based drama

3. Price

• To decide the price of the magazine we looked at other magazines.
• We then found an average price and used this.
• This is £2.99 however it can be purchased in America for $8.99. This is relatively cheap for a film magazine but we are imagining targeting our film magazine specifically at a younger market and focussing on films with a teen appeal, as ours is.

4. Issue date

• The issue date is next to the price.
• It is in a smaller font and near the price of the magazine.
• We did this because that is what is typically seen on magazine covers - important for collectors.
• It was not hard to decide a date as we had previously made a promotional campaign and we had already decided a date to release each product- therefore we copied that date.

5. Barcode

• Every magazine cover has a barcode.
• This is simply so it can be scanned when purchased.
• This was easy to make as you can find many website in which you can make on from scratch.
• All magazine covers have their barcode around the same size therefore it was easy to place on the magazine cover as it is always placed at the edge.

6. Masthead

• This was the hardest part of designing the magazine cover.
• Certain letters look more aesthetic than others when put on a page in a large font. This is why we decided to research magazine covers.
• We came to the conclusion that the letters “S” “C” “E” and “N” were attractive letters for a magazine cover. All these letters appeared in a variety of mastheads such as “Empire”, “Pink” and “The Face”.
• We then decided to use the word “Screen” for our masthead. We felt this was appropriate as it is a believable masthead and it looks good on the page and has a clear link with film.

7. Colour scheme

• Most of the colours on our magazine cover are similar to those found in the trailer and on the poster.
• We wanted to stick to a strict colour scheme of blue, red and yellow as we had noticed in our research that most magazine covers have a palette of three colours.
• This will create audience knowledge and will relate each product to the other.
• This sticks to codes and conventions of magazine covers as this is typical of media institutions - to create a recognisable 'look' across different products.

Total Film cover reflects poster colours and composition

Poster

8. Other images

• We had a basic layout based on research however we wanted to make it look more original to attract our specifically younger market.
• When putting the pictures at the bottom, we made the standard slanted block at the bottom and had the images slanted.
• However when looking at other magazines, we decided to change them making them on separate levels.
• This meant that it went against normal codes and conventions of magazine covers as that is not what is normally seen – but as we have a very simple image, we needed to create aesthetic interest with our smaller details and preferred the slightly more haphazard approach.

9. Text

• All magazine covers have teaser text on the front advertising what else is in the magazine.
• We wanted to stick to this code and convention as it would make people realise it is a magazine cover.
• It would also make it look as though it is not too empty.
• We tried to use hyperbolic language to make the reader feel they are accessing the best and most exclusive content - 'new', 'free' etc.

10. Background image

• The background image was hard to decide.
• When making the magazine cover, the main image had a dark, stylish background, which fitted the cover well in terms of style. 
• However, we looked through our feedback and found that it did not look as good as we had hoped because it did not convey any narrative.
• Also it did not fit our colour scheme well and did not give any information about the film.
• Therefore, we cut our actress out of the photo and put in an image of water ripples behind it. We then layered it with a blue image and made it opaque making the ripples look more blue and more like water. An almost transparent layer was then copied over the actress to look as if the water was reflecting onto her face.

11. Strapline

• The strapline caused a delay.
• We could not decide what we wanted our strapline to be.
• Also, we couldn’t decide where to put it, what colour to have it and how big to have the font.
• These problems were resolved after looking through our research and noticing tghe common places to put straplines.
• It also helps to sell the magazine and place it in the market.

Poster

 

1. Main image

• The main image we used was one we had originally intended to use for the magazine cover. However, we felt it was better suited for the poster as it has more narrative content - the shoulder turn and the anxious facial expression give a lot of plot information.
• It is an image of our main actress looking behind her as though she is being chased.
• She has a facial expression as though she is scared and she is wearing school uniform to show it is set in a school.
• We took the photo from behind. This gives the impression that it is from the perspective of the person chasing her – and clearly links with the genre. The focus on the facial expression makes it clear her fear is a key theme. We noticed in our research that a dramatically lit close up o the actrss is a convention in posters in our genre.

Use of close up

2. Background image

• The background image is similar to the magazine cover to link the products.
• Originally we wanted a wider view of the strangling location but it over-complicated the poster.
• Therefore, we chose to use ripples from a lake and faded them behind the main image.
• We then added on a blue image underneath the ripples. These made it look more like water as the ripples are grey and do not look like water.

3. Title

• The title is the same font, size and colour as the magazine cover.
• We did this so that the audience would recognise that they are advertising the film.
• The red is a good choice for the thriller theme. The title was carefully thought out. It hints at our genre because we want to know what is keeping her awake.

4. “Coming Soon”

• All magazine posters have a coming soon / release date element as their main purpose is giving information.
• We researched where they are normally placed on the poster and found that it is usually placed underneath the title.
• Originally we used the same font and colour of the title for coming soon and made the size a bit smaller.
• However, when leaving it for a bit and coming back to it, we realised that it takes attention away from the title and therefore changed the colour to a pale yellow. This means that it fits in with some of the text on the magazine cover.

5. Colour scheme

•  We stuck to the colour scheme in which the trailer, mag cover and poster all follow.
• This is red and blue. The red symbolises death and danger, and the blue represents the water and relates to the crime.
• Both the mag cover and the poster have similar background images and both are the same colour.
• The title of the film is the same colour on both the mag cover and the poster.
• The yellow font for the text is used on both the mag cover and the poster and in the intertitles for the trailer.

6. Other images

• There are other images that are blended into the background image.
• These include an image of the younger actresses face – this represents the dream sequence and shows the past and the present coming together as they are both looking behind the shoulder – also she seems under water, which hints, to the drowning.  
• There is also an image of the wrist with the watch on it. This gives away information the audience that the watch is a vital clue to the crime and they can tell this by simply looking at the poster, but it is opaque and has been blurred – it gives a suggestion of someone grabbing her from behind until you look closely, which links with a key scene from the trailer. Using opacity in this way is common in our genre where past and present come together in frightening ways.

Use of opacity

7. Billing block

• The billing block can be seen on all posters.
• Therefore by having one at the bottom of ours, we are sticking to the codes and conventions of film posters.
• Also by having one, it lets the audience know that it is a poster – it is a formal convention.
• This is relying on audience knowledge.
• To make the billing block, we used photo shop. This took up a large amount of time as we had to write out all the names and their roles, and then change the size of the fonts. We also had to add production logos for e.g. sound mixing.

8. Tagline

• The tagline in placed above the billing block.
• We had many issues on where to place the tagline – we couldn’t decide whether to have it at the top in a smaller font or to have it near the bottom of the poster.
• We also changed the colour of the font as we felt it matched the colour of the main characters hair, and it also stands out from the blue, but not taking too much attention away from the red title and coming soon.
• The tagline received positive comments in our feedback. It is snally but also creates a key enigma - what is the girl's past and where is behind her? Does this relate to the way she is looking or the way her body is facing? So where is the danger coming from? This uncertainty is key in our genre.

9. Review

• Most posters have a rating from a newspaper or magazine – this helps raise the credibility of the film.
• We wanted to follow the codes and conventions of films therefore we decided to do one.
• This means it will help the audience recognise that it is a film poster. 
• We did this on Photoshop.
• We felt it looked good at the top as it is the right size and does not take away any attention from the main image – it looks as though it should be there.

10. “From the makers of”

• Most film posters have a reference to other films made by the same producers.
• This is why we felt that we should have one – this will also help the audience recognise that it is a film poster.
• This however relies on previous audience knowledge of “Another Day” – but it is another device that adds credibility/creates anticipation.

Trailer

1. Title

 

• The title was simple to do.
• It is the same as the title on the poster and magazine cover ensuring consistency across products, which is an important formal convention.
• After importing it, we had to place it somewhere in the trailer, however this did not take long as we had pre-planned the position of where it was going to go. We follow the trailer convention of placing it towards the end as this is where it is likely to be most memorable.

2. Main actor

• Our main character was a teenage female.
• We used her as she looks vulnerable and fits the image we wanted to portray from this character.
• She also looks younger therefore looking like she should be in school. This caasting of a vulnerable young female is common in our genre as the danger they find themselves in becomes more believable.

Vulnerable female in "Taken"

3. Young actor

• The younger character we used is also a student in the lower years of our school.
• This also meant that we could refilm if needed to.
• She has a young looking face, which was perfect, as we wanted to make her look a lot younger than she actually is. This is because we wanted her to seem as though she is the main character when she was around 8 years old.
• There is some resemblance in colouring between her and the main character, which was needed for the audience to believe it is the same person. Using a younger actor to represent the main character as a child is quite common in films and care has to be taken to make this believable.

4, 5 & 6. Suspects

• We wanted to create suspects in our trailer without giving away too much information.
• We used 3 men who all work within the school, on being the caretaker, one being a drama teacher, and one who is the head teacher.
• They all look like suspects as they are all given the same amount of screen time.
• All of the suspects we cast have quite ordinary looking faces therefore they are all equally likely or unlikely  to be the villain - creating a range of suspects with different phyd=sical appearances is common in our genre.
• When planning out what they were going to say, we wanted them all to have a similar amount of words to say. This meant that one was not favoured over the other two to be the criminal.
• Also, they are all around the same size which means it is not clear who the criminal is because it can be any of them and this was kept concealed in the drowning scene.
•  All 3 suspects are seen in the same shots – they are all given a close up and a mid shot. All three seem to be kind to the main character initially and so it is hard to know who to trust.

Potential villains in "Gone"

 7 & 8. Props

• When deciding the props to use, we had to decide what would give away the criminal.
• We thought a watch would be something good to use – this is because a watch can be clearly seen and this is easy to establish as a key identifying feature without giving away the overall identity of the villain too soon.

9 & 10. Location

• The main location we used is our school. The more ordinary the location, the more frighening the events that happen there.
• We planned the drowning location carefully – it needed to be isolated and the water not too deep. An isolated wooded location is very common in our genre.

Isoalted location in "Gone"

11 & 12. Mise-en-scene

• We set our trailer in a school. This made it realistic and relatable to our target audience because nowadays, everyone has to go to school.
• All of the younger female actors we used all still attend school and are still students. This added to the verisimilitude of our trailer.
• All the sets we used are based around either our school, or one of our group members house e.g. school toilets, school classroom, front room, bedroom etc. Psychological thrillers tend to be set in ordinary locations to increase the sense in the audience that the events could happen to anyone, even to you.

 

 

Finalising Coursework

After a break of some weeks when we have had the chance to stand back from our coursework, we are now coming back to finish it. We are carrying out the formal evaluation tasks (although we have been evaluating throughout) and making final changes to the coursework products. We are hoping that having had the chance to step away from the coursework will allow us to see it more as an outsider would.

Changes to Magazine Cover

Changes to Trailer

.png files created on Photoshop - transparent so can be imported into Final Cut and added to blank slide to make the formal features of a trailer.

Focus on sound, especially music - here we are trying to edit together three tracks, splicing them and then re-ordering the sections to correspond with the movement of our trailer

Here we are fine tuning all out cuts, making each shot as short as possible

Changes to Poster

Main change is addition of extracted shot from trailer - image extracted from still, opacity reduced and then overlaid on main image. Then smudged and blurred to follow line of jumper.

Addition of Ident

We are changing our production company ident/ logo and it is now based on these two photos:

 

Products Before Break

We are leaving our products for a time while we concentrate on other aspects of the course. We discovered last year that building a break into our schedule was beneficial as we were able to reflect on the work we had done to that point but also have new energy and enthusiasm when we returned to the coursework. When you have been working hard on something for a while, you can lose track of what it actually looks like, and we need to see it from a different perspective. This is our review of our products to date:

POSTER

This is the product we most need a break from. We are pleased with a great deal of it but are struggling to find a final layout that we are satisfied with. We are happy with the main image as we think it is simple but strong. We think it will pose a lot of questions for the audience that they will want to watch the film to have answered. Our main issues are:

1. Is all the text in the best places?
2. Have we got the right colour palette? What about the pale yellow?
3. Does coming soon need to be bigger?
4. Is there too mcuh empty space on the left?

MAGAZINE COVER

This is probably progressing more smoothly at the moment although it is further from being finished. However, we are much clearer about what needs to be done and how we might do it:

1. Sleepless teaser text - needs more 'selling' language
2. Smaller images - film titles need to stand out more
3. Teaser text on right needs to be cut down - too 'wordy'
4. Colour palette and font of text needs work
5. Pleased with balance of text and image
6. Pleased with new photo choice
7. Masthead - colour needs adjusting?
8. Background is ok but could it be more relevant to film?

TRAILER

Again, although this still needs work, we are aware of what we need to do:

1. Priority is sound mix
2. Also needs formal elements - ident, coming soon, end credits etc
3. Revoicing of two dialogue moments - caretaker and Rebekah
4. Ending still needs to be sharpened up

Progress with Poster

 

We have been battling with the layout of the text for this poster. It has been difficult to find a composition that totally satisfies us. We have swapped all the key elements around several times without finding a composition that seems quite right. However, we are pleased with the tagline which we think really summarises our film's theme well and also acts as anchorage for the poster image. We also think the Mail review is in keeping with the style of this kind of soundbite, including the pun on the title.

Progress with Mag Cover

MAGAZINE COVER

We discussed taking new shots using the Mac screen for lighting and a closer shot distance in a previous post. Here we are trying to find a clour scheme for the magazine cover which reflects the poster colour palette, where blue is the key colour with red as shocking accent.

We created this blue-ish background on Photoshop as it has both a slightly watery and a dream feel about it but it may well be too dark.

We are choosing between these shots. Again, we are looking for a dream-like feel and we think the contrast between the shadowed face and the lighter side works well. Gabi's left eye is really emphasised here and she looks startled. When an extreme close up is used, we have seen that teh masthead goes in front of the image rather than the more usual behind. However, the overall look is too dark. We are avoiding red, the conventional colour of film magazine mastheads, as we need to use this for our title. We will have to think again about the colour choice here.

We are also not entirely sure this is the right shot to choose. We liked the idea of the shadows to add an eerie feel, but maybe it is too much.

Creating Effect for Dream Sequence

One key decision has been how to ensure the audience are able to clearly distinguish the dream sequence, as there is frequent cross-cutting between this and reality. We needed to create a distinctive look for the dream sequence so that it is easily recognisable. We have done this in a number of ways. Initially, we reduced the speed of the shots slightly to around 87%. This is not slow enough to really feel like slow motion and at times isn't even that noticeable, but it does add a more dream-like feel.

Secondly, the screen shots below showed an effect we created. We copied each dream clip and layered the duplicate on top of the original. We then added two effects to the original - a gaussian blur, which we kept relatively minimal but is still discernible, and a sepia colour overlay to give a sense of the past. Both of these are strong effects which create a look that is too strong. We therefore reduced the opacity of our duplicate clip to allow a reduced amount of each effect to show through and then linked the clips together. We believe this has created a distinctive and effective look for our sequence, hinting at a sense of unreality and also an impression that this happened in the past,

Mixing Tracks to Create Trailer Music

 

When it came to non-diegetic music, we decided to create a track for the trailer using three different copyright free tracks and a combination of drum loops. We are using most of one track for the start where the shots were longer, but we have had to adjust the speed to make this slower and more sinister and also add a very slight echo. 

We are using a combination of faster-paced tracks for most of the second half as the shots themselves are cut quick and we wanted to build up speed and tension as it got closer to the end of the trailer. We have also edited sections of drum loops as we want extra drum beats at moments where there is more danger. We are ending on the sound of drum bang as it synchronised well with our final shot of Lucy opening her eyes and left it on a really tense note. To cut between the different tracks we overlapped them and faded one out whilst fading the other one in to make sure the transition between tracks wasn't too harsh. However, we are still not satisfied with this sound mix and have a lot of further work to do. The screen shot above shows how complex the layering of audio tracks can become.

Progress with Poster

We really liked the idea of the main character trapped between the drowning in the past and the danger of the future, and thought it was effective to use the shot of her turning away from the past to face the unseen danger approaching her. However, we had ruled out the idea of using the shot of the drowning scene as it might just give a little bit too much away. We wanted to hint at the drowning though, so we used a photo of Ellie's face (the young version of our main character, Lucy) and used a photo of a puddle to overlay and make transparent so that there is an impression of drwoning without this being made explicit. We like the connection this creates between the older and younger versions of Lucy and we think this is a subtle hint that will be appreciated more when the poster is reviewed in the light of having seen the film. We also think this will make quite a simple and classy poster. You can see that we have extracted the image of Lucy much more accurately and combined the burn and blur tools to blend her with the background. We have also extracted Ellie's face, resized it and added the overlay of the puddle and reduced its transparency to create a ripple of water over her face. Their startled expressions match well.

We were not sure the colour was effective enough so we added a blue colour overlay and reduced the opacity of the Ellie layer to give her an almost ghost-like effect. We feel this works really well and is creating a distinctive colour palette for our product, which is added to by the bright red of the title. This operates like a kind of visual startle, which fits well with our genre. We have also started to add some of the formal elements such as the required billing block.

Second Rough Cut

After our audience feedback, we have produced another rough cut. This has changed from the first rough cut:

Individual clips have been cut right down

• Our shots have been re-ordered to add clarity
• We have tried a number of different ways of creating connections for the audience e.g. matches on dialogue ("You need to see someone" / next shot is in counsellor's room), graphic matches (little girl in dream tilts head to side / cut to mother's head coming into shot tilted on one side as calls upstairs), matches on theme (running / danger shots)
• We have cross-cut more with the dream sequence to make the connection between the older and younger girl clearer.

Photos for Magazine Cover

Here we are experimenting with some photos of the main character for the magazine cover:

These photos were taken of the main character in our piece. They are taken from behind with her looking back at the camera to make it look as though she is running away. This style of shot was the closest we could get to an action shot as when we tried to make her actually run and take the photo, they all came out blurry when put on the photo editing package. They do not look blurred in the camera playback, so it is the resizing of the image causing the problem.

Although we liked this idea and started a rough mock up as seen above, when putting the photos on the editing package and starting to make the magazine cover, we realised the shot felt more like poster photos. We feel that the poster will be able to put this image in some kind of context, whereas the magazine cover won't have the space to give it enough impact or explain the facial expression and pose.

After realising this, we checked through other photos we had taken, some of them were out of focus. The  close ups we had done were not of a good standard and this is why we took  more. We believe that the lighting was the main reason for the photos being out of focus as  we could not find a setting on the camera that could cope with a dark room and bright torchlight at the same time. This is why when we took the new photos, we did not use torches to light up her face. Instead, we used the lighting from a bright coloured wallpaper on the apple mac and put it close to her therefore it reflected off  her face. This resulted in the photos coming out really well and they are the new photos that we are using for the new magazine cover. We feel that the choice of a close up is more impactful for the cover which relies on the one image to get the message across and therefore that image needs to be really striking.