Evaluation part 6

new media technologies were vital in the development of my products. Right from the start, in the early research stages, I used search engines on the internet such as "Google" and "Bing" to discover and look up different factors and images, such as the layout of film posters and magazine covers. I them used the film information database website IMDB to look up information on the horror films that I had selected, as well as discover other films (such as the brilliant Colin) which I could base mine upon. This was vital in discovering the budgets, storylines and themes within these film. I also used youtube, the video sharing website to watch, and make notes on, all the trailers that I was later going to base my own trailer upon . This allowed me to understand the layout and timing, as well as the use of music within these trailers. Of course I also used the blog website "Blogger" which allowed me to keep records of the journey making the products have taken me through, as well as creating a space which I can show my products on, very easily. It also means that anyone in the world can now enjoy and read through this blog, and leave comments, which I find quite thrilling.

When it came to actually shooting the footage, I was able to use a very hightech Sony HD camera, which has a very high picture quality and has many other abilities. It had facial recognition, which meant I was able to judge if an actors face was in the centre of the shot of not. It also had a very high zoom capability, which meant I was able to get close up shots, that otherwise would have been impossible. This was brilliant, as it allowed me to take footage, that looks both professional and realistic due to the brilliant picture quality. When it came to actually uploading the footage however, the computer that I was using did not take the file format that the videos I had shot were in. I therefore had to use a file converter, (Format factory) which the school handily had already on their system, which allowed me to change the type of file the video was shot in, to one the computer could read. Sadly, this did reduce the quality of the footage a bit, but it was still of high quality.

When it came to putting my trailer together, I used Adobe Premier Elements, which is film making software. This was completely new to me, as I had never used software like it, so had to take quite a bit of time looking up on the internet how to use it. However, I fully enjoyed learning all the interesting things that you can achieve with the programme, such as cutting down video footage, removing the sound from the video, creating interesting transitions between scenes and adding music and sounds to the footage yourself. For the music I used 2 distinct songs. One was of a music box which recorded myself on the camera, uploaded it to Premier Elements, then deleted the video footage. The other was a song that my Indiana had created, then uploaded to the music sharing site "SoundCloud" this site allowed me to view Indiana's, as well as thousands of others peoples, music and also allowed me to download the song, as well as embed it into this blog. This site was invaluable, as it allowed me gain music for free, as long as I had permission from the creator.

Editing my Magazine front cover

When creating the movie poster and the magazine cover, I used the programme Adobe Photoshop CS2 which is a image editing programme. I had already used the programme many times before in previous media projects, so was fairly secure with using it to create products of a reasonably high standard. The programme allowed me to take pictures that I had taken myself, as well as had downloaded from the internet, and take parts from each to create one picture with elements from all. I was able to take the title of the magazine for my magazine cover from a copy of it that was on the internet, so I did not have to try and recreate it myself. I was also able to add text from a site, reletively easily. The programme also allowed me to edit, and put effects onto an image which increased the effect of the poster and magazine. For example, for the magazine cover I was able to make one part of the image black and white, while the rest was in colour. In the poster, I placed 2 images over the top of each other, then made the top one opaque so that you can see the other through it. This all helped to add to the horror feel of each piece, and made it that much more believable.

Evaluation part 5

Overall, the audience feedback for my project was very positive. At the beginning, when I told my peers about the idea for my film, they all liked the idea very much, but there were some speculation over how I would be able to pull the themes off effectively, as it seemed quite complex. This then lead me into careful planning into how I could infuse all of the themes I wanted (dreams/nightmares, old 1980's horror movies, British cinema) effectively with the very minimal budget that I had. I again showed my peers when I began filming, and they all agreed that the footage would work very well, and did indeed fit the themes I'd picked. This then helped boost my hope that this was going to work well, and made me make sure that when I began editing, I could do the footage justice. When I had finished my magazine cover and film poster the first thing I did was again show my peers. Everyone liked my movie poster, so I felt that I did not need to change it. There was some doubts however about the placement of articles and the image on my magazine cover. This then lead me to rearrange my cover completely, and make serious improvements, so that it now looks like an actual magazine cover, through the placement and mis-en-scene of the whole piece. Then, when I thought I had finished my movie trailer, I once again showed my peers for their opinion. They liked the way that I had edited my trailer together, but they did not feel that the music I had selected (the tinkly music box music) should be continued throughout. I therefore selected another song, that would play through the second half of the trailer. I feel that, although this was a pain as I had to select another song, it made my trailer ten times better, as it seems a lot more like an actual film trailer, and adds to the horror of the film.

All in all I feel that the audience feedback, for all of my products, has helped me no end to develop, inprove and make more appealing to my selected audience. Without the comments of my peers I would not be able to have achieved the level that my products currently are.

Evaluation part 4

I feel that altogether, the combination of trailer, poster and magazine cover has worked quite well. I am hopeful that if this was a real advertisment campaign for the movie "Nocturnus" it would be effective in interesting the target audience of teenage males aged 15-20 into wanting to watch the film. I am especially happy with the way that the magazine cover and the trailer complement each other, using the same themes and colour scemes. I feel that the magazine cover gives a true representation of how I wanted the film to work, and people would not be dissapointed if they saw the film advertised in the magazine and then watched the trailer. However, although I am quite happy with how the movie poster came out, I don't feel it compliments the other two products as well as it could. I do not feel that it follows the same colour sceme, or use of imigery that the other two do. I also think that it may not completely represent the kind of horror that my idea for film is. I think that it would be better advertising a psychological horror, rather than a conventional horror, due to its abstract picture, use of grey colour rather than, for example, black or red. However, I do feel that through the use of the same actor/model in all three pieces, and the same "dream/nightmare" theme represented in all three, people would definately know that they were advertising the same film is they were not shown the title.

Evaluation part 3

When it came to my film poster, I tried less to copy the film poster of another film like Halloween, and tried to come up with the type of font used and image myself. I did this as I feel that with movie posters, the more diverse from other posters it is, the more likely people are to be interested in the movie it is advertising. This is because, unlike adverts for movies that are on the television, people are more likely to just walk past a poster without taking it in if it is just the same as every other film poster that they've seen. Therefore, when it came to creating the image, I tried to make it as eyecatching as possible, without making it too garish or colourful, which would take away from the true mis-en-scene of the film. I finally decided to overlap two images of the same girl (the same one from my magazine and my trailer) one of her screaming, and one of her "sleeping". I then made the image on top opaque, so that you can see the other image through it. This creates a striking illusion, where you can't really focus on both images at once. This definately grabs attention, and also strongly represents the themes of my film; the idea of being asleep and being scared pormed into one image shows nightmares and horror, as well showing that reality and nightmares are becoming the same thing. The image also strongly stands out from the grey background (being in colour) but without doing it too obviously; but I also faded the image into the background around the edges slightly so that it looks like one seamless image, rather that one placed over the top of another, to give it a professional feel.

The font I used on the title of the film is the same that was used on the cover of old documents, mainly those made by the government. This connects to the film itself as part of the story is about teenager finding old documents about suspicious murders that happen in the street they live in every 50 years. As well as this I feel that it adds a creey, old feeling to the poster and can old add to the scare factor of the film. The title also stands out very well from the rest of the poster, as the black background and the slight white around the edge contrast from the grey, and red which are the main colours of the poster. The font that I used for the titles at the bottom and the comments from film magazines are very conventional, and stick strongly to the way classic movie poster are laid out and presented. After some research I discovered the font that most movie posters use for the credits at the bottom (steeltongs) and looked into who is represented in the titles themselves. I have stuck tradionally to "Directed by", "Written by" etc, but I did not include the names of the main actors, as thy would not be famous enough to make a mention. For the comments from magazines, I try to stick to the sort of magazines who would watch and review my film, so i decided upon "Sight and Sound" magazine and "little white lie" magazine. These both review and include on their covers small budget underground movies, so I thought it would be fitting for them to be features on my poster.

Evaluation part 2

An example of a stereotypical "Sight and Sound" magazine.



With my magazine front cover, I knew straight away that I wanted to create the cover of the film magazine "Sight and Sound". This is because, as my film would be very low budget, and there would be hardly any advertisement or release (appart from probably DVD) they would be the magazine most likely to have my film on the cover. "Sight and Sound" tries to encompass,and review, most films from massive budget Hollywood thrillers, to underground swedish movies. They do not worry about having to grab readers attention by putting a highly advertised, big budget film on the cover, they instead go for "quality over quantity".

I closely studied many covers for the magazine, and quickly realised that there isn't any set type of image that they use; there are covers with abstract images that you can only discover what it represent when you read the titles, and there are also simply images of an actor or directors face. Therefore I went for an image which I felt encompassed most of the themes within my film. There is an interesting image of a girl in a bed, taken from a birds eye perspective. This is obviously meant to represent the sleep/dream/nightmare aspect of the film, while also showing one of the films main characters. I then superimposed a distorted, black and white image of the same girl in a looming horrific pose, coming up from behind the bed. I used the contrast in colour to further push the idea of nighmares coming true, as well as to add a creepy, scary feel to the cover. I made sure that the girl in the bed does not seem to realise that there is a "monster" behind her, which shows that the film is clearly a horror. As well as this I didn't use a fancy bed, or use a heavily made up actor, I just used my girlfriend how she usually looks befor going to bed. This was used to represent the realistic, British nature to my film.

Although there is no set guidlines for the image used, the magazine does almost always use the same layout for the title of the film, and the other features that are being advertised . Therefore I studied a few "Sight and Sound's" and quickly gathered the way it was layed out. I used a big, bold font for the title of my film, which became the focal point on the cover. I then used a quick tagline for the film underneath, smaller but in the same colour. This is used to grab potential readers attention, and I feel that the contrast of the red with he background image does this very effectively. Also on this title I places a shadow underneath it, almost as if it's coming off the page; this again helps attract readers attention, as it again contrasts from the image. Underneath this I placed a block of text showing some of the other features inside the magazine, with alternating colours to show the different articles. This I think is used by the magazine to show the sheer amount of information that is going to be inside, again helping to attract readers. Finally It has a section beneath that under the big title "plus+" and then a list of new film that the magazine has reviewed. This stands out on the cover almost as much as the title of my film, as this section is where the items that the magazine feels will attract the audience the most (appart from the main article on my film). It is in the second largest font and again is in alternating black and red with a subtle white stroke around the edge to really make it jump out of the page.

Evaluation Part 1

Right from the start I wanted my horror movie to stick reletively closely to the conventions of classic 1980 movies like John Carpenter's Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street. I wanted to do this as I have always had a love for these movies and have been watching them from a very young age, so in a way I wanted my film to represent this affection. As well as this I felt that it would be easier, and more accessable for a viewer to watch and enjoy than if I had created a product that breaks down classic horror conventions. However, I did want to put a British spin on my product; making it more believable and use actors and characters who are more closely tied to real life British people, than the glamorous and in some ways unbelievable people portrayed in the likes of Halloween. I did this partly because it would be a lot easier to use ordinary British people to play the characters, as I could simply use my friends and family. On top of this I could simply shoot it in mine and my friends houses and local areas without having to struggle to make then look like different places completely. However, I also wanted to do this I love the gritty British realism that directors such as Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle bring to table. I enjoy the way that they portray Britain in a completely real, and un-glorous way; therefore I also wanted my movie to be a nod to these types of films.

With my trailer I wanted to stick as closely as I could to the classic horror movie trailer layout as I could. Looking at the Halloween trailer gave me the idea to have quite a long sequence at the beginning, broken up by titles which would create an intense mood, then hopefully shock the viewer at the end of the sequence with the girl being dragged out of bed, which I feel was unexpected. This is very similar to the first person perspective sequence at the beginning of Halloween, where we are put into the shoes of a young Michael Myers, who then unexpectantly murders his sister. I then went on to show lots of shorts clips, cut together very quickly and fluidly. I used this to represent the intensity, speed and horror of the film whilst also using it to show the sheer amount of events that happen in the film. This would hopefully grab a lot of peoples attention, as it shows some of the horrific scenes in the film, whilst also not giving much information away about the film at all. This would hopefully hook viewers, and keep them interested as they want to find out the full story of the film. This again is used regularly in horror movies, spanning right from the 1970's up until current day, but I mainly took the idea from the Halloween trailer, as it shows how effective this sort of advertisement tequnique can be. However, I did tweak it a little, to add a little bit of my own tist to it. I shot it mainly in the day time, to show that even when you're awake the nightmares can still get you. This then breaks down the classic convention of shooting horror in the dark, but I did this to hopefully make the bold, and hopefully scary idea that you can't escape the horror, even during the day.

I think that the music for my trailer was very effective, and again I stuck strongly to classis horror trailer conventions. I used the tinkly, but also creepy sounding music box music which I recorded myself to lull the viewer into a false sense of security, while at the same time "creeping them out", almost subliminally. Then, after the girl gets dragged out the bed, the music changes quite rapidly to a faster paced, modern sounding dark ambient song which my friend Indiana made on his music software. This technique of placing two highly different songs within one trailer is used in many horror trailers that stick to the conventions laid down by John Carpenter, as it makes a stark contrast which I feel is used to represent the unexpected, horrific events that disrupt peoples ordinary, menial lives. I also used it to represent the changing pace of the film, as well as to almost the audiences "adrenaline flowing" and create an excitement to the trailer that the would hopefully get the audience interested in, and make them want to watch the entire film.

My view on the editing

My finished trailer