I created my film poster, magazine cover and film credits on photoshop. I took me a little while to get the hang of all the features but once I had I found that I was able to edit my images to a very professional looking quality.
My online coursework portfolio is on Blogger which allowed me to keep all my work in one place with ease.
Once I was finished my project was uploaded to Youtube. I also used Youtube to watch trailers and technical tutorials.
This is the camera I used for filming, I have used it a lot in the past for photography which meant it was very good at taking stills for the poster and magazine cover however had I been able to afford it I would have used a higher quality film camera for the trailer.
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Social Media Feedback:
In answer to the questions -
In what ways does my trailer remind you of other trailers?
What do you think are the strengths of my trailer?
What do you think are the weaknesses of my trailer?
"It reminded me of other trailers in that it introduced the main characters separately with screen cards with their names, and in that it had the like exposition shot of the boots at the beginning for interest, and that it wasn't one long scene but different scenes cut together"
"reminds me of other trailers with snippets of action, the bit at the beginning with the production company. strengths-variety of interesting locations used, made me want to know more about the plot. weaknesses-possibly a bit incoherent? maybe needs a voice over of some sort"
"it was kinda ambiguous at the beginning like you didn't know what kind of film it was going to be which I think a lot of trailers do... that was good and also the rain (I don't know if that was purposeful but hey) and the music was sick. I agree with Beccy that maybe a voice over would have been good"
"Strengths were that it didn't spoil the plot but hinted towards what might happen, and gave a clear indication of the genre so audiences know what they are going to see"
We also had a class discussion about each others pieces to give each group some feedback on what they had created."Weaknesses were that the transition between alex shooting will and becki and dead callum was a bit choppy, plus the musical transition wasn't very smooth"
I am glad that in using lots of shot clips I reminded people of other trailers. Also it seems the music itself was successful even if the transitions between tracks needed work. I have learnt that I need to spend a bit more time making all transitions smoother but also that title cards and dramatic settings are very effective at creating a trailer that draws people in. I also have learnt that I could improve the narrative of my trailer and make it clearer by introducing more dialogue and maybe a voice over. However people did seem to like the way I presented my characters, used props and introduced an enigma to encourage people to want to find out more. I have also learnt that using a variety of unusual shots was successful as it made my trailer stand out and also kept the audience's attention.
The three pieces I have created this year form an advertising campaign which should work together to promote the film. I have different aspects of my film captured in them. My poster is sophisticated to represent the genre and shows off the film's lead character so the prospective audience can get to know her. Meanwhile the Magazine cover is more fun and informal to pull in younger audiences while its position in a prestigious film magazine should draw in hardened film fans. These should both hopefully lead people to watch the trailer which would then provide more information about the characters, plot and tone of the film to help encourage them to then go and watch it at the cinema. I aimed to capture both the serious side and the fun side of the film in the trailer while it is more split between the poster and cover.
I used a variety of settings and locations so that I could appeal to a wider audience and also broaden the scope of the film. In screen grab 1 Rachel is in central London as is demonstrated by the sign she is standing next to, this is a conventional setting for and action/spy film and that is part of the reason why I chose it. Other reasons are that it is a more exciting location for the audience to see and it lends an air of sophistication to the production. However in screen grabs 3 and 6 we see more suburban/rural locations which subverts the genre conventions. In showing off a variety of locations I am doing something conventional of a trailer which will often do this to make the film look big and exciting.
I have dressed all my teenage characters in quite normal clothing for their age group which enhances the mundane realism however each one has its slight differences. In screen grab 4 we see Alex wearing a practical outfit of a vest top and shorts (just out of shot are work boots) this makes her look more practical than Beccy in screen grabs 2 and 3 who is wearing a dress to show her femininity. Alex is also holding a gun which is a conventional prop to use in an action/spy film. Also by having these guns and therefore action scenes I have created a typical action film trailer since they often contain more action than plot in order to give their audience an idea of what to expect.
I use a large variety of shots in my trailer in order to keep it exciting which is often done in action film trailers. Screen grab 3 is an example of a slightly more artsy shot I used in that it is a low angle, long shot with the characters silhouetted. I did this to make the fight look both more dramatic and realistic while also mixing things up since the previous shots had all been standard mid-shots. In screen grab 2 I have used a close up of Callum and Beccy to show the intimacy of the action and also to make the audience curious as to what they are talking about.
I set Rachel up as the main character by having her claim the opening shots of the trailer and immediately acquaint the audience with her. I then throughout the trailer have a series of "intro" sequences to introduce the other main characters, for example Alex in screen grab 4 and Taryn in screen grab 7. This introduces the idea of a team to the audience without giving away much of the plot besides the fact they are all female which should draw in a wider audience through female representation. This method of having "intro" sequences is used often in action film trailers such as Ocean's Eleven.
In screen grab 7 we taryn's face is bruised and grazed. I haven't used many special effects in my trailer since I didn't have access to good enough technology which isn't something most professional trailers have to deal with. Therefore this example of effects makeup is more subtle than is typical of most action trailers.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/poster/magazines)
You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of teaser trailers your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.
The aspects you should consider across your nine frames are:
The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the trailer sets it up
Genre and how the trailer suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/poster/magazines)
You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of teaser trailers your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.
The aspects you should consider across your nine frames are:
The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the trailer sets it up
Genre and how the trailer suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects
Remember to discuss
narrative/genre/representation/media language/audience in your evaluation
Each one of these aspects should be a detailed post – try to be analytical and use media terminology in your response.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
You could record a voiceover
to your trailer and make posts discussing how the 3 texts complement each other
in advertising your film and appealing to your target audience
Originally I was going to have a much less serious looking poster to reflect the humour in my film. However I found it was hard to keep the poster looking professional in quality whilst doing that so I switched to a more serious and commonly used poster font; trajan. I also conveyed this sophistication through the colouring of my poster, it is not dark but relatively low in saturation much like the recent poster for Skyfall. I showed my genre through location as the MI5 building is clearly visible in the background however I left it as an enigma code how my character is related to the building. My character is young and female which should attract a wide audience of different ages and genders. Although having said this I tried hard to avoid catering solely to the male gaze and so my character is dressed practically in non revealing but fashionable clothing meaning that while she doesn't look bad, she isn't over sexualised. My tag line stands alone at the top, although it isn't a bold colour its positioning makes it stand out as it is in a relatively empty part of the poster. i felt this suited the tone of the poster better than if I went for a bright colour and it also grounds the film as having more of an understated British feel, again like the Skyfall poster.
The tag line works to hint at what the film is about and also shows the more lighthearted side of the film which should help to draw in an audience. I was influenced by the skyfall poster as it directly related to mine in terms of genre, action adventure that falls into the sub genre of British Spy films. However I also took influence from the Star Trek Into Darkness character posters as I liked the way they showcased each character and given the time I would like to do a similar series of posters, one for each main character.
I think that character posters like these are a really good way to build the fanbase around each character which in turn builds hype around the film's release and increases the chances of a sequel. I also had the image of my character positioned slightly to the side looking out of the shot to leave the audience wondering what she is looking at and to make her look more reflective, this builds anticipation without giving away the plot. By making the film look more sophisticated I avoid it falling so far into the action genre that it appears campy which can put off some audience members, especially females who I would like to appeal to as I feel they are often overlooked by the action genre. The slight military style of the character's jacket is a symbolic code suggesting she's had military or at least military style training, which works with the genre as it need to be believable that she would have the skills she demonstrates in order for the audience to be able to suspend their disbelief. This would pull in a male audience because of the military element, but also a female audience through the opportunity empathise with a female character in an action film which doesn't often happen.
Although most of the colouring in the photo has a low saturation, I decided to emphasise the blues in the picture to represent the character's goodness but also to place the idea of possible sadness as a symbolic code for the viewer. This idea of there being some kind of tragedy in the film is furthered by the grey, stormy sky which acts as pathetic fallacy. The urban setting of a world famous city will pull in many viewers as it is a recognisable setting often used in British spy films hence the fact big ben is visible in the background of the Skyfall poster.