My trailer challenges a lot modern horror forms and conventions, With more recent horror films there’s a tendency to show the antagonist and give away the film straight away. The only existence of the antagonist I show during the trailer is two shots from it’s perspective and the reactions from the actors towards the very end of the trailer. The trailer for “The Hills Have Eyes” practically gives the entire plot away. I wanted a far more secretive trailer in order to get a reaction from the audience, in order make the audience think and imagine their own antagonist thus getting them more mentally involved with the trailer.
I wanted the plot of my trailer to revolve around the fact they are in a remote location as to being almost the second deadly force against them. Typically many horror films now base all of the ‘scare-factor’ around purely the main villain, this leaves the film feeling more two-dimensional. I would describe my emphasis upon the setting as a challenge of typical codes and conventions.
I wanted to use a well established horror trailer convetion, I wanted a slow beginning to the trailer followed by a fast ending. This was featured in “Resident Evil” and “The Hills Have Eyes” along with many other horror films.
I wanted a trailer that made the audience concentrate upon the images on the screen without the diagetic audio of the trailer distracting them. I experimented with the use of diagetic sound but the results weren’t what I wanted, it seemed far less concentrated. I decided instead to use an appropriate piece of music by the industrial band Nine Inch Nails, I had observed industrial music being used in other horror trailers such as in the “Resident Evil” trailer. My abandonment of diagetic sound is definitely against typical horror conventions, however I decided to adhere to a convention by using modern industrial music in my trailer.
I openly chose to use a well established horror technique during my trailer. I wanted to create a montage of reaction shots from different characters in different locations sandwiched between two halves of my tagline. (as seen below). This is a common technique used whilst producing horror trailers. I think it is an effective addition to the project and works as a nice transition between the slow beginning and the fast ending.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?
I feel I have effectively created an effective combination of both my film trailer and my ancillary tasks. I decided to include the forest in both parts of the task, It features heavily in my trailer and is a theme carried on to my ancillary tasks as the main image used on my film poster and as the background layer of my film magazine front cover.
I used an image of my main character from my trailer on the front of my magazine cover, linking both tasks.
Another example of the convergence of both of my tasks is the use of the basic ‘Arial’ font which appears on my ancillary tasks and appears during my trailer in the form of the tagline and the films title.
What I learned from audience feedback
I carried out a secondary questionnaire in order to determine how an audience would react to the trailer.
I found that the trailer pleased the majority of my audience.
75% of the people asked thought that my portrayal of the antagonist was effective. A further 85% found that my characters we appropriate and wanted to see the film. 90% of the audience I interviewed found the location of my film appropriate for the style of film and plot. These are all very positive findings and they highlight that my film has achieved what it had set out to do in it's early planning stages.
Final Summary
I feel that I have created a high quality project that effectively encompasses my main and ancillary tasks.
From my research I’ve learnt what techniques are used by film makers for making successful film trailers and I have applied them to my project.
I’m happy with how my project has developed from an idea into a complete film trailer.
I used a Canon handheld camcorder to capture my raw footage. I used a blocking to plan out my shots in real life at the location. This was to make sure that my storyboard ideas were possible at the filming location.
I used Pinnacle Studio 12 film production software to edit my films raw footage together.
I trimmed down my raw footage and arranged it in the order determined by my storyboard.
Transition effects we applied where necessary, I used fade-transitions that differed in length, the shorter the transition the quicker the fade would be.
I used Pinnacle Studio 12 to insert titles and taglines into the trailer.
My chosen music was then applied to the trailer, I removed the audio from the raw footage and I then applied audio-fades and swells to the music making it louder or quieter when it needed to be. I created a final credit in Adobe Photoshop, this featured the films title, the names of it’s actors and it’s producer.
This storyboard wad composed of 29 panels, with shot types, actor instructions and directions listed. Every panel was named, numbered and included detailed character actions for ease of organisation and reference. The Storyboard was drawn on paper before being scanned into a digital format.
This is one of the first shots that the audience would view. This shot identifies one of the main characters with a tracking close up angled at 90° to show the side of his face. The character is walking, the shot follows alongside him and portrays his direction of travel. The background is visible which clarifies that he is in a forest. The mise-en-scene that this is shot gives a feeling of remoteness as apart from the character, there is only woodland in this shot. The character in this shot is casually walking, connoting that he does not feel threatened at this point.
This is how this panel became part of the finished product. I feel that I captured the sort of shot that I had wanted. The forest in the background helps identify the location of the character and he appears to be walking casually, I helped reinforce this feeling by using a handheld shot. This is the exact effect I was after and I’m please with how this worked.
I used this shot after the close up shots of my characters to show that all three individuals were travelling together. All three characters appear to be casually walking through the forest. I wanted a fixed camera shot from a tripod with the characters walking from one side of the shot to the to the other. From a creative point of view this shot along with other similar shots not only give the audience a visual narrative of the characters actions but they also are used to identify the characters. I feel it is best to give the characters some introduction during the trailer instead of just making them appear in later shots, this technique also allows members to connect with the characters giving them more interest towards them and their fate.
I had originally attempted to copy this shot exactly, however I found that in order to get the mid-shots that I wanted I could not zoom out further to get all the characters in the shot at once, this would have created a very cramped shot. I instead created an alternative. The characters was timed to walk across the shot so they appear almost one after another, as one leaves the shot the other enters.
This composite image shows just how cramped the characters would have been if I had not changed the shot. I am pleased I decided to change the directions of the actors. I feel I created a much better shot that was much more realistic.
A handheld shot connoting someone’s/something’s point of view. The shot is in close proximity to the ground, moving slowly through the forest’s undergrowth. As far as mise-en-scene is concerned, I wanted to connote to the audience that the point of view of which this shot is taken from is animal like and non-bipedal, this is achieved by having the camera close to the ground whilst creeping along at a slow speed. This shot is crucial to the plot of my trailer, by this point all three of my main characters have already appeared and from the shot type I have used I have made it obvious to see that this is a new unknown being which is likely to be sinister. A regular head-height shot would have not given me the desired connotations that I have achieved using my method.
I followed my original storyboard panel during the filming process, I felt that I interpreted the drawing well in real life. The shot is low to ground, and moves close to the forest undergrowth.
During the editing stage of my project, I decided I should add a blue filter over the original video, this makes it appear less human still. I applied this filter by using the white balance video effect on Pinnacle Studio 12 video editing software.
The aim of shot is to depict a stage of a tent being assembled to be used as part of a quick, fast paced montage of shots; these include taking the tent out of it’s bag, the adjustment of it’s guide-lines, unzipping of it’s door and as shown here the hammering in of the tent pegs. This montage would bring a burst of speed to the plot and show that they are without a doubt camping. I wanted a close up of the hammer striking the peg, with the characters hand in the shot. The same character performs these tasks, implying that he is in charge of the camping trip and is knowledgeable enough to know what he is doing with the tent.
I decided to stick to the basic outline of the storyboard panel, but I wanted a shot from slightly further away. This includes more of the tent in the shot and more of the background is also visible. I could have used an even longer distance shot but I did not want to include the face as this could distract from the point of the shot.
Overall I feel I have stuck to my original storyboard well and I've succeeded in bringing the slides to life in my trailer and that any changes that I've had to make have been for the right reasons in order to make the product better, I'm very happy with how I've recreated the storyboard panels in real life.
I will now show the construction of my film magazine front cover whilst also explaining & describing the techniques I've used to create the final product.
The colour scheme I selected for my film magazine is designed to be simple. I've used lots of black and white, with the application of dark green for the title of my film. I also included a brightly colour cover line which is in-keeping with content of that feature. “The Blood and Ice-Cream Trilogy” - this gave me the inspiration to colour the text in such a fashion.
The Masthead that I chose is certainly abiding to my simplistic style ideas, it sits in a bold, brilliant white on top of the page. The position of the Masthead is very important, I placed it so that the first few characters of the magazines title could be seen in the left third, this means that the magazine is very easy to identify even before you pick it up. The theory behind this is if you see a magazine and only the left third is visible you can identify it very easily.
I used a Black font with a white outer-glow for the coverlines, still in keeping with my design style. I have left justified the coverlines as they appear on the left side of the page, this not only looks much neater but it allows me to maximise and save some space in the centre of the page. The puff that I used is very simple yet is very competitive sounding, "THE NO.1 FILM MAGAZINE" this is positioned directly underneath the Masthead and is thus one of the first pieces of text that the reader would see upon first looking at the magazine.
My main article image is created from two different photographs,I took a photograph of one of my actors against a white background, then imported the image into Adobe Photoshop. I used the magic wand tool, feathered eraser and the lasso tool to cut around his outer profile. I then layered this image on top of the background.
Evaluation I am quite happy with the finished end result. I feel that I've used what I've learnt from my research very well, aspects of font design, positioning and colour selection in relation to the main article image have helped me create a high quality product that I am fairly pleased with. I feel I have fulfilled my original design brief perimeters firstly my main article image is exactly as I outlined in my design brief. My font stands out from the background and is eye catching. I have used the bold/regular/bold/regular effects very well in the bottom section of the front cover and the other coverlines are also very visible. The design of my front cover is mostly based around the "Left-third" idea that I researched. All of these aforementioned aspects of design have been carried out successfully.
To conclude I feel I have a created a magazine front cover that is to a high standard and quality and by sticking to my simple yet effective design brief I have made the most of my research. I feel that the choices that I made throughout have been good ones and I'm very happy with my finished product.
I will now show the construction of my film Poster whilst also explaining & describing the techniques I've used to create the final product.
To begin with I wanted to use a simple colour scheme that would connote the depth and feeling of the film. I wanted to use a mostly black and white colour scheme, there are three reasons I chose this. Firstly I found that Black and white can stand out to a greater degree than full colour, the huge contrast between the two colours is responsible for this. Secondly in a world of film posters mostly being in colour this poster design is in the mostly black and white minority, finally I feel that when I use the third and final colour which is a dark green it stands out effectively.
The main Image is a photograph of a local forest, it's of a high angle shot of the forest canopy with the sky showing through. I then took this image and placed it upon a white background. I then applied a visual effect to the image known as the "Torn paper" effect, this breaks the image down to just black and white, but it also finds and sharpens the edges where the two colours meet. The image is placed in the centre towards the top of the page leaving space for the films title, tag-line and credits.
I wanted to use a selection of simple, straight forward fonts; most notably i used "Arial" for the film title and tag-line for specifically that reason. The simple font types fit in with sort of simple theme I had envisioned. The other font that I used on the poster is "Rockwell Condensed", this font is identical or at least very similar to what most professional film posters typically use. I adjusted the character spacing of the font to bring the characters closer together, this allows me to include more details in a smaller space.
Evaluation
Am I happy with the end result? - I'm very happy with the end result, I feel I have created a high quality product. It's simple yet I feel it is attention grabbing and bold, this is an essential requirement. If I were to repeat the task I don't think I'd change many things at all, however I could perhaps try to experiment with different shot types when capturing my main photograph, perhaps a longer distance shot for instance as this could give a larger view of the forest and i could experiment with lighting techniques (such as how the designer of the "Blair Witch Project"'s poster did with using high angle lighting and black and white photography). I feel that I have fulfilled my original design brief perimeters that I set myself to work within. My poster is bold & simple with a simple colour scheme using mostly dark colours and A centralised main image with the Title & Tag-line underneath it.
To conclude, I believe this project has been carried out to the best of my abilities whilst adhering to the requirements that I had laid out in my design brief and created a final product that is attractive and eye catching thus making it a potentially successful film poster in the real world.
I will be designing a film magazine front cover that would be featuring my film. I need to research the typical codes, conventions and techniques used by the graphic designers of well established film magazines. The design and layout itself can connote a variety of different things; the colour scheme can effect the readers perception of the film and even go as far as creating different emotional responses from particular colours together. The position and shot type of the main feature image on the front of a magazine can appear in many different forms, from entire cast shots to single character close ups or perhaps only including the films artwork or name. All of which, just like the colour scheme can create different responses from the reader. Overall the film magazine front cover can be just as an effective tool of marketing as the films theatrical poster or perhaps even the films trailer.
I wanted to research some magazines from opposing ends of the spectrum, perhaps a front cover from a well established, world renowned film magazine compared to a specialist horror film magazine with a much smaller audience, budget and volume of production. I feel that by reviewing these two different pieces I could determine a good mixture of mass-marketable features with a feeling of a specialist horror magazine.
The first front cover I will be researching is from the well known film magazine “Empire”, this front cover was taken from their July 2008 issue which features the film “The Dark Knight”.
I chose this particular poster due to the style of its design and its content. The film featured some aspects of horror film techniques, whilst it is not a horror film it is an action-film with (as the name suggests) dark themes running throughout which do borrow some, if only few of the techniques from horror films. By using a magazine featuring an action film I have an example to compare to another similar cover but with a horror film to show the changes made by the designer to tie-in some of the codes and conventions of the horror genre.
The colour scheme used for this magazine cover is primarily black, white and green. The reason for the designer using these particular colours is obvious, the cover image of the films main villain has bright green hair which is a very similar to the one used by the designer of the cover and the character is also wearing black, white and red makeup (although red is not used and only appears in the feature image). The font of text used stays uniform with the only visible difference between different areas of text being the size, colour and perhaps the use of boldness and extended character spacing to create a larger more bulky attention grabbing title. The font itself is in a slightly art-deco style slightly reminiscent of the title of the magazine itself. The image featured on the cover is a close-up of the films villain. As aforementioned the magazines colour scheme does stem from the colours feature in this image, however the only colour not used by the designer is the red from the red makeup covering the cuts on the face of the villain. The appearance of this vibrant colour in this singular use creates an initial focusing point for the reader, which then leads up the face towards the characters eyes and other facial features. The focus of the image itself is sharper in the bottom end of the face towards the chin with the top of the head and hair slightly out of focus, this together with the use of the colour red in the characters smile first makes the reader concentrate of the bottom section of the cover then move up towards the title of the film and magazine. Cover lines appear to the left and below of the image and are in keeping with the colour scheme and font of the rest of the cover but are small and mostly non-intrusive into the main feature image, these cover lines are definitely a secondary or a tertiary point of focus after the main image and magazine title. The reason for some of the cover lines to appear extremely to the left is due to that area of the magazine being the “Left third”. The left third of the magazine cover is vital for sales in shops where the magazine is not shown full-frontage. The title must be easily recognisable in a display of dozens of competitors. The start of the masthead is important here, as are short cover lines that are easy to read
Overall this magazine cover is a very effective example of what can be achieved with clever, well thought out and effective cover design which utilises colour, font, positioning and manipulation of the reader’s focus. I will be using this particular front cover as a control which I can use to compare the other magazines against.
Another film magazine I have chosen to research is “Fangoria” a film magazine dedicated to the horror genre.This issue is very recent and from October 2009 which features the film “New Moon”.
This magazine is not as popular as “Empire” and I would imagine it has to work with a much smaller budget. This magazine is known for reviewing and featuring horror of all types, in fact the film “New Moon” is probably responsible for one of the softer and definitely one of the least gory front covers they have released recently.
The colour scheme used by this magazine is much less focused that the smaller more concentrated and perhaps more arty palette that “Empire” used on it’s front cover, a result of this is that the poster immediately is no where near as attention grabbing as it could be and overall seems at first glance very imprecise. The masthead of the magazine is in it’s own signature font embossed with a white border, this helps make the title stand out and not get lost against the main feature image. The font of the cover lines is in a bright vibrant yellow colour with it’s subtext underneath in plain white; all of this text is presented in a simple bold, uppercase block font.The title of the main feature article is the custom font of that particular film, which also happens to be yellow. It seems to me that very little attention has been given to the choice of colour and text, this unfortunately shows very clearly and does make the magazine look cheaper and it doesn’t connote the idea of quality that the “Empire” magazines cover does.
The main feature image used on this front cover is a close up with the characters face looking out towards the spine of the magazine, this would have been more effective if mirrored to face towards the edge of the page in order to entice the ready to open the magazine a take a brief look inside before buying. This is important as that interaction with the consumer could make the difference between the magazine selling in higher or lower numbers.The image itself is of a vampire, with red eyes that stand out against the characters dark skin. The face of the character is in constant focus and is situated in the very centre of the page, thus this is the first point of focus for the reader with the typical reader focusing on the characters facial features then moving outwards towards the cover lines and the magazines masthead. The left third technique has been used on this front cover with the leading edge of the masthead and the larger, more important cover lines appearing in this space, however less important cover lines appear to the right of the main image almost boxing in the image giving it an illusion of compactness instead of the much more desired sense of size which the cover of “Empire” features.
To summarise this front cover, it seems that the quality of this design is lacking in focus; the reader just doesn’t have the key point of focus to really grab their attention, the text is plain and uninteresting and the layout appears limiting and claustrophobic, all-in-all there’s no feeling of quality and it seems like almost no thought has been given to many different key aspects of magazine front cover design. If both “Fangoria” and “Empire” magazines were placed next to each other on a magazine rack “Empire” would draw far more attention and would in turn be much more successful as it is in reality.
The next front cover that I chose to do is the September 2008 issue of “Total Film” Magazine.
The reason I chose to do this particular magazine is due to it’s content, the film that is the main feature is not a horror film, but I found the techniques used on the front cover to excellent.
The Colour scheme is a simple one featuring White, yellow and black. The image used is mostly dark with a dark cityscape in the background. This magazine has created it’s colour scheme in a similar way to which “Empire” magazine chose it’s colour scheme; most of the colours used on the front cover feature in the main feature image. The standard text used for cover lines is large and easy to read even from a considerable distance. Along the bottom of the page there is a cover line arranged horizontally, it’s text is arranged in alternating bold/regular/bold/regular print, this removes the need for a comma and also makes it easy to read. The feature article title is in a dramatic custom font depicting shattered glass, which features in some of the films other advertisements. The main feature image on the front cover is a mid shot of a character holding a gun in a direction that would be over the shoulder of the photographer, a large amount of attention is directed towards the gun which overlaps the magazines masthead. The shot is well lit with what I would expect to be two lamps. Firstly a lamp around head height directed towards the left (readers perspective) of the characters face then another lamp illuminating the other side of his face but not to such an extent. It’s very obvious that this character has had his photo taken in a studio then digitally rendered on top of another real image or a computer generated image of a cityscape. The cover lines are placed towards the lover half of the cover creating an effect that draws the initially readers eyes towards the face of the character on the cover. The “Left-Third” is used to great effect here, the masthead looks like it was designed with the “Left-Third” in mind as the word “TOTAL” is encased within the top horizontal line of the “F” in “FILM”, from a potential buyers point of view you can see the masthead (at least most of it) of the magazine in just the “Left-Third”.
This, in my opinion is a well thought out front cover, the use of colour is very effective and highly visible, the image used on the front cover is very dramatic which uses a good use of lighting and the layout of the cover line and masthead optimizes the “Left-Third” completely.
To Conclude, from researching and reviewing these 3 different magazine front covers I have determined which techniques create a good quality professional magazine front cover which If implemented properly could rival the big budget film magazines such as “Empire” and “Total Film”. From doing this research I have learnt the importance of Colour, the “Left-Third” and how to make font stand out effectively. I wish to use the successful techniques featured upon these three magazine covers to influence a set of core conventions that I should work with in mind, these form the backbone of my design brief.
Film Magazine Front Cover Design brief
These are the key aspects of design which I want to include whilst designing my film magazine front cover:
·Either a Close-up or a Mid-shot image of a main protagonist of film that is dramatic using Adobe Photoshop to enhance existing colours to connote the desired horror themes.
·Colour scheme that reflects the colours used in the main feature image, with coloured text that stand out from background.
·A Masthead that is well designed, readable and bold.
