Producing the Film Product

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.

Analysis of Storyboard with Finished Product.

Analysis of Storyboard with Finished Product.

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.

Storyboard.

Film Magazine Front Cover Subsidery Task - Construction, Final Finished Product & Evaulation

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.

Film Poster Subsidery Task - Construction, Final Finished Product & Evaluation

Construction

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.