Blog Finished

I have now finished my A2 Media coursework and am happy with what I have produced over the past few months. I encountered a number of barriers that I needed to overcome when creating my film trailer and ancillary products however I believe I coped with these well and produced my products of a high quality. Overall the project has had its ups and downs and I am glad to have finished everything. 

Final Film Trailer - The Intruder

Above is our final film trailer that has been uploaded to my YouTube channel. As a group, we are pleased with what we have created as it has been a long and difficult process - especially with having to change our whole film idea after we had already been out recording numerous times. There were a few alterations that needed to be made in order to make it more professional such as sound and text adjustments, however the final outcome is much better. 

A2 Media Evaluation

Movie Trailer Text

Above are the text screens that I have used in our trailer. I had created these on Photoshop as this offered a wider range of effects and fonts than iMovie. I needed to think of a good sentence to go in the trailer that would tell the story in an attempt to intrigue viewers and entice them to see the film. I came up with the rhetorical question of 'What would you do if your home became your worst nightmare?' as this involves viewers by asking them a question. Once I had inserted the text, I wanted it to look even more effective so used the eraser tool to add sharp cuts to it to give it a 'slasher' look linking to our horror genre. 

Title Colour

When creating the title for my film, I wanted to use a colour for the typography that would make it look as effective as possible. With my film being in the horror genre, the most obvious and common colour to use was red, however the problem was finding how light or dark to have it. Because the colour red connotes blood and danger, I thought this would be the most appropriate colour to use. I also wanted it to match the colour of the blood splatter behind it which was red so needed the text to stand out and be easily read.

As you can see from these two variations of my title, the colour is very bright and looks appealing meaning it can be easily digested by viewers. However, it is argued that these versions of red are too bright to represent blood, and that the normal colour for blood would be darker.

I wanted to experiment with my title until I could find the perfect colour for it. I changed the colour of red numerous times and had already seen what a bright version looked like. As you can see from the two versions above, I have made them slightly darker to see if it looked any better. Although they still look effective, I believe they are too dark to represent a colour of fresh, oxygenated blood.

This is the final version of my title and I am happy with the outcome as I believe it is not too dark or too light. I think it looks very effective as it is easy on the eye and viewers will clearly be able it identify that I have gone for the colour of blood.

Intrepid Pictures

Along with our own production company ident, we also wanted to include a well known companies in order to show that our film has the potential to be a success. We took time to research other production companies and look at their idents in order to find a suitable choice. When we came across the Intrepid Pictures ident, we thought this was really effective and would look great at the start of our trailer. After researching the company, we found that they specialise in producing and co-financing a number of genres of film - most importantly horror. They are responsible for producing films such as The Strangers and The Hitcher which can both relate to our film in the way that they involve a crazed killer. The word intrepid generally means fearless and this relates to the company's name effectively as it suggests they are not scared of anything - not even a horror film.

When people see this ident at the start of the trailer, they will assume our film we be of a similar quality to their previous works, and if they enjoyed this, then they will most likely enjoy our film too. The ident features a fade into a dark red background where we can see a stormy sky with lightning strikes taking place. There is a black silhouette of a man slowly raising his arms as if he is embracing the stormy weather. Gradually, the storm gets more and more violent with lightning strikes happening close to the man and the words 'Intrepid Pictures' appear. Loud sound effects of the lightning are used in order to make the ident more dramatic and threatening and it has an overall ominous feel to it. I believe it is one of the best and most creative idents I have seen and believe we have used it appropriately as the use of the colour red connotes danger and blood suggesting that they have produced a horror film.

Creating our billing block

From gathering research on products such as film posters and film trailers, I have found out that one of the main codes and conventions that is used is a billing block. A billing block ensures the continuity between products and basically gives the main people who have been apart of the film credit/recognition.

I have researched billing blocks on a number of different posters and found out that they contain the same information. The image below is the billing block from the poster for The Strangers. This is of the same genre and story-line to our film and so it would therefore be relevant to use the same information as this.

This information includes the production companies involved, as well as producers, writers and directors. Because there were only four people in our group who were involved with the creation of the film, our four names are the only ones that appear - Myself, John, Shaun and Georgia. We also found that the font used for a billing block is very tall and thin and have so incorporated this into our own. The billing block that we have created will appear at the bottom of my movie poster as well as at the end of our trailer.

Creating our ident - Loftlight Productions

Above are screenshots that show the production company ident that we have created to include in our film trailer. As you can see, it starts off in darkness before a hand appears and lights a match. With the match being the only source of light in the shot, it reveals a box in a loft with the words 'Loftlight Productions' written on it. The match moves across from left to right before having a sharp movement to make the flame die out. I thought of this idea myself as it was very simple, unique and effective to create. The ident links in to our production companies name as there is a light in a loft and this will be displayed at the start of our trailer to show viewers who have produced it. 

Final Magazine Front Cover

Above is the final version of my movie magazine front cover. I had to make a few adjustments in the process in order to make it look more effective. Overall, I am happy with the final outcome and believe it would make a successful movie magazine. 

Magazine Front Cover Progress

Below are screenshots to show how my movie magazine front cover has progressed during the creation stage. I have print screened my progress on Photoshop at different stages in order to show the variations between my start and end products.

As you can see from this print screen, this is when I first started creating it. The first thing I done was decide on a colour scheme of black, white and red - as in my poster, in order to show a level of continuity. I had then inserted typical magazine cover conventions such as a barcode and sub-stories so I had something to go off. 

This screen shot shows my cover starting to come along nicely. I had inserted my main image and edited it using the eraser tool to blur out the edges and blend it into the black background. My masthead had also started to be designed and I used the title 'Empire' as this is arguably the most known movie magazine company in the world. 

By now, you can see that I had changed a number of things. I changed the title from Empire to Action as I wanted to be original and make my own brand - as I have tried to do with my film overall. I didn't want to take someone elses' fame and decided it was best to create my own movie magazine company. I had also inserted other conventions from magazine front covers such as a website, price, issue number, date and motto in order to make it look realistic. I had also changed the typography colour from red to orange/yellow in order to go appropriately with my main image as if the match is their light source. I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to add a fire effect to text as again, I wanted my main image to relate to the cover. I wanted my masthead to look like it had been set on fire by the match in the image and the tutorial involved rasterising and blending the text to get the best possible outcome. 

Here, I have added a title for the main story which is simply the film title as well as a rhetorical question in an attempt to entice people to buy the magazine and find out more if they are intrigued. I decided not to have my title font the same as what I had in my trailer and on my poster as I wanted it to match the masthead typography.

Here is the final image of my magazine front cover. I decided to get rid of the flames on the masthead as they were too overpowering and took the attention away from the main image and stories. I also reverted back to using red text for the sub stories as there was too much orange otherwise. Now I feel it has the right balance of lighting, especially seen as I adjusted the main image and made it slightly darker to give it even more of an eerie feel. 

Inspiration for my movie magazine front cover

From carrying out research on film posters and magazine front covers for my ancillary products, I came across a very effective looking poster for The Conjuring that included a woman holding up a match in the dark which gives off a very eerie and mysterious feel. I thought this was very original as it is the only poster I have seen with an image like this. The close up shot which is common in horror film products is used to show the womans facial expression of being nervous, as if she is going into the unknown. This further adds to the mystery and supports viewers in being able to identify the film as being in the horror genre. Because I had already decided on the image to use for my movie poster which was an eye, I had chose to incorporate this idea on my magazine front cover as it would look just as effective. By using the image, we have also made it into a clip from the film to use in the trailer which shows continuity between our products. 

Final Movie Poster

Above is the final version of my movie poster. Overall, I am pleased with the finished product and believe it looks very professional and effective. I have conformed to the codes and conventions of a typical horror movie poster with the likes of my main image and colour scheme capturing my film and the genre perfectly. 

Movie Poster Progress

Below are screenshots to show the progression of my movie poster. As you can see, it gradually improves as I add more conventions to it such as the billing block and release date.

This is one of the early stages of my movie poster. As you can see I had already inserted and edited my main image by using the fade shape on the eraser tool to blur out and blend the edges of the eye with the black background. I had also added some typography and could see that it was coming along nicely.

At this stage, after receiving some feedback, I decided to change the colour of the eye into black and white as their was too much red that it flooded the poster. The black and white eye looked more effective and allowed it to stand out more against the red text and black background. I had also moved the social networking logos to the bottom as this was more of a suitable position for them and where they tend to be found on real posters.

After creating my billing block, I inserted this to the poster and located it just underneath the title at the bottom as this is the typical position for it. By now the poster was looking very effective and I was happy with what I had produced. 

Here is the final screenshot that shows my finished movie poster. I added a website for the film where viewers can go to find out more about it as well as 'Coming this Halloween' to further support it as being in the horror genre. Halloween is the most common time for horror movies to be released and so I thought it was appropriate to have mine released around this time. Overall, I am pleased with the final outcome and believe the progression was effective in making it look more professional. 

Inspiration for my movie poster

When researching movie posters, I found a trend that appeared predominantly in the horror genre. This was the use of a large eye as the main image that takes up the majority of the poster. The use of an eye can have many reasons behind it and carries the connotations of power, good or evil. Historically, an eye can be a symbol of God, protection or even wisdom. From using it in my movie poster, I wanted to get across the fact that 'The Intruder' is watching and that he sees everything. It is said that you can see into the soul of someone by looking into their eye and by having this on my poster, it looks very effective. With an eye carrying the connotations of power and evil, this suggests that The Intruder is not just an ordinary person and that he is some sort of super human who can not be stopped or killed.

Another inspiration for my movie poster was the typography used on The Last House on the Left poster. I believe this looked really effective and captured the horror genre perfectly which made me want to produce something of a similar style and quality. I have used a very similar font to it as well as a blood splatter in the background as this tells viewers that the film is in the horror genre. I have also developed their convention of using different colours when presenting the typography as this gives it a very effective look. If it was all the same colour, it would not look as good and appealing to look at. 

Padlet - Movie Poster and Magazine Cover

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Viral Marketing Campaigns: Carrie & Devils Due

In order to gain a better knowledge of my chosen film genre, i have kept an eye on the marketing campaigns of different horror movies. A great example of the viral marketing technique done right is with the Carrie and Devils Due prank videos. They have each received millions of views from all over the world from their videos being uploaded to the web on sites such as YouTube.

The Devils Due video features an animatronic infant known as the devil baby terrorising hundreds of unsuspecting New Yorkers by jumping up, screaming, vomiting and growling at them as he is wheeled around in a remote controlled pram. The reactions of confusion and terror bought from this were priceless and it definitely helped to promote the film.

The Carrie video on the other hand which was just as successful, features a number of telekinetic acts such as a man getting thrown up against a wall in order to relate to the film. It shocked hundreds of innocent bystanders in the coffee shop which had been used to perform the stunt. In the process, a fake wall and visual effects were used to make it as effective and as realistic as possible. Again, this played a huge part in the promotion of the film and proved to be a great marketing campaign inspiring other films to commit similar acts.

Overall, i believe that the strategy used by the two films was a fantastic method of gaining publicity for the movies as they reached millions of views on their day of release.