Evaluation

Below is my A2 evaluation.

Trailer Final

Poster Final

Magazine Final

Poster Creation

For my poster I did not do loads of editing to the main image, this was due to my image having the look that I wanted meaning I did not have to play around with it a lot, I did however do a lot of work in terms of creating my own institutional information and placing on the screen this was the majority of the editing I did however created  through spending time on this I managed to create a poster that looks like something found in the real world.

Magazine Creation

Starting for my magazine creation I chose my image and built up, Using the font that my audience had selected from my survey see Here and the white colour started to build the basis of my masthead using ideas from my Flatplans I Used two images I had taken and resized and placed them  above my masthead using the Buffer Exclusive to try and draw audiences in. I then moved on and added common conventions such as bar code and strap line by this point the layout and the style of my magazine was pretty set in stone. I then simply added text and grabs to hopefully pull audiences in.

Original Images

Due to the nature of my poster it was ideal that I took the best photo I possibly could because of this I took multiple images playing with focus,zoom and angle to ensure I came out with a good image here are some images I did not use.

Cast List

Poppy as himself
Photographer - Me

Flat plans

I created flat plans to get a broad idea of the ideas I had

What target audience want

Before Creating my poster I needed to create a survey to realize the target audiences needs. First off I established my audience by asking the gender and age of the participants, this allowed me to get an understanding of the people answering my questionnaire.

I also asked if my audience thought that posters where a good way to advertise this came back with an outstanding 100% saying that they did in fact believe posters where a good way of advertising this is most likely due to easy placement.

 I then looked into detail following the sort of colours expected in a horror poster and if the participants them selves thought the credits at the bottom of a poster where a necessary, I found that the main colour expected was red to follow the blood type theme and that most of my participants believed credits where a waste of space.

Looking back at this survey I personally think I could have done it better however at the time I had a strong idea of they style I wanted to produce and so was more focused on this as appose to matching my audiences wishes.

Film posters

Film poster are a very old school way of advertising films, however they still prove to be very effective in the modern market. The most common place to view film posters is in cinemas or in DVD rental/shops this is  due to the fact that the ideal target audience has a higher chance of seeing it. Poster like banners are also used on buses this advertises on a massive scale as passers by will see the advert meaning that one bus can advertise to 1000s of people.

Original Image

When shooting for my magazine I ensured to take lots of images so I would have a wider array to pick from here are some images I took but did not use.

I liked this image due to its focusing and the depth of field it creates however it did not suit the need as magazines tend to need an image that interacts with the consumer

The reflection off the glasses made this image very interesting.

The face in this image is very dark not enough lighting was used.

The tilt I used in this shot i thought at first would be a good idea however it does not look right when placed on a magazine the face is also far too dark

Cast List

Main image- Alex
2 Smaller images - Chris and Kieran
Photographer - Me

What target audience want

Before producing my magazine I needed to compile information based on what my target audience want. To gather this information I produced a Surveymonkey, My first 3 questions (the 3 on the left in the image) I used to get a general idea of the audience that filled out my survey to essential try to make sure there was no bias in my creation. I got a fairly even split between both male and female participants, these also stretched in age range however there was a clear focus of old teens early twenties.

I personally was interested to see if many people in modern world still use magazines for entertainment,seeking information or any other of Blumer and Katz uses and gratifications its seems like magazines are on the decline this is most likely due to introduction of other forms media.However all of my participants still stated that a magazine is a good form of advertisement despite the fact a majority barley read magazines.

My other questions focused around what the audience thinks  would look good on a magazine I focused on Masthead ideas and colour scheme due to the fact I wanted some lee way when producing my magazine, the most common theme in the colour selection was white so therefore I should try to use this colour in some shape or form. My masthead question was fairly close in terms of result however my 1st masthead font won so I shall also try to include this in my production to best suit my audience.

Flat Plans

Magazine Institution/Genre Research

For production of my movie magazine I need to reshearch the styles located within this genre. In my AS I looked in detail about institutions linked with magazine production if you would like to see this information found;

I my self worked on Bauer, this company works on many well known magazines including Kerrang and Q magazine. Bauer is a company that tries to compete on many multi media products such as radio and TV. However Bauer's branch into ipad and iphone apps is limited as they only feature  two magazines in this format but based on there history with the industry I doubt it will be long before they develop into this form of media as this is the only true way in my opinion and company can stay above water my developing and adapting into new areas.

The magazines I analysed where Q and clash magazine. Q magazine as afore mention is produced my Bauer one of the largest companies based in germany and has a large office in the UK. This knowledge of  the industry and power in the magazine market can be stated to have helped Q magazine be as successful as it is because of the this the magazine is very much mainstream.

Clash magazine is a completely independent magazine based and published in Dundee, Britain this is what gives Clash it originality in the music magazine industry it is very "Quirky" in terms of the style and tends to headline more undiscovered artist however it does also feature information on the 'big hitters' in the industry

Mast Head Ideas

For my film magazine I wanted to use a name that related to cinema and film. Because of this I chose the name Preview. For my magazine style i wanted to follow more of a retro cinema theme and so looked at style models and fonts that match.Here are some examples

I liked this font because it really suits the theme i was aiming for I also like its bold definition and the fact it is easy to read, my only concern is how it would look on a magazine cover it particularly depends on the images I decide to use as this font will require some work to get a good colour scheme.

 This font also has the retro look however personally I do not like it as much as some other fonts i have looked at my main issue with this font is the way the E's are and how little the p's are. I do not think I will use this.

This font looks really good and also meets my style view my issue is to the way in which the letters have different spacing I personally feel this would make it complicated to get to a good size that still fits within the page I would defiantly consider using this if the V and W where smaller in width.

This font has not got anything quirky about it however I like its simplicity and spacing and I personally feel it would look very good on a magazine cover.

Final Cut Edit

place in screens of this..

Budget

Being in a small group of students our budget was very small if it was not for the schools resources we would not of been able to produce the product we did this is down to the pricing of the cameras lighting being expensive. We did however purchase a 16gb memory card for the schools camera so we knew we always had one available to use this cost us £18 from amazon.

If we did not have the schools resources we would have had to hire a camera from a independent company this could have cost us anywhere from £60-£225 a day depending on what camera we wished to use this would of been very unrealistic for us to afford.

We did purchase certain props such as liver (3 packs for £1) and some fake blood (£5) to help when setting the scene a majority of the objects we used where already owned by us as a collective the airsoft guns we used as "weapons" came to a total of around £500 however these were already supplied by one of our members so they cost us nothing. Ghillie suits and the army style clothing was also supplied to us but could have cost a fair amount if they where not already owned.

We used a fair amount of petrol moving from and to location this was under travel costs however with out having this style of transport we would not have been able to get the shots we did.

Props List

• Liver - Used in Kitchen
• Airsoft Guns- Used in House
• Fake Blood - Used on Victim 
• Kitchen Equipment- Used in Kitchen
• Butterfly Knife -Used Outside
• Jump Cables -Used in Kitched
• Fiat punto - Used Outside
• Gas mask - Part of Villains costume 
• Ghillie Suit - Used in House and Part of Villains costume
• Axe - Used Outside
• Bible - Used in House
• Plastic Bag - Used on Victim
• Poppy - Worn by actors, Used in House
• Rope - Used Outside
• Tent - Used Outside
• Scalpel - Used Outside

Crew List

Shoot 1

• Camera Man; Kieran,Alex and myself
• Sound: Kieran, Alex and Chris
• Director;  Decisions made by the group
• Actors; All group

Shoot 2

• Camera Man; Alex and myself
• Sound; Alex and myself
• Director; Alex and myself
• Actors; Chris and Kieran 

Shoot 3

• Camera Man: Alex and myself
• Sound:Kieran
• Director:Myself
• Actors:Chris 

Make Up and Special Effects

Film productions in the modern era use a lot of make up and special effects as it allows productions to feel more realistic in particular with recent technological advances films are exploring more techniques and materials for the use in make up and special effects. The horror genre features loads of special effects and different type of make up this is because the majority of scenes used in horror production need to be produced, for it would be very immoral to use the real thing as majority of horror film feature blood gore and other nasty things.

The first special effect used in motion production was featured in 1985, since then the use of special effects has grown and the technology has also developed( If you would like to see a brief history of Special Effects click the link or a brief explanation on new world developments and how it has affected independent film productions check my other post Here). For our film production the majority of special effects we will use will be in the editing stages although we are not going to feature large explosions or CGI aliens we will be adapting the colour correction adding certain ghosting of characters as these will both contribute well towards the atmosphere we wish to produce.


We used very little in terms of make up in our filming this is due to us being an all male group and having little knowledge in this field. So instead of make up we used costume to reflect our actors in the way we wanted this was in our comfort zone and we feel that it still produced the atmosphere we wanted.

Costume Sketches and ideas

When discussing the convention of our horror character it was a common consensus that we wanted to explore the possibility of using a mask for the antagonist. The key reason for this links to Tilley's concept of action codes, This suggests that the masks create a sense of mystery for the character that using action codes causes the audience to surmise that the character is up to no good.The sense of mystery created also causes interest within the audience  . Masks are used a lot in film in particular in action adventure and the horror genre this is because mask are usually associated with anonymity. This causes them to be deindividualised which adds mystery to the character and also adds and expectancy to audience that they wall cause trouble because they have no identity to be related to the crime. 

Rorschach is a character from a series of comics known as watchmen. the series of comics was a limited edition story spanning of a total of only 12 comics between the years of 1986 and 1987. However a film was produced and released in 2009 that followed the story of the DC comic. Rorschach although not a villainous character is an interesting figure due to his dark gritty appearance in the film and also his main identification his mask, a rorschach most commonly known as an ink blot test is used my certain psychologists to identify mental health and thoughts this is the main feature on Rorschach's mask and adds an extra layer of mystery to the character. This is an interesting concept that I am going to take into consideration when producing a costume.

Jason Voorhees is a very famous figure in the world of horror due to the linked films of Friday 13th. Friday 13th is a franchise that is the compilation of 12 slasher horror films Jason Voorhees features in all films as rather the killer or the motive behind the killing. The main feature of Jason is that he drowned at Camp Crystal Lake due to negligence of staff that where to busy having coitus. The main feature of Jason is his hokey mask  this conceals his identity well although this has proven to work it is so iconic I will not follow this convention however the hockey mask connotes a sort of innocence as it is commonly depicted youth wear hokey masks when playing hokey this gives his costume link to his background story as he lost his childhood and so wears something commonly associated with american childhood this is something interesting that i will take into consideration.  

Leatherface the character most commonly known from Texas chainsaw massacre wears a naturaly repulisve mask created from human flesh. This mask however does not completly conseal the identity of leatherface as we can still easily see his eyes this allows him to make eye contact and creates this sense of him in fact being human where as some other horror characters as an audience we can detach our self from the character. this is something we will think about as it adds an extra scare factor that lingers 

My Idea;

Casting

When casting for a film we would normally have a casting call this is where by actors attend a interview and show the work they can do the producers and director would then select from this group of people to be the actors for there production. For our film we decided to do our trailer slightly different we decided to act in our own production, this has been done and has been very successful in the past it also allows us as produces more time in total because we have no need to spend a large amount of time finding actors to fit our direct parts. A perfect example of when this has worked is the majority of work produced by Simon Pegg not only does he write his own films he also stars in the productions along side Nick Frost, this is the method for Simon Peggs Cornetto trilogy that we will see the final film production at the end of this year. These films successes truly show how a British film production can work across seas it also shows that writers playing actors can work as an advantage.

However The Cornetto Trilogy are 'bloody' comedies and although Simon may start in the production he still gets extras and other actors to play certain parts. We are completely excluding this which may cause our production to be lacking in effect.

Locations List

Our story is set in a secluded area to hopefully set across the theme of isolation. Being from Countryside we have a lot of areas locally that will be perfect for our production. One of the locations we looked into was Bodmin Jail this is due to its dark long halls and its naturally tense atmosphere that being an old jail produces. There are also certain different aspects of the location that make it "Desirable" such us the hanging station that is inside and the wide open court yard however there was issues about using this location, The Bodmin Jail is a commercial location that has a restaurant a bar and certain tours around the area this means that it is almost always in use meaning we could not film without others being around and due to our low budget we was unable to book out the location.

Being in the countryside there are a lot of secluded cottages that would give the feel we are after on a low budget luckily this was something available to us as a group so we decided to set forward using this type of location the issue is that it is hard to film certain dark shoots we was hoping to shoot as cottages tend to be small and it would be hard to replicate the footage we wanted. For this we had to find a second location whilst still keeping contingency of our first location. We decided to film our night shots in a secluded because the cottage in question had a fair amount of trees next to it although we did not use the wood directly next to the cottage we decided to use a slightly larger location that would allow us to preform our night chase scenes.

Script

For our trailer we needed to produce a script for our actors. Due to the issues that lots of dialogue causes we decided to keep dialogue to a minimum especially when the actors are on screen and the dialogue is in sync with the actors talking the reason we tried to avoid this was because if not done correctly it looks awful and if sound is not recorded with correct equipment it will also sound awful this is where we as a group decided most amateur movies slip up and so decided against replicating the same the mistake.

We did decide to use some dialogue this was used inside our audio track for our trailer this was simply a "chant" similar to that of what you would here at a remembrance day ceremony this is to link to the theme of our film. Despite this scripts main use is for the stage directions we used, majority of the time when filming we improvised, although the main scenes we wanted to include we made sure to create a short script that allowed us to keep to these guidelines if we could not come up with anything else.

Storyboard

Inside our group we each individually created a storyboard of what we wanted to include in our trailer this was after we had a discussion of what it was we wanted to produce. My storyboard can be found bellow.

after producing our own individual ideas as a collective we decided as a group to produce a storyboard consisting 20 slides, Chris a member of our group was the one that created this with the groups input. This the storyboard that we would be working from with the footage we have captured to produce our final trailer however we may alter slight bits when it comes to final editing stages.