Poster survey

Using a tally, I asked 20 people which poster out of three designs they thought should be used to advertise our film trailer. It was clear from the results that the first poster design was favourited was Poster 1 which obtained over half of the votes over posters 2 and 3.

From the most popular choice, I asked what caused them to choose that poster. The most frequent answer was that there was a link between the poster and the trailer as in the trailer, clips of the film are shown through Polaroid images and in the poster, stills from the film are shown on images within a Polaroid image which is framed by the general information included on a poster such as the age certificate, etc. Although from the other answers, thus poster also clearly shows the genre and teases the viewer by showing small parts of the film in the stills.

Shot Experiment - Tied up hands

From our audience feedback after our first draft we gathered that in order to capture the audiences attention we should tease a little more of the main character's fate. As the film is quite dark we decided to experiment with some shots including blood and bruises, but nothing that will give too much away. Here is an experimental shot I took of bloody and bruised hands tied up, implying our main character was captured. I used the bruised make up look I previously experimented with and dipped my hands in homemade fake blood.

Technologies and Equipment

Camera: - To film our trailer this year we used a Canon 5d as apposed to the cameras provided for us by the school. This improved our image quality by having a greater depth of field and exposure, meaning we are able to achieve low-key lighting shots effectively as well as have a clear focus on our image. The 5d also has in-built steadycam which will be helpful for our tracking shots to reduce shakiness as we do not have a dolly.

 

Microphone: - To record the sound for our film trailer we used a ‘Zoom’ microphone used as a boom mic to capture clear sound. This microphone has a better quality of sound than that on the camera and therefore the diegetic sound of our trailer is clearer.

Editing: - As we are using a green screen in our polaroids iMovie is limited for us editing wise, so we will use both a combination of iMovie and After Effects to edit our trailer together. We intend to use iMovie to cut the clips together and add any effects such as low saturation or slow motion and then transfer the exported piece into After Effects to layer the green screen.

 

Photoshop: - To edit our film poster this year we are using photoshop. This provides a wide variety of tools we can use to edit, therefore leaving us with unlimited possibilities for our poster.

Potential Website Homepage

This is our draft for our potential website homepage. We decided to stick with the Polaroid theme as we have used this throughout our texts (trailer and poster), however we changed the background image to the detective to portray more of the conventions of the genre, Mystery. Once we have completed our final trailer we will upload it to the website and replace the video that is currently there which is the default Wix video. 

Website Experiment

Whilst planning our website we decided to draft an option for it with the background appearing to be a pinboard with polaroids on it. However, after making a draft of this we decided against this draft as the colours do not fit well with the darkness of the movie and we would like the website, poster and trailer all to scheme nicely together. We would like to take the idea of using polaroids on our website further though as this is a theme that runs throughout our texts.

Costume & Make Up - Fake Blood

FakeBlood - Video Maker

Here is a short 'how-to' clip I made whilst experimenting with making fake blood. After reviewing our first draft we decided the trailer needed a 'bloody' shot to reflect the true darkness of the film's narrative. I used the recipe for making 'Dripping fake blood' on diyfashion.about.com as guidelines for my tutorial.

Costume & Make Up - Bruising

Inspired by the bruising tutorial on WikiHow

Costuming & Make Up - On Set

For our costuming and make up we thought it would be important to have metaphorical reasonings behind certain aspects of each characters costume, making the scenes and characters easy to interpret and analyse, as well as giving the audience some background to their everyday lives.

In this scene of Alex and Stuart arguing we decided to have Alex wearing very casual clothes, with her hair tied back in a messy bun and no make up on. This implies that at this current moment in time she is not intending to go out, which is reflected in her actions as she is doing housework. She is also wearing a mans sweater, which belongs to Stuart. This, as well as her casual look, implies the two are very close and comfortable around each other, giving the audience an insight into their relationship. We decided to have Alex wear a white t shirt to metaphorically represent innocence, presenting her in this situation as pure and the victim in the argument. However, it could also be ironic, as the ring implies she is cheating on Stuart - appearances can be deceptive.

For the dinner scene we wanted to make it obvious to the viewer that this was a special occasion. To do this we chose Alex's outfit to be very dressy - a smart black dress and black heeled shoes - the 'little black dress' being a typical date/special occasion outfit for women. However, in this case we did not want to present Alex as innocent, and so we chose a tighter, short dress which is more flirtatious.

In terms of hair and make up for the dinner scene we decided to put Alex's hair half up to imply she was trying hard to impress someone, and also to pull her hair away from her face for practical reasons so it is easier to see her facial expressions on screen. We chose basic eye make up and specifically red lipstick, representing lust and love as well as the possibility of danger, which is then later shown when Stuart texts to say he cannot make it and Alex slams the plates down, implying she may the dangerous one.

The ring was incredibly important to the shoot as it implies that Alex has been cheating on Stuart as a ring is usually linked with the idea of marriage or promises. This is shown by the lengths Alex goes to to hide the ring from Stuart. We had Alex's nails a pale pink to imply femininity.

We wanted Stuart to seem fairly smartly dressed in comparison to Alex, so we dressed him in a shirt and smart work trousers. This implies he may have been out or working whilst Alex has been at home.

For the detective we decided to dress him in a simple green shirt and a black blazer with work trousers to show professionalism and imply he is working. The wedding ring implies he is mature or older. However, this could lead the audience into a false sense of trust in the detective due to his appearance of professionalism and security, adding to the mystery of the movie, as in the narrative of the real film it is revealed that he is not a real detective. The green of the detectives shirt could also represent jealous, which links with the jealousy he has of Stuart.

Parallels to inspiration

Fades from Panic at the Disco//Nicotine

Zoom transitions from The Chemical Brothers//Let Forever Be

One shot continuity from Taylor Swift//We are never getting back together

Green Screen

Below we have added a video explaining how we used green screens throughout our film trailer and also why we used it. 

Tagline Research

Once we finished filming we moved onto the ancillary tasks that needed to be completed (Film Poster and Website). To do this we needed to carry out research into film taglines so we could create one for own poster. For our tagline for the film poster we wanted to include something about trust and love to keep it related to the film, or have something about secrets and lies, as the main girl in the trailer is hiding a big secret from her boyfriend.

To do this I looked at other films to see what their taglines were, and how they related to the film. The following films are the ones we researched:

Gravity Tagline:- "Don't Let Go"

Seven Tagline:- "Seven Deadly Sins. Seven Ways To Die"

House at the End of The Street:- "Fear Its Secret"

Shutter Island:- "Someone is Missing"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:- "Evil Shall with Evil be Expelled"

From this research we have chosen a Tagline that is related to the film, as all the films we researched in to, the tagline is either related to the genre or the storyline. All the tag lines we researched used short sentences, that are three or four words long. However as we wanted to include a question for the tagline we were unable to think of a suitable for our poster. We brainstormed key words to do with Mystery, Love, Secrets, Lies, our trailer and other relevant emotions. There were many ideas that we cam up with, but we have chosen:-

"Do You Trust The One You Love?"

This is because our main aspect of our film trailer is the mystery behind the couple and why the girl is hiding a big secret from her secret boyfriend, and why she isn't telling him. We also left it as question due to the genre of our film trailer being a mystery, meaning that they have to watch the film to find out why.

Below is a link to the final film poster, with the tagline in place on the film poster.

http://parallelpictures.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/final-film-poster.html

MoodBoard on Exisiting Film Websites

Deconstruction of Exisiting Film Websites Homepages

Analysis of film website: Sherlock Holmes

Tutorial: Wix

We have been encountering problems when trying to create our website including how to change certain text, etc. Therefore we have used a tutorial uploaded by the Youtube account 'BiggerPockets' which has enabled us to successfully edit titles and headings to the page as well as helping us to add images and in cooperate our trailer into the design.

Codes and Conventions of Film Websites

I have created a bubble map to show the different codes and conventions that are typically used in film websites. 

 

 

 

Poster Experimentation 3

This is our third film poster experiment. We decided to stick to theme of using Polaroid pictures, as its a massive aspect in out film trailer and it also reflects the films genre of a mystery-realism. In this poster we decided to use a scattered effect of the polaroids instead of focusing on just one, to make it look more like the detectives desk in the film trailer.

Poster experimentation 2

This poster in cooperates the dark themes of the trailer through a still frame from the trailer of the detectives office under a spotlight. With less a less saturated colour scheme for the image, the colour of the title and coming soon is a bright red to capture the viewer's attention with the conventionally less seen text such as credits and copyright being a mid grey to emphasise the title, etc. The title also has a space between each letter to allow it to cover a larger amount of the page.

Poster Experimentation 1.

This is our very first film poster draft for our film trailer. We are experimenting with the idea of using the template of Polaroid picture for our film poster. We have used a still that we took when filming for the background, which is showing different Polaroid pictures displayed in the detectives office, hinting to the audience what genre it is. We used the different shades of red for the colour of the text, to complement the colour of the image and also to imply the dark undertones of the movie. We used different shade for the title to make it stand out to the viewer. 

Possible Backgrounds for our film poster

For our film poster, I have taken some stills from our trailer and also taken some pictures while filming our trailer, so that they could be used for the background on our poster.

To keep with the genre and theme of our trailer, I have used images that contain polaroid pictures, as we have used throughout our trailer and is very significant.

I have taken stills from two scenes in the trailer that appear or have will have relevance in the film, this being the small brown box (top left) and part of the detectives desk (top right). The reason why I have chosen the desk, is because  our genre is mystery and that the main location in the film is the detectives desk. I chose the box because the main girl (Alex) in the trailer, keeps her secrets hidden in the box away from her boyfriend. Lastly I also chose the back of the detective, to keep with the genre as we do not revel who the detective is, keeping it a mystery.  

Analysis of Promotional Package - American Hustle

To make all three of our products as effective as they can be it is essential to think of them as a package rather than just individual products. Here is some research I have done into the existing promotional package of 'American Hustle' by analysing the similarities between the products and how this makes it effective as a package.

Film Poster Inspiration

During research of film posters we came across the posters that were created for the film 'Memento'; as we have used Polaroid pictures throughout our film trailer we were inspired by these posters as they have similarly used polaroids in the promotion of their film. This effectively presents the genre of crime/mystery, there for showing conventions of the genre needed to be promoted to help attract an audience from the poster.