Looking at film magazine covers

I began by researching lots of different film based magazines. Some of the magazines I looked at are:

• Total Film
• Empire

From this research I determined the what things to consider in creating my piece of media.

The front cover of a magazine is crucial to the success of a publication. It is used to draw in possible customers who may buy the magazine. The magazine usually implements a number of ways of getting a viewer's attention and interesting them enought to get them to purchase the magazine. These are:

• Usually a famous star or iconic image is used. For example Tom Cruise above or the face and importantly eyes of the terminator above that. This is a great way of getting the viewer to look at the magazine.
• The name of the magaizine is normally very large and can either be placed in the foreground or background. It is placed in the background if the main image needs to be placed over the top of it to give it more dominance. The title of a magazine is used to get the viewer to recognize the magazine and so they would buy it because of it's good reputation or because they liked it last time they bought it. Also the title helps to reassure the customer that the magazine is dedicated to film.
• Lots of smaller text is used to further intrigue the reader. This text normally outlines some of the interesting stories inside the magazine. These help to interest the reader so increase the likelihood that a magazine will sell.

Research on trailers

We watched and studied a number of trailers to better understand how they where constructed. We noted how the editing, sound, mise en scene and camera shots and movements where implemented when making a trailer.

Most trailers gradually build towards some sought of conclusion. usually the begging of a trailer is used to establish the story, location charecters and events that may take place during the film. This part of the film is usually slow paced and has some quite music in the background to move the trailer along smoothly. The trailer gradually builds and usually eventually culminates into a classic montage of action(either dialogue or phsical action on screen) this part is normally edited together so each frame is very short and is in time with the music which by this point has gotten much faster and louder. This section slightly disorientates the viewer as they are not quite sure what is happening which leads to the viewer wanting to know more, which they can do by watching the film.

This is an alternative idea for a trailer which I found very interesting. This trailer has no intention of trying to establish a plot or charecters it simply intends to intrigue the viewer so much that they are willing to split with money just to know just what the hell is going on.

Creating the Plot

We wrote a script that would go with our film. The helped us to decide what audio we would need to record and how much of it we would need to do. We will record the audio using an hd voice recorder.

Mother - Bye! Have a safe trip.

Grace - (Said sarcastically) Yeah yeah ...

Grace and Jayden carry their bags to the car. They then drive from the house down the road, Grace looks embarassed by her worried mother.

Grace - We're going to be late you know ...

Jayden - Don't worry about it, I know a short cut.

Jayden then turns the car into a dark road through the woodland, Grace looks fed up and tired.

The car then begins to break down

Jayden - No no no no ahhh.

Jayden then leaves the car and checks under the bonnet

Jayden - I just need to get some oil

Jayden then runs off to the nearest petrol station

Grace - This better not take long! (Woodland sound effects begin, gradual diminuendo before car pulls up behind )
Grace looks up, to see car in rear view mirror pull up behind
Breathing rate increase (Foley sound) Dialogue is unused until the end of the trailer, apart from girl screams/wails Grace wakes up in room, looks up to see man standing in doorway
Blake: Remember me?

Naming The Charecters and Film

We are now beginning to discuss names for the film and the characters in the film, at first we thought that leaving them un-named may make the film apply to more people as they would feel more sceptic as they could believe that it could happen to them. However we felt the need for names is a necessitie in the film. For the boyfriend we decided on the name - Jayden Harrison and for the female role - Grace Ryan. We felt that murderer needs a name because during the film you will not recognize him as the murderer because you dont know what happens til the end. This tactic is commonly used to show distinction between plot and story. His name is Blake Young.


Choosing a name was probably the hardest job we have had to do so far. We needed something catchy, short and interesting. Some examples of names we had decided were, Revenge, Silent Footsteps, Homocide, Isolation and Woods. Somw of these names we felt were to common and maybe did not link in with entity of the film however we discussed further more and have come up with the name 'Isolation: The Blake Young Story'.

StoryBoard

Today we drew a storyboard. This helped us to plan out how we would go about framing the shots and the action that would take place in each one. Ot also allowed us to visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. Me and Stuart created the storyboard on an A3 piece of paper.

 Our storyboard provides a visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera lens and shows the sequence in which the shots will be seen by the viewer. The storyboard helped us to all contribute various ideas about shots, lighting, actions and how we would develop the story.

We had to create a story board so we all knew exactly what would be happening. We went over various camera angles in detail, and practiced filming in our own time to make them perfect for the final piece. We also became more familiar with the editing software that we would be using (Final Cut Express).

We also looked at a variety of different camera movements and techniques. These included the dutch tilts, tracking and panning shots. These shots all create suspense and disorientate the viewer which are key elements in any successful horror.

Preliminary Work

Before we went about making our final piece that we would sumbit we made a number of preliminary pieces. These where a variety of short films which where mainly horror based. We made one which was similar to the blair witch project, one which was based on alien and there where others aswell. To increase our knowledge of making a thriller we made a series of films. These films helped us to better understand the use of camera angles, camera movement, camera shots, sound, mise-en-scene, and the use of editing.

To film them we used a full 1080p camera and did the post production using Final Cut Express or iMovie.

On one project we made a blair witch style thriller. The story was very similar to Blair Witch, three media students go missing and their footage is found. We filmed with a hand held flip style camera. The shakiness and poor quality helped to reinforce the realism and disorintates the viewer. The film began slow and tension was gradually built up, through the use of dialogue and suspense sound effects, and culminated in a fast paced finale where the footage was quickly cut to create panic and to increase the speed of the sequence.

Looking at different media used to advertise films

I began by looking at different media used to advertise films within the genres of thriller and horror. A vast array of media is used to advertise and present the final product to the intended audience. They aim to capture the viewer’s attention and to intrigue them enough that they are willing to part with money to see the finished article.

First I focused on the posters. I found the main idea was to give the viewer a stimulating glimpse at the film. The posters’ dark atmospheric nature aimed to inspire some sort of emotion in the viewer, be it fear, suspense, shock or disgust. There is usually a statement about the film to stimulate the viewer leaving them wanting to know more. This statement usually contrasts the colour scheme of the page so it stands out. These posters usually implement a bold striking title that captures the viewer’s attention.

Here is an example of a typical poster for a thriller. The ghostly nature of the film is created through the darkness and use of monotone. The tag line “Before you die, you see [the ring]” grabs the viewers attention, it sticks it the viewer’s head as they wonder what is the ring? And what is the eerie circle of light? The unsophisticated handwriting used for “the ring” make the viewer think of a child. They ask what is an innocent child’s writing doing on a horror film poster . The ambiguity of the poster leaves the viewer in the dark in that the poster doesn’t give anything away in terms of the plot. The viewer understands the film will either be a horror/thriller as all the parts come together.

These are some more posters that I looked at: