Main task Complete...

  

                                  PARADOX TEASER TRAILER from Luis Valtierra on Vimeo.

CLICK ON PARADOX TEASER TRAILER LINK TO SEE ON VIMEO

The setting of my film is an Asylum for the worlds mystery patients and there's one patient who is the biggest mystery of them all, Patient 13. Apart from the obvious white hospital clothing he wears a distinctive bandage around his eyes, as he is blind.  Patient 13 is a quiet and obedient character, but after the staff discover weird drawings in his cell and the head of the hospital gets a specialist doctor, Dr. Jones, who sets out to investigate the mind of Patient 13. Patient 13 is told by Dr Jones to draw what he thinks he looks like and what he thinks Dr Jones looks like. Patient 13 draws himself as an angel and draws Dr Jones as a demon. This leads to a number of weird deaths of the staff of hospital and No one knows what has happened. Dr Jones eventually finds more drawing of plans of the deaths of the staff members in the cell of patient 13 and finds out, through a letter in his cell,  that Patient 13 has been possessed by the devil to believe he is an angel and everybody else is evil and it is Patient 13's duty to rid the world of evil, ending in a mass killing spree which Dr Jones needs to sort out.  In this teaser trailer you also see a female doctor who previously looked into the case of patient 13 but failed... 

Focus group

                                                 PARADOX from Luis Valtierra on Vimeo.

After completing the fist draft of my teaser trailer, I managed to oragnise a focus group to show them what i have done and to get feedback off them in order to make my work better. I managed to find an empty classroom one lunchtime and got the trailer up on the white board. All together I had around 10 of my peers which I showed the trailer to and I received some more feedback.

FEEDBACK

on the whole the feedback I received was generically good, with people saying it was already at a high standard. With this said, I asked them what they would do if they were doing this teaser trailer. After asking them a though provoking question I found that I received some useful constructive criticism. I found that sometimes the trailer seems to start and stop in laces creating the impression that the trailer is being disrupted. Even though the disruption is for a split second I have to address the problem as if it's tied up the trailer will run a lot smoother and look a bit more professional. When questioned about the way i edited I explained that I was approaching it in a rough jumpy sort of way as it is a teaser trailer and I wanted to convey the mystery of this trailer and so forth. When it came to the soundtrack of the dialogue and sound FX I found that I had to adjust the volume of 1 or 2 of the FX as it made the trailer sound a bit weird as their were many different volume levels which sort of distorted the trailer. 

With all this feedback i will be editing the video again and my next post will be the final product.

The start of the editing process

Before I began the editing process of my I needed to have an idea of what style of editing I wanted to approach and decided to look for some inspiration. Amongst my findings I found a current example that I could use in order to help me figure out the type of style of editing I want for my teaser trailer. The teaser trailer to Paranormal Activity 2 is a perfect aid in what I want to figure out and by analysing this trailer I should be able to get the inspiration to make my teaser trailer the best I can. from analysing this teaser trailer I found that the editing included a lot of eerie sound effects but at the same time it worked brilliantly in working with the diegetic sound of the actual film. A lot of static is used to create an eerie effect, which is an attribute that I want trailer to have.

One thing that is crucial is that i remember that the time limit on my trailer cannot be more than 1 minute and 40 seconds as the conventional length for a teaser trailer is not long at all. Although the Paranormal Activity2 trailer is 1 minute and 9 seconds i have more content to fit in than just CCTV footage. What I am hoping to re create is something that is concise and that teases the audience into wanting more. In addition to this, I must keep in mind my target audience at all times and make sure I steer what I produce towards them.

The program that i used was Final cut pro as it is the best editing software on the market. however, it being the best means that it is also very complicated for a beginner like myself to use it. Before I began to use it I looked and some tutorials on YouTube to figure out how to do the basics on Final Cut. After teaching myself the basics Tried to import the footage from my camera onto my computer and found that there was a slight problem, my computer couldn't read the files. With this problem in place I did some research and found that I had to simply convert my files to a more generic, readable one. After this minor glitch I realised that before i actually edited anything i had to find out what footage I wanted to use.
After choosing the footage that I wanted I was then able to begin editing my footage together in an to make a teaser trailer

 Firstly, I imported my footage onto final cut pro and it was only then i could begin to choose parts of the clip that I wanted. For each piece of footage I imported, I chose a IN and OUT point so that i used only the bit of the footage I wanted to use. I found this very helpful as this erased the unnecessary parts of a piece of footage that I did not exactly need. After doing this for all the clips and began experimenting with final cut and added some cool effects onto some of my videos and at the beginning of my trailer such as a text card. One thing i found difficult was the getting a piece of footage in between another piece of footage whilst deleting the soundtrack as I did not want to include some of the background noises in the scenes that o wanted to be silent or have dialogue running over it. I found that, through a tutorial, by using keys on the keyboard I was able to separate audio and video tracks on the timeline and could move them freely to my heart's content. In addition to this, I discovered the chopper tool which allowed me to split up tracks, whether it be video or audio. By learning how to do these two things I was able to edit more effectively and managed to do what I wanted. Once i edited the footage together I added my title card at the end which read PARADOX. Now that my raw footage has been tamed and cut together i can begin to include some sound FX and edit more effectively by using transitions.

Next I was able to find some cool Sound FX on the web that tailored for the eerie effect I was going for and I downloaded the ones that I thought would be the best and imported them into Final Cut pro. Using the chopper tool and sound tools on Final cut Pro I was able place sound effects effectively and adjust the volume levels of each so that it wouldn't make the initial dialogue unclear. I also Cross faded some of the audio so that the sound didn't stop and start at the end of each track, so instead it would fad out of one track and fade into the next smoothly and didn't make my work sound distorted. I listened to all the Sound FX's before I chose the appropriate ones for my work and I also experimented with different sounds in different places and at different volumes. This helped me get an idea of what sound would work best with what part of the video. Another key thing I kept in mind whilst I was editing the sound and that was that it was in time with certain parts of my video. For example, The thud sound FX I used whilst Patient 13 was drawing was timed so that a thud would sound after every cut. This lead me on to editing the video effectively with video transitions so that I used different styles of cuts, fades etc. The majority of my video has straight forward cuts as I wanted a rough editing approach to this work to compliment the video footage aspect of my footage. Furthermore, I neatened up bits that I thought looked a bit odd and edited in the transitions accordingly. An example of this is where Dr Jones says 'Patient 13', I put a transition so that it fades to footage of patient 13 as soon as he says it. All these little things are things that i learnt through my research and with my editing concluded for now, I hope people notice it. The working together of Non-Diegetic and Diegetic sound was a difficult to accomplish, especially with video chucked in aswell, but I think I have managed to pull it off to the best of my ability.

After editing I found that my teaser trailer stood at a perfect 1 minute and 36 seconds in length, which means is it not too long and is enough to fit the teaser category, which is key if I want to fulfil the set brief and ticking all the boxes. It also follows the industry conventions of this.

My next step is to show my work to a focus group at school and acquiring feedback so that i can enhance my work and make it to the best of my ability. I believe the editing process went well for the fact that i have never used Final Cut Pro and for the simple fact that i taught myself well through tutorials. In addition tot his, I believe I have captured my visualisation of what I wanted my teaser trailer to look like from the get go.

Filming: Day 4

I was not planning to have a 4th filming day but found I wanted to add some extra footage to my trailer. In order for me to do this i organised that one day after school James (dr. Jones)  and I would film a scene in the toilet. It did not take long at all as i entrusted the camera with a film studies student who helped and i explained to him what i wanted and he totally understood. I explained to him that I wanted a over the shoulder shot of dr. Jones washing his face and slowly looking up into the reflection of the mirror. At this point i slowly open one of the cubicle doors and dr. Jones spots me in the mirror. I wanted to create the impression that when he turned around that patient 13 wasn't there anymore and did this by coming out of frame and just a couple of shots of the cubicle being empty. Both mine a James's costume remained the same. the lighting was also fine and did not need adjusting so the shoot went perfectly and didn't take up too much of anybody's time.

I wasn't planning on having this filming day and did not have a shot list so most of the filming was totally independent. This definitely concludes the filming for my teaser trailer and I am now confident I have enough footage to make a teaser trailer.

Filming: Day 3

 Today Filming started a little later than planned as I had to get together the resources  for the shoot and the actress I was using was running a little late. Nevertheless all film was completed and was done to perfection. everything I wanted to shoot got shot and even some extra stuff was shot too.

Today's objective was to film the bits that will go inbetween the footage that i filmed on day 2 of filming. Today the filming will be based around a previous doctor that attempted to look into the case of patient 13 but fell mercy to patient 13 and died. In addition to this i filmed parts that would slot nicely to work with what Dr Jones is saying.

Firstly I began by filming the parts with the actress that agreed to film with me, Emily Day. Her character was that of a previous doctor that tried to crack the mystery of Patient 13 but failed. The location for the day's filming happened at a friends house. initially i hoped to film at my college but I was not able to due to events and the availability of the classrooms i wanted to use. Even though my friends house was second choice it still worked really well for what i wanted to capture.

Before I filmed anything I made sure that my actress was in costume, which consisted of a formal white shirt, glasses and a black shirt. also I asked if her hair could be tied up in a bun to add to that formal doctor look I was trying to convey. I chose the costume that I did, because I thought that it would relate closely to Dr Jones, as he wears a similar attire. In addition to this, it would help the audience to parallel these two characters and follow the similarities. The first shot of the day was that of my actress walking through a door which resembled that of an office door. I thought that this would establish her character and authority as she is walking into what looks like an office. Next, a close up of my actress looking puzzled and taking off her glasses in a stressful manner, which was instructed by my self, gave a sense of curiosity. next i orchestrated an over the shoulder shot to see what she was looking at, which was a file. Still sticking with the over the shoulder shot I instructed my actress to open the file, where a piece of torn paper with weird drawings could be seen. this would set the tone that my actress's character has previously managed to be puzzled by patient 13's drawings.

Next was the shot where this previous Doctor was dead. In order to do this she had to lying on the floor and looked a little roughed up as if she has been struggling. I panned the camera from her feet up in order for when its edited it will build the suspense for the identification of this body. I stopped panning at her waist and then did a close up of her head and facial area to distinctly show that she was dead.

Although this does not sound like a lot of filming, it was. I had to do many takes and test angles and movements in order to get it perfecta and I acknowledge that it is part of my process as it takes time to get it to what I actually wanted. Lighting was also key and found that the natural lighting of the location, which was the the kitchen, worked like a treat and it gave the kitchen a sense of an office.

The next half of filming began with myself being the actor and using my actress from before to operate the camera under my instructions. We began with getting the location prepared for the filming which meant the desk in the bedroom we were filming in being cleared and the positioning of blank paper on the desk. Luckily the desk was positioned next to the window and gave the footage a blue-ish tint which worked very well and no artificial lighting was needed. The filming started with some close up of Patient 13's (me) hand holding a pencil above the paper, and some extreme close ups of my fingertips about to draw and also starting to draw the images. Next I instructed for a side profile close up of my face whilst twitching to show the audience what type of character Patient 13 was. Other shots were also tested such as a close up front view of my face whilst drawing and other types of movement which included panning from left to right behind patient 13 to make it look like it was the Doctor that was observing him. An over the shoulder shot of showing the two separate drawings, on of patient 13 as an angel and the other as Dr Jones as a demon was instructed as I wanted the over the shoulder shot to provide an opening for the audience to see what Dr Jones is watching. This particular scene ended with a birds eye view shot of the two drawings so that they are seen more clearly.

The teaser trailer's filming ended with a couple of shots of Patient 13, different shots were taken: Close ups, long shots, low angles, high angles. This was more experimenting than instructing as one of the problems was the lighting in the corridor. It looked really dark through the camera and I hope it is clearer on the computer.

My trailer's content has been shot and now it leaves me for the editing process in order for me to complete my visualisation of what i want my teaser trailer to look like. I believe I have followed my shot list and storyboard throughout my filming an i hope it is enough to construct my teaser trailer.

Filming: Day 2

Day 2 of filming was the most filming I had to do out of all the days, even though it was only in one location, as I had to film the main bulk of the my teaser trailer. I set out with a plan of action and checklist in order to control my time management and deadlines. One limitation to the days filming was the amount of time I had with the actor that I was using as i he had work. With this in mind I we began filming as soon as I got everything ready. The things I needed for today's filming was my main actor James a video camera and tripod. I also decided to have a person to assist me with moving things around in the room that I needed. The room I decided to use for filming was a unused piano room I found whilst I was scouting for locations. The main part of my teaser trailer that I filmed today was the video diary of Dr. Jones in his office over a period of two weeks, but for the purpose of the teaser trailer it would be a only 5 diary entries, showing his slow journey into madness.

I prepared the room, with assistance, so that the piano and other objects were out of the way so that the camera wouldn't catch it on tape. In addition to this, I placed a table in the room to make it look like a work desk for Dr. Jones. I asked my actor to remove his earring and badge on his blazer and we were ready to start filming. I had to adjust the tripod at the right height and placed the camera. I  placed the recording screen facing the actor as he felt more comfortable and confident that way and turned night vision on to create the sense that Dr Jones made a diary entry after his days work, in the evening.

Before I actually began recording anything I directed James to do what I wanted him to do for the first day of his 'video diary' for the teaser trailer. DAY 1 of the video diary was Dr Jones' first day at his new job. He has been brought in to examine the mysterious case of patient 13. I directed James to be very high class in his speech and manner in order to convey the intelligence of his character. Additionally, his costume was a black suit and tie with a white shirt, this would also help convey this. I instructed James to tap the camera at the beginning of the recording as I played record to make it look like his character was operating and it was just him and the camera for his diary entry. Working together, we both improvised and came up with some dialogue for the first part of it and came up with something that showed that he was new and was going to analyse and have his first meeting with patient 13 the day after.

Similarly, for the recording of DAY 2 we improvised a dialogue based around the night after Dr Jones' first impressions and meeting with Patient 13. One thing I made totally important to mention was the drawings of that patient 13 drew and how he drew Dr Jones as a demon. I directed that James looked a bit disturbed by the fact his character was drawn as a demon, but at the same time not be too disturbed as he has dealt with other cases in the past. Another idea I came up with was that as the days roll by, that Dr Jones appearance looked like it was deteriorating. For Day 2 I made sure that Dr.Jones undid his top button and pulled his tie down to give the impression it has been a busy first real working day and shows an acknowledgement that this isn't going to be an easy task. The whole mood of this section of the video diary creates a platform to skip to about a week as everything cannot be squeezed into a teaser trailer.

Since I was filming for a teaser trailer the next day of the video diary was DAY 7, one week on after Dr jones' first meeting with patient 13. To maintain the sense of a breakdown happening I instructed James to modify his outfit by taking his blazer off and tie as well so he was just left in a shirt and waistcoat. The distress would also be shown in the glasses being taken off to start the diary entry. The dialogue for this was to be made a lot more distressed as if the case of patient 13 is starting to annoy the character of Dr Jones. One of the props used for this part was folder to make it look like Dr Jones has been studying and working hard to try and solve this mystery and ambiguous character if Patient 13.

After this was shot we skipped to last couple of days of his meltdown. For this I instructed James to take off his waistcoat and roll up the sleeves of the shirt to make it look like he is nearly on breaking point. I recorded a few of these scenes as they I was looking for different reactions showing this transition into insanity. again the dialogue was improvised to give that authenticity of madness and instructed for his tone of voice to be serious and really angry and distressed, throwing away his folder and cup of water. Furthermore, I shot some scenes with Dr Jones breaking down complete holding the camera and shaking whilst crying.  To finish the day's filming I directed a hanging scene and found that the best way to do this was to get James to stand on top of a chair just to film his mid section (waist to the bottom of thigh) and filmed him swaying from side to side which made it look like he was hanging create the sense that he was dangling. I only filmed the mid shot as i believe it was the shot that fitted the 'not giving too much away' category as it would create conversations and a buzz form the audience viewing it.

That concluded the days filming and I feel that I achieved everything I set out to film and feel like I worked really well with the actor and interlinked ideas to make my work feel a lot more easier and creative. The reason I wanted the dialogue to be improvised was so that the acting looked a bit more naturalistic and the actor I was working with was very confident with naturalistic acting.  Day 2 of filming went very well and leaves me with only one more day of filming which should tie together all the raw footage for my teaser trailer. Fingers crossed.

Filming: Day 1

Today was the first day of filming was probably the day of the least filming to do. However, it was still important as it would get the process of filming underway. Today filming took place purely in one location and required for me to shoot some establishing shots for the exterior of the hospital where the content of my teaser trailer will take place. The location for the filming of the exterior of the hospital was a building of posh flats which was converted form a mental institution. The basis of my filming was just getting some long shots and extreme long shots of the exterior of the building. Luckily for me the weather was stormy and the sky was filled with light and dark greys giving me the perfect natural light to capture shots of the building to create that mystery, eerie feel to my teaser trailer.

The filming of these shots did not take long at all and i was not able to film anything else because I didn't have the resources or actors on hand, due to me thinking it was going to take longer. As I had more time on my hands I asked the security guards for permission to go inside and film the interior just to have some extra footage to work with to vary the shots and expansion of my teaser trailer. Unfortunately, I was not able to get access inside the facility due to security reasons and was only limited to sticking with footage from the exterior.

One limitation of today's filming was that i wasn't able to obtain a tripod so the footage I got looked a little shaky, but I believe I will be able to alter this when editing the footage together and it should hinder my work too much.

Day 1 of filming ended in what i set out to achieve but I was set back from achieving more due to lack of resources and accessibility to facilities. I am hoping that Day 2 of filming allows me to get more done than just what I've got planned , but more in order to get 110% out of the time allocated for each filming date.

Scripting...

The scripting of a film is very important but I have decided to take a decision that will work best for my teaser trailer.

I have taken the decision to have improvised dialogue for my teaser trailer. The reason I have decided to take this decision is that there will only be dialogue for the 'Video diary' of Doctor Jones and by improvising the dialogue I believe it will produce a more naturalistic approach to the acting and give more of a raw emotion to the trailer. also since it a video diary and realistically if anyone did a video diary they would never have a script that they read before they turned the character. Instead of a script they would have a concept that they would work with and the right concept will produce a natural approach to the dialogue. This is what I am hoping to do when I fill the parts of my teaser trailer that require dialogue. I will look to work with the actor that play Dr Jones on the day of filming to come up with some concepts and ideas for each day of the 'Video Diary'.


As well as deciding to have a an improvised dialogue, I have decided to compile a shot list for the filming of the footage for my teaser trailer. This will give me a guideline for the shots I will be taking. I can also take other shots in order to be able to experiment with not just the shots on the shot list. Before I made a shot I decided to do some research into all the different shots, angles and movements of the camera so that it would be able to help me choose the right shots for my visualisation. I found this helpful  resource which explains graphically what each shot, angle and movement look likes.

Shot list

Scouting for locations

Over the last couple of days I have been thinking and locating possible locations for the filming of the content of my teaser trailer.  It has been a pretty long process in scouting locations as I have been thinking about locations ever since casting. Picking a suitable location is probably one of the hardest parts of filming a film as there are a couple of things you have to find out before you can use it:

-Before a location can be used, permission needs to be acquired, meaning that the person in charge has to know. Not having permission for a location could mean filming time could be cut short because of an event. Also not having permission, could mean that filming in certain locations could be illegal and consequences may follow.


- In addition to permission, the availability of the room needs to be known. For example, at college, if a certain classroom is in use when you were planning to film, it will cause a set back and shooting will have to rescheduled. Knowing the availability of a location is very important for sticking to time scales and schedules.


- The safety of a location.  The safety of a location is key as a thorough safety check needs to be put into place so that whilst filming it isn't dangerous to film. This is important as you do not want to breach the safety of thew actors and helpers around you aswell as the safety of yourself.


-Finally, the suitability of the location so that it fits the purpose of the project and ticks all the boxes. This is important as the location you choose for the Mise-en-scene you want to portray in a teaser trailer. A bright colourful place wouldn't be suitable for a horror film. Whereas, a dimly lit location would be suitable for something of the horror genre.

After thinking about a few locations I decided I only needed a few for the 3 days of filming I had in mind. I chose the locations needed based on the four principles above: Permission, availability, safety and most importantly suitability. I also chose suitable backups that can substitute for 2 of my 3 initial locations. Almost like for likes, although they are my last resorts.

Spare room on music corridor- Whilst scouting for location i managed to stumble across an empty room on the music corridor in my college. I acquired permission to use that room during one of my free lessons and made sure that the actors and equipment I needed were available at the same time that I was planning to use the room. The safety of the room was secure as all there was, was a drum set, piano, a chair and a table. When I film I am planning to move the musical instruments and keep the table and chair for the character of Dr Jones. the suitability factor of this location is perfect as I believe it gives the perfect sense of an office. The lighting is also good as it isn't dark and has a window on the roof letting in the natural light from outside. For this location I didn't need a backup as it is hardly used so there wouldn't be a problem with the availability of the room. This is important incase I ever have to reschedule the shoot, as I am guaranteed I can still use the same room.

Princess park manor- Whilst scouting for locations I also looked in my local area and I found a estate called princess park manor. These are very stylish modern flats and is where a few celebrities live. I also found out hat it used to be a mental institution and thought it would be an ideal location for the establishing shots of my film. I got permission to film the estate from the outside but I had to ask on the day of filming whether it was ok to film inside. I was told that I was allowed to film the front whenever I wanted which gives me a lot of availability to get everything ready. It is perfectly suitable and is  completely safe. However, I cannot take any risks and have decided to use my college building as backup location as I know I can film it whenever I want as I do not need permission.

Classroom at school- My college has some very suitable locations, in particular an English classroom that I am looking to use for some filming. I acquired permission form the teacher that teaches in that classroom and he has given me permission to use it whenever it is free. This means that there is limited availability of this room and might need to revise and reconsider shooting in this location. The safety and suitability is fine. Just in case I found a backup through my friend kindly letting me use his house to film.

Storyboard...

Today I storyboarded my idea for my teaser trailer. I thought it would be important in preparing a storyboard, aswell as a shot list for the things I want to include in my teaser trailer. To storyboarding of my idea took a while to work out what I wanted and where I wanted to put it. The whole process of story boarding took the majority of the day as I had to sketch out each frame/scene of my teaser trailer. The sketches I drew are only a rough guideline to what I want to capture during filming and are subject to change as other ideas and thought can influence to final product of my teaser trailer. For each frame/scene I wrote a description of either character action, scene action and the dialogue and sound.

For the character action, I described what the character in the particular scene that I sketch would be doing. I came up with a general, vague concept so that any ideas whilst filming and the process of thoughts could fit into the concept and still make sense. The next section I filled out for each scene was the scene action. For most of the scenes I wrote that the scenes would be stationary and the only thing tat would be in action would be the character and the Mise-on-scene and the rest of the frame would be still. Other scenes there would be objects moving in the Mise-en-scene such as doors. Another key aspect of my storyboard that I filled out for each scene was the dialogue/sound that was being used. For the scenes that had dialogue I wrote in that there would be improvised dialogue as i have taken the decision to have an improvised dialogue to provoke some more natural acting. In addition to this, the dialogue would be diegetic and part of the the scene, whereas the sound FX of the scene would be non diegetic and is an area that needed deep thought as I had visualise what type of music I wanted for each scene. For example , for the scene where Patient 13 is drawing up the images I have written in that I want a thud sound effects to link them all together so there is continuity in my work.

Apart from this, there were also some additional information about the timing of  each scene. I realise that I didn't have to fill this information at this present time as the timing of each screen could be subject to change and will be based of the experimentation of what works best in the teaser trailer.

Ancillary task 2 Complete...

Magazine cover

Editing My Magazine Cover...

After surveying my Magazine cover around my college I found that it was very helpful as i managed to get some suggestions and new ideas in order to make my work stand out form the crowd. I already knew that one of the main things I had to was change the main image of the magazine cover.

FEEDBACK

In a summary of my feedback, I received the similar rating from my magazine cover across the board, which was a steady 4/5 out of 10. I realised that a lot of people said there was something missing and that the fonts looked a bit odd and that there wasn't enough of it. Furthermore, My teacher pointed that the image wasn't an effective image for the front cover of a magazine and that I didn't have a slogan. I realise that i have a lot of work to do for my next draft and realise that i have to think more holistically so that both my works integrate with each and that my magazine looks to be of an industry standard.

Today I also applied my feedback to my magazine cover and edited it accordingly. Firstly I removed all the things I felt were a problem and made my magazine look a bit more like a gossip magazine rather than a film magazine. First thing to go was the image as it was just not cutting it. I also removed the sticker and the red bar at the bottom of the page as I thought the red bar was a bit too much. the whole approach to this draft was less is more and I realised some things are more effective not being drowned by other elements around it.

After removing the unnecessary things I began re editing my work by placing one of the things i missed whilst constructing the first time around and that was a tagline to compliment my title. I came up with 'World Film News in Your Bag', I chose this slogan as I though it wasn't a tongue twister and could be said with ease, as well as relating to the magazine itself. In relation to the placement of the slogan, I decided to place it where Halloween Special was before, the top middle of the page just above the header. I chose this place as I found it was a conventional place to put it and found it worked perfectly with the rest of the page. I mad the lettering white as it worked with the header as the backing of the header was also white. Another minor piece of information I Included just below the title was a website as it is an industry convention for film magazines to also have a website, This was pointed out clearly through my research. Additionally the implementation of a barcode was also necessary for me to achieve the industry standard I wanted.  After sorting out the minor glitches in my work it was then time to move onto the main bulk of my work and this included me having to fix the font and font sizes of a few things. I found that the font I previously used for Halloween special wasn't really conveying a Halloween theme and after looking for some fonts I found a font that convey this sense perfectly. I kept the same colour and placed it just above the title for the main article PARADOX, which I also changed making it bigger and getting rid of the unnecessary words as titles are normally short and snappy and my previous title was a bit lengthy. Furthermore, I responded to the criticism that there wasn't enough on the front page by making new articles that followed the same red title and white explanation that the main article did, but only in a smaller font. The world of print production places some very modern things on their front cover these days and you can find an App for almost anything. I included an app on my front cover as I thought it directly links with the media today and therefore conforms to one of the industry's conventions. The app I made promotes GLOBAL FILM NEWS and I thought it was a nice touch to put on to my front cover. I also thought that the placement of the app was suitable as it is not the main attraction of the front cover but like every other element of the page, it has to noticed subtly. This concluded my final layout for my magazine and now it was time to find the suitable image I have been looking for.

After the photos of my magazine shoot were finally processed, I found the perfect image for the front cover of my magazine and it only needed some minor lighting editing to maximise its affect. One of my fears about the image I needed to choose was that it might look similar to that of my poster but I think that the image I chose works brilliantly is  different to that of the poster. The lighting and depth of field after editing came as an absolute success and concluded the magazine construction. As a whole I believe my magazine cover looks like it ticks all the boxes as it is suitable, fit for purpose and reaches out to my target audience. Conclusively, I have done what i set out to achieve an that is to make two print production pieces that work so well together and can be looked out holistically

Magazine Construction

Today I began the process of constructing my magazine cover for my film. Before I began constructing the magazine cover I had to bear in mind that it had to link with my poster somehow and I had to make my print production seem like they link together are seen holistically, to add to the professional outcome I want to produce. In order to create the magazine cover i used the same program as the one I created my poster in, which was Photoshop. I found it is the best program to manipulate work to tailor my ideas to exactly how I want it.

Before I constructed my magazine cover I decided that I had to come up with a name for my magazine and going back to my AS coursework, thought it would be a good idea to come up with a variety of titles and survey to see which was the best title for my magazine cover. During on of my free lessons I asked everybody that was in my common room to choose which title the though best fit the genre of a general film magazine:

Global film: 20
World film: 11
Universal: 5
REEL MAG: 2
Cinematic: 0

With my survey completed I can clearly see that Global Film was the most popular and though it would be suitable to use as it was my personal favourite aswell. With my title sorted I was able to construct a header for my magazine and had to make sure it looked appropriate on the page and fitted its purpose. Another thing I had to keep in mind was my target audience as I have to satisfy the needs of my target audience in all aspects of this project.

I started the construction of my magazine with a blank black canvas and created the header of GLOBAL FILM. I created the title font with the font Arial and decided to make it bold with black lettering. The reason for this is that I wanted to create a white brush effect behind the text so that the header would stand out form the page as the white is a direct contrast to the black. I also links with my poster as I did the same for the title of PARADOX and this links into what i want to have holistically between my two print production, and that is a link. Next, I made the heading for the main article for PARADOX in a red urban font that I thought worked really well with the page. I decided to have it red i believe the heading for my film should have a link with the colour scheme of the film, and I think I did this well. The text explaining what the article was about was done in a white futuristic text, which was obviously made smaller that the heading as attention cannot be diverted from the main heading on the front page. Once these two elements were put into place I was then able to work around the main structure and layout of my magazine cover. Through my research, I found that many film magazines have a bar at the bottom of the page showing what other films are included in the magazine. I used the same urban font to type a couple of horror films to match the colour scheme of the page and made it white to stand out. I also created a red, semi-transparent bar behind the text to maintain the colour scheme and to link it with the PARADOX theme that was seeming to piece itself together by accident.

The next steps of constructing my magazine cover meant me having to finish the skeleton of the layout of my magazine cover. This started off by deciding to make my magazine a Halloween special as I thought the colours and films that are on the front cover fit into the theme and timing of Halloween. I arranged the words Halloween Special at the top middle of the page in orange lettering as orange is a colour that worked well with the rest of the page and fitted the Halloween theme. I also chose orange as it broke up the reds and white nicely. In the top right hand corner of the page I placed the price and issue number in white lettering and a small font as it is conventional that it is places here and it is conventional that it is in a small font but at the same time noticeable. Also throughout my research I found that Special articles were promoted on the front page in a sort of sticker to highlight its importance. I tried this out and created a red circle promoting a special interview within the magazine. It was made red to maintain the continuity of the colour scheme and in accordance to the rest of the page.                                                                         

                          

To conclude my 1st draft i included an image from my poster photoshoot. The reason behind me using a photo from my poster shoot and not one form my magazine shoot was that I have been experiencing problems in locating the right picture an for the time being I have decided to place this image as just an example image to survey, mainly for the layout as the image will definitely be changed. So this concludes the construction for my initial first draft and i will surveying it around my college to see what people think and to rate it out of 10. I acknowledge that the rating of my work will be low as it is a draft and I know that there is a whole load of room for improvement.

Magazine research

To get some idea of what my magazine cover should look like. So I decided to some research into current media examples for a film magazine, I chose two examples to analyse, an issue of Total Film and an issue of Empire. The first thing I noticed from these two examples was the colour schemes of both covers. The cover of Total Film uses the colours whites, greys, blacks and yellow. That’s only 4 colours and they all work with each other to make the page work and everything looks like in belongs on the front cover. Similarly, The issue of Empire uses a colour scheme of blues, blacks and whites. This also works very well in giving the issue an electric feel for the promotion of iron man 2. This leads me onto my next analysis, which is the text. On both covers the headers take up the whole of the first third of the page from the top and signal that in is a convention to have the name of the magazine at the top of the page. Both of the headers on each magazine is white and stand out as being the title of the magazine. In addition to this the main article’s heading is the next biggest text on the page and is the next biggest text because it has to catch the attention of the audience but at the same time not take the attention off the actual title of the magazine. ‘Max Payne’ is written in big white lettering and as it works with the colour scheme and is yet the biggest title out of the all titles on the page showing that the focus of this magazine in this issue is Max Payne. Similarly, the same is done with Empire and Iron Man 2. Another convention I spotted was the use of an also inside bar at the bottom of the page. The bar at the bottom of Empire is blue, corresponding with the colour scheme and also includes graphical images of the movies being mentioned as well as the information about what the article is about. In comparison to this Total film uses a simple inside row at the bottom and lists all the films that are being featured inside. All together there are many fonts used on each cover, which show the variations. Both magazines use continuity of their colour schemes and different colours for subheadings and the actual information. For example, in Total film the subheadings are yellow whilst the information underneath is white. This helps distinguish the difference between what is a title and what is the information about the title. Both these magazines share a very conventional, industry standard layout and this is something I am hoping to include in my work.

To conclude my analysis of these covers, I noticed that both the images used on each magazines compliments the layout and colour scheme so well. Max Payne is dressed in black and this helps the white fonts stand out and the iconic image helps to distinguish what the film being featured is. In addition to this, the Iran man 2 issue of Empire also shows the great importance of getting the colour scheme right and how important it is that the magazine looks like it works together holistically.

All these factors I have analysed I am hoping to include in my work and I hoe to reach the standard of these two magazine front covers.

Photoshoot for Magazine cover

Similarly to the photoshoot for the poster I wanted to create an ambiguous effect that would create an impact, as well as being suitable and eye catching for the front of a magazine cover. The first thing I had to decide was the type of image I wanted on the front of my magazine cover. This made me think about which of my characters I wanted on my magazine cover. After considering which character would be the best for my front cover I decided to put use the same character, Patient 13, that i did for my poster. I thought that it would give me a holistic approach to my project so that both production works link with each other and  work with each other to create the professional standard I am trying to produce. After deciding the model for the photoshoot, which is myself, I had to find a photographer  that would be willing and a location that would be suitable and available for the shoot. I found that finding a photographer and location wasn't very hard at all, the only problem was time slots. The availability of the location and photographer varied quite a lot and I had to do the photoshoot on a particular day within a one hour time slot. With this in mind there was a bit of hurry to do the photoshoot.my costume for patient 13 was the same as the poster apart from the fact that the blindfold didn't say 'I SEE U' on it as I wanted to enforce that it was only for the poster and it wasn't how the character would actually look like in my teaser trailer.

The room i managed to secure was my School's photography dark room and found it was the perfect location for what i wanted as it had professional lights which helped me achieve the importance of lighting and depth of field within my photos. Of course we tried different sources of light and different positioning of lights to see which worked best with my idea of creating an ambiguous, effective image for a magazine cover. It turned out that the time allocation of an hour was not a problem at all as half an hour was enough to get some really good pictures plus more. I am very happy with the images and all have that sense of mystery and ambiguity I wanted to capture. My next steps is to create a draft template for my magazine cover and choose what i think would be the best image for the magazine cover.

Ancillary task 1 complete...

Film poster

Feedback and Editing according to feedback....

1st draft of film poster

After getting feedback from my peers and teachers about what needed to be change I began to enhance my work and found that I managed to make my work a lot sharper and more conventional through the feedback I was given and being noted for thing that I had missed out......

FEEDBACK

In total I surveyed my poster amongst my peers and a couple of my subject teachers and found that most of their comment were the same. The reoccurring points were that there seemed to be a lot of dead space. Holistically, everybody said it was good and that the dead space on the sides of the image were the only minor problems they could think of. My subject teacher suggested the dead space aswell and also added a point about shifting the title a little higher and adding the conventional film poster credits at the bottom. These are only minor problems that were exposed but have to be addressed accordingly as it would make my work more conventional to the industry standard and more professional. Next was to put the changes in place...

One of the first things I changed through my feedback was the dead space as it made the image look a bit drowned in the black background was to add some more detail to the image. Initially I thought i might of had to change the image but I then realised that I could just add a bit more to the one I already had, because I really liked the image. I added the wings from a hand drawn image that is going to be in my teaser trailer and lowered the opacity so that it did not make the definition of paradox unclear. I made it white as I thought it was the best colour to use against the black backing.  I thought it created a nice touch to the image on the poster and will now link nicely to the trailer and add more of a buzz, whilst getting rid of the dead space that I wanted to get rid of. I believe that thanks to the feedback I was able to fine tune my work and deal with some of the mistakes that might of been small but needed to be sorted in order to make my work better...

After dealing with the dead space I was suggested, through my feedback, by my teacher to add the conventional feature of poster credits. I did this my downloading a font which allowed me to custom names to make the credits suit me. I placed the credits in the conventional place of the bottom of the poster and made the font white as it is the conventional colour for movie poster credits and so it was noticeable over the black. With the font i was also able to create the symbols right at the bottom of the poster, which added even more to the conventional look of a film poster. I made sure that the font size was small for the credits and that the symbols were also small as they would look out of place if they were any bigger. It is also a industry convention that they are small as it is not the main attraction of the poster, but at the same time is an essential to mention everyone that helped with the production.



Poster construction...

 Today I started  the construction of my poster using Photoshop. I thought that the very first strep in the construction of my poster was create a rough template for the introduction of the best photo of my poster photoshoot. Firstly, I put in the mock up title I created a couple of weeks back and positioned it at the bottom of the blank black canvas.  I also resized the Title as I it is conventional for the title to be big on the poster and take a good and effective amount of space so it is not dismissed or hard to see, but is in your face in a subtle way that it will always be noticed. it is also important that everything else I added from this point on worked well with the title, which meant I had to keep a conscious fact on Font colour and size as well as the positioning.

The next step was to choose the best picture for the poster and edit it to fit the picture. Once the right picture was chosen I decided on the picture I cut it out and edited it by adding filters to it to make it look more ambiguous and to make it look like it was part of the poster and not just a separate image that looks like its been stuck on the page. One of the great things that photoshop allows me to manipulate the photo's and do virtually anything with it. With my chosen picture I added a grainy effect and played with the lighting effects to create an image which I believe conveys that sense of ambiguity and on sight creates a buzz about the my film. however, one of the basic things I had to keep in mind was what I set out to be the focus of the poster which was 'I SEE U' on the blindfold. After playing around with all the effects and lighting I believe I created an effective image and applied it suitably to the poster.

My next step was to add some conventional features to skeleton of my poster and through my research saw that on every film poster the Actors that are in the film are always mentioned on the film poster. So I included my the names 'Luis Valtierra' and 'Magaret Stewart' as the two main people in my film. This inclusion of the actors name gave a professional as well as conventional touch to my work. I placed the actors names at the top of the poster as I though it was a suitable place for it to go as it worked with the poster and didn't interfere with the main image of poster. Furthermore I put the actors name in a white font which was different to that of paradox and chose white as it was a very contrasting colour to black which made it stand out. The size of the lettering for the actors wasn't big as it didn't need to be as long as they are noticeable and can be seen. Additionally I added space in between each letter of the surname of each actor as it made the surname a lot more eye catching and it is normally the surname of an actor that is remembered and iconic opposed to their first names. Next I added a tagline which read 'Sees no evil but sense evil'.  this was placed directly placed below the title. It also provides a contrast to that of the picture as the blindfold says 'I SEE U'. I wanted this effect as it provides a paradox itself and gets the mind of the target audience racing, knowing that it isn't just a mistake but works with the picture. From research of posters I found that the tagline has a lot of freedom about where it is placed on the poster but I think the most conventional place I found its below or around where the title is. The font colour is white as it bounces off the black and is different to the red and black of the title but links with the white lifeline. the size of it is just enough to allow the title to overpower it but at the same time be noticed alongside the title. Another conventional feature I thought i would add to make my poster look more conventional was quotes from made up reviews of my film. I decided to use real life iconic film magazines 'Total Film' and 'Empire' as it would attract the film lovers to the film. I also added the stars as it is the basic rating system for a film and is conventional to use on most film poster like the poster for the paranormal activity. I positioned my quotes one under each of the actors names as the top third of my poster would be the part of the poster that would have the most dead space and it would fill it up without taking the attention off the main picture.

I found that there was still something missing in the top third of the poster and I needed to add something that would be so in your face but subtle to entice my target audience and add a nice touch to my first draft. after some thought I thought that adding the definition of the word Paradox would add the nice touch I wanted and provide a collaboration with the image of  'I SEE U' and the tagline of the film. I made the size of the definition a little bigger than that of my previous text as I wanted it to stand out more as it helps the audience to grasp the concept of my film and try to work it out. The definition itself is white as previous i found it worked with the black and i chose to put the defining word 'Paradox' in red as it is the most important word and is also the title of my film.

This has concluded my 1st draft of my poster and I am looking to receive some feedback off my teacher a peers before attempting to add anymore detail. So for the on coming week I have decided to get feedback and make my work to the best of my abilities in order to achieve a product of a professional standard and for my product to reach out the target audience I have decided to reach out to.

Film Poster research...

Before I get started with the construction of my film poster I thought I should research and analyse film posters, especially of my particular genre, which is psychological thriller. I decided to pick one out of my researched poster to analyse in further detail in order to help me with the construction of my film poster. The film poster I chose is the Film poster for Shutter Island as it is a modern, recent film that would directly relate and link into my idea. One of the first things I focused on in analyzing this film poster was the codes and conventions that was reoccurring through all the film posters I have seen. This included: the positioning of the title, the contents of the main image and the positioning of all the text such as actors and dates. Arguably the most important of these is the positioning of the title. In the example of the shutter island poster, the title is placed in the lower third of the poster, where it is noticeable and is sized as the biggest out of all the text due to the obvious reason that it is the title. The main image is made up of two picture blended together: one of the location and the other the character of Leonardo DiCaprio. One image depicts what seems to be a mental Institution/Prison on an island that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. This, itself, creates a buzz as the image is dark and includes the stormy weather adding to the sense of this film being a thriller. The other image, of DiCaprio, is very iconic because of the actor but also adds this very eerie feeling to the type of film this is as the matchstick and flame suggests he is looking for someone and works well with the film’s tagline: ‘Someone is missing’. Holistically, image itself doesn’t give too much but at the same time gives enough information and relates to the title. This is something I definitely need to include in my film as it will surround my product with ambiguity and the ability for everything on the poster to work with each other complies to the industry codes and conventions so nothing is out of place. In addition to this, the colour scheme of red, white, black and blue do very well in making the poster holistic and the idea of everything working with each other. It is important that the title is red as it is the main text and is one of the things that must stand out on a poster and is something I am looking to re-create in my work, a title that stands out and is as eye-catching as the image.  The saturated blues and greys give off that sense of psychological thriller and add to the effect of the concept of the film. Furthermore, I have noticed that throughout my research in posters that all of them vary on where the tagline of the film is placed and it seems that there is no set conventional place for the tagline of a film. ‘Someone is missing’ is the tagline for shutter Island and is a prime example of a good tagline for a film as it acts as drip feeding to the audience, giving them information about the film in pieces so that the poster doesn’t tell the whole story and the audience can begin to have an idea of the story’s plot. I also chose this poster as I believe it responds to the target audience I am attempting to recreate an idea for. The mix of mystery, horror and ambiguity calls to my target audience and is something I must have in order to make my product successful and that complies to the industry codes and conventions. Another thing I noticed was the poster credits. This adds a professional class to the poster is always positioned at the bottom of the poster. This is because it is the least important information in relation to the rest of the poster but has to be put there because it credits everybody involved in the production.

Through my research into film posters I hope to emulate all the aspects and codes and conventions of film posters into my own production work. I am hoping to include all the key features in my production of the film poster and I am hoping that I can produce a full and professional piece of work. The next steps of my project will be to produce a draft of my poster and using the draft to create a film poster for my film.

Mock up of title...

This is mock up title I created, playing around with Photoshop. Since the genre of my film is a psycho-thriller I decided to make a very eerie looking title card/ logo. I thought the lifeline added a very nice touch as it is symbolic of my protagonists state of mind and condition. At the begening of the lifeline its flat (asleep) and it begins to flucuate (woken up) and then goes flat again. After this it flucuates out of control showing the impact of the nightmares. I added the out glow of the lifeline and chose red as it is very symbolic of the dangers that occur in my film idea/trailer, creating and conveying this feeling of uncertainty and psychological condition to my target audience. I made  the lifeline white so it stood out of the black background and to create that ghostly eerie sense of a psychological thriller. The text 'PARADOX' is in capital letters as it is conventional of a title card to have the letters of the title in capitals to make them stand out and geive the effect of leapin to you and printing that title in your mind, so when  you see such titles you will remeber the title and research the film when you get home and spread the word. The font of this title is 'Century Gothic' and i believe is an appropriate font as it is clean and neat and shows the name clearly. In additrion to this, i made it bold so it stood out and look that extra bit more conventional as bold thick letters, as opposed to standard skinny typing letters. I chose to have the font in black to give way for the idea and creation of the white outglow. The 'A' has a neat glow around it and as you get to 'P' and 'X' the glow around it had become disorientated creating a very nice effect and ghostly look to this title. I have decided to stick with this title for the moment as I believe it is appropriate for the time being. I will be surveying this title and see how I can make it better and give more of an impact when see to convey the psychological effect I am attempting to do.

Photoshoot for Poster

Today I undertook the task of doing the photoshoot for my film poster. I decided that I only needed two people for the photoshoot, one of those people being me and the other person being the one behind the camera. First of all I had to think of the appropriate scenery for the photoshoot and after thinking of a location I decided to do the photoshoot during some free time. There were things whilst doing my photoshoot that o had to keep in mind whilst doing the photoshoot for my poster:

-Target audience: Whilst shooting I had to keep my target audience in mind and take appropriate images that were not to graphic so it would go against my rating of the film but also interesting enough to create a sense of mystery and temptation to know more when my focus group look at it. I believe I achieved this in my photoshoot as I managed to produce images that were not graphic and created the exact effect of mystery and tone of horror suitable to what i labelled my film as which was 15.

For all the photographic work I do it is essential for me to consider the following basic artistic principles as it will allow my work to have more meaning and and look that little bit more professional

-Lighting and depth of field: the lighting of my photos are key in my case as I want to create a dim, dark feel to my photos to convey the sense of mystery to my target audience. I got a great production tip from my A2 textbook which should help me with this hurdle.

Production Tip : getting your back light right- use the back light control on the camera to adjust the lighting, and make sure that the camera is not facing the main light source. Then think about the symbolic effect you want to achieve and make sure your lighting set up reflects it. IF YOU HAVE SHADOW IN THE SHOT, IT SHOULD ONLY BE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO CONNOTATE MYSTERY OR GUILT OR THREAT.

I believe that the lighting in my photoshoot was a very experimental thing as I tried various lighting, such a torch and figured it didn't work out as well as i hoped. So as a change of plan I changed the lighting and found out I would be easier to edit the lighting effects later on when I am constructing my work on an editing program. the main focus of the lighting was to give a depth of field to my pictures, so I focused the dim lighting on the top half of my body and saw it worked to greater effect. Part of testing out different lighting, caused some images to have shadows, which created the effect I wanted according to the production tip, but later found the looked very odd and could cause slight confusion and a lack in the quality of the photos along with taking the focus of the main part of the image, I SEE U, as it made it unclear and hard to read.

For the depth of field of my photo's, I had to undergo research as i wasn't really familiar with this term. I found out the key words involved in the depth of field within my photo's.

Production Tip: Depth of field- this is very complicated, but at a simple level it is about it is about how much you want in focus. The larger the aperture (a hole ore opening whereby light travels through) the more 'shallow' the depth of field ( the part of an image that looks exceptionably sharp in comparison to other parts of the image). So you use a shallow depth of field if you are focusing attention on a specific part of an image. the larger the aperture number the shallower the depth of field will be. So choose a larger aperture for more detail at the 'front' of the image, and a smaller aperture for an image where everything will be in focus, but the eye will not be drawn to any one detail in particular.

I believe i achieved the correct depth of field in my photos. I also experimented with different aperture and depth of field in order to see what the images looked like. For example, the ones in the dark with just the light of the torch shining didn't turn out as well as the others. The focus of attention was the 'I SEE U', and so i mainly focused achieving this focus in order to get the type of image i wanted.

For the photoshoot,  I got into the costume of a shirt that was back to front to create the image of a mental institution jacket and a white blindfold with the words 'I SEE U' written in fake blood. The colour scheme I chose gives a nice contrast of the theme of white being Innocent and the colour of the red fake blood giving an eerie, ambiguous effect. I also messed up my hair as it was appropriate for my character as he is a mysterious and self-reserved character.

I feel that the photoshoot was a very productive session and I went through a process of getting both images that were categorised as usable and the test shots with the torch, which didn't come out so well but it is all part of my process where I tested different types of lighting and depth of fields. With these images I aim to be able to construct my Film  poster, editing my pictures appropriately in order to get the best product out of my photo's. I hope to complete the photoshoot for my magazine cover by the end of this week to as it will be very similar to that of the Film poster.