Final Post

NAME: Jessica Lennon

CANDIDATE NUMBER: 8010

CENTER NUMBER: 20299

CENTER NAME: Bishop Walsh Catholic School

Evaluation Question Four

Question 4 from jessicalennon96

Evaluation Question Three

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question One

 

The three following presentations answer my first evaluation question of "In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products".

I have responded to this question in depth and used 3 different platforms to examine my main product (the trailer) and my two ancillary tasks (the poster and the magazine front cover).

 

TRAILER

 

MAGAZINE

 

 

 

 

Evaluation question one from jessicalennon96

 

 

POSTER

 

Vanish front cover

Below is a prezi explaining how I have constructed my magazine front cover.

 

 

Movie Magazine Front Cover

After extensive research into front covers of movie magazines I have begun to produce the cover for an edition of 'Total Film' promoting my movie 'Vanish'.

I begun with using the original logo from 'Total Film' as I decided to work around this. I have noticed that movie magazines tend to adapt the their logo to fit the specific themes of the movie that they are promoting on that issue. As shown in the examples to the left and right. For this reason I played around with the logo for a while until I found an effect that I feel best fits my movie. To create it I just used the recolouring effects on Microsoft Power Point on a plain white version of the 'Total Film' logo. The effect that I have selected, I feel, gives the impression of blood splattering across the bottom. This I feel is appropriate as it fits with my horror genre.

Once I had produced this logo I then when about producing a suitable background. Again, I decided to play around with the effects on Power Point, however, I was very careful when selecting the background that the colours did not detour away from or wash out the main logo. I felt that all of the potential backgrounds produced this way made the front cover look cheap, low budget and very unprofessional. After much experimentation I thought that it may work if I were to use a screen shot of the film footage that I had already gathered. From this I used a screen shot of the outside of my house as it is a central location of the film and adds a very eery feel to the poster. In addition to this I have added a black and white filter to it for more impact.

Movie Magazine Research

Unlike the previous poster the one below is very simplistic and is more of a 'teaser'. However there is still a simplistic colour theme that is used with this cover and is also restricted to three colours; gold black and white. This is effective as it excites the viewer and creates desire to want to know more about and later view the movie. Because of this produced effect it is limited edition for subscribers only, adding exclusivity to both the film and the magazine.

Again the poster below from 'Total Film' is very simplistic. Brad Pitt is clearly the main feature of the magazine and so will obviously be the main character of the film that he is promoting. There is a clear colour theme with this poster too that gives a hot/desert appearance, along with the sunglasses that he is wearing. The text in the background is very subtle but adds effect to the poster while conveying informative information at the same time.

The cover below again from 'Total Film' promoting 'Man of Steel' is very similar to the coverage of the film by 'Empire'. There are very similar codes and conventions used, for example the colour scheme. However, as shown by this poster, the 'Total Film' covers tend to have more than one lead character featured as opposed to only one used for 'Empire'.

Ideas for my own magazine front cover

The positioning of the actors on the cover above has given me a few ideas for my own magazine front cover. I wish to have my main character, Ellie, in a similar sort of position to the woman on the right and then my villain similar to how Superman is standing. However, on my own cover I will;

-Have the villain with his back to the audience

-Have the villain glancing over his shoulder slightly

But I wish to keep similar:

-the inter-linking legs

-a similar sort of colour scheme

-characters overlapping the brand of the magazine

-simplistic yet, sophisticated look

-exclusive subscriber's edition

Completed Movie Poster

Below is a finalised version of the poster that I have created for my movie. I am very pleased with it as it is exactly what I originally wanted to create.

Feedback and Adaptation of Poster

Movie Poster

After conducting extensive research into the production and construction of movie posters I have started to create my own poster. From the very beginning of the production of my movie trailer I have had a clear image of what I wish to produce for my poster. From research throughout this task I have discovered that keeping the design simplistic has a higher impact on audiences so, again, I have decided to keep the features of the poster to a minimal.

I have stared production for the poster by sourcing an image of a van with an open door from a copyright free website

 I then created the background of the poster simply by colouring in a textbox on a PowerPoint document. I felt as though the light fading around the front of the vehicle gave the subtle impression of headlights during the night time.

My next step was producing the text along the side of the van, 'more than meets the eye'. I have selected this tagline because it is a very common saying and, I feel, is applicable to the film. Before using this catchphrase I decided to do some research to check whether or not it has been used as the tagline for any other movies in the past. From what I have discovered no other films have used it as their tagline, it has only been used for a series of 'Transformers' comics. after this I went about producing this text so that it would be appropriate to apply along the side of the van. I wanted the font to resemble blood, however I wanted it to appear more hap-hazard than the font and style that I have used for the main title of the film. I wanted this affect so that it looks like the blood has been written on the side of the van in blood rather than the text just dripping blood. I decided to use the same website as I used for the title and after playing around with different fonts, decided on the one shown below:

To make the text look like it had been written on the side of the van I used PowerPoint again to make the left side of the text smaller then the right to give the illusion that it is coming in from the distance.

I then placed the main title text 'Vanish' towards the bottom of the page and enlarged it so that it is the first thing that the eye is drawn to when first viewing the poster.

I still need to add all of the information about the film at the bottom of the poster, such as production companies and names of actors. However, before I do this I plan to have it peer assessed so that I can make any improvements or be made aware of any fundamental errors.

Film poster Research

 Before producing my own film poster I have researched and analysed three existing movie posters in order to gain an understanding of the different codes and conventions used to make the production of my own more successful.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp magazines (often referred to as "the pulps") are inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 through to the 1950s. The term pulp derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines where printed; in contrast, magazines printed on higher quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks".

The movie of Pulp Fiction has a very deliberate cover as it has been created to look like one of these magazines. This is shown by:

-the pricing of the poster (10 Cents)

-the use of a masthead (title of the film)

-the main characters of the film are listed down the left hand side of the poster just as articles within a magazine would be

Another way the poster has been made to look like the front cover of a magazine is that all the edges around the right hand side are crinkled, creased and torn giving the impression of an old, worn magazine.

American Psycho

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Posters such as the one used for 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' hold a lot of information on them  and a potentially complex background, which can be seen as very distracting for the audience. It can be said that more simplistic posters create more intrigue for the viewer and are therefore more effective.

For example the 'Skyfall' poster gives nothing away about that particular film, rather it uses the traditional Bond background with the caption 'coming soon' at the bottom. This is effective as it excites fans and makes them want to know more about the film.

Reconstruction

The following 'emaze' presentation goes through, in detail, the process by which I went about reconstructing my movie trailer. I t explains why I made the decisions that I have made and the impact they have had on the trailer.


 

Feedback

The following presentation consists of feedback that I gathered from peers and my teacher regarding the first draft of my Vanish movie trailer.

 



Post Production

The following PowerPoint presentation consists of all of the post production that I did regarding my trailer. It includes, in-depth, step by step detail of how I edited and constructed the movie trailer and how I have added the music to it. Within the presentation I also explain why I made the decisions that I did and whether or not I find them to be effective.

Moovly

From my research I have also found that institutional identifications are always included in movie trailers and so are a central feature.

This is clearly demonstrated with the use of the Warner Brothers logo within the Harry Potter movies, as shown below.

For this reason I needed to create my own institutional logo for my own movie trailer to display at the start of it. To do this I found a nice little website called Moovly.

Moovly allowed me to have a moving logo that fits with the theme and genre of my trailer. I specifically wanted this to move as I feel that if I were to have used a still image would have been very boring for the viewer and not look as professional.

Film Trailer Planning and Filming

 

The following Prezi consists the production of my movie trailer, including;

planning

filming

explaining decisions that I have made

and preparation for the trailer

 

 

Absence of horrors and thrillers on magazine covers

Comparison to mainstream movie magazines

 From doing research into horror movies used for magazine front covers, I have discovered that it is rare for publishers such as Total Film and Empire to go down the horror movie route.This could be due to several factors. Firstly, horror movies may not need the same promotion as other genres such as action as they may either use other methods such as TV advertising or the genre is already very popular so not as much magazine publicity is needed. Secondly, the absence could be due to the fact that horror movies are not taken seriously or are not deemed appropriate for the front cover of a magazine. This is a potential gap in the market that my magazine could fill. I will produce a magazine front cover featuring my horror movie 'Vanish' but rather than following the normal conventions of genre specific magazines such as 'Scream' I will apply the genre to a more mainstream magazine such as 'Total Film'.

  

  In addition to this I have also found that the mainstream movie magazines focus on either recent or upcoming releases as oppose to the genre specific magazine who can sometimes stray to older releases. For example on the cover of the 'Scream' magazine shown above shows the character Freddy Krueger from the film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' which was originally released in 1984 (30 years ago).

Change of Font

 I was unhappy with the previous font that I used for the title of my film, as after editing it appeared to be fuzzy and made the trailer look very low quality. Due to this factor I have decided to change the font that I will use to improve the quality of my trailer. I have decided to use the same font generating site that I used for my magazine coursework last year. The link to this website is given below.

http://www.1001fonts.com/search.html?search=blood&page=1&items=10

I think where I went wrong with my previous font was attempting to make it too complex. For this reason I have now gone for a more simplistic approach, using one block colour and a simple font. I feel as though, while it is more simplistic, it is more effective and has a higher impact.

After discovering this font on the font generating website I also thought that it might be a good idea to play around with the text that is used in-between scenes in the trailer to see if I could make that more effective too. To carry the theme through I decided to use the same text as the main title 'Vanish' (as shown above) as this too is more effective and as more impact than the previous font and text used, that could be seen as boring. In making these changes I have discovered that it can be much more effective and have a higher impact on the audience if it is kept simple and manufacturing kept to a minimum as this avoids complex confusion.