Research and Planning: Updated Costume List.

Updated Costume List.

When we made our previous costume list the weather was different to what we will be filming in now.

It is a lot colder now and it wouldn't be fair to place our actors in the cold filming in the other costumes so we are going to adapt it to the weather now.

Girl #1

Keeping the dark jeans and simple t-shirt with design on and the minimalistic make-up and hair in a ponytail however we will now add a cardigan over the top, maybe a patterned cardigan to give this character more of an identity.

And she will still end up with ripped clothing and dirt all over her, make-up a mess and also I will add some cuts and bruises.

Girl #2

We were originally having this character in shorts or a dress, we will still keep her in a dress but we will add tights as well and a cardigan, a thinner cardigan so that she is a lot different to the other female and has a separate identity to the other female character.

Again she will have the ripped clothing, dirty and make-up a mess and cuts and bruises.

Male #1

Keeping the checkered shirt, and dark jeans and depending on how cold it is, we may add a jumper over the top. 

Dirty, dusty, ripped clothing and bruised and cut.

Male #2

This character is a lot more casual so we will keep him in the t-shirt and joggers but add a hoodie or something over the top to keep him warmer. 

Dirty, dusty, ripped clothing and bruised and cut.

Research and Planning: Potential Colour Schemes for Magazine.

Potential Colour Schemes.

*All with white aswell.

These are very rough ideas of colour schemes that I could go for, I think the best one for my magazine will be red because of the title 'Premiere' it has the 'red carpet feel' so the obvious colour to go for will be red. 

These are the shades of red that I could potentially use and I think I prefer the 4th and 5th shades although the 5th shade may look to dark against black and dark low key lighting of my images I may use.

Research and Planning: Analysis of Audience Feedback.

Analysis of Audience Feedback.

Genre and Narrative:

The genre of our trailer even with the small amount of footage we had in our rough trailer was well received, nearly everyone guessed that it was along the lines of a horror film. 

The trouble we had was that due to the lack of footage the narrative wasn't well received and people found it difficult to follow the story so that is something that will come with time when we add more footage in the trailer, but we will have to get more audience feedback at that time to make sure that our storyline is coming across well. 

Strengths of Trailer:

-Heartbeat 

-Low Key Lighting

-Location 

-Editing

-Nightvision effect 

-Some cinematography shots

The heartbeat was a popular strength of ours so this would be something that we would definitely keep, as our audience felt that this gave it an eerie feel and made the whole atmosphere a lot darker.

A lot of people said that the lighting and location worked well together along with the nightvision effect, which is something we still need to play around with. 

Some editing and cinematography got picked out as working really well within the trailer so we should definitely look at recreating some of those shots with the actual actors we are going to use. 

Areas of development:

-Filming more

-Camera needs some work

-More Editing

-Clearer narrative

The filming more development area is an obvious point which will definitely come in time.

The camera filming does need some work, we may try and use a HD camera although that is looking unlikely that we will be able to at this moment in time. 

More editing will come when we add more footage.

The narrative will become clearly eventually.

Research and Planning: Plan for over Christmas.

Christmas Break.

Over christmas, we plan to;

Film our handheld camera shots.

Extra posts.

Planning for Poster and Magazine. 

Blogs up to date.

Upload auditions.

Research and Planning: Audience Feedback.

Audience Feedback.

The audience feedback sheets from showing our rough footage trailer.

Research and Planning: Edited Trailer.

Edited Trailer.

This is our edited trailer including the rough footage that we filmed on the handheld cameras (the unedited footage is on the previous post) we put the MPAA message at the beginning for the 15 rating and we also put the distribution/production logos in place although, the 'After Dark' logo needs a lot of work because the image did not transfer into the trailer well at all, so that will be something that needs changing. The production logo is more or less perfect for placing in the trailer. We then placed all the relevant transitions in, the most used one is fade to black because it works the best with our trailer and isn't as harsh as jump cuts which we will be using in the actual trailer. We did include some of our animatic storyboard in the trailer to fill in the gaps and then where we had some relevant footage we placed it in and then we started to place some effects and alter the colouring and brightness on the footage to make it look slightly night vision-y and it does look good now but we are going to play around with more effects before we decided on what is the final effect we are going to have.

Research and Planning: Unedited Footage.

Unedited Footage.

This is some rough footage, that we filmed with a handheld camera.

Research and Planning: iShowU Editing.

iShowU: Editing Rough Footage.

This is a partial edited trailer with some rough footage, we have just been playing around with effects on the rough footage so we can get ideas for our final trailer. We used iMovie to edit our footage and just placed our footage onto our animatic storyboard so that we knew where to place the footage and we could also fill in any gaps with the images of the storyboard.

Research and Planning: Magazine Article Ideas.

Magazine Article Ideas.

Research and Planning: Auditions.

Auditions.

Some auditions for our trailer.

Research and Planning: Audition Script.

Audition Script.

For our trailer, we decided to hold some auditions in order to establish who would be best for what parts in our trailer.
 

We took apart of a monologue from the film Silence of the Lambs.

You know what you look like to me with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you Agent Starling? 

Research and Planning: Filming for the Draft.

Draft Filming Problems.

This week me and Luke have planned to film some footage for our draft trailer, however we have encountered some problems, the original actors/actresses we were using are not available to film during the time available so we found other people to film our drafts with, so the same amount of characters will be used for the draft but they may not be in our final cut. 

However, on the day we encountered other problems, the weather was bad so we couldn't film the main scene we needed due to it being outside, so we are trying to figure out where we can film our other scenes on short notice.

Research and Planning: Distribution Logos.

Distribution Logos. 

After working with Luke this lesson, we have worked together to create some Distribution logo's, some are posted on his blog and here are a few, all of them are still a working progress as the ideas develop. 

 The After Dark was the most popular name so therefore this is the one we developed the most.

Noir was also popular, so we are developing the fonts by messing about with tools on photoshop.

Research and Planning: Costume and Props List for Film Poster.

Costume and Props List for Film Poster. 

Costume(s)

Character 1

Ripped Dress 

Ripped Tights 

Character 2 

Ripped Jeans 

Ripped Shirt 

Character 3

Ripped Pants 

Ripped T-Shirt 

Character 4 

Ripped Jeans 

Ripped T-Shirt 

All Characters will be bruised, dirty and covered with cuts and various blood patches. 

Props. 

Four Chairs

Rope

Plain Room 

Table 

Hammer

(Various Film Stills)

Research and Planning: Costume and Props List For Magazine.

Costume and Props List for Magazine Cover.

Costume. 

Ripped Dirty Dress 

Ripped Tights 

Character

Bruised

Cuts 

Blood

Dirt 

Hair a mess

Props

Chair

Rope

Spotlight

What I will need to get: 

Black, Purple, Yellow Eyeshadow for bruises 

Fake Blood 

Latex 

Tissue

 

Research and Planning: Music Ideas.

Music.

Contraputal Music.

The Last House on the Left - Sweet Child O' Mine, Taken By Trees (acoustic) 

Tip Toe Through The Tulips- Demon sharpening his claws scene, Incidious 

Synchronous Music

Trailers like Psycho and The Exorcist have distinctive stings that are synchronous with the genre.

 

Themes and Stings 

Disturbia Trailer, drum kit in the background along with various themes and stings. 

Songs

Marilyn Manson- Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These)

Research and Planning: Script.

Script for Trailer. 

(non-diegetic light music quiet in the background)

Character 1: (holding camera) Heyy, smile for the camera

Character 2: (hand over face) stop it, get that out my face 

Character 3: Stop being such a tool

Character 1: Come on, don't be so boring

Character 4: (waves hand towards camera) 

(Mainly improvisation with characters because we want it to be a natural atmosphere) 

We will collect quite a bit of footage of the teenagers at the beginning and will cut it down in the editing process. 

Character 3: (collapses on the floor) 

Character 1: (close up camera shot of character 3) 

(all characters laugh) 

Character 1: he's such a lightweight 

Character 2: I don't feel very well 

Character 1: (begins to collapse along with camera) oh shhh... 

Cuts to black. 

(music reaches its peak and plays over all the fast editing)

Characters 1,2,3 & 4: (various screams)

(heartbeat sound over last part of editing)

Female Character: (sobbing)

Research and Planning: Masthead Font Ideas.

Masthead Font Ideas.

Champagne and Limousines. 

Justus.

Bellerose. 

Market Deco. 

Mouse Deco.

Masthead Font Ideas, I used the website dafont.com and looked through various different fonts until I found the ones I like.

Research and Planning: Audition Posters.

Audition Poster.

 Our audition poster that we will be putting up around college so we can get a variety of people auditioning. We haven't given any information about our trailer on the poster because it may effect their audition.

This is one of the places that we have put our audition poster around college.

Research and Planning: Film Magazine Drafts.

This film magazine will be based on one star of the film and the idea of the up and coming talent and it will feature a dark image from the film. The 3 colours I will use on this magazine will be red, black and white but the red may be different hues depending on the importance of the coverlines.

Research and Planning: Film Poster Drafts.

This poster will be be a focus on the 'eye' word pun in the title. All the small squares will be pixelated film stills of all the different characters. And the 'iris' of the eye will be a camera lens and we will have a distinctive image from the film.

Research and Planning: Shot List.

Shot List.

HH= Handheld. 

HD= HD Camera.

Research and Planning: Risk Assesment.

Risk Assesment. 

Risk Assesment for the first location.

Risk Assesment for the second location.

Research and Planning: Location Recces.

Location Recces.

Location Recce for the first location.

Location Recce for second location.

Research and Planning: Publication Plan

Publication Plan. 

Publication Plan on Prezi

My publication plan on Prezi for my film magazine, explaining about the name and price and features etc. 

Research and Planning: Plan for the week.

Plan for the Week 

• Complete my film poster and magazine drafts 
• Re-post my other film magazine analysis
• Production Documents 
• Make-up/Test Shots 
• Actors/Actresses Auditions/Headshots 
• Social Network Research posted

Research and Planning: Film Magazine Analysis Two.

Film Magazine Analysis.

 

-This cover is promoting a psychological thriller and one of the main clues to this is the play on words all over the cover, we have the positioning statement above the masthead "THE MIND-BLOWING ISSUE" and "INSIDE THE ULTIMATE HEAD TRIP" "MOST MIND-BLOWING MOVIES EVER" and "MEET THE MASTER OF MIND FLICKS" so all of the coverlines (main and small) are based around the idea of 'mind flicks' which is a psychological thriller. 

 -This cover sticks to the three colour rule although it does bend it slightly, white, red and silver seem to be the main colours which are used for the positioning statement and coverlines, however the background of the cover seems to have a blue tinge all over it and there are various different hues of blues through that so it does seem like it's another colours but that is the image on the cover so does it really count? 

-The blue tinge over the background creates this eerie atmosphere and makes it seem quite cold along with the use of silver and the masthead looks very mechanical which maybe relates to the film, all of these features together create a cold atmosphere which emphasises the idea of it playing on the mind because it's very mechanical like the inside of the mind. 

-We have a medium long shot of the character, which looks like it has come from an action shot in the film and there is no eye contact with the audience. This could convey to the audience that it's not actually a personal interview with a star from the film, it is just a magazine issue dedicated to the film. 

-We can tell it's a magazine from the features: 

Masthead 

Coverlines 

Barcode

Price 

Positioning Statement

Banner 

Issue Date

Research and Planning: Film Magazine Analysis One.

Film Magazine Analysis. 

-This is a film magazine promoting a comic book film with elements of thriller and we can tell this through the iconic character from the comic book Batman and the dark imagery.
-Most magazines stick to the convention of three colours on the cover, however this magazine has five different colours and I think this is probably because we have the magazine colours i.e. the Red Masthead and then dark black background with the white text so it can stand out against the image and background. But the other colours used i.e. the purple spray paint smudging and lettering and the green writing and images, are the iconic colours linking to the Joker, as you can see in his costume in the image he is wearing the green and purple but they are very dark dull shades whereas the magazine have taken the same colours but just made the colours more vibrant to stand out.
-Although they have used quite vibrant colours, they are still keeping the eerie character's atmosphere by using a distinctive font which has that scratched effect and looks quite odd, which links with the characters persona.
-We have a long shot of the character sat in a very awkward position which makes the audience feel uncomfortable to look at, and he is leaning into the frame very slightly and that brings his closer to the audience and he has eye contact directly with the camera although because of the heavy black eyes we just have the flash of white from his eyes, so it only gives the audience a small insight into the character.
-We can tell it is a a film magazine because it has all the conventions of a film magazine:

• Masthead 
• Coverlines (Main and Smaller)
• Banner
• Issue Date 
• Price 

-The Banner at the top makes it seem a lot more interesting to the audience because it uses 'World Exclusive' and also we can see at the very top we have the distinctive Batman Logo making it instantly recognisable to existing fans.
The target audience of this magazine will be aged around 16-22, but also it will appeal to existing fans of the comic book, and it will be recognised by them from iconic logos and characters. 
 

Research and Planning: Film Poster Analysis

Film Poster Analysis.

We have a medium close up of a character in the background, but the main focus of the image is the binoculars in the foreground and more emphasis has been placed on these by the same image being repeated in each lens and they are the only part of the poster that is in colour which draws the audience to that. The colours used in the lens images (reds, oranges) suggest an element of danger and the over the shoulder shot with a dark silhouette in the background again keep the element of danger. With the slogan used 'Every killer lives next door to someone' links to the over the shoulder shot used in the lens because it suggests that she is suspicious and paranoid but she maybe has a right to be because we can see a dark figure in the background. A very small part to the image but it links in with the slogan strongly is the house silhouettes placed along the bottom of the characters neck which you don't really notice until you look at it long enough, but when you do notice it, it gives clues away to the audience about maybe there is a killer next door or the idea of odd goings on around their street. The title is in a very simple font and isn't that big, but because of the harsh contrast between the white writing and the black background, it really stands out. There is no capital letter at the beginning of the title, which could be for design reasons (they preferred it that way) but it could also be used to attarct a younger audience i.e. teenagers from 16-20 because it seems to be a typical teenage film, especially because they have used younger characters as the main focus on the poster as well. This poster also has the regular steel tongs font telling you all about the production and all the relevant information placed at the bottom.

This poster is very different to the last one I looked at because in this one, it's the title that is the main focus and the image is quite small in comparison at the bottom. The title has a very distinctive font whcih can help to create a distinctive image for the film and the colour red used in the title and the smudging does create that sinister air because it instantly conveys an impression of blood and gore. And again the image of the house at the bottom is very gloomy and looks to be edited so that the black in the image is a lot more dominant, which sticks with the sinister atmosphere and obviously the image of the house and the title make the audience question is the house itself or is it the people inside. And like the other poster is has all the essential information in the steel tongs font at the bottom, the only thing I don't like is that the films slogan seems to blend in with that.

Research and Planning: Social Network Feedback.

Social Network Feedback. 

Facebook.

I decided to ask my target audience on Facebook which name they preferred and would be more interested in. And the most popular name seems to be Eye Spy.

Research and Planning: Film Name Ideas.

Film Name Ideas.

 

Using the ideas we already came up with, I created a Solvr to analyse each one and point out any problems with the names or come up with new ideas. For some reason some are showing up with a red exclamation mark even though they are not a problem but you can see they are inputted as an idea.

Research and Planning: Animatic Storyboard.

Animatic Storyboard.

We have now finished creating our animatic storyboard, we have got most of the shot types in that we plan to use, except one part there will be a scene where it flips between four different perspectives quickly but we couldn't draw that out. The start of the trailer will be mainly dialogue but seeing as though we don't have the characters cast yet and we aren't exactly sure on dialogue we thought it would be best to leave it blank for now, but the heartbeat has worked out really well and we like the idea of the crying on it but we would prefer for it to be a softer cry so we need to find someone who can do that for us. The editing will be more dramatic when we have actual running clips because it will all be fast motion.

Research and Planning: Distribution Logo Drafts.

Distribution Logo Drafts. 

Three rough drafts of logos for the Distribution Company. 

Research and Planning: Social Network Feedback.

Social Network Feedback. 

Facebook. 

Because getting feedback from Facebook has been successful in some past posts I have done, I decided I would do it again, but this time I asked a specific audience which was their favourite name for a distribution company. It is mixed between After Dark and Noir Distribution.

Research and Planning: Storyboard Progess.

Animated Storyboard.

We are currently going through the process of our making our animated storyboard, as you can see here we have uploaded the images and placed them in the order and the rest of the editing needs to be finished and start including sound.

Research and Planning: Meeting Post.

 Meeting Post.

After meeting with Luke we have decided that over half term we will both do extra posts regarding research into our genre and film posters and magazines so that we can slowly begin to create some. 

As well we are going to be doing the production and distribution companies, I will be researching distribution companies and then I will be creating ours, and Luke will be doing the same with the production company. 

We will also decided on a definite film name, and then looking into possible actors/actresses for our trailer through auditions and possibly looking at locations.

Research and Planning: Podcast.

Podcast.

A podcast using iShowU HD of me discussing all my posts on my research and planning blog in preparation for my trailer and magazine and poster.

Research and Planning: Film Name Ideas.

Film Name Ideas.

We made a word cloud of all the words or phrases we thought would be relevant and work with our film and from this we can choose a few names that we like for example we liked; "Eye Spy" and "The Room" "ManHunt".

Research and Planning: Costume List.

Costume List.

This is a list of all the characters potential costumes, the lists in italics will be the characters costumes as they develop through the film so as their appearance deteriorates.

Character One.

Female.

Dark Jeans

Simple T-Shirt with maybe a logo or writing on.

Converse or some sort of trainers etc.

Hair Up in a ponytail.

Minimal Makeup.

The t-shirt will become dirty, maybe ripped.

Blood stained.

Mascara running down her face.

Scratches on her body.

Dust and dirt all over her.

Character Two.

Male.

Checked shirt.

Dark Jeans.

Converse or pumps on.

Messy hair.

The shirt will roll up on the sleeves, ripped one sleeve off.

Dirty, dust.

Scratches on his face, blood on his knuckles.

Character Three.

 Female.

Shorts

Vest

Cardigan

(Looking a lot more girly than the other female)

Possibly a dress

Ballet Pumps (Dolly Shoes)

Tights

Hair Down

Make-up done perfectly.

Scratch right down her face.

Make-up all over the place.

Dress ripped on the shoulder.

Tights ripped.

Character Four.

Male.

T Shirt

Joggers.

Trainers.

Messy Hair.

Blood on Knuckles with the ripped sleeve wrapped around it.

Scratches across his face 

Ripped clothing.

Research and Planning: Prop and Location List.

Prop and Location List.

First location. 

Outside in the woods, open space. 

Single Campfire.

Logs or chairs that the characters can be sitting on. 

 Second location. 

In a small room which looks abandoned, very dark, dusty and no windows with hardly any light and only one door. 

Old chairs in the centre of the room. 

A table against one wall which can be seen clearly at all angles of each camera. 

Rusty, sinister looking tools placed on the table e.g. heavy hammers or screwdrivers or unique looking tools.

Research and Planning: Equipment and Software List.

Equipment and Software List. 

Software. 

  

Photoshop

We will use Photoshop primarily to edit photos for our film magazine and poster. We will be able to alter lighting and brightness or colours in the picture to suit our genre. 

 

iMovie

This software will be used to edit the footage for our trailer or any video posts we need to do for our research. 

 

GarageBand

GarageBand will be used to edit and create any sounds that we will use in our trailer. All of the sound will be made for the trailer in this including sound effects and soundtracks. 

iPhoto

This will be used to upload any photos we took for the magazine and poster. 

Equipment.

 

iMac

We will be using iMac's for more or less everything, all the softwares we need will be on here so the editing of the trailer and magazines and photos and the sound is made on here and anything else we will need. 

Sony HD Camcorder

 This camera will be used for any footage in our trailer that will be stable so most likely may be used with a tripod. 

Canon Mini DV Camcorder

This camera will be used for any handheld footage in our trailer. 

DSLR Camera

We will use this camera for the magazine and film poster shots, as it will give us the high quality image we need.