Research and planning: test shots for trailer

This is a video showing some test shots me and my group did for our trailer. As we are sharing cinematography and editing we shared those tasks in this task as well. 

Research and planning: location recces for poster

This is my location recce for my movie poster.

Research and planning: location recces for magazine

This is my location recce for my movie magazine.

Research and planning: location recce for trailer

This is my location recce for my movie trailer.

Research and planning: production logo sketches

This is a sketch of my production logo ideas, I did this to see which ideas I like the look of on paper. I can now say that my favourite is "THRONE PICTURES". I will now use photoshop to further the idea and make a digital version that can be used in my work.

Research and planning: poster fonts / tagline ideas

I have come up with some ideas to use as taglines on my magazine. I have come up with ideas that will suit my audience and also fit the horror genre of my issue. They are:

• 30 Film reviews this month
• "We Meet Again" special interview
• Oscar previews
• Festive specials
• Top 10 horror villains of all time

Research and planning: production logo ideas

I have had a few ideas for the name and logo of my production company. I was thinking of a name that relates to royalty because that is seen as powerful, but also the ideas I have come up with sound cool. They are:

• Crown Productions
• King Productions
• Royal Productions
• Throne Pictures

Research and planning: budget

There are some props / outfits that we need to film our trailer and make it look suitable. I will list what we need and how much it is going to cost us. These things are;

• SLR Camera - free
• Tripod - free
• Male character 1 outfit - free
• Male character 2 outfit - free
• Female character outfit - free
• Make up - £5
• Gown for ghost - £20
• Editing software - free
• Phones - free

The things that are listed as free we either have ourselves as a group such as the outfits we can wear our clothes because they're casual, or they're in college, like the camera and editing software. But the ghost make up and the gown we need to buy so the cost all together so far is £25.

Research and planning: risk assessments for poster

This is a risk assessment showing the risks and the precautions that I will take to overcome them.

Research and planning: risk assessments for magazine

This is a risk assessment for my magazine picture, including precautions we will take when taking pictures to make sure everyone is safe and no one gets hurt.

Research and planning: shot list for poster

This shot list shows the options of what shot types I could use when taking the picture for my poster, some are repeated showing how I could differ the same shot.

Research and planning: shot list for magazine

This is a shot list with the potential shots that I could use when taking the picture that will be on the front of my magazine and how / why it would be taken.

Research and planning: history of genre

As the genre of my trailer is horror I am looking more into the history of the genre. I am looking at the types of horror films that there are, for example refinement or parody. 

Horror films began in around 1890's, a very early example is Dracula which actually came out in 1897, these were rather typical and jumpy which was quite basic when scaring the audience. It then became more challenging to scare the audience so filmmakers had to try harder when writing their films. Another iconic horror film is The Shining which came out in 1980, so is much later than Dracula but is still vital when studying horrors. This film was inspirational to my group when creating our film because we are looking to make a traditional horror film rather than a parody. We took aspects from The Shining and refined them so that they were slightly different. 

Research and planning: weather checks for shooting

As we planned to go out today to take shots for our film posters and magazines, as well as some filming with the scenes with the villain. I decided to check the weather app on my phone, the weather is great for our atmosphere, slight rain and quite dark for the daytime with overcast.

Research and planning: mise-en-scene analysis

Again, mise-en-scene isn't my main role in the group but I would like to have a n understanding of the topic to have suggestions when it comes to it with our own trailer. From this trailer I can immediately tell that the outfits used are based on the setting. So the man is wearing a hiking outfit, which is quite obvious but effective. The children in the trailer who are portrayed as "bad" are dressed /  look different. Because although they're in the same place the children have cut faces, messy hair and dirty clothes as though these people won't help them for some reason. This is what I think throughout the trailer even when the people take the children in they are portrayed as animals.

Research and planning: editing analysis

Although editing is not my main role in creating our trailer I have decided to analyse editing in a trailer so that I have an understanding and have a feel for how it works. From this trailer I can tell that this kind of film starts quite basic just using straight cuts until it starts to go creepy and she gets grabbed in bed. from that point on we see a lot more slow cuts like fades, these cuts make the atmosphere a bit more eerie because we are expecting something to happen next.

Research and planning: voice over information

As a group we have decided to use a voice over in our trailer. We have decided to put it at the beginning of the trailer rather than the middle / end. We also decided that if we did it ourself it would probably sound cheap so we are asking somebody we know to get us our voice over done professionally, in the accent that you hear in a lot of trailers. Rather than explaining what's happening in the trailer like the one heard on my analysis of The Conjuring, we would rather say when the film is coming out and more about it rather than an explanation.

Research and planning: sound analysis 2

I decided to do two sound analysis' because it is my main role in the making of the trailer. This trailer is quite different from the first that I analysed. It starts with a voice over which is something that me and my group have already discussed and agreed we would like to use. We then hear non diegetic noises such as wind, and glass smashing which add effect to the atmosphere. As well as this we get diegetic noises such as the children screaming which makes you feel jumpy. The trailer also end with the voice over again, this is something that as a group needs discussing (where we will include our voice over).

Research and planning: sound analysis

I am analysing Annabelle in terms of sound because that is my role in the group, to make sound for the trailer. I notice from Annabelle that it starts off with a casual song that is quite slow. We then hear jumpy sounds when the people are in their house which makes you feel on edge. One thing I particularly like from the trailer is the thudding heartbeat that you can hear I think it adds a lot of effect. There are definitely some aspects of this trailer we could use in our own.

Research and planning: name decisions

We have decided on a film name, we decided to call our film "We Meet Again" because we think it goes well with our storyline and sounds creepy. I have named my magazine "Showcase" because I think it's suitable and could cover a wide range of audiences.

Research and planning: film name idea feedback

This is a picture showing the sheets that me and my group used to get feedback on our film name. Three of them told us to call our film Captured and two said Isolation but as a group we decided that we were going to go against the feedback because we feel that the film is better suited to the name "We Meet Again".

Research and planning: audition poster

This is an audition poster that I made for me and my group to post around college so that people come to use for auditions for the trailer which will help us to get actors.

Research and planning: publication plan

This is my publication plan. It goes into more detail about my magazine and explains things such as where it will be distributed and how much it will cost.

Research and planning: initial masthead ideas

This post shows masthead ideas that I have come up with for my magazine. I plan to show them in more detail through photoshop, showing both colour and style. The ideas I have are:

• Showcase
• Exclusive
• Preview

Research and planning: film name ideas

As a group, we came up with a few name ideas that we thought were strong and had potential to be our film name. They were;

• Isolation 
• We Meet Again
• Captured

Together we think that We Meet Again is the strongest but we are going to get some audience feedback and then decide on a final film name.

Research and planning: film magazine analysis 2

Again, I can tell right away that this is a film magazine. This is because of the cover lines that are used and the language in them. More specifically I can tell that this magazine is based on a horror film because of the picture, which is Sweeney Todd, the character helps portray the horror image because of the make up and costume. However the colours used don't represent the usual horror look, they portray a more cold image, with the white and blue font and the character is also pale. The audience for this magazine would also be very wide because it will have the audience of people who like to read film magazines, then people who like Sweeney Todd but also people who are Johnny Depp fans. This is the type of thing I need to do when I create my magazine rather than sticking to a small audience. The language used "Holiday Movie Preview" "39 New Films" are very specific to the movie magazine genre.

Research and planning: film magazine analysis 1

This magazine is clearly a film magazine. I can tell this because it says "The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time" and it also has a picture from a well known movie scene on the front. I can tell this magazine is based on horror because of the film displayed, which is The Shining. The colours used also represent the stereotypical horror look. The audience for this film would be people interested in both horror films and films in general. That makes the audience very wide. On the front of the magazine we can see the cover line saying the title of the film, along with a cover line above that is bold "100 covers to choose from" this will appeal to a wide range of audiences; this is what I need to think about when designing my own magazine cover 

Research and planning: plan for the week

There are some tasks that I must get done this week. They are;

• 2 film magazine analysis' 
• 2 film magazine draft ideas
• progression on animatic story board
• publication plan

Research and planning: film poster draft 2

This is the second draft idea that  came up with for my movie poster, again, it has the title "We Meet Again" and the tagline. The poster shows a hint towards where the trailer is set (the farmhouse), This draft also includes the ghost / villain, introducing the audience to that character early. This is because horror films are often similar, they have a group of people and a villain which changes. So I decided I wanted to show the ghost early.

Research and planning: film poster draft 1

This is a draft of a film poster that I hope to create to go with my trailer. It shows an idea of the type of image I'd use (medium close up). It shows the title idea (We Meet Again) and the tagline. From this draft you also get an idea of the ghosts make up and costume. I gathered some ideas from myself and some from poster analysis I have done.

Research and planning: film poster analysis 2

This is another film poster, which is the same genre as mine, horror. There are several things that tell me this is a horror poster. First of all, the colours used are stereotypical of a the horror genre, the red, white and black automatically shout out horror. Also the brightness / contrast of the picture have been dropped to make it darker, suggesting its a dark film. You wouldn't see this in a comedy film poster. The poster tells us it was made by the creators of Paranormal Activity, which is also horror. So the audience could expect something quite similar. 

The medium close up used is enough to show us the child's emotion, his facial expression is quite serious, suggesting he is the main character. But we can also see a family house in the background which tells us that it is likely there is a family involved. Again similar to Paranormal Activity. 

At the bottom of the poster we can see the credits including the producers / actors in the film done in the traditional steel tongs font which you almost always see on a film poster.

Research and planning: film poster analysis 1

Through the colours on the poster I can tell that this film is a horror. The red / black colour scheme is rather stereotypical with horror films. The woman looks like she is a powerful character, which is unusual for horror films as woman are usually being attacked. However from the way we see her here it seems that she is evil. The tagline saying "possession is back" makes is seem like this woman wants to get something and along with the way she is represented she will do anything to get it. The dark lighting on the poster is very stereotypical, especially the dark hair on the woman. The medium close up shows us emotion from the woman, which seem quite scary / creepy with the way her head tilts and her eyes are read. From the poster I would say the audience is 15 - 35, which is quite normal for any horror film. 

Research and planning: ghosts make up

These are some ideas of make up / costumes that we want to go for:

These are some ideas of what we don't want to do for the make up:

This post shows make up and costume ideas for what we aim to achieve for the ghost character in our trailer. We want pale make up with some small bruises, rather than violent and blood everywhere. We want it to come across as the ghost mentally attacking the characters rather than physically attacking them.
The last two pictures of make up showing blood are not what we want, as I said the ghost isn't touching the characters so the blood would be misleading. We want to portray that the friends are being haunted and weird things start to happen around them and especially to one character.

Research and planning: animatic storyboard

This is my animatic story boards so far, that I have done with my partner. It shows how our trailer is going to look, as well as the description shown in our treatment, this helps us get a better idea of how the trailer will run and helps us decide what we need to edit. It has also made us think about props more because they're actually shown in the storyboards.

Research and planning: cinema post

Earlier this week me and the other students from my media group. We watched Annabelle, a new horror film, we decided to watch this because it was relevant to most of the people watching. Whilst at the cinema we took some photos of film posters which will be helpful as a start point when we are researching for our own film posters.

Research and planning: costume and props list

Costume list:

• White night gown - for the ghost to wear
• Casual clothing - for the characters
• Handbag - for the female character
• Make up - pale to make the ghost look creepy

Props list:

• iPhone - used to look at the pictures on
• Beer bottles - one character is drunk and dropping bottles
• Picture -  we need a picture to start moving
• Curtains - blowing near them
• Toy -  starts playing on its own
• Bed -  characters wake up in a bed 

 

Research and planning: shot list

This is a shot list showing the type of camera shots we are going to use when filming, and the reason that we are going to do each shot.

Research and planning: risk assessment

This is a risk assessment showing that we have analysed where we plan to film our trailer. This helps make sure that ourselves and the actors will be safe when we are filming our trailer. The risk assessment covers many dangers when filming.

Research and planning: production schedule

This is a production schedule that me and my group came up with. It shows when we plan to do lots of our research and planning.

Research and planning: equipment & software list

Equipment: 
Cannon SLR camera

Tripod

Lighting

iMac

Software: 
Photoshop

Final Cut express

Garageband

Adobe effects

This is a post showing all of the equipment and software that me and my group will have to use when making our trailer and magazine. With all of these things we have enough to make everything we need.