Poster Research - Existing Poster Mood Board

I have created a mood board of existing media posters as research for creating our own product. Most of these posters contain an image of the main character or characters in each film and the colour scheme is reflective of the film genre. Tag lines are a feature of many of these posters as a promotional tactic, as well as positive reviews.

Special Effect Make Up

For our trailer we have themes of violence and self harm and so for this to be effective we need to research and experiment with make up to create the effect of abuse. I researched in to different types of looks you can get from abuse. 

After I gathered a wide range of different make up and effects I tried different methods of applying on to one of our actors to see if it would work effectively. When doing the make up I applied a very basic pale base so it would make the bruises and blood stand out more clearly, then applied a small amount of eye make up to keep it plain and basic. Then I used eye shadow to create the bruising around the eyes as I used shades of yellow, blue, purple, red and greens to show different stages of bruising and abuse.



 

 

This are the results of the make up attempts:

 

 

 

With the make up it was successful in giving one of the characters a believable black eye as we effectively used the different colour of eye shadows ranging from purple, black, green and yellow to show the different healing patterns of the bruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now as well as bruising we wanted to experiment with self harming for an other character. The subject of self harm is a very sensitive subject and I took my research very seriously and carefully. After visiting different websites I decided that the cuts is the easiest to do one effectively as well as being the most conventional one,

I looked it up on YouTube and found a tutorial on how to do the cuts and make them look realistic.

 

 

Website Research - Existing Website Mood Board

This mood board shows some film websites of the last few years. A common feature of these website home pages is a recognisable picture from the film and also a video of the film trailer. The award nominations and wins are also shown, as well as names of the recognisable cast members increasing publicity.

Fonts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t87QKdOJNv8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPZ8Bgl6xlc

Character Names

For our trailer we have 3 different characters and we need to choose an appropriate name for each character and what there name represents. 

For the 'skater' boy we looked a wide range of different names that would fit the look and personality we were looking to achieve.

From this list of 54 different name we managed to round it down to 5;

Emmett
Alec
Xander
Camden
Wyatt

I looked in to the different meaning of each name to help us decide and Alec meant 'Defender of the People' and we thought this fit well with our piece as the skater boy character has an element of being protective of the other characters and defending them.

For the girly girl name:

Cecily
Aurora
Mirabella
Larissa
Arianna

We looked in to the meaning of the names again and Arianna meant 'most holy' and we thought with girly girl we wanted her to have a sense of 'innocence' and her to be the good one of the trio so we thought the name Arianna fit perfectly for the character.

Grunge Girl

Lolita

Asia
Ruby
Dominique
Tallulah

With these name we also looked in to the meanings as well as what sorted the character best. We thought that Dominique suited the character well as it could be shortened to 'Dom' which implies a tomboy element as well as the meaning being from a male name originally.

So the final names for our charcters are:

Alec
'Dom' Dominique
Arianna

Creating an interactive map

We wanted to create an interactive map of all of our filming locations, so we could not only see what distance they are away from eachother for planning and scheduling purposes, but also so we can visualise which route to take and where we will film the shots from.

To do this I used Google maps.

I logged in to my google account then clicked my maps, then create new map.

I then clicked create new marker and marked the first place of filming; Borough green train station

Then we decided to try to add a picture so that the map would be interactive, so we could click on any of our filming locations and see what they actually looked like.

We chose to use the pictures from Google street view.

So I print screened the Google streetview of our first location

However we discovered that you can't upload pictures directly from the desktop, it must be a web address.

First we tried using the free Google drive account to upload it however when we copy and pasted the sharing link it came up with a black screen.

We then checked the privacy settings and changed it to public

However it still didn't work.

So we Googled it and read through this Google answers forum

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/otUBQGcz-y4

We attempted using Google Picassa but unfortunately it is blocked on the school system

So we then created a Flickr account, however this was also incompatible with the google maps system

We also tried creating a Photobucket account.

 We uploaded the print screens of Borough Green station however we found even when we copied the address of the picture itself into Google Maps it still didn't work

We finally decided to concentrate on creating the locations on the map rather than the photos and found a way to change the icons on Google maps to represent different things

 

 

We chose to use small dots for short tunnels on the train, semi-circle with a dot in it for long tunnels on the train, the train icon for stations, waves for bridges, a P for the car park, a bed for the bedroom, a dollar sign for the bank, and a shopping bag for the shopping spree location.

 Also we used the create line feature to show the route we would be walking. We made it a circular route to make the most of our time filming, and to avoid visiting the same locations twice, as it meant we could see as many different London streets as possible.

Problems with iMovie

The project on iMovie became corrupt, this meant that we could not access any of the project to continue with editing it. We tried to put the project onto a memory stick and transfer it onto a new Mac, however had the same problem again with the file being corrupt. Due to this, we had to re-upload all of our raw footage onto the new Mac from the iPhone and start editing again. 

Interesting shots

From this we have decided to experiment with focus pulls, dolly out zoom in, lighting on an extreme close up of the eye, the close up of the fist, the soom in to the peephole then zoom out of the eye

We liked the inside the car shot and the frantic zoom movement, although we felt that this could potentially give the trailer a slightly comedic feel which is something we wanted to avoid

We will try to incorporate the rule of thirds and also the idea of speaking space to compose more cinematic and professional looking shots for our trailer.

Character Profiles

Character and Actors Profile's:

Name: Jessica Henderson

Age: 17

Occupation: Theatre Student

Character: Girly Girl

Name: Arianna

Name: Liam Sydall

Age: 21

Occupation: Part Time

Character: Skater Boy

Name: Alec

Name: Harriett Sydall

Age: 18

Occupation: Theatre Student

Character: Grunge

Name: Dom (Dominique)

The characters are all contrasting in their fashion, backgrounds and the decisions they make when given the money. We want to represent this contrast in our film trailer as we want the audience to be able to relatable to the characters. I made one individual video representing the characters and what they all may do with the money.

Arianna: Is the girly girl who with her amount of the money would go to spend it on clothes and just shop it all away.



Alec  is the boy who uses his part of the money to but a nice car like a Lamborghini and also on prostitutes to have fun.



Dom: is the one who gets uses her money to buy drugs, alcohol and party to forgot everything else.

Logo Adjustments

After looking at some trailers, we noticed our logo didn't seem to match the conventions of the famous film logos

We took inspiration from this video and decided the logo needed a more three dimensional and kinetic feel.

However we still wanted to include the abstract feel of the universe to fit with our production company name, so we researched abstract visualisations, taking inspiration from the backdrop to many independent music videos

We then researched a video on the creative commons portion of the site which meant it was copyright free so we could use it as part of our own logo

We chose this video as we felt it had the most to work with and we liked the simple colour scheme as we find it eye-catching.

We selected one section of the video and chose to run it at 800% speed to make it shorter and give it more pace.We then run the same section of clip at the same speed but in reverse to give the impression it was expanding then receding as it gives a more complete and cyclical feel.

Finally we added our production name in copperplate font as we felt it was striking and clear to read but also quite distinctive so we can create a strong sense of branding across all of our products

We also used a blur effect to make the text feel more integrated with the visualisation.

\For the sound we cut the sound that was on the videos as because we had sped it up it sounded very high pitched, so instead we separated the sound and selected a 6 second clip to accompany the visual and also faded it in and out to make it less abrupt.

Health and Safety

When filming our trailer we need to take the Cast and Crew's safety in to consideration and so before we travel to our locations we need to prepare for health and safety precautions.

 

 

 

One of our locations is the drama studio where we will be filming the club and some of the drug shots, for this scene to be effective we needed a large group of people to fill the space. Now as we have to use the lights we must have a adult to supervise so we had asked our teacher to keep an eye on the lights and the large group when we filmed.

 

 

 Now another location for our film is London and we are filming in a large amount of different locations and so the health and safety needs to be sorted. Now as its London the Cast and Crew must stay together as a group at all times in case of emergency, and even when filming different shots or separating for any reason cast and crew must be in groups of no less than 2, so that there is always someone to help should the situation arise.

 We will also delicate one phone to be the emergency one that will stay fully charged and ready to call the emergency services. 

Two members of our team, an actor and crew member has first aid training and so we have both of them if any of the members are injured or hurt. Also we will have a small first aid kit on us at all

times.

 

It will include:

 

Antiseptic wipes or spray for cleaning cuts and grazes.

Gauze squares to clean wounds.

Non-sticky dressings, such as Melolin, for covering wounds.

Fabric plasters (individually wrapped).

Blister plasters (individually wrapped).

A selection of individually wrapped wound dressings.

Paracetamol

 

With all these different health and safety precautions the group will be prepared for any problems during filming,

We-Media and Democracy workshop at BFI southbank

On Thursday 23rd January we attended a talk held by the British film institute on we-media and democracy.
We learnt about the changes in production and consumption of media, and how they undermine the traditional hierarchy of media

We also discussed the value of media texts.

-Communal value - shared purely for fun on aggregate sites such as YouTube, Vine and Flickr.
example:

 

-Civic value - created to help society and spread information, e.g citizen journalism.

examples



 

- Creative value - media texts which show genuine talent, but the creators aren't professionals

example

 

We hope that our trailer will obtain creative value, and that we can harness the power of social media to promote and advertise our film.

Also since our film is independent, it will rely strongly on the power of we media to obtain success



Non-Diegetic Sound

Trailer Research and Planning - Film Festivals

Sundance Independent Film Festival 

• Founded in 1978, now held in Park City, Utah, Sundance is of the largest US independent film festivals. Featured films include A Streetcar Named Desire and Deliverance.
• The chairperson is Robert Redford which adds prestige and eliteness to the festival.
• It highlights the potential of independent films, and acts to increase visibility for filmmaking while presenting a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions.
• The festival also highlights the work of regional filmmakers who work outside of the Hollywood system.
• More than 60 films were screened in its second year, however when the festival was bought to The O2  in 2012 for the first time, 14 films were screened. In 2013 the UK version of the festival was sponsored by Jaguar, suggesting how recognisable the festival is.
• Quentin Tarantino, David O'Russell and Darren Aronofsky are directors who got their big break after their films being premiered at Sundance.
• Films include; Saw, Reservoir Dogs, Little Miss Sunshine, (500) Days of Summer and Napoleon Dynamite.

Venice Film Festival

• First ever major festival which were held in 1932.
• Considered highly prestigious and awards filmmakers such as; Al Pacino, Sylvester Salone and Spike Lee.
• The Golden Lion Award is presented for Best Film, for which previous winners have been The Wrestler and Brokeback Mountain. 
• The festival is international and therefore other recipients are relatively unknown to the Hollywood system.
• A Silver Lion Award for the Best Director and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and Actress are also awarded.

Cannes Film Festival

• Founded 1946 the festival is prestigious and invitation-only.
• Golden Palm prize for best picture, Best Short Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay awards are also given out.
• Best first feature film and Student films are also rewarded.
• Huge media exposure and is a good source of publicity for film producers to launch new films and attract distributors from around the world.
• Previous winners include The Tree of Life in 2011 which adopts experimental elements and The Pianist. Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now from the 1970's are also previous recipients.

Berlin International Film Festival

• The festival was founded in 1951 and has been held annually since 1978.
• Golden Bear award for best film and Silver Bear awards for various acting accolades.
• The Generation section showcases films targets at youths.
• Previous films screened at the festival are; Marley, The Land of Blood and Honey, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and a restored version of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, showing the variety of film the festival showcases. 

Raindance Film Festival

• UK's largest celebration of independent film making, takes place in London in October.
• Founder of the British Independent Film Awards.
• Pulp Fiction debuted at Raindance in 1994, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape 1993, Momento 2000 and Once 2007.
• The festival holds a jury which has previous members such as Lou Reed, Judi Dench and Iggy Pop.

Tribeca Film Festival

• Founded in 2002.
• Festivals mission is to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience.
• In 2006 and 2007 it screened 1500 films and featured a variety of documentaries, narrative features and short films.
• Festival draws around 3 million people including elusive celebrities from the industry.

South by Southwest

• Began in 1987, the festival showcases new directing talent in his film section, however in more recent years, mainstream films such as The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Spring Breakers held their premieres there.

London Film Festival

• First held in 1956, it is now held annually by BFI and sponsored by The Times.
• UK's largest film festival screening 300 films and documentaries from around 50 other countries.
• Hosts high-profile awards contenders, public forums, educational lectures and Q&A's with filmmakers and film talent.
• The Sutherland trophy is awarded to the Best film of the year and isn't exclusive to the UK unlike festivals such as the Vancouver Film Festival.

The festivals most suited for our film would be the Raindance Film Festival and the Sundance Independent Film Festival UK. This would be due to the focus on independent films and the fact that they are London based meaning that these are the most likely ones it would be screened at.