A2 Media

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

2010-04-25T16:58:00.002+01:00

(/in progress)
First and foremost, my best exchanges were between myself and my friend Ronan, who is also on the OCR course. He'll probably appear a lot in this post, so I thought I should drop in an example of how we also shared ideas on his blog when I was involved a little in his poster design:
http://ronana2.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-poster-development.html

Audience feedback was extremely useful throughout the project, even in the research stage. The nicest thing of it all was just to feel like people were reading and responding to what I was writing...

When I researched the Butterfly Effect for example, I got things such as :

I also received little encouraging remarks along the way, simply affirming that what I was doing was going down well.

The above image shows how audience feedback sort of inspired me partly to keep going with the face paint idea and incorporate it into my final trailer. Similarly, audience feedback was useful when I abandoned ideas such as 'Breakfast'...

The text at the top of the image shows some feedback I received on YouTube on this video as well. You can see from this that although people seemed to like the idea I had, no one could actually see the direction it was going in. I couldn't either.

My first rough edit got a lot of feedback, which you can see below.

Comments here can be related to my finished teaser trailer. I abandoned a lot of the footage from my first edit and put much faster cuts in the final product, reflecting feedback here that showed people found speed to be effective.
Similarly, I got a lot of feedback as I was developing my ideas for the posters, which can be seen below.

When I put my final teaser trailer on YouTube it was also nice to be found by students from other schools who commented on my work. In response, I went and left them comments and had a brief exchange about each others work. Although it came too late for them to suggest any criticisms, they were helpful in just being reassuring that someone I didn't know liked my trailer...

Additionally, when I put my trailer on Facebook to show Dan a few minutes after I'd first finished editing it, I recieved a good response:

The thing with Facebook was interesting, because I was able to reach a wider audience than I was intially with the blog. Most young people today can navigate Facebook with ease, whilst blogger is less used and understood. I think commenting on Facebook requires less effort on their part, and it also feels even less formal than blogger does.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

2010-04-25T15:39:00.004+01:00

I think the combination of my three products is quite effective because there appears to be consistency throughout.
For example, I used the same typeface throughout called 'Capture it', which I actually downloaded from dafont.com a few years ago to use in my GCSE art project.

'Capture it' then goes on to appear in the films title and text used in the trailer, just with the colour inverted.

I then carried it over onto the poster...

And the poster matches up with the magazine cover, acting as the other half of the photo (keeping with the theme of being Split, geddit?)...

I realise that neither the poster nor the magazine cover actually says the films name 'Split' explicitly, but I think what I've done thus far would all appear right at the beginning of an ad campaign, when the audience are being genuinely 'teased' as such. It would be, at this stage, up to them to make the connection. Of course, the article in the magazine would give the connection away assumingly, but not everyone would read it.

I think this implicity would be more likely to get people talking than an in-your-face campaign... That or it would completely fail, maybe. Although, I think both the poster and the magazine front are fairly unconventional and would attract attention if they were displayed amongst your average blockbuster and mainstream film posters and magazine covers. Of course though, many Vertigo front covers are quite quirky and original, so in terms of the history of the magazine it might not stick out amazingly to the normal readership, but to others it may do. Or, it might even encourage people to collect both, once the film was around more... I think (not blowing my own trumpet) that the combination of film poster and a magazine cover is quite an interesting idea. Although, in terms of the real world I don't how successful it would be - supposedly it would mean the film could only be advertised that way with one magazine, and would suggest some kind of loyalty to it. However, on the independent circuit I might be able to get away with it because we would be less restrained by what would definitely sell and make money...

Also, obviously I used Dan throughout and he appears in each piece. This also helps consistency and makes the audience more likely to recognise that there's a connection between the pieces. However, I guess it's not explicitly shown that it's Dan, but I do think that his hair might be pretty recognisable, and also the use of the same typeface should help.

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2010-04-25T15:24:00.001+01:00

(/work in progress)
I think my media product both uses conventions for a thriller teaser trailer and challenges them equally.

For example, in relation to the Requiem for a Dream trailer my teaser trailer appears fairly conventional. I adopted in a sense the use of 'hip-hop' montages that director Aronosky uses in both the trailer and the actual film, where lots of short consecutive shots are combined to get across a feeling of chaos or energy.

In my trailer, I think this comes across as fear, or panic perhaps, as the 'fight' between the two alter ego's are reflected onscreen with quick flicks between each representation, whether it be Dan in the woods or the suited Dan smirking.

However, this style of editing is quite atypical. Many of the other trailers I looked at, such a Fight Club and The Butterfly Effect, follow more mainstream formulas for trailers such as having a voice over to narrate the events onscreen. I think to have a voice over in my own trailer might have distracted from the feel I was trying to convey of being lost and detached.
A film like Fight Club is from a single characters perspective, and so the narration is directed in such a way to feel more personal to the viewer.

You can see this in the use of the main character as the narrator, not only in the trailer but in the film as well (reflective of the book, which is told in the first person). To create an objective and detached narrative, such as Aronofsky did with Requiem, it's better to have no voice over because then you do not get a singular perspective on the plot. Whilst Aronofsky did use a mixture of dialogue from the film written information (such as "Adapted from the novel..." etc), I chose only to have text.
I did this because I think to achieve a good quality of sound would have been hard, and it would have been difficult to follow the quick shots and listen to what someone was saying at the same time, and let alone the effort it would have been to narrate it in the first place at such a speed.
So, in this way, I was conventional in that I took a convention used by Aronofsky and did something similar, but was also unconventional in relation to more mainstream ideals like those used by Fight Club (despite it now being considered a cult film).

Other conventions I kept to were obvious thriller trailer ones, like the ones I mentioned in this post a while ago:
http://amyloulynch.blogspot.com/2009/10/teaser-trailers.html
I mostly kept to all of them, such as the time limit, the surrealist plotline and little footage from what would be in the actual film. Ones I missed were perhaps the ones about CGI, which was limited by budget and equipment (and skill, aha), and footage that was obviously sped up.

Similarly, I don't actually know any major stars that could have appeared in my trailer, so in a way I sort of broke that convention. The Butterfly Effect has Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart, Fight Club has Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter and Brad Pitt, Requiem for a Dream has Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn...

So in my trailer I made use of my friend Dan, and made as if my film would be pushed on the independent circuit. Few big blockbusters now have a completely unknown cast or director anyway, because Western audiences have become accustomed to going to see a film based around who is in it or who directed it.

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (...Part 2)

2010-04-25T13:10:00.002+01:00

(/work in progress)
Whilst the last post was mostly about the 'new technologies' I used in my construction work, this post will deal more with those used in the planning and research and the evaluation.
Whilst obviously the blog was a huge factor in everything I did, I also had to use the Internet in other ways. For example, YouTube I used for finding the original teaser trailers I looked at in the beginning. To host the videos on this blog I had to take the embed code and paste it here. Similarly, I uploaded my own videos to YouTube to put on here (creating an account under the name MindyLynch), such as my initial ideas like 'Breakfast' and my original edit of Dan walking through the woods. So YouTube cropped up in both my research and construction, and also in my planning I guess - in the form of me being able to put my first ideas out there for feedback.

Research-wise, I also used Wikipedia and Internet Movie Database (IMBD) to read up on films, their directors and producers and studios they were distributed by. I was able to also read about the methodology of the editing, for example the 'hip-hop' editing style of the Requiem for a Dream trailer that I later sort of adopted for my own and tried to mimic. Additionally, I was able to research genre.

On top of that, I used the website freeplaymusic.com to download an uncopyrighted mp3 to use on my trailer.

Planning wise, I used simple old pen and paper to sketch out my original ideas, and then scanned them into my laptop to put on here. If I had the means, and the know-how, I would have liked to have spent more time on them, like reconstructing them in PhotoShop so they were more clear, or drawing them out better using a graphic tablet or something...

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

2010-04-21T20:25:00.002+01:00

(/work in progress)
The most obvious new technology used in this coursework project is this blog, I guess. It's also been the biggest influence on how I've worked. At the beginning of the project I was pretty against working electronically, thinking it was much nicer to be able to work on paper and use real materials... Whilst that's still true, I've really really warmed to this format - So much so that once I'm done with this, I reckon I might actually miss blogging. Sad, right? Maybe.
Also, I like being able to fiddle with and design the blog. Over the course of the months it's been running, I've changed the design quite a few times...

The best thing about working on blogs is also the community feeling you get - alright, so, my blog is hardly bulging at the seems with comments and feedback, but it's definitely been a good node for communication with a couple of people. Similarly, it's good to be able to look around at other students work from other schools and colleges. The same goes for YouTube. Despite my many objections to the copyright rules on there, the site is good for generally browsing through other A2 students work. I was surprised to actually be found and get a comment from another group of students on there, but more on that in the feedback question...
What else can I say about the blog? It does feel a lot more casual than paper work, and that's something else I really like. I also like that that enables me to use a lot more casual language, because it feels like I'm talking to real people rather than just writing drivel on a piece of paper that only a few people will look at... And of course - less paper is more green, which is always a plus.

Other new technologies I used were obviously stuff to capture my ideas, like the video camera (thanks Ron :P) and my own normal camera, plus my scanner when I was photocopying and scanning Dan for the poster and magazine cover... These were all perfectly adequate, but of course it would have been nice to have stuff that was better quality. I think the hardest thing to capture well would have been sound, if I had wanted to do a voice over (and having no decent mic was a big influence in my decision on that, if I'm honest). Similarly, not having a studio or anywhere to take photos on a plain background was irritating and took some initiative. It also resulted in lots of discarded footage and pictures like this...

Annnd, of course, I should talk about the software I used. As I said in earlier posts, I used Premiere Pro to edit my moving footage, and for my print based editing I used a lot of Microsoft Word and Photoshop. I also used Paint (gasp), because it's much faster for saving .jpgs than PhotoShop, I find. Sometimes simplicity is just nice.

Premiere Pro I found surprisingly easy to use, apart from a few crashes and few issues in the beginning with input formats.

With Premiere Pro I didn't go too deep into any flashy editing, and I didn't use any extra programs like AfterEffects or iMovie simply because I didn't have access to them. If I had been able to, I don't know if my final trailer would have been much different... Premiere Pro was perfectly adequate for what I wanted, which was being able to make short sharp cuts in the footage and be able to move it around easily. I found the different timelines really useful for moving things around, similary the automatic save function (!).
One thing that did get me with Premiere Pro was the function were the editor is able to make their own titles... I really didn't like that, and thought that mostly things came out looking fake or over-produced. To deal with this I made my own .jpg images to put into the timeline to act as the narration and film titles. This allowed, for me, a greater scope design-wise and also helped me be able to keep consistent with the same typeface that I would go on to use in the poster.

PhotoShop and Word I used a lot for image manipulation. I find whilst PhotoShop is obviously more professional and provides a much more polished end project, Word is much better for dong easy and quick cropping, and simple copy and pasting. For example, this idea was all produced in Word...

... while on the other hand, I made things such as whats below in PhotoShop. I also made the majority of my title .jps in Word and then printscreened them into Paint and then resaved them as image files, so they would be easier to move around and play with.

Final media proooducts.

2010-04-21T18:52:00.000+01:00

Just so it's all in one place...
Trailer:

Poster:

Magazine cover:

YouTube and copyright.

2010-04-07T13:29:00.002+01:00

Well, bureaucracy has reared it's ugly head again. You might remember this post from a few months ago, when I put up my first edit/idea for the trailer using the Bob Dylan song 'Beyond here lies nothing':
http://amyloulynch.blogspot.com/2010/01/updatefirst-rough-edit.html

Well, I checked my e-mail earlier, and found this from YouTube:

So, apparently I'm infringing on poor old Sony. What an evil, evil media student I am, heh... Well, I chucked the video back into Premiere Pro and removed the audio - now you can watch it and just imagine the song is there.
Huff.

Here's the song, which matches up with the video for the first 25 seconds or so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDMCaGNtsu0

And here's my video, sans song:

Lost ideas/Stuff that didn't quite work out

2010-03-28T15:56:00.001+01:00

Back when I was filming for the trailer Dan and I had some ideas for the magazine front cover and how I could portray the 'split' between the main character.

One of our first ideas was to show the two sides of the ego standing back to back.

So, this and this...

became this:

and then this:

and then this...

and that. (personally, I really dislike the last one there, eugh)
And then I had this idea...

I thought this idea was good for 'teasing' the audience with the character identity. This would be useful if I was having a major star play the character, as it might keep the audience guessing who it was who was being signed for the movie...
And this just lead onto this:

as an idea for a nice and simple promo poster, but I decided that ultimately it was too weak really. Despite that, I do like the monochrome two-tone feeling of it. Black and white also suggest light and dark, or good versus evil, perhaps?

Idea number 2 was a bit more simple, and I put a lot less thinking into it, but....
Started off with the idea of the character looking at himself in the mirror, but it being a different reflection looking back at him. I think this might have been a bit ambitious (especially with my photo editing skills), but we managed to come up with this:

and then with soem cropping and fiddling I made this:

and then turned it monochrome, just to see if that made it any better...

And, in my opinion, it didn't. And so, the idea was abandoned.

Something else I made and didn't get anywhere with...

I do quite like this, but I can't see how it would fit in anywhere well. Sighh.

Facebook

2010-03-21T17:55:00.000Z

Currently uploading a couple of pictures and stuff from this whole project to my Facebook to hopefully get some feedback and stuff I can use in the evaluation. Whoever said that social networking had no purpose, haha?

Link to the album: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=158236&id=522828786

Vertigo magazine mock-up

2010-03-02T19:22:00.004Z

Here's my attempt at a quick fake Vertigo, featuring my film. I left off the red box at the bottom though... I like my magazine covers minimalist, haha.

To make this, I just took the Vertigo masthead/logo from a black cover, inverted the colours to make it black on white instead, then created my own upside down 'i' to put over the top, keeping with usual Vertigo theme for consistencys sake.

I've decided to leave off the bottom box with the straps lines in because I think a bare cover is more effective if trying to promote a thriller - this way there's nothing to steal attention away from my film (and I mean that as modestly as possible, realise, haha). Similarly, Vertigo doesn't have barcodes or any of that other clutter you usually see on magazine, which I think allows for a more artisitic and almost genuine look... I hate the idea of every magazine being stamped in the same way, mindlessly, I love that Vertigo seems much more individual and much less corporate. Hopefully, this is in keepign with my film, which I doubt would be taken on by a studio, aha.

Additionally, I'm probably going to go with this teaser poster...

So, in a way, the magazine acts as the other half to the poster? See it? Hopefully, this will come across like a marketing/viral(ish) campaign where the audience is drip-fed little bits of the film one step at a time... Assuming, the poster and magazine cover would appear first, and then the trailer. Also, I've kept the typeface consistent from poster to trailer to kinda help this along.

Vertigo Magazine.

2010-03-02T19:02:00.000Z

About: History
The magazine has been going since 1993. Originally founded and edited by the innovative documentary filmmaker Marc Karlin, it has stood the test of time and kept a lively, creative and diverse readership informed about the work of the independent film and video sectors across the world. Now in its 14th year, the magazine has had its most successful year yet and hopes to develop its growing readership to new heights through its new website and more frequent print issues.
(Source: http://www.vertigomagazine.co.uk/about.htm)

Official site: http://www.vertigomagazine.co.uk/index.php?siz=1

... Vertigo I like even better. It seems a lot less conventional, yet still consistant and widely read.

Now to decide if to 'borrow' an existing magazine format and put my film on it... Or to make my own.

Filmmaker Magazine

2010-03-02T18:53:00.001Z

I expect if my film actually existed it'd be pushed on the independent film circuit, rather than as a blockbuster... So rather than research the mainstream film magazines, like Empire or Total Film, I did some fishing around to see what independent film magazines are out there. I found Filmmaker.

Official site: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/

Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaker_(magazine)

I like the look of Filmmaker. It's fairly well established and has a wide readership, whilst focusing mainly on independent makers and films rather than the mainstream. But, it also follows the conventions of typical magazine covers... A real throw-back to AS, haha. It's not completely overloaded with coverlines, but there are some, and it has the convention of having a main model/actor/whoever as the main image... Similarly, it has a consistent masthead.

Teaser Poster Development...

2010-03-02T18:15:00.000Z

Ack, haven't been on here in a while.

Anyway, after looking at my supposedly finished teaser poster... I decided I didn't like it. So, I've been fiddling with various editing programs for the past hour or so and managed to come up with a gazillion ideas... Here are some. Feedback much appreciated! xP

1)

Here's the first one I did... Not so keen on this one now, but it lead me onto...

2)

This idea. Split down the middle... Because he's split, geddit? Aha...

And so then I had the idea of actually splitting the poster into two - one with the monochrome face, and the other in colour. These could then be displayed side by side perhaps, or alone? Because, after all, it's a teaser poster - it doesn't have to make sense, right?

And then... this happened. I'm not entirely sure how, but I got round to inverting the colours on one of the posters, and after a fiddle this was the result... I like it. (And those of you keeping track of this blog will have noticed my third redecoration with this theme...)

I get a more clinical and detached feel from these posters, but thinking now I might try making SPLIT and COMING SOON a sort of blue hue too, rather than thick black....

This was an idea I had too, but I dunno. This one feels too busy to me. I think it would look nicer without the writing there.

Teaser Poster for Split

2010-02-07T10:17:00.003Z

Poster Research

2010-02-07T09:59:00.000Z

I realise I've already started developing my own ideas for my poster, but I thought I should look around for any conventions I could spot...

Although these are both 'teaser' posters, they are dealing with established franchises - they are well known enough for them to be able to play with how much they give away and still maintain public interest. The Superman poster is a good example of this - all that is shown in his logo. There's no need to give away who else is in the film, or any of the plot, or anything at all - because the fact alone that it features a figure as well known as Superman is enough to get people noticing it.

So, because my film isn't an established franchise, I'm not too sure I'd have as much creative license with making a teaser poster.

However, as you can see in the teaser poster for Cloverfield above, a catchy enough image could be enough to get noticed. The Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline in the midst of destruction is an almost controversial choice of poster image since the 9/11 attacks - it would definitely get attention. However, it does show that even a film that potentially would go without notice can tease the audience.

Editing

2010-02-07T09:25:00.000Z

Sooo, after filming, I had to sort through all the footage. The image above is taken from just one folder... So you can imagine, I did a lot of sorting. I put it all into Adobe Premiere Pro,

and then used the markers to isolate the bits I wanted and drag them onto the timeline.

I then cut each individual clip down to about a second (as you can see on the timeline), in keeping with the fast paced nature of a Thriller trailer. This way, my trailer would be following a number of Thriller conventions, such as the fast cuts, the surrealism, and having little actual indication of the plotline of the film, such as I found in my research.

The music I used in the trailer I found on

www.freeplaymusic.com

Freeplaymusic is a huge database full of uncopyrighted music. Pretty much perfect for A-Level projects... So, since having to abandon Bob Dylan's Beyond Here Lies Nothing, I found another song - 'Disorder'.... In the end, I think it ended up sounding better than my original choice of song. There's no lyrics to confuse with the action going on onscreen or the message, and it also seems to give it a more grimey feel.

Additionally, to keep with the conventions of a trailer I took a print screen of the green approval screen seen on most trailers... However, I realise this claims the film has been approved for American audiences, but I said earlier my film would be British-made. Considering that my film would most likely also be independant - ie, not avliable in most American cinemas, probably (it's hardly a blockbuster) - then this is a bit of a muck-up on my part... If I were doing this properly, I'd have the proper rating screen. Anyway, you can see this at the beginning of the trailer, for conventions-sake.

The guide the narrative of the trailer I made .jpg images to put into the timeline. I tried to make them as simple as possible, because the audience as to read them quickly...

eg:

And then I spread these out between clips of both normal-Dan and alter-ego-Dan.

Additionally, at the end of the trailer, I used .jpg's again to display the title of the film... 'Split'. The name Split was (I'll admit) pretty spontaneous. However, it's simple and, I think, effective enough to get the message across - that Dan has a 'split' personality.

To show the two sides, I made two different images with the colours inversed. I then added them multiple times to the timeline, and cut them into different lengths - to give them impression of switching between the two - reflective of the battle between the two personalities, hopefully.

'Costumes'

2010-01-31T16:34:00.000Z

To show the difference in the two ego's in the trailer, Dan obviously had to wear two different costumes.

The first costume, worn by the character in the woods, is made up of a stripy jumper, a Duffle coat, jeans and Converse.

This was to try make the character look as 'normal' as possible... Apparently, Duffle coats are also associated with Britishness - which may give a hint the film would be set in Britain, if it were real? Duffle coats are also quite big and protective from most elements, which implies the character is vulnerable - like Paddington Bear (who also wore a Duffle coat), so also the character could come across as quite endearing.

The second costume, worn by the alter ego, is a black and white suit.

This was intended to imply a sense of authority - smart attire assumes a position of power, and someone with knowledge. Similarly, it adds a sense of suaveness and smoothtalk with insincerity - the personality of the alter ego. Sort of supposedly quite friendly looking, but at the same time authoritative and sneaky - ready to betray his other self.

Recce locations

2010-01-31T16:10:00.001Z

Location:
My room...

For the scenes with the alter-ego putting on the facepaint stuff I only wanted a plain white background (to make them the main focus so there were no distractions), so, using my initiative (if you can call it that), I stuck some A3 sheets of paper to my bedroom wall and used that as a backdrop. Va-la.

(Dan amongst the mess...)

Before we started out, I did some (fairly awful) sketches, to try show Dan what we were aiming for...

And here's some examples of what came out:

Recce locations

2010-01-31T14:52:00.004Z

Time to start working backwards now, I guess...

Location:
Los Altos Park, Sandown.

I chose Los Altos park for the 'walking in the woods' scenes because it's a stones throw from the school, and it has a super nice bunch of trees (see above and below) that are all skinny and tall - so no leaves or bushes obstructing shoots, but it'd still be fairly obvious where we were. There's also a permanent carpet of leaves on the floor, that make quite nice for swooshing through. It also helps to add to the idea that the woods are methaphorical in the characters head - he's having to stumble and struggle through the leaves like he is through his problems? (or just life in general, maybe?)

These pictures I took, but it was about eight in the morning and raining, so forgive the poor quality... Better ones can be found here:
(website: http://www.invectis.co.uk/IOW/losalt1.htm)

So, here's some screen shots from the footage I took, and you can better see what we did shots-wise.

Blog redecoration

2010-01-16T14:39:00.001Z

Whilst waiting for YouTube to do it's thing, I switched the header at the top, to keep the theme consistent for my teaser trailer. Sooo, say byebye to the blog looking like this:

And hello to... Well, you can see for yourself.

Teaser Trailer

2010-01-16T14:30:00.000Z

So, three hours after I started, here it is - The first edit of my final teaser trailer x_x

Filming update.

2010-01-16T13:04:00.000Z

Finished filming last night. Am currently working on the trailer now. Had 2 crashes so far, ugh.

Development of poster ideas

2010-01-14T18:45:00.000Z

So nextttt, we chucked the scans between PhotoShop and Microsoft Word and came up with these...

Development of poster ideas (DanScans)

2010-01-14T18:24:00.000Z

Evening all.

Right, well. After playing around with the scanner at the weekend, Dan and I have spent the afternoon trying out a couple of ideas along the line of poster development. So here's the original scans:

These two were keeping in with the theme of hands, and trying to get across a feeling of desperation or anguish. We then had the idea of adding in scissors as a prop, to symbolise the 'cut' in the main character and his two alter-egos.

Seeing as Dan is the main character in the trailer though, we thought we could use his face in the pictures too... The general feel is still the idea of being trapped, though these scans are almost reflective. The open palms also suggests, to me at least, a sort of childishness - like palms against a window - looking out to the big wide world from somewhere within? An open palm also carries the connotation of surrendering, or vulnerability.

Update/First rough edit

2010-01-05T19:03:00.001Z

Decided to go back to my original idea (storyboards below) since times getting a bit thin and I can't think of anything better. So, first off, I'll edit it with the Dylan song, and then I'll have a fiddle with some uncopyrighted stuff and see what works...

This below is the first sort of rough edit, shot earlier today and then chopped up in Abode Premiere Pro. Lots more needs to go in, obviously, but this is the sort of direction it'll probably go in now...

Let me know what you think, and special thanks to Dan.

(April 7th Edit: Can't see the video? Go here: http://amyloulynch.blogspot.com/2010/04/youtube-and-copyright.html )

Poster Ideas...

2010-01-01T22:18:00.002Z

Had this sort of idea when I was trailing through DeviantArt earlier and I saw this photo... It keeps in touch with the idea of using facepaint for warmarkings that you could see in my storyboards and in this (bad) sketch :

Here's the original image, and the link to the page I took it from,
http://amafoto.deviantart.com/art/Face-57320429

And here's my 'edit'. Cropped and added in some colour in PhotoShop. The lines are supposed to look like war marks... I've been considering just keeping this idea within the trailer though, rather than on the poster as well (or even the magazine cover). But, thought I'd try this out anyway.

Oh, Death.

2009-12-28T21:33:00.000Z

Here's another idea/experiment.

It didn't turn out as well I'd hoped, but the general idea was to convey a sort of post-apocalyptic feeling. Problem was I still have so little actual footage because of camera issues, so the overal feel is a little more no-kids-went-to-the-park-today rather than post-apocalyptic, but it's the thought that counts, right? I would've liked to have had a really strong image for the first "Oh, Death" (at the end of the clip) to finish it but I couldn't... No matter, watch this space!

Song: Oh, Death
Artist: Jen Titus

(I realise real actual copyrighted songs aren't allowed for the final piece, so I'll find something different if I develop this idea.)

Update.

2009-12-24T12:16:00.000Z

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone.

Okay, so, admittedly I haven't been doing a whole lot recently on here. Since I found out the spec changed as regards music copyright and stuff I've had to rethink my trailer idea (basically the storyboards below), and I've decided it won't work without the song I was intending to use (Dylan's "Beyond Here Lies Nothing", if you were interested), and thus have... done nothing. Although, the Christmas season seems to have awoken my enthusiasm again, and I managed to take some footage yesterday... In a carpark, whilst about to go Christmas shopping. Pretty poor, yes. Plus, my camera is on the blink, so I only managed to get a whole 14 seconds...

Here it is, anyway. My first attempt at trying out my idea of taking out frames to make the footage skip and jump whilst someone is walking. I had to use Windows Movie Maker, because Adobe Premiere Pro couldn't support the video type, but I'm working on changing that. I cut it down to about 4 seconds too, but expect more to come (hopefully).

First storyboard

2009-11-08T16:08:00.000Z

I had this idea in bed whilst listening to Bob Dylan, haha. Sorry about the poor quality, they're just scans from my scribbles. You might want to click on them to make them bigger. They're sort of in the wrong order a bit, so I've numbered them. I'll make a picture animation soon, so my idea is clearer.

Research: Thriller Genre

2009-11-05T11:57:00.000Z

So, I've been doing some reading/researching about Thrillers. Rather than copy and paste everything, I'll just link you.

Thriller genre (Wikipedia)

By these standards, it seems just about anything can become a 'thriller'. Howeeever, I'm going to try hone in on one specific area of the genre - Psychological Thrillers.

Psychological Thriller (Wikipedia)

I thought I'd mainly read about thrillers in the last ten years, just to save on time.

List of Thriller films - 2000's. (Wikipedia)

'Not all jokes are funny.'

2009-11-05T11:03:00.000Z

I've been watching teaser trailers, just for some kinda wider viewing, without having to go into real deep analysis.

My favorite one is probably for The Dark Knight, which you can watch here;

The thing that got me about this trailer was it's simplicity. There isn't even any footage from the film, just dialogue. The only real hook there is Caine's voice, which is pretty recognisable. There's no actual images of Bale/Batman, only the bat logo. And there's nothing about Ledger, although this was released before his death, so there was less hype about his performance then. The only link between the Joker and the dialogue is the Joker card that spins from the bat logo.

Before the Dark Knight's release, 42 Entertainment and Warner Bro's began a huge viral campaign to promote the film's release, which you can read about here;

Dark Knight Marketing (Wikipedia Article)

Just an idea.

2009-10-28T21:35:00.000Z

I really really like polariods. I know this is off topic a little, but I just found these on my external hard drive, and it's given me what might be the beginning of an idea for my movie poster. I think I found them on DeviantArt. I thought that the drawings over a photo imply messing with time, or self-mutilation (although these two photos are a bit more cutesy then what my finished product would be). Also, they'd give away very little, perfect to remain consistent with the teaser trailer.

Anyway.

Results.

2009-10-28T21:24:00.000Z

I handed out my questionnaire to ten men, and ten women, so I don't think there's much need for a graph of that... So, I'll post each table of results here, the graphs of the results, and then my analysis after.

Most of the people I asked where in the 17-20 age range, mostly because that's the age group I spend most of my time with... However, my target audience will also be within this range, although extended a little in both directions. Maybe from like 15 upwards. That would make my film a 15 certificiate, which, if I were making the whole thing, would give me room to have some cases of strong swearing, strong violence, implicit sexual scenes or drug use. Although, I'm not really planning on having this in my trailer...

This graph merely shows that most people expect a teaser trailer to be between 30 seconds and a minute, which is good, although 4 men did expect it to be under 30 seconds - maybe I can use that to justify not having enough footage, if it comes to it. Haha.

This graph shows that most people assumed that a teaser trailer would give away 'barely any' of the plot. I realise now that I used quite loosely defined terms in my questionnaire, which I'd have to improve on if I were to do this again...

Anyway, this is useful for me, because if people don't expect much to given away in the teaser trailer it leaves room for surrealism and symbols, rather than in-your-face plot exposure...

This graph shows that most people also don't expect to see the twist in the film's plot exposed in the teaser trailer. This is probably because the theatrical trailer is designed to do that, whereas the teaser trailer just acts as a preliminary hook.

Again, this graph shows pretty self explanatory results. Everyone expects to hear music in a teaser trailer.

And, in the graph below, we can see that almost everyone expects to be introduced to the main character, in one way or another. One man said he didn't, which is interesting, and shows that maybe if I had asked a wider sample, then more people might have said a similar thing. All this highlights the great freedom there is with teaser trailers, there aren't many rules regarding what you must introduce about the film to the audience.

Questionnaire.

2009-10-28T20:59:00.000Z

Next, to get an idea of what people would expect to see in a teaser trailer, I constructed a questionnaire to pass on to twenty people (ten guys, ten girls) to see the results. Here's the questions I asked:

Are you (please circle);
-Male
-Female

How old are you?
- -16
- 17 – 20
- 21 – 24
- 24+

How long would you expect a thriller teaser trailer to be?
- -30 seconds
- 31 seconds to 1 minute
- 1 minute +

How much of the films plot would you expect to be given away?
- Barely any
- Enough so I know what the film is about
- Most of the plot

Would you expect a thriller teaser trailer to give away a twist in the films plot?

Would you expect to hear music?

Would you expect to be introduced to the main character?

Teaser trailers.

2009-10-28T20:54:00.000Z

Okay, so, I've looked at some teaser and theatrical trailers. This has helped me come to some conclusions;
- Most teaser trailers are between 30 seconds to a minute long.
- The name 'teaser' trailer can be very literal, ie, some may not even include that much footage from the actual film. The idea is to tease the audience. Another reason for this may be that the teaser trailer is released a long time before the full length film, so the editing and production may not be properly finished yet. This all is intended to just add to the hype, merely to let the audience know that the film is coming - rather than explaining the plot itself.

Because I've picked to try make a Thriller trailer, I need to follow certain conventions, like;
- Most Thriller type trailers include sped up footage.
- Usually there are lots of fast cuts/transitions.
- Shots or transitions that might make the audience jump - Most Thriller fans like the adrenaline rush.
- Surrealism.
- Sometimes CGI footage.
- Little indication of the direction of the plotline.

Research: Fight Club

2009-10-20T17:03:00.000+01:00

"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world" - Tyler Durden

To save writing another whole plot summary, you can just read it here;

Fight Club Plot Synopsis

And, here's the trailer;

Things I noticed:

- The trailer begins with the usual stuff - The distribution company, certificate rating, etc;

- Introduces what else the director has done/been involved in;

- Plus, the actors name appear in the same consistent way;

- The narrator acts as the voiceover, explaining the plot line. For example, "I couldn't sleep", which is relevant to the shots on screen;

- Characters use the name of the film in dialogue, "... We just gave it a name... Fight Club."

- Plus, the film name appears in a quirky and unusual way at the end of the trailer - embossed in the soap;

- There's inter-textual references/realism;

- Use of humour: The club members picking fights with strangers, for example, and it being called 'homework";

- Shots of action or big events in the plotline. For example, the first 'Fight Club' in the carpark, or the building exploding. This gets the audiences interest;

-Use of unusual CGI effects. This surrealism catches attention;

- Shots on screen relevant to the dialogue/narration. This helps get an idea of the plot. An example of this is when the narrator/main character meets another man who is obviously a member of Fight Club, but Brad Pitt's character's dialogue is "First rule of Fight Club, you do not talk about Fight Club". The two look at each other knowingly, but do not talk;

- Also, the music used reflects the mood of the shots. The tempo of the music is faster during shots of suspense or action, like fighting, whilst it is becomes slower during surral or emotional moments.

- The music fades out at the end of the trailer.

- There is no outside 'Voice-of-God' narration. It all comes from the main character, or actual dialogue.

- The trailer ends on this screen (see below), which shows all the actors and crews names together, as well as a release date and the website address, etc;

Ideas:

2009-10-20T16:43:00.001+01:00

After watching Requiem for a Dream, I really wanted to try my hand at quick transitions and maybe a montage of some sort. I especially like the breakfast scene with Sara in the film, so I thought that maybe I'd quickly try recreate something similar.
I touched a little on this in my mind map, although it's not all that clear;

So, here it is;

That's me doing the voice-over too, ha.

I also got some feedback on YouTube (thanks, Ron):

"Good start there, I can see how it would be on the start of a trailer, but not sure where the story is going."

He's right. I can't really see where the story is going at this stage, but I'm glad I developed the idea. Now it's not rattling around in my head, and I know how much effort it can be to sync the image with a voice-over, and sound effects, which I had to record separately on my video camera.

So, back to the drawing board. I think I want to stay away from drugs and addiction, as making them convincing is pretty difficult. There's nothing as cringey as a group of kids pretending to be high.

Research: Requiem for a Dream Trailer

2009-10-20T16:22:00.000+01:00

- The trailer is only 1.34ish minutes long (teaser trailer length), but features at least 12 seconds relating to the production and distribution company.

- The style of the trailer is quite unconventional and very similar to the editing of the film. The fast montages and cuts are sometimes called "hip-hop montages", usually a rapid series of simple actions accompanied by related sounds effects. You'll see this in the trailer almost all the way through, like when the money levels rise in the box, or the syringe being plunged, for example. I really really like this, and might adopt something similar. I love the energy and chaos it implies.

- Aronofsky also uses split screen shots to show the different perspectives of the characters. This creates quite an objective narration. However, he also uses a lot of extreme close ups, which help us to identify to a greater degree with each individual character.

- The soundtrack of the film was composed by Clint Mansell and performed by Kronos Quartet, which you can hear at the start of the trailer. This was played on instruments usually noted for their warmth, like cellos, but instead they are played to sound cold and eerie. This reflects the nature of the film - dreams are supposed to be warm, possibly happy, things, but Requiem for a Dream portrays them in quite a different and unsettling light.
This trailer mostly features another song from the film however, which is maybe more suited to the fast pace. The classical music features of the film's full length trailer. You can listen to it here;

Requiem for a Dream theme

And, if you like really epic remixes, here's the recording by a full orchestra that was done for the second Lord of the Rings film, although it was never used;

Requiem for a Tower

Research: Requiem for a Dream

2009-10-20T15:39:00.000+01:00

I love love love this film. It's an adaptation of the book originally by Hubert Selby, Jr and was released in 2000. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky, and starred Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans.

The film depicts the different kinds of addictions, suffered by the main characters. The film charts three seasons in the lives of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), her son Harry (Jared Leto), Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), and Harry’s friend Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans). Each character is ultimately destroyed by addiction and self-delusion - reflected in the mise-en-scene and camera work of the film, and obviously its name.

'Requiem' - A mass for the deceased. A deceased dream. In the book, Selby criticises the American Dream as unattainable, and each character is said to represent a part of it. For example, Tyrone wants money. The name comes from how each character substitutes their own dreams with addiction, and how they ultimately destory themselves.

Here's most of the films info, like the producers and distribution company, which I took from Wikipedia;

Research: The Butterfly Effect Trailer

2009-10-12T17:34:00.000+01:00

Next, I'll have a look at the trailer for the film. It's a bit longer than a 'teaser' trailer, but it's the best I could find. I'll try point out conventions, certain things I find interesting and... Yeah. Blame YouTube if you can't view it properly.

Convention: Trailer opens with the green 'audience approved' notice by the Motion Picture Association of America, which features the certificate of the film - Rated R, which means that in the US kids under 17 can't watch the move alone in the cinema, but can go in if they've got an adult with them. In the UK, this film was rated a 15. That generally means that there'll be some swearing, some nakedness, some violence, maybe some drugs....

From about 00.06 to about 00.11/12ish you'll see the text, "Some people want to forget the past..." and then the writings moves so it says "Some people want to change it". This immediately sets up the idea that this film will involve time-travel and playing with the past (doh).

Convention: This then transitions into the New Line Cinema logo. Almost all trailers involve some sort of promotion for their distributors.

Next, we have the character Evan setting up the plot by mentioning his black outs as he walks next to Kayleigh. Then, the 'voice-of-God' voice-over man picks up and talks over some flashbacks and memories, further implying that this film is about time, etc etc. There's an explosions, which immidiately grabs people's attention, and some screaming and sirens. There's a really nice pan transition too, which might be interesting to try recreate.

Here's some other things I noticed;
- There's bits of dialogue revelant to the plot, like "Remember when we were kids..." or "If I go back to the beginning, I might be able to save her..."

- Lot's of CGI used to create surreal things, like walls melting, the writing in the diary shaking, the illusions of time travel...

- Transitions between black, white and sepia show differences in time and alternate realities.

- Montages of the past - flashbacks of memories with quick transitions of white flashes. This may be a reference to the sort of 'white-light' people report during outer-body-experiences?

- Close up shots of key plot devices, such as the stick of dynamite rolling across the floor or the note Evan drops onto the coffin.

- The trailer features a song with lyrics relevant to the plot - Staind's 'It's been a while'. You can see all the lyrics here;;;

'It's Been a While' Lyrics

- Clips of the plot twists to get viewers attention - Like seeing Evan walk into the prison after hitting Kayleigh's brother, him waking up in bed with Kayleigh...

- Flashes of text saying "this winter" to promote the film and let the viewer know when it'll be out. This is usually accompanied by the logo, and with the jumbled typeface. Consistency helps the audience identify the film easier, and be more likely to remember it.

- Flashes of more text supporting the plot - "Change one thing... Change everything.", which is on top of the cgi butterfly flapping it's wings - hence the title The Butterfly Effect.

- Clips of the film reflecting what the voice over is saying, like the camera spinning around Evan in time with the voice over saying "fast forward... rewind..." 00.57ish to 01.03ish.

- Images of brain scans and skulls, showing the audience this is a psychological thriller. Also images of embryo's, cell activity and hands. (I especially like the hands, I might adapt that idea.)

- The actors names appearing alongside clips of them from the film

- "Coming soon"
and
- The film's website address

Research: The Butterfly Effect

2009-10-12T17:02:00.002+01:00

"The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. It is a common subject in fiction when presenting scenarios involving time travel and with "what if" scenarios where one storyline diverges at the moment of a seemingly minor event resulting in two significantly different outcomes."

Okay, so the first film I'm researching is The Butterfly Effect (2004). It was directed and written by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, and distributed by New Line Cinema. It stars Ashton Kutcher as main character Evan, and Amy Smart as his friend Kayleigh.

As a young boy Evan experiences black outs at time of high stress and wakes up later unable to remember anything. As Evan grows older, these black outs become less frequent. However, he discovers whilst at college that if he reads his childhood journals he is able to travel back in time and 'redo' what was done. This, we discover, was the reason for his blackouts. Evan tries to change the most traumatic times of his childhood and save those around him, such as preventing Kayleigh from being molested by her father.

These actions he takes change the present when he wakes up, having altered the time line. This is where the films title comes from. Although Evan intends to do good, his actions ultimately have infinite consequences and often some things end up worse than before.

The final cut of the film shows Evan eventually going back in time to the beginning of his childhood to scare Kayleigh away so he can't alter her future anymore. At the end of the film, they pass each other in street, and she does not recognise him.

Other cuts show Evan turning and following Kayleigh, and another shows him stopping her and asking for them to have a coffee together.

However, another alternative cut of the film's ending shows Evan taking a final trip back to his time as a fetus in the womb and strangling himself with his umbilical cord. His mother exclaims "Not again!" implying that she has lost children before, assumingly with the same time traveling ability who chose the same path as Evan. This cut was considered too morbid, and is instead included on the DVD special features.

The Butterfly Effect initially received mixed and average reviews, but won an award at the Brussels Film Festival.

Choosing a genre?

2009-10-07T19:59:00.001+01:00

I've been thinking about what genre of film would best suit a 'teaser trailer'. So far it looks like I'll be aiming for a sort of 'Thriller' feel, as I'm interested to try create something surreal and different. So, hence the 'theme of this blog.

I thought blacks and blues are quite cold colours, and often brain scans use different hues of blue for different parts of the brain on black backgrounds. I find them fascinating, so I did a quick google search and did some fiddling on PhotoShop and vala - you've probably already seen the result up the top of the page.

I did a quick mind-thing earlier, which I'll come back to later and explain some of my ideas more indepth, but here's a piccy of it anyway;

One of my favorite films ever is 'Requiem for a Dream'. I love everything about it - the camera work, the montages, the story - and it'll be fun to research it and try create something similar. I'll look to research it to find out what techniques are used in the trailer, and I'll also look at some of my other favorite films, like Fight Club and The Butterfly Effect, as you can probably see in the mind-map (remembered what they're called, heh).
I've been involved with film production before, as part of a sort of amateur comedy group within my group of friends. We mainly made zombie trailers, because these are generally quite low budget and require minimal acting skills. And, the special effects are pretty easy (well...). I was involved in the acting, filming and editing processes.
Here's a couple of pictures;

(Me on the right!)

We also made a 'Grindhouse' trailer, which I avoided acting in and mostly worked behind the camera. Here's a clip of it;

Hello!

2009-10-07T18:00:00.000+01:00

So, here's my A2 Media Studies blog. Great, right?

For my coursework, I've picked to work alone and go with brief number two:

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:
- a website homepage for a film;
- a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
- a poster for the film.

Annnnnd, I'll probably go with the last two ancilary tasks.

A2 Media

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (...Part 2)

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Final media proooducts.

YouTube and copyright.

Lost ideas/Stuff that didn't quite work out

Facebook

Vertigo magazine mock-up

Vertigo Magazine.

Filmmaker Magazine

Teaser Poster Development...

Teaser Poster for Split

Poster Research

Editing

'Costumes'

Recce locations

Recce locations

Blog redecoration

Teaser Trailer

Filming update.

Development of poster ideas

Development of poster ideas (DanScans)

More poster ideas.

Update/First rough edit

Poster Ideas...

Oh, Death.

Update.

First storyboard

Research: Thriller Genre

'Not all jokes are funny.'

Just an idea.

Results.

Questionnaire.

Teaser trailers.

Research: Fight Club

Ideas:

Research: Requiem for a Dream Trailer

Research: Requiem for a Dream

Research: The Butterfly Effect Trailer

Research: The Butterfly Effect

Choosing a genre?

Hello!