27/03/2012 - Making the Poster

This is the image that we will be using for the poster for our film 'Seized' and it follows our rough design of the poster where an image of the abductor's legs can be seen in front of a stair case.

We used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to edit the image and to create the poster.  We decided to remove the window frame from the upper right hand corner of the image as it did not film the hellish image that we wanted to create. To intensify the orangey/red colours we adjusted the contrast and brightness until we reached the perfect shade. By changing the colours we also made the legs of the abductor look like a silhouette just as it does in the trailer.

To remove the window frame we used the 'Blur Tool' and smudged the window away and painted over it with the 'Brush Tool' in white as it would be the lightest part of the wall. We then made sure that the white comfortablely ran into the orangey colours on the wall. The use of these shades of orange/red gives the appearance of a hellish location and makes the abductor even more intensified as the villain in the film.

As you can see in this print screen we continued to brush the colour in areas that needed a more thorough colour and to the left of the figure at the side in the centre, you can see where we began to brush this area orange.

This print screen simply shows the outcome of painting the appropriate areas orange/yellow/white to make the background against the figure more prominent.

As you can see the text on the poster is situated at the top of the poster (title and phrase) and the film details and located at the bottom underneath the abductor's feet. We decided to use the same font for continuity as it is also featured like this in the trailer. We made the title an orange colour as it could be seen easily and was relevant to the orange colour scheme.

The print screen below is the text from one of the 'Taken' film posters that I researched as we saw that a lot of film posters have this writing about copyright and details about the film at the bottom of the poster, we decided that this was a necessary convention to include.

 Following on from my previous research into film posters, I have taken a sample from the top of the 'Sixth Sense' film poster and as you can see we have taken inspiration from the white text and the positioning of the text at the top of the image. 

This is our FINAL poster!!

We decided to change the phrase 'A Modern Cat & Mouse' to something more dramatic like 'An Innocent Walk Home Becomes A Cat & Mouse Game' as it seems more poignant and will attract the audience to the ominous phrase.

This is a sample of the text from one of the 'Taken' film posters with a phrase from the film. We decided to include a phrase underneath the title as it is relevant to the film trailer and will become memorable to the audience. However, we did not choose to include a film rating on the poster as none of our research into film covers showed this and putting one onto ours would not be supported or perhaps necessary.

25/03/2012 - Design for Magazine cover

20/03/2012 - Second Magazine Shoot

Here are a few images from our second photoshoot for the film magazine front cover. We decided to dress our model, Georgi, in the red dress that she is seen wearing in the film trailer. This makes her identifiable to the reader who may want to see the film or who has already seen it and the red will attract the attention. By taking the photographs outside we were able to use natural light which would help create the innocence of Lily and differed to the lighting used in our first shoot.

20/03/2012 - Final Cut of the Film Trailer

Here is our finished trailer!

19/03/2012 - First photoshoot for magazine

These are just a few images from the first photoshoot for our film magazine front cover. We decided not to dress our model up or put lots of make up on her as we just wanted to have a trial shoot and see how she would look in the resulting images. We were pleased with how our model looked and know that with the appropriate clothing and styling she will be perfect for the film magazine as she was in our trailer! Below are some pictures to document Kate photographing Georgi:

17/03/2012 - Volume in the trailer

The sound is an important convention of the trailer as it is present throughout even when it is extremely quiet during speech or other moments in the trailer. It is used to help build the tension rather than the film seem as if it is not going to reach a climax at the very end. The print screen shown above this text is the moment where the film trailer is a black screen and all that can be heard is Lily screaming as the audience assumes that the abductor has finally reached her. We increased the volume of her scream to a higher volume as this will scare and shock the audience and intensify this terrifying moment that they have been anticipating! The print screen below this text is the moment in the trailer when the text 'SEIZED' appears on the screen and the volume of sound is also increased at this point. The idea of increasing the sound at this part of the trailer will allow the audience to focus on the title of the film and prepare them for the next tense event in the film trailer.

15/03/2012 - Second set of photos for Poster

After taking the first set of photographs for our film poster and finding that they were either too dark or too blurry, we decided to reshoot them. This time, we used a tripod to hold the camera still and did not use flash, but increased the lighting instead. We are happy with the outcome of these images and look forward to picking a one for our poster!

15/03/2012 - Eighth Set of Shots (For the final cut of our film)

Today we decided was a great day to refilm the scene where Chelsea and Shannon are seen piecing together the disappearance of their friend, Lily, after they have found her phone on the ground. As Charmaine was unable to help us with filming as she had lessons; Kate and I asked a few of our friends if they would help hold the equipment and keep it steady, once we had positioned it for them. Luckily they agreed and filming took no longer than about 45 mins as we had additional help with the equipment and were able to keep reshooting our shots until we were happy with them. As you can see our friends helped listen to the sound as we recorded it on the school's video camera and filmed the shots on Kate's Canon camera.

14/03/2012 - Poster Text

While preparing to make our film poster we also needed to research into the text that is included in typical film posters as well as just looking into the images used. As we knew the rough design for our poster would feature the abductor's legs in front of the stair case with an orange glow, we decided to look at a similar poster - 'The Sixth Sense'. The poster has a simple layout; an central image, dark back ground, white text which stands out and the title and the main actor's name.

I have focused on the text and I like the writing as it has an eery feel and is also child-like in terms of the font which could be related to the child character in the film. By only including the the title of the film and the main actor's name it adds more mystery to the actual film and audiences who may be aware of the actor Bruce Willis may decide to watch the film because he is a famous actor.

Here is the french poster for the film 'Taken' which we have also focused on during poster research. The imagery used for this poster is somewhat more complicated than that of the film 'The Sixth Sense' and therefore the text is more prominent in order to remain bold in this more structured layout. As you can see, the name of the main male character is included because he is a film actor and an audience may be more inclined to watch it if they know who is in it. However, in our movie poster I do not think we will include a name as we want to keep the text simple and almost not give away anything. There is also text underneath the name detailing events from the film and text at the bottom of the poster which show the legal details and names of the those involved in the production of the film. 

  I have chosen to focus on the title of the film which is located to the left of the poster and is a main convention. The text is written all in upper caps and positioned horizontally. As I have seen in my previous research, the colour red is a common colour used for the title of a film in thriller/horror films.

14/03/2012 - Music for the soundtrack

Charmaine introduced a composer called 'Hans Zimmer' to the group when we were discussing the type of music that we need to use in order to increase the tension for our film trailer. However, after listening to this piece of music as a group, we felt that it gave the dramatic feel that we wanted but was not appropriate for a thrilller film trailer but perhaps more an action adventure film.



We wanted a track that could played throughout the trailer and would remain relevant at each point. Our teacher introduced us to the composer Penderecki who had previously considered for his piece called the 'Concerto Grosso No.1 in c minor' but it was unsuitable and did not fit the film trailer. With this piece of music called 'The Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima' we felt that it was perfect and throughout the track there are quieter moments and more dramatic points which will be great for key events such as the abductor walking up the stairs.

13/03/2012 - In the process of finishing the final cut

Here is a picture of Kate and Charmaine editing the film and taking on the different roles of adding text and transitions to the trailer and the cutting and the organisation of the sound. I felt that it was key to document us doing this as it is perhaps the most signifcant part of the process!

13/03/2012 - Recording sound for final scene

During the recording of our last set of shots featuring Lily in the cupboard, we thought it was appropriate to record her sound as it plays a major role in the trailer. As we were using a different camera to capture the movement, we also used the school camera and sound equipment which we had previously been using to record Lily's breathing and screaming. I have included two of the sound clips: 

Here is the camera that we have decided to use to record our trailer with as it produces significantly clearer and better quality shots.

13/03/2012 - Transitions/Storyboard for final cut

13/03/2012 - Rough Plan for the Poster

I have drawn a rough plan of our ideas for our film poster in pencil. It is perhaps difficult to see but we scanned it in to photoshop and tried to make it darker so that it can be viewed better.

12/03/2012 - Seventh Set of Shots

12/03/2012 - Editing for the Film Poster

The screen shot below shows how I opened the chosen image up in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and began to alter the photograph for our film poster. I adjusted the brightness and contrast to make the image seem darker and to keep the figure dark and the background orange. I then tried to darken edge at the bottom of the image but found that this was unsuccessful in creating the look that I wanted.

Here is the image that we will be using to manipulate the design of our film poster. We have decided that we want the waist down of our abductor in the film seen standing at the doorway, positioned in front of the stair case for the poster. We have taken inspiration from the poster for the film 'The Sixth Sense' as it is simple yet effective. In the poster shown below, there is a figure of a child and an orange glow around him. The person looking at the poster is instantly drawn in to the focal point in the centre and an ominous mood is set by the poster.

For the film poster, I feel that it is necessary to retake the image but use a tripod to position the camera still so that the photograph being taken is not blurry or shaken. We will also make sure that the window to the right of the figure is not present and that the image is more structured.

06/03/2012 - Initial Poster Ideas & Photographs

Here is a collection of shots of the abductor's legs standing at the door way in front of the stair case that he is seen creeping up in the trailer. The pictures above are perhaps too light and we have decided that we want to keep the idea of his legs for the poster but have them dark and create an orangey glow in the background.

We did discuss the idea of using an image of the abductor walking up the stairs from a low angle but we feel that it does not have the effect that we were hoping for and would not work well for a poster.

This image is slightly better but it is too light and does not have a significant appeal for the use in a poster to advertise a thriller film.

05/03/2012 - Lighting of the Trailer

During the filming of the closet scene we used this torch as well as the light already existent in the room that we were filming. We also used this torch amongst other similar hand held ones when we have filmed the outside scene where Lily is returning home. We are limited on what lighting equipment we can use outside as obviously we have no access to electricty on an open field, so by using multiple torches we are able to instruct and easily move with the actress when lighting is needed in the dark. Using a hand held torch, especially this one, is effective as you can shine the light exactly where you need it and this one quite strong.

Here is an image of the lighting equipment that we will have been borrowing from school to light some of the inside scenes and for taking photographs for our ancillary tasks. However, we have an issue as we cannot use it outside when filming on an open field as we have no source of electricity to connect it to. Therefore it is more beneficial to use for lighting the scenes inside and for when we take photographs of our characters. For the opening scene where Lily is walking home we want it to be in the dark as she returning home from a party so we tried filming first in daylight but shadows appeared and even editing could not disguise the fact that it was daytime. We finally decided to use torches to film in the dark and as explained above they have proved to work as we can move them easily and we can decide where the light needs to be quickly without having to move lots of equipment.

Here is a picture of the lighting equipment being set up to film the closet and stair case scene inside Kate's house.

05/03/2012 - Feedback

During the production of my A2 Media products; film trailer and ancillary tasks, it is important to gain feedback as to how I am progressing. I decided to look at the stats on Blogger for my blog and to see how many views I have gained. Although there is no specific feedback, I feel that it helps and gives a visual idea of how many people have seen my work and how many times it has been viewed. In the future, when I have finished my products, I am going to use social networking sites such as Facebook to gain proper feedback such as how many people 'Like' or comment on my work. We will also have class critique sessions and feedback from our teacher as well as our peers to help with improvements.

Recent Feedback on our Trailer

This is the post that I put on my Twitter so that my followers would be able to open the link and watch the video and give me feedback.

Kate then uploaded the video onto Facebook where we recieved perhaps the most feedback. Within an hour of posting the video we recieved likes and comments about what people thought of our video.

Charmaine used a blogging website called Tumblr . People were able to post comments, like the post and reblog it for other users to watch. It obtained 12 notes and this allowed us to see what people liked and disliked about our trailer.

Below is a print screen of the amount of views that we gained on our video on YouTube within the same time span of posting it on the other social networking sites. We gained 90 views within the space of an hour! We also recieved critiques from our teacher and classmates who seemed scared by the remaining few seconds when Lily is hiding in the cupboard!