Candidate Numbers

Josh Morl - 4151
Rachel Bugg - 4036

Rachel's Evaluation

I have created my evaluation in the form of a website created on Wix.com. Please follow the link in order to view my evaluation website:

http://www.wix.com/rachelbugg/rachel-bugg-evaluation-a2

Josh Morl Evaluation Link

Please click the link below to view my evaluation.

http://www.wix.com/j_morl/a2mediaevaluation

Website Ancillary - Rachel and Josh

http://www.beaumedia.org.uk/All_The_Time_In_The_World/Welcome.html

Above is the link to our website ancillary product, which we created on an Apple Mac computer using iWeb software. After researching into previous websites and understanding the general conventions of a good website, we created our own following our usual house style and cohesive conventions.

Little White Lies Magazine Cover - Josh Morl

This is my magazine cover for the lesser known film magazine Little White Lies.

Research into previous Little White Lies covers showed me how this magazine cover needed to be more of an artistic and creative piece, rather than a cover that is telling you little of snippits of information to get you to buy the magazine. I started again by using the watch face signifier, however this time using it as the base image. I then added a cropped close up image of the protagonist, showing them in deep thought and concentration, and perhaps a kind of meditational state. To make it more creative and original and more like an artistic piece i adapted the contrast and brightness to give a surreal or perhaps a hypereal look to the image. I then altered the colours and made it so that there were only 3 colours, red, yellow and black. Lastly, i added the usual conventions of the magazine cover: barcode, date and issue number, magazine title and the artist's signiture.

Movie Poster - Josh Morl

Here is the final version of my film poster, which i created using Adobe Fireworks. Firstly, i started off by creating the background image of the fading and blurry circles, which is a development of the background used in the marketing products of 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. To do this i took a picture of the sunlight reflecting off the surface of a puddle, with the cameras light exposure setting adjusted. I believe this works very well as a representation of our distorted time themed film. Secondly, i added the manually cropped photos of our main character at the different ages to the poster, layering them on top of the background, but then adjusting the opacity/transparency levels of the images so that they faded into the background blending in with the time holes. I specifically chose these photos of the characters as the photo of the older version of the character (left), was shot with the character in this stance such that it would give the audience implications of power and authority, which the younger version of the character (right) appears not to have as he stands with hands in pockets and is wearing hoody and jeans, whereas the older character is in a suit that carries the connotations of power and shows authoritative status. Thirdly, i incorporated the use of one of our signifiers, the watch face. Again after manually cropping the image i imported it into the poster file and then changed the opacity/transparency levels so that it also faded into the background image. This signifies the theme of distorted time and a non-linear narrative in the film. Furthermore, to develop on the theme of distorted time i also incorporated an image of his memory of the female character he is trying to save, which also fades into the background and behind the clock face signifier. Lastly, i added the final conventions of a film poster of the cast and crew credits along with the production company logos, the age certificate of the film and the soundtrack release information.

Total Film Magazine Cover - Josh Morl

This is my magazine cover for TOTAL FILM magazine that i created using Adobe Fireworks.

From my research into Total Film magazine covers i discovered that a vast majority of the covers are made focusing on either one or two characters, therefore my first addition to the base image of the cover (time holes effect photo) was two manually cropped photos of the two main characters in the film, one action shot of the male protagonist and a still shot of the vulnerable female character whom he is trying to save. I layered these behind images of the watch face signifier and one of the buildings from what would be the feature film. I then added all of the Puffs, Sell Lines, Straplines, Pulls, etc and used colours that i pulled out from the watch face and the film title that stretches across the width of the magazine cover. Finally, i added the rest of the magazine conventions that i had found from my magazine cover research including, barcode, price, date, issue, etc.

Teaser Trailer Feedback

From posting our teaser trailer on Facebook we have got feedback on our film:

This has provided us with some crucial feedback for our film and has allowed us to see what other people think and what really works in our film and what doesn't so much.

Also, we asked some people face to face to watch our teaser trailer and tell us what they thought and some general ideas from that feedback were:

• use of shots good at creating tension



• ambiguity makes people want to watch the film



• music is good at creating suspense and tension



• camera shots and angles portrayed emotion well



• titles had a cohesive colouring and were good at adding to the story.

Rachel's Ancillary Task Feedback

In order to see what others thought of my ancillary tasks I asked them to give positives and negatives throughout the whole process of making my ancillaries so I could improve them as I was working on them.



Magazine Cover First Picture:

Positives: Well framed, interesting background, features a main character like many magazine covers for films do.

Negatives: Increase brightness and contrast and saturation in order to make it really stand out and be more interesting.



Magazine Cover First Draft:

Positives: Well picked out colours from the picture, title really stands out, all conventions met, picture looks good.

Negatives: Use one other colour in the text in order to make it look better.



Magazine Cover Second Draft:

Positives: Use of one other colour in text makes text stand out more and gives a better range of colour.

Negatives: Change some of the green text to white or black, as too much use of green on the page.



Magazine Cover Final Draft:

Positives:

• Picture is very indicative of an Empire cover and is well framed and stands out.


• All conventions of an Empire cover have been met.
  
• Use of colours goes well with the picture used.
  

Movie Poster First Picture:

Positives: Pictures joined together well and not noticeable that they are two different pictures, picture creates an interesting theme.

Negatives: Increase in brightness, contrast and saturation will make the picture more interesting.

Movie Poster First Draft:

Positives: Picture stands out a lot and looks interesting, title of the film is consistent with how it appears in the teaser trailer.

Negatives: Title is almost lost on the background, perhaps a black background on the text will make it stand out?

Movie Poster Second Draft:

Positives: Title does now stand out with semi transparent black backing, tagline is effective and inidicative of a movie poster. Conventions of a movie poster met with small writing of cast and crew at bottom.

Negatives: Include production company logos in with small writing.

Movie Poster:

Positives:

• Movie poster does really stand out.
• Meets all conventions of a movie poster.
• Is very consistent with the magazine cover.
• Shows clearly the film title and the cast and crew.

Rachel's Movie Poster

After researching a number of movie posters, I created my own movie poster to be cohesive with the rest of my ancillary tasks. This is my completed movie poster:


For my poster I used two different pictures with the same background and merged them together in order to represent our time travel aspect and how the character is living as two different people. I did this using Adobe Fireworks. I also adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation of the picture in order to make it stand out a bit more to use for my poster. I made sure that I included the usual conventions of a movie poster. Therefore, in the right hand corner I put the small print in which is found on every poster which includes names of directors, actors, producers and crew involved in the film. Also, in this corner is the certificate of the film and production company logos of Continuance Productions and also Working Title and Universal who would help to produce and distribute our film. For the film's title i used the same colouring that is found in our film and also outlined it with an orange in order for it to stand out more on the background. Also behind the title I placed a black semi-transparent strip as it was hard for the title to stand out on the background of the picture as it wasn't a dark background, therefore by doing this I have just made it stand out a little bit more which makes all the difference. I have also included the actor's names on the poster as well.

Rachel's Magazine Cover

After researching Empire magazines, I began to create my own. This is my finished Empire magazine cover for All The Time In The World made using Adobe Fireworks:

For my magazine cover I used an image of the main female character of the film. I did this as many of the Empire covers focused on one of the main characters in the film. I used the shot I have chosen as I liked the framing of the shot with the tree in the background and it would then also be cohesive with the rest of the promotional campaign including my poster. In order to make the shot really stand out I adjusted the brightness and contrast of the photo and also made it slightly saturated so the colours really stood out. Also, as Empire generally pick out colours from the photo and use that colour in the text and surrounding puffs etc, I picked out the green colour from the grass to use for the main title. I also picked out a copper colour from the leaves on the tree. I made sure to include all the conventions of an Empire cover that I had previously researched. I made sure to include the Empire logo, with the date and price in the M. Also a strapline, puffs, plugs and teasers.

Amended Cut of Teaser Trailer

This is the amended cut of our teaser trailer in which we have amended the titles allowing them to be more easily read.

All The Time In The World Teaser Trailer - First complete cut

This is the first complete cut of our teaser trailer that we uploaded and asked people what they thought. We found that some of the titles didn't last long enough for people to read them fully and we also needed to include release date information and information such as production companies and cast involved. We therefore made these changes and our final cut of the teaser trailer will be to follow.

Research into Marketing - The Time Traveller's Wife

Josh's Research into Marketing - Inception

Josh's Research into Marketing - I Am Legend

Rachel's Ancillary Task Development - Magazine Cover

For my magazine cover I originally started with this image: However, after asking people what they thought of the image, they thought the characters looked a little bit lost on the background. Also, Empire covers mainly only focus on a close shot of one character. Therefore, I decided to crop the image to just involve a closer shot of one of the character's but to still include some of the location in the shot. After cropping, I was left with this image:After creating this shot, I thought it looked quite dark and therefore adjusted the brightness, contrast and saturation which then left me with this:

I think the adjustments made to this picture have made such a difference as the image now really stands out and is more saturated in colour which is more typical of an Empire cover.

Rachel's Ancillary Task Development - Movie Poster

To create the image for my movie poster I had to take two pictures of the character with exactly the same background in order to merge them together. Therefore to start with I had 2 pictures to use:
I merged these pictures together in Adobe Fireworks in order to create one image to use as my movie poster:After making this picture I decided to make it just abit more interesting and more likely to stand out by adjusting the brightness, contrast and saturation. This is the final image that I will be using on my movie poster:

Rachel's Research into Ancillary Tasks - The Website

Movie Website Research

More PowerPoint presentations from Rachel Bugg

In order to see what conventions we should be including in our website I researched some websites of exisiting films.

Rachel's Research into Ancillary Tasks - The Magazine Cover

In order to research what should be included on my magazine front cover I looked at many different covers. Firstly, to decide which magazine I was going to create a cover for, I looked at 3 different types of film magazines: Empire, Total Film and Little White Lies. In order to see what the different covers were like I looked at each of the covers for the same film. All 3 focused purely on the main two characters of the film.

• The Empire cover featured both characters in mid shots. There was a colour scheme of blue, grey and yellow in the text featured. It featured the main title of the film and also a lot of plugs for stories featured.
  
• The Total Film cover featured a quite close up shot of just one character. The picture is in black and white and the text around it follows a colour scheme of black, white and red.
  
• The Little White Lies cover shows a picture of a main character converted into a pop art kind of style. Most of the Little White Lies front covers have this artistic approach and only have the main title of the film and do not feature any plugs, puffs or teasers etc.
  

From looking at these three covers I have decided to make an Empire cover as it has more conventions to play around with and I much prefer the design of the Empire front covers.

Now I have decided to do an Empire cover I will analyse Empire covers more closely to find consistent themes that appear throughout all the covers and the conventions that appear on every Empire cover. Below is my Empire cover analysis, please click on the image to see an enlarged version.

Production Company Logo

We have called our production company Continuance productions. We decided upon this name as it is quite representative of the film industry in that there is always a continuing production of films. I created the logo for our production company to go at the start of our teaser trailer using Adobe After Effects. I used a picture of a cog and used effects to make it turn around the C in Continuance. I used a cog as that is quite suitable for the word continuance as a cog continues to turn constantly.

Rachel's Research into Ancillary Tasks - The Poster

Alice In Wonderland



The 6 Alice In Wonderland posters are separated into two main themes. Although very different both focus on a wonderland theme with them being quite dream like. The top row have quite saturated colour and they also focus on the famous faces in the film i.e. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. The posters tie in with the teaser trailer well, especially the bottom row as this is the sort of location that is portrayed throughout the teaser trailer. In the teaser there is also a shot of Johnny Depp that is very similar to that shown on the poster of his face. This therefore creates a cohesive marketing campaign.

The Roommate



The film poster for The Roommate uses a focus on the main character that is in the centre of the poster. Around her is a lot of people but the crowd has been blurred out of focus. I think this is extremely effective and think it would be an interesting technique to use for our film as it would quite effectively represent our time travel aspect. The trailer is quite cohesive with the poster as it also portrays the main character as being quite sinister like is shown in this poster. Also, the red text used as the film poster's main title, which is an indication that the genre is thriller, is also used in the titles of the teaser trailer.

Rabbit Hole



The film posters for Rabbit Hole are all really interesting. The first shows the male out of focus and only half of him, whereas the woman is seen at a profile at the very edge of the poster and in focus. I think this has a really interesting effect and is quite intriguing as you want to know what has gone on here. The text on all of the posters is very simple and doesn’t intrude on the tone the images have set. The second poster again shows the female’s profile and she is more in focus again with the male being slightly out of focus. The picture is very light and simple but very effective. The final poster I personally think is the most interesting. The poster is split into sections and these sections almost show a sequence of events but yet still make up one image. The images get darker as they move outwards and show the characters as upset which suggests a form of tragedy in the film. Altogether I think this final poster has a very nice effect and is interesting and makes you want to find out more. These posters are consistent with the trailer and the picture in the first poster is actually a shot from the trailer. The trailer also uses simple text like seen on the posters. It uses the same sort of colours and therefore I think they are very cohesive with each other.

The Time Traveller's Wife



The Time Traveller’s Wife is a film that shares the time travel quality that is apparent in our film. This poster represents a sense of disorganised time through the fact that the characters are laying in opposite directions and the way the two colours blue and orange kind of blur into each other, which could represent the changes through time. The trailer is cohesive as it mainly focuses on the two characters like the poster does.

Inception



These movie posters for Inception are very effective in portraying a sense of existing in different times or different levels. The first poster shows all the characters in the film but at different slants and angles with some appearing to be upside down, but this just represents the different levels of existence which may be something we could consider when designing our movie posters. The second poster again shows a sense of disorientation with things looking out of the ordinary and the characters almost looking as if they are defying gravity. These posters very effectively show a sense of unreality and this may be a very important aspect for us to explore to show it in our movie posters. The posters are cohesive with the trailer as the trailer also shows a sense of disorientation and moving between times and levels.

I have also analysed many other posters and their effectiveness as a promotional campaign along with their teaser trailers in my initial teaser trailer analysis powerpoint which can be found earlier on in the blog: http://a2b5-2010-2011.blogspot.com/2010/12/rachels-research-into-20-teaser.html

Viral Marketing

In order to get our teaser trailer seen by as many people as possible we would use viral marketing through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter so as to drum up as much interest for our film as possible. We would publish our teaser trailer on these sites in order for it to be seen by a lot of people.

Also, this use of viral marketing will help us to keep fans up to date with the latest news regarding the film. We have linked the Facebook and Twitter pages on our website's homepage to make them quite easily accessible when searching for the film.

This is our facebook page, where we have posted our teaser trailer and will post our magazine covers and posters aswell to make them accessible for a lot of people.

This is our twitter page where we have posted a link to our teaser trailer and will continue to post updates and information about the film.

Synopsis

When Sam King (Josh Morl) gets caught in a situation that endangers a friend (Rachel Bugg), he makes the wrong decision. Living in regret, he suddenly finds himself blasted back in time to before it all happened. In a rush to make use of his second chance, he is quick to warn his past self the damage his decision will make and try to alter events. But whilst living in two time periods, can he save the girl, if he's got all the time in the world?

Props

We used props in our teaser trailer to add to the meaning.
We used a notepad with a message on it in order to show what sets in motion the fast paced running.

Also, when filming the split screen shot that shows that it is actually the same person but one in the present and one in the future. For the character in the present, we showed him wearing ipod headphones in order to show that the character hasn't noticed the future form of himself as he cannot hear him running.

Also, as time signifiers to show that the time is not linear in our film we used the props of a grandfather clock face and also a watch to make it clear that the time is going backwards and forwards in the trailer.

Costume

Costume was a very important factor when making our teaser trailer due to the fact that we needed to portray that the two characters were the same person but are in two different times. To portray that they were in different times we made sure that in the different shots they were wearing different costunes.
Future form: For the future form of our character we dressed him in a shirt and trousers. By doing this, we have made this form of the character seem older and it also has a sense of making him look 'out of place' when running through the woods which suggests that it is a state of emergency and that he needs to inform the younger version of himself quickly in order for him to save the girl.

Present form: For the present form of our character we dressed him in jeans and a hoody, this represents that he is the younger form of the character and shows normality.

Female character: The costume of the female character i quite simple in jeans and a coat, to represent that she is sort of oblivious to what is going on in order to save her.

Feedback on rough footage

Once we had filmed most of our rough footage we showed it to the class in order to get feedback on what they thought of it.


Here is our feedback:

Teaser Trailer Soundtrack Music Plan

Soundtrack Ideas

Below are my ideas for the soundtrack audio during the teaser. My ideas are influenced by a particular Hans Zimmer track I'm Not A Hero - The Dark Knight.

Clock Scene

Orchestral strings
Steady incline in volume
Clock ticking effect

House Scene

String, Brass, Bass
Increase to climax of loud drum beat or deep trombone beat

Awakening Scene

Heavy, deep, powerful brass instruments with elongated notes

Running Scene

Very fast paced violins, varying in volume and pitch levels
Similarly fast paced brass instrumentals
Quick hi-hatt building to loud brass and strings

End House Scene

Quiet eery sfx sounds
Quiet simple single orchestral string ticking effect

Credits

Either continued single string ticking effect or no audio

Other

During the teaser there will be flashback effects of a memory of a female character and during this time there will be slow enlongated note delicate string instruments playing along with a triangle and slow broken high pitched piano keys.

Josh's Effects and Editing Research

From my research i have discovered particular elements that are used in the post filming stage - during the editing - to give the film a more proffesional cinematic thriller feel. I have chosen some of the elements to use on our own footage to enable the audience to engage more with the characters and experience more of the plot.

Applying anamorphic film ratio - The Letterbox format.

Altering the contrast and brightness; increasing contrast and decreasing brightness to alter the appearence of HD digital footage to make it look like cleaner footage from film. In turn this also dulls the vivid colours.

Saturating footage of the female character to brighten all colours and to invisage a dreamlike scene. The footage is de-saturated on all other footage to create a more dark scene around the character.

Increasing and decreasing pace of footage, and reversing the footage to imply the shifts in time in the teaser.

Applying colour correctors to footage to reduce amount of colours, for example removing reds and yellows and making them darker colours such as brown and green.

Josh's Soundtrack Music Research

As we are creating a teaser trailer, genre thriller, I have been looking at past thriller films and the soundtrack music that goes with the film and the teaser.

The first film that I looked at was ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008), a film directed by Christopher Nolan and music by Hans Zimmer; German born composer whom has been involved in the music creation in many films including: Rain Man (1988), Gladiator (2000), Pearl Harbour (2001), Sherlock Holmes (2009) and many more. He has also written the music for other forms of media including the multi billion selling video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009).

In ‘The Dark Knight’ Hans Zimmer has created some very intense music that builds up to its climaxes using elements of both brass and string instruments as it is a thriller film. In particular the track titled ‘I’m Not A Hero’. This works really well accompanying the video on screen adding meaning and also giving a very fast pace to the film at that point.

The second film that I looked at was another thriller film, ‘Inception’ (2010) also directed by Christopher Nolan and with music by Hans Zimmer.

Zimmer has again built tension, but this time he does in two different ways in two pieces of music. The first piece used at the beginning of the film, titled ‘Mombasa’ uses drums of different pitches as well as string instruments to give it the feel of being where the scene is set as well as creating tension, but this time right from the start. In another track titled ‘Dream Is Collapsing’, Zimmer has used a lot more brass and string instruments alongside electronically made tones to create a great build up of tension to an intense climax with a repeated loud noise to give the effect of being lost and having no way of getting out of this dream world.

The third and final film that I looked at was ‘I Am Legend’ (2007). A film directed by Francis Lawrence and music by James Newton Howard. Howard, an American born composer has worked on many films including: Dante’s Peak (1997), The Postman (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000) and collaborated with Hans Zimmer on Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). In the particular piece of music I looked at titled ‘Darkseeker Dogs’, Howard has used many low pitch drums and string instruments alongside brass instruments to build tension very rapidly and effectively.

From my research I have discovered that to build the tension to climaxes and to create fast paced music in a thriller production I need to collaborate low pitched drums with a variety of low pitched and high pitched brass instruments, string instruments such as violins and cellos and perhaps some piano elements.

Josh's Research Into Thriller Teaser Conventions

Thriller Teaser Conventions After finalising our genre and storyline choice I researched into thriller teaser conventions, looking at previous products - both succesful and unsuccesful teasers - and a future release that have only released teasers for the film. Firstly, I looked at Inception - a previously released succesful film - which made a worldwide gross of $820 million by 14th Novemeber 2010. Watching the teaser i discovered that the film clearly identify the genre of the film as being a thriller using orchestral music creating the tense feel and also incorporate a lot of varied shots, including very unusual shots showing the films spectacular creation of weird and wonderful pictures and scenes. Secondly, i watched the teaser trailer for Buried - a previously released unsuccesful film - which made a gross of just $3 million. The teaser itself is of a very interesting concept, showing very little actual footage or video and only playing audio of a man talking on the phone. I personally believe it to be a very weak teaser in terms of attracting the audience which is its aim, and as a result the film was a flop, making a gross of only $3 million. In comparison, the better teaser - Inception - was the better product in terms of marketing the film and encouraging the audience to pay for the ticket to see the film making a massive gross in contrast to that of Buried. Finaly, Super 8 - a film set to release August 2011 - that has what i believe to be a very good teaser trailer. Conventions used in this teaser include: rapid cuts for quick build up of tension, low key lighting to make certain objects less visible creating a more ambiguous teaser without giving the audience too much of the plot and enabling the audience to clearly see the genre and ideology of the film.

Josh's Teaser Trailer Research

To view my research into teaser trailers and the difference between a teaser and a trailer please click the link below. http://www.wix.com/j_morl/teaser-trailer-research

Photo Storyboard

Josh's Audience Research into Conventions of Music, Mise en Scene and Camera

Audience Response to Music, Mise en Scene and Camera in a Teaser Trailer For our main task production we needed to know what it is that the audience will want to and expect to see in the teaser of a thriller film, therefore I made this questionnaire and asked ten people these questions: 1. What style and format of music would you expect to see in a thriller film? 2. When would you expect the music to start in a thriller? 3. How important is the music in a thriller teaser trailer? 4. What sort of mise en scene would you expect in a thriller teaser and how important is it? 5. Are there any particular camera shot types that you would expect to see in a thriller teaser? The results that I got back showed the following: 1. Quick, fast paced music, with lots of crashes and bangs and use of crescendos to build tension 2. Straight away but most importantly just before action to build to the action, but also at time of no action with quiet music i.e. sombre music 3. The music in a thriller teaser has to give you a sample of the music in the film and must indicate the amount of tension in the film, therefore is very important 4. Low key lighting, signifiers, dark places, eerie settings, isolated areas such as woods and even small confined rooms 5. Close ups to show emotion of characters, high and low angle shots to identify attributes of characters, varying levels to keep with the action, lots of them We now know exactly what we need to do and the conventions of sound, mise en scene and camera that we need to use in our own thriller teaser trailer.

Mood Board

I created a mood board in order to put down our initial ideas for the sort of atmosphere, mood and style we wanted to create in our teaser trailer. I used pictures that would be relevant to the ideas of our film and also used words that were significant. Here are the pictures of the mood board: