Project Brief

For my Advanced A2 Media Production I have chosen to do the following;

2) A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer along with the following options:

• A film magazine front cover, featuring the new film. 
• A poster for the new film. 

FINAL PRODUCTS: Film Trailer - "Killer Next Door"

             

FINAL PRODUCTS: Film Magazine Front Cover - "Killer Next Door"

FINAL PRODUCTS: Film Poster - "Killer Next Door"

EVALUATION: Question 1 - In what ways does your product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

EVALUATION: Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary products?

EVALUATION - Question 3: What did you learn from your audience feedback?

What did I learn from my audience Feedback? 

From my audience feedback I learnt that the plot was conveyed clearly and efficiently in a 2 minute time frame. This was due to the prominent archetypal figures (the victim vs the killer)who anchored the diegesis and made it simple and easy for the audience to understand the dynamic of the narrative. As well as archetypal features, the plot was also made clear through the continuity of the shots as well and the locations of the shots. With the genre being based on thriller, the location of a spooky and isolated wooded area was a typical place in which a thriller film would take place. 
The genre was made specifically clear due to, again, the archetypal roles in the trailer; the victim vs the killer. In terms of post production, my audience made clear that the use of the fast paced editing during the tense and frightful chase scenes, once again anchored the diegesis and helped to portray the scary/eerie feel to the trailer. This ultimately made it clear that the trailer was classified within the thriller genre. Another key focus in the editing that the audience highlighted was that the fades to black made it very clear it was part of the thriller genre. This is because it adds a heavy presence of fear into the trailer as the audience are left not knowing what will appear on the screen next; the killer may appear at any moment and danger could arise. 
The haunting music was a also a major point which the audience brought up and they made it clear that the ambient sound, non diegetic and diegetic sounds which were used the whole way through the trailer allowed for the moving images to be tied together and helped confirm the genre of thriller. 

EVALUATION - Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Original Photos to Photoshop Finishes

Photoshop allows for many changes to be made from the original studio pictures to the final product such as a film poster and a magazine which i have created for the purpose of accompanying my film trailer. 

For my film poster, the pictures where shot on location. Therefore access to professional studio lighting was not available. Due to this I was able to make changes in photoshop to enhance the quality, lighting and essentially airbrush over the entire picture to smoothen out the appearance of the picture to get rid of graininess. Below shows the changes from the original picture to the photoshop finish of the picture after playing around with the contrast, saturation and brightness tools as well as the blur tool for that overall airbrushed look. 

In contrast to the lack of studio equipment in the film poster shoot, in the magazine shoot this was taken in the studio so lightning equipment etc was all accessible to me. Even though I had all of this equipment I still needed to make final touches in photoshop to perfect the image. For example I used the brightness tool on the female face to bring more light to her face in order to draw the audiences attention to her facial expression and really feel a connection to her. I also played around with the blur tool to smooth out the models apperance as well as the saturation, contrast and exposure tools. Below is the original photograph and the finalised photoshop finishes. 

Final Film Poster

 

This is my finished poster for 'Killer Next Door'. I have followed many conventions of a poster design in the genre of thriller in order to keep my product as close to real media texts as possible. I have kept brand synergy between the three products in terms of colour scheme, the fonts and locations as well as the female protagonist who is featured on all three products. With all of this in mind I believe my thriller poster displayed many traits of a conventional film poster as well as conveying and sticking to the genre of thriller/horror. 

Film Poster Photoshop Design Process

To start the design process for my film poster, I selected one of the drafts which I had previously drawn; this draft being the one I shall take inspiration from in order to complete my digital print version of the film poster. In order to create this I started with a blank photoshop document ready to insert my pictures which would be feature on the poster. 

This picture I took myself in low key lighting in my garden and I used this as the background of the poster as it is representational of the wood area where a majority of the film is set. I used to photoshop tool 'contrast' to help darkest the picture as to add to a deeper level in term of the low key lighting.

This next step shows how I have added the slow up shot of the female protagonist onto the background of the tree shot. This shot of the female shows her in a struggle and references to the tone of the film in terms of it being a mystery thriller. This gives the audience an insight into the type of film this poster is advertising. I cropped and blurred around the background of the female therefore to blend her her into the branches of the trees to make it look seamless. 

To add to the dark and scary tone of the thriller genre I used the contrast and saturation tools on photoshop to bring more light to the females face in contrast to the background of the poster, the trees where made darker as to blend more into her hair. This stopped it looking like two pictures onto of one another but rather just one blended picture. 

Next, I blurred the whole face of the female slightly using the 'blemish' tool, this took out any unwanted redness or pixilation which may have occurred when positioning the photograph on the photoshop document. I then also added more saturation to the face of the model especially around the eye area to give more of a yellow tint which could signify bruising around the female; her appearance on the poster yet again help to symbolises the thriller genre. 

I also then added the title text ('ringbearer font') which I had downloaded from '1001fonts.com' as the default fonts on photoshop were very limiting in terms of my genre. I also wanted to keep synergy between all three products and this font was used on the end credits of my trailer and it also matches the colour scheme of my film magazine. I placed the title in the top 3rd of the poster as to stick to convention. I also made the font very large as this is the title of the film and needed to stand out to the audience. 

The screenshots below demonstrate how I used the tools such as 'bevel', 'Blend' and 'smooth' to add texture to the font as well as darker the colour of the edges of the font which added a 3D quality to the font. 

After the title text was done I added the actors names at the top, I added their names at the top and bolded their surnames as this is what conventional film posters had displayed when I had analysed them. Therefore I wanted to emulate this realistic layout on my own film poster. I also added a hook line on the bottom, an additional sentence which draws the audience in even more and gives an insight into the genre which the film poster is advertising. The words 'already chosen his next victim' immediately displays to the audience that this conveys a 'victim vs killer' dynamic therefore must fall into the thriller/horror genre. 

To finalise the poster I added the small print at the bottom disclosing information about the directors, producers, actors etc. This is common on conventional film posters and ties the whole poster together. 

Taking Pictures For the Film Poster: Background

In order to convey the woods scene in the the poster I took my own photos in outside at different times of the day to see which lightning/colour scheme worked better and which would fit in best with the overlaying image of the female protagonist which I was going to place on the poster as well. I felt that the pictures with the plain blue sky worked better than the multiple colours featured in the sunset pictures. This is due to the tone of my genre; I wanted to avoid bright colour palettes. 

Below are all the shots I took before deciding that the first picture below was the best one to feature on my poster. 

Taking Pictures for Film Poster: Female Protagonist

In order to create my ancillary products I needed to have a corresponding picture which related back to the trailer which could be feature on the front of the product; in this case I as shooting for the film poster magazine. I had the concept of taking a still from one of the scenes in the trailer, that scene being at the end when the female protagonist is seen unconscious in the bath and in a state of suffering. I shot these picture on location and not in the studio with out studio lights therefore it made it a little harder to get the perfect shot with out access to all studio equipment. 

These ones featured the killers hand over the victims mouth because I felt that it added a more intense feel to the picture as she almost look calm in the pictures above when she is just laying in the bath. This is not the tone I wanted to convey so by adding the hand over the mouth it automatically referenced suffocation, danger and set the whole tone of the picture to be more intense. This matched the genre way more than the previous pictures I had taken. 

These next pictures, I had taken the hand away again but had played with the lighting. As I didn't have access to studio lights I had to work with the lights which were installed in the bathroom I was using. However although the quality of the pictures seem better due to a higher exposure than previous photographs, this wasn't what I wanted to convey in the poster photograph due to the nature of the genre. A typical conventional film poster for the genre of thriller/horror conveys low key lighting and has a mysterious feel to the picture. Due to this I discontinued to play with the light in terms of making the set brighter as the low-key lighting was working much better in terms of setting the correct miss-en-scene and tone of the poster.