Ewan Leslie. Media

Evaluation Question 4

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

My use of software has shown a large improvement since AS level in both skill and general softwares used. Software which has been continuously used across both year includes Final Cut Pro, where last year I had learnt basic skills, whereas this year have been able to work with speed and more precision due to the previously learnt sills and foundations. Where a AS level I learnt how to use the trim tool, as well some simple transitions. This developed at A2 where I have developed my skills within Final Cut Pro, as I used the blade tool, cross dissolves, colour match, remove background noise, masques, and clipping masks. At AS level my general understanding of the program was decent, but improved vastly at A2 allowing me to create an all round more finished product.

As well as using editing software to create the trailer, this year we were also required to create a poster and magazine cover. For this I used Photoshop CS6, a program which I had experience in prior to this year. I had already learnt the basic skills required, but found the ancillary task as a great way to learn and develop these skills further. Before I had used the brush tool, some filters from the filter gallery and crop tools, whereas this year I learnt how to use clipping masques, colour corrections, cloning stamp as well as varying layer opacity to create contrasts in colours and softness, something particularly seen on my poster as I created a double exposure of two pictures. Developing my skills on photoshop has been a particularly enjoyable experience.

As well as Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, I used other software in my ancillary task such as Adobe Illustrator as well as Adobe In Design. These were the applications I used less, however I had past experience using them, allowing me to work quickly to complete the task quicker. I used Illustrator for the text, as it works on a no pixel board, allowing for clarity in text no matter what size. As well as this, I used In design for layout designs, and general assembly of the poster and magazine cover.

Improvement in hardware was also important, as at AS level, I was limited to very basic lighting, such as the LED's, and the use of the panasonic camera and tripod. This allowed an experimentation of shots and angles to create my AS level product, whilst using limited lighting and sound. This year we had access to a larger amount of technology, as well as employing a larger range of lighting and sound equipment. We used varied colours of lighting on both LED and mains lights, this allowed us to generate different tones in contrasting day and night shots. As well as this we experimented with day-to-night camera settings, which allowed us to shoot in the day time and have the footage look like night time. This use of technology has been developed over the two year coarse, as we learnt to use low angle shots and high angle shots to suggest the inferiority or dominance within the frame and certain moments. At AS, we used a sound recorder, along with pre-made foley sounds to create all the sound heard in the opening. This year we used a range of mics, such as a directional mic and a stereo mic, allowing for clearer sound, in both dialogue as well as all the foley sound we recorded our selves.

There has also been a clear development to be found within our research and planning, especially regarding the convergence of software while using blogger. I embedded YouTube videos, slideshares, prezzi's and images, allowing for greater visual representations of the planning for our trailer. An example of which was our animatic, where we used YouTube to visually represent an early idea of our finished product, making an interesting insight for our audience, as well as allowing ease of access for when creating the end product.

Below is a presentation of our development in technologies as we compare our development from last year, as well as discussing how varied our development had been. We talk about both software and hardware, as well as focusing in on specific software examples which we used in new ways.

EL

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Emma, Adam and myself all recently held an audience trailer review amongst some of our piers, who all varied in age, but the majority of which fitted within out target audience in terms of age. We created a questionnaire allowing our audience to give us both quantitate and qualitative feedback, with some general questions as well as detailed answers about specific moments within our media product. As seen below are some screen shots of the feedback sheets we received.

Within our hosting for the viewing of the product we received 17 responses with all of which categorised within our target audience of 15 - 24. Where we had originally thought our product would target a male audience, 65% of the audience consisted of women. We had arranged this to see how our product would fare within a slightly varied target audience. We found that we should have perhaps our target audience, as all of which , alongside with the male characters, rated our product highly. In order to gain knowledge into the specifications and preferences within our audience, we asked several questions before the viewing of the trailer. All participants stated that they regularly watch films, with no one responding that they don't watch any films within the space of a week. The majority, 53% stated that they watch at least 1 film per week. When asked about their favourite genre, the two clearest answers where thriller (42%) and comedy (33%). These great responses allow us to see that the young audience would all be interested in our product, and that the responses come from our target audience, giving us detailed and credible responses.

We felt another key aspect to question about their interests in films was their habits with watching film trailers. Their answers were encouraging again, with the majority of people stating that they regularly do watch film trailers. They were all keen to express that film trailers were a key selling point of a film, allowing them to decide what films they are interested in prior to the real ease of films. This encouraging set of responses allows use to use the feedback data in a constructive way, with it being very reliable in terms of real media texts. When asked what films they had seen out of a selection of films which had influenced our own product, it was unsurprising to find that The Dark Knight came out in first position with 14/17 people having sen it. This was followed by Reservoir Dogs, where 9/17 of the audience had seen it. However, many of them had not seen other films listed, which wasn't an issue as they had previously stated that the enjoy thriller films, allowing our audience to keep an open mind when it came to our own product.

After the viewing we asked a series of questions allowing the audience to give feedback about detailed aspects of the trailer. We started with broader questions, with 100% correctly identifying the genre to be thriller, as well as others adding in additional genres to what they thought would be the sub genre. One response gave our film the genres of thriller, action and romance. The romance aspect was an interesting response, which is not the common sub genre we were aiming for, however it is a concept which we encoded within our product, so that the audience could decode the idea. This was similar to a key influence that we studied, that being the 'Disappearance of ALice Creed', but this response is positive, suggesting that our decoding of the romance between two characters is identifiable.

We asked further questions, such as what they thought the target audience would be. 76% of responses said that it would be targeting both genders, whilst the other 24% thought it was targeted at male gender. This was particularly useful and informative as it shows that our target audience could be made larger, not just targeting males but also females. For the targeted age range, we had initially thought our target audience would be 15 - 21, however a majority of the audience though that the upper boundary would be as high as 50. We are unable to come to a set conclusion about our age range, but the audience responses suggest some positive feedback that a larger target audience is necessary. That being said, our initial target audience is not largely dissimilar, but was too narrow in comparison to what the viewers thought.

The question asking the audience about the narrative proved to be mostly positive with 65% of participants thinking correct amounts of narrative was shown, but 24% thought that the narrative and plot could have been held back, as to not give away the entire plot and ruin the purpose of the trailer as a marketing product. Out of all participants asked about what aspects of the trailer were unclear, 2 people responded 'How did the girl get to the woods?' and 'Whats the story behind the kidnap? WHy kidnap her just to rescue her again?'. Both responses carry a strong argument, with the second question actually showing a miss understanding of the narrative. This is suggestive that our narrative as a whole is clear, however there will always be one or two aspects which the audience may not find clear. This response should be taken as an anomaly, acting as a rare occasion at which the plot is misunderstood. Our choice to not show any more of the narrative was supported by the 65%. This is encouraging feedback for our trailer, and gives us insight into how accurately our product sells as a marketing piece.

In regards qualitative research we posed a question regarding their favourite parts of the trailer. All the responses can be seen below.

The acting, it brought the trailer together

The suspense as it was a cliff-hanger

Title at the end/Car chase with gun/Shooting Robbie as it was realistic/Eliza

The death scene

The acting it made me smile/Background music was cool

The ending I liked that it didn't give too much away

The title/The first shot of the hands tied up as it gets your attention

The pace of transition between scenes

The ending with the victim crying with a bag over the head as it was believable

When the girl was tied up good acting/Cutting between scenes

Didn’t reveal too much plot

The chase part, liked the ending because the suspense built up/The music was good too

Music was really suiting/Loved the filming from a variety of angles

The shot where 3 guys were stood around the captured girl, very dramatic

I liked the kidnap scene

Eliza crying with the bag on her face/good acting/setting

Running through woods as it was tense

Ending with the blood

We chose to ignore the responses which focused around the acting, as this is an area of our product that is not important to us. The use of key words such as 'suspense' and 'tense' suggest that the emotions the viewers felt where exactly as we had wanted, allowing us to see that our product achieves that level of suspense commonly seen in real media texts. The music was clearly regarded as a strong point, with a large argument supporting that the music was well edited to our footage, hence the tension builds so well. It was most pleasing to see that a participant associated the red ink behind the title and narrative graphics carried connotations of blood, something which we wanted to make sure was clear within the final product.

We also asked 'What their least favourite part of the trailer was

Sitting round table, didn't seem serious

Too many scenes in house/sitting around a table

The running sequence

The scene in the house where the men discuss the girl

Started off slow/Lots of the storyline given away eg "There’s two choices" Really? We see Robbie dead…where’s the suspense?

The actors smiling when the guns where by their faces

Robbie’s acting

The scene where they are deciding what to do

The music in the background was too loud

The weird blue shot of the house

Background music slightly too loud

Some of the shots eg. House one/POV

Too much of the beginning was given away

It gave away a lot of beginning of the film

Again, questions based around the acting were ignored. From this question we found that many people though that the shot around the table where the actors were deciding what to do with the girl was one of the weakest parts of the trailer. This is important to note, and in a later edit we could cut this sequence down to remove and slower shots, and breaks in the tension. Another aspect around this tension was the easily identifiable lack of acting skills, meaning that the shot seemed even worse than if it included better actors. This is something that in future products should be focused on, but is not something that can be easily fixed within the product, obviously. There was further feedback about the music being too loud, something which distracted form the footage. Another response focused around the death of Robbie, our lead actor. It questioned the building of suspense and how it gave too much of the plot away in the opening of the trailer. The final question we asked was 'Does the trailer make you want to watch the film?'. 100% responded Yes. This is extremely encouraging also due to the fact that all the participants were of our target audience and all enjoy films this shows us that this group is perfect and we are targeting the right audience. This is a great response, allowing for us to clearly see that our target audience all enjoyed our product, as well as it begin an all round successful product as it did what a trailer is supposed to do: build tension and male the viewer want to see the film.

In order to get a more focused analysis of our ancillary tasks, I took some vox pops which can be seen below. I asked three people about my poster, and magazine cover, allowing for detailed feedback about what they liked, and didn't like. The videos below show their responses.

For feedback about my poster and magazine cover, I found it all in all not overly helpful, as a lot of comments focused around what they liked rather than would could be improved.

That being said, comments about my poster were encouraging, showing that the layout of the text was clean and precise. Everyone liked the detailed work on the title, where I had used the ink texture as well as lens flares to make it stand out from the other text. Emma, (the one woman) stated that she could clearly see the juxtaposition between the light and dark, using the characters to present them as either good or evil.

EL

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main products and the ancillary tasks?

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EL

Evaluation Question 1

1 - Genre

Within every genre there are conventions which most real media texts will follow, such things that are easily definable and allow the audience to determine the genre themselves. Editing plays a huge role in determining both the narrative of the trailer, as well as the genre, as thrillers are commonly represented by cross cutting between the protagonist and the antagonist. A clear example of which is seen in Welcome to the Punch, as the lead protagonist is commonly cut to after the shot of the antagonist Jason Statham. in our own product we were keen to conform to many conventions of the thriller genre, as we also conformed to the trope of a variety of colour schemes and balances, commonly being dark, such as Welcome to the Punch which was blue, and The Disappearance of Alice Creed. We hoped this would give our product a high budget feel, as well as creating an outline feel for the film which the audience can decode through Barthes theory. As well as cross cutting, we presented the genre as being thriller through the common conventions of having a montage in the final act, as the lead protagonist and antagonist come together after the cross cutting to create the tension commonly seen in the final act of thriller trailers.

Another common trop we conformed to within our media product was the use of an opening teaser shot which would grab the audiences attention from the outset. In films such as 7 Minutes, Hummingbird and the town, they too all use dramatic opening shots, often including or suggesting violence which gets the audience at the edge of their seats. This use of an opening violent scene before returning to the main development of the plot all within the first fifteen seconds is used as to grab attention before explaining the rest of the film, something which is seen across all thriller trailers. However, one convention which we did not conform to was the use of a similar shot at the beginning and end of our product, as to create a sense of tension, as though it is that moment which the decision within our narrative relies on. This idea is not typical of other thrillers, but is one which we felt worked well within our product.

2 - Location

When deciding upon the locations within our trailer, we deliberately wanted to convey the social realistic, urban aspect of the thriller trope. We wanted to avoid using any noticeable landmarks in order to gain an anonymity within our trailer and therefore not have to place our setting in any one place.We also wanted to challenge typical conventions by juxtaposing the urban environment with more open and green locations. In doing so our trailer conforms to conventions of British social realism, such as Shifty, but it also challenges the very same convention. This draws upon Barthes Cultural code, in which an active audience is targeted to develop further tension within the film. This allows for the audiences focus to remain on the characters, as the locations suggest hints towards the plot, which can be decoded by each individual audience. As seen in image 2, the contrast of the urban environment with the open woodland allows for tension to build, as such derelict and quiet land is suggestive of no hope for the protagonist girl who is captured, which could be decoded so that the audience questions her death, and are left wanting to know more. Examples within our trailer can be found in real media texts such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed, and reservoir dogs, as seen by the images below respectively. The use of woods and a warehouse develops upon the conventions of real media products as stated.

3 - Sound

In all real media texts there is commonly a large amount of layers when the sound is edited. We followed this style, using layers including the soundtrack, foley sound, dialogue and sound from the filming itself. We adhered closely to the conventions of a thriller trailer in these aspects, particularly with the soundtrack where we used a pulsing beat to create suspense. This is a common trope of thriller trailers, and we used this as we could quicken and add to the beat in order to pick up the pace of the trailer and slow it down. This was layered with foley sound, such as cinematic booms, gun shots, and the noise of a car. This was mixed in with ambient sound such as footsteps, the shovel digging up earth, or the girl crying as seen in image 3. We found and recorded the ambient and foley sounds, whereas our soundtrack was created by our friend who fine tuned the soundtrack to fit our trailer. We were clear in specifying which times need to increase in tension and the times where we wanted the soundtrack to contrast the suspenseful, upbeat music. As for the montage, we were clear that we wanted to build tension with layered sounds, and so used an electric guitar to make a memorable ending to our trailer, as well as an eery feel to specify the thriller genre.

4 - Narrative and Structure

The narrative structure of our trailer conforms to the conventions, which are commonly used throughout thriller trailers. This is seen easiest through the three-act structure which our product follows closely. Our narrative follows the conventions of Todorov's narrative theory as well as the action thriller genre. We use the Redemption theory as our protagonist, as played by Robert Whyte, looks to correct the mistake he made, acting as the moral compass. The three-act structure allowed us to follow the conventions of a thriller trailer precisely. The equilibrium and disruption are shown in Act 1, and the realisation of the distribution shown in Act 2. The restoration of the equilibrium is hinted at during the montage in Act 3. We felt that the three-act structure was essential as all of our main film influences incorporated it, such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 7 minutes and the town.

The structure is key as it allows for simplistic interpretations of the trailer, as it follows the general tropes of a thriller trailer so precisely that the audience could grasp the main idea of the trailer without seeing it all. This is something that focuses purely upon the marketing of the film product. Commonly there is a voiceover to present the narrative of the trailer, yet we decided not to use this trope as we wished to build tension with the soundtrack from the very beginning. What we did use are sound bridges, and small patches of dialogue to reveal the narrative, as commonly seen in The Disappearance of Alice Creed. Our product adheres to Barthes Semic and Action codes, which give the audience a clear understanding of the plot and characters. Our product uses the three act structure commonly seen within thriller trailers, and follows many other conventions to create a product targeted at a mainstream audience.

5 - Characters and Actors

In order to ensure that our product would have an audience, and appeal to a mainstream audience, we used characters and actors which followed the typical tropes of a thriller. We used three main male characters, one playing the protagonist, the other two playing the antagonists. We wanted to clearly represent the characters, and showed this through the divide between the protagonist and the antagonists, as the protagonist acts as the moral compass fighting against the ‘villains’. This idea is seen in many of our researched media products, including Reservoir Dogs, and The Disappearance of Alice Creed where the characters are presented as morally ambiguous to start, before the protagonist changes his mind. We followed other typical thriller conventions such as separating the protagonist and the antagonist throughout act 2, while using editing, such a cross cutting to present the two characters in some sort of dual. They are then brought together again in the final act to further build tension as though the audience is aware there will be some sort of final clash between the characters. The leader of the group is shown through the use of an older looking actor, and his control within the narrative. We used low angle shots, emphasised by his height, which made him stand out and seem powerful. The smaller, softer looking protagonist, who is often positioned to one side of the frame and separate form other characters, contrasts this. This is in order to show the development of characters as well as emphasis the overall plot of the trailer.

The conventions of the genre are further enhanced with the casting of Robbie Whyte as the protagonist, reflecting the lead actors of many thriller films such as James McAvoy (Welcome to the Punch), Luke Mitchell (7 Minutes), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight). For our antagonist we cast Charlie Fox, who we chose because he was based of Mr Blonde (Reservoir Dogs), as you don't immediately know that his is villainous by looking at him, but you become aware because of his actions. Our female character was inspired by Amanda Seyfield (Gone) and Gemma Artenton (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), throughout planning we were keen to follow the trope of the blonde damsel in distress. The tropes that we associated with each character allows Barthes Action code to take effect, playing with ideals of expectations and representations within class, age and power all within the action/thriller genres conventions.

6 - Colour and Style

Lighting tropes were essential to our trailer, as commonly lighting and stylistic tones are associated with high budget films and large production companies. We were keen to use similar styles to the real media products, which we studied, yet this was difficult to achieve due to the difference in quality of equipment as well as budget. We wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing set of shots to include in our trailer, meaning we played around with both yellow and white lighting, as well as natural lighting to create our product. We wanted to create a product that looked similar to the high budget trailers we had been influenced by. We used the contrasting times of day, such as night time, as well as day time to create a larger scale of colour, often using white light during indoor locations to emphasis the colder, darker feel of the location. We wanted to create dramatic chiaroscuro, further creating the stylised colour we wanted, as well as an increasing sense of tension. We wanted to contrast the night time shots with well lit, yellow and warm light to further increase the suspense. As for the wood shots, the brown and green of the woods was overpowering, hence we dimmed and dulled the colour to create a darker more sinister feel to the shot. In the montage the use of a wide range of colours is seen, a technique, which is used by our influences such as The Disappearance of Alice Creed, 7 minutes and The Town. This showed us how successful and important the ranges of colours used are. The style of our trailer is conventional to fans of other thriller films such as the big budget film Nightcrawler, where the low key lighting and blue tinted colour creates a colder tone. Using tropes of the action/thriller genre reveal conventions such as the fight between good and evil, the captured girl in distress and the building of tension. These are all encoded through the colour and style and can be seen in virtually all action/thriller films such as blockbuster Inception. We were keen to uphold this trope trying our hardest to develop the colour and style within our product.

7 - Editing

The editing within our trailer was done as it was as to build tension, a key requirement in all thriller trailers. There needs to be a sense of urgency as to sell it to the audience viewing the trailer to make them want to go and see it. A common editing skill we used was the fade to black at key moments, which was used within Final Cut Pro X, as to leave the audience uncertain as to the outcome of the event they have partially seen. We took influence from Welcome to the Punch, as well as The Disappearance of Alice Creed, where they both successfully contrasted the quicker paced action scenes with moments of fade to black, held for a set time to draw out the suspense. Another important convention which we conformed to is the use of contrasting speeds of cuts, as commonly we would use slow editing straight cuts which would lowly build to a miniature montage where high speed editing was used, before returning to slower speed editing and building it back up again. The idea behind this is to create tension, the build up more tension in another form, as seen in many thrillers trailers such as The Town and 7 Minutes. Typically within thriller trailers there entire trailer pivots around one moment, the decision. We wanted to create this moment by building up to it with high speed editing and as the moment came we quickly cut away into the third act to have the montage to leave the audience in a state of tension and query.

8 - Graphics

Within our trailer, we worked hard on textures and fonts within the narrative graphics as well as the reviews. The largest influence was from The Disappearance of Alice Creed, who used blue font on a black background, which had some form of grungy effect over the top whilst it flickered in beat to the music. We used this style in our reviews, as the texture applied to the text hints at dirt and blood, allowing the audience to decode what sort of film our product is, as well as a possible conclusion to out film. We used a strobe effect, which flickers on and off in beat to the music as inspired by 7 minutes, as we felt this built and kept the suspense even during the graphics being on screen. This style of graphics appeals to a mass market as it follows key conventions of the thriller genre, those being large bold sans serif font, as well as block colour with texture over the top. The graphic for the reviews fitted into the thriller conventions as far as graphics go, consisting of the large clean font which allows for an interesting break between acts and scenes.

The graphics used for the narrative graphics were very different, as we decided not to use the same idea as the reviews, but instead create synergy between the title and narrative graphics by incorporating the ideas of the ink and blood into them. The over all effect created a darker feeling, with the red contrasting the deep black to seem more suspenseful, as well as cary the connotations of blood and danger. The idea of using a moving image behind text came from Welcome to the Punch, but instead of electric blue, we wanted to use the red and its connotations of blood. Where the blue carries more connotations of police thriller, we did not include any police in our product so contrasted this with the red. The flowing red ink behind the text is something common of a horror film, and so we wanted to make it clear that our trailer was not part of the horror genre by using a clean modern font, which contrasts the typical tropes of horror as a genre. This style and technique is interesting to watch, and the motion of the ink behind the text is far greater than still text, which allows for the tension to continue building whilst the narrative graphics are on screen.

9 - Title

We wanted o create something that was visually pleasing for out title so that it would stand out form other titles seen in our influences. The end title leaves a moment of suspense for the audience, so we created a slow moving title, which held on screen for a long period of time to create that last bit of tension. The general thriller title is block text on either a white or black background, but we wanted to differ from this and play with what the audience was expecting from the film by suggesting something happens. In our case we use red ink running through water, which was slow and twisting as the white title appeared in the centre. This differed from film such as Taken, or 7 minutes, and so we wanted to create the strong image of blood dripping which we could later use in our poster, creating synergy between them. There are several horror films which use this idea, such as Oculus, which too carries connotations of blood. However we felt it was important to not get caught in the horror genre, and so worked hard on picking a font which differed the horror feel, thus presenting the genre as something in between horror and thriller. We hope this would bring a larger audience to our film, and create an aesthetic that is both memorable and aesthertically pleasing.

Poster Comments

Above is my poster nearing the end. I lowered the saturation on the background image meaning the text stands out more. I moved Robbie further left, and had the two actors facing away from each other to emphasise the divide in opinion as seen in our trailer. As for the title, I used flares on the left side of each letter, making it stand out more from the other text and the background. Behind I used a black brush to blend the background images into black, so that the text sat nicely against it. The trickiest part was finding the correct fonts for the text. I found a billing block font online, but it was deciding the font for the actors names which was the hardest. In the end I want for a sleek middle thickness font which allowed for slight contrast to the title and catch phrase. I used red and grey as colours so that the red stands out while the grey is still readable. I found that the use of white in a poster can sometimes look messy, as it is too perfect, where instead I preferred to use off white as seen in the text and the background to the left of Robbie. Another problem I faced was the large gap in the centre of the poster. I tried filling it with images of the female character, but the image just didn't blend well together. All in all I am pleased with how the poster looks at the moment, but there are just a few more finishing touches to add.

Poster Textures and Images

For the background skyline I used this image as seen below. I liked the blue sky and pale buildings with the bullet shaped building in the distant background. I overlaid this image with the image of Charlie on the ledge, cropping our all the negative space so that one image sat on top of the other image seamlessly.

Below shows some grungy textures which I experimented with. I played around with overlaying it on images and text to create a more urban and grungy feel to the overall poster. I used 'screen' setting, whilst lowering the brightness and increasing the exposure to create a darker texture with no background. This is the same texture used over our reviews in our trailer, so I was keen to use this in my poster.

The ink was very hard to shoot, with all sorts of reflections from the container and the slow speeds of the moving ink. We tried both red and black, giving the sense of blood and movement. I wanted to use this in my poster, as it played a major role in our trailer as it was the background for our title. Because of such, and as also seen in the mock poster, I wanted to overlay this with the text, so I created a clipping mask, meaning it overlaid the text without any excess colour. I used the red, as I felt it stood out nicely against the black, and I fiddled with the settings, lowering the contrast and putting a darker red hue over the top. This meant it felt more like blood and was much bolder in comparison to before.

Poster Images

After creating the mock poster, I became aware of the background shot I wanted to use, that being a skyline shot of London and with Charlie in the foreground stood on a ledge. I took this shot on our school premises, on the roof of the science block which had an overlooking, but distant view, of London. Below are some examples of the shots I took.

Where before in the mock poster I had Charlie facing in the other direction, I thought I would have him facing away from Robbie, as to create the tension and divide between the two characters like we see in the trailer. After taking the shots, I realised the background was too far away and the sky too dark to create a stand out poster. This lead me to rethinking the idea behind the background, and after speaking to my teacher I decided it was best to use a photo from the internet, as every other photo was my own, meaning it would not effect my mark.

Poster Idea 2

After analysing real media texts I began creating a mock poster for the real thing. I particularly like the Alex Cross poster, and wanted to achieve that urban feel. I used photoshop to create this first mock, and I used screenshots form the trailer as images for the poster, meaning they were not great quality, but it gave the poster an overall feel for what i wanted it to do. I used images of Charlie and Robbie, and cropped them out of the background. I created a double exposure, where Robbie fades into the image of charlie on the ledge in the background. The background image itself was comprised out of a skyline image and an image of a ledge, putting the two together to make it look like Charlie is in front of the London skyline. I played around with colour and saturation, deciding that the black and white worked best, but I may change this later. A key feature throughout our trailer was the idea of ink running across the page, to an extent meaning to resemble blood. I wanted to capture this within my poster, and so tried two different methods of including the ink, one being it laid over the text, and the other having the colour run off the page into ink as seen as the bottom. My favourite is the ink over the text, which I will keep, as well as play with to get a darker red, more linked to the blood in our trailer.

Poster Idea

I particularly liked the Identity film poster, where it had this sort of style, as the actors made up the fingers for the hand. I layered screenshots of the actors for the fingers and ink for the palm, but I lose some of the detail in the characters and the detail of the ink. I like this idea, but it would require a lot of work. The use of the let most finger being white is to show the divide between him and the other two male robbers, as he is perceived as the 'good guy' in our trailer. The red and black has a grungy effect as though it is blood, setting up the thriller genre for our trailer. other than that I believe I prefer the other poster style, and can achieve a lot more than using this idea.

Magazine Cover Ideas

For my magazine cover ideas I was particularly indecisive with the exact feel and style of the poster. I wanted to create a 'Little White Lies' type of magazine cover, with the slick and minimalist feel, however I was concerned I would not be able to include enough features to achieve a high mark. As such I began my ideas based around a 'Sight and Sound' type cover, using a strong base image with text over the top. I used a series of screen shots of our actors to create the mock up, but after doing so I was aware that I wanted and was set on doing a more stylised cover such as 'Little White Lies'.

I decided to have a go at mocking up a cover with the same style of a strong image, but add texture and style to the image, as well as bring in a background image as to create a more minimalist yet sophisticated feel to my cover. I used a series of Photoshop filters, as well as screen shots from our trailer layered on top of each other to create the slight 'outline glow' on the graffiti, as well as Robbie himself. However, after looking in closer depth at 'Little White Lies' cover's, they were far more stylised and graphically strong than this.

I wanted to create a poster like effect, playing around with filters such as 'cut out', and 'posterise', where It created this 2D feel to both the background and the image of Robbie. The only problem with such is that the detail of Robbie is lost, as well as the background, and so I changed this by filling in sections of both the background and foreground different colours. This created an overall more tonal effect which I liked.

I pushed this idea further, using a very similar style as to the one before, but taking inspiration from the 'Little White Lies' cover of Drive, where Ryan Gosling was in the foreground, and the background consisted of layers of coloured skyline which faded into white. Instead I tried using light pink to lift the cover, but I was not keen on this. As for the title, I liked the idea of it replication a puff, and the title idea was based around the circular and lens shape of the puff.

I will do a photo shoot as to find the right image for my cover, and I will develop this last idea further. I want to play around with colour, text placement, and style which will be seen in later posts as my cover develops.

Magazine cover analysis - Inherent Vice

One of the key themes within Little White Lies magazine covers is the use of a strong central image created in a style of an illustration. The colours generally carry connotations of the style and tone seen within the film, here the orange and yellow creating a sense of the colours used within the film. A mother defining factor is the use of very little or no text, often only the title of the film is seen, allowing for a minimalistic them and style which follows the overall artistic feel of the cover. The title being in a recreation of a puff style works really well, allowing for the strong central image to be the main focus, while all other text and details needed are viewable but not complicatedly distracting away from the image. The floral image with the outline image over the top works really well, being clear well still artistic and abstract. Another common feature in the way in which the magazine world is through the use of the illustration itself, where commonly the magazine will employ someone to create an illustration for the cover, which is something I may do myself, possibly drawing it on paper and then developing this on the computer suing Adobe illustrator as well as Adobe Photoshop. In terms of how other Little White Lies covers compare, this is definitely one of my personal favourites, as the colour, mixed with the black as well as the contrasting white for the title draws the viewers eye on and works around the page. There is little detail, but is just enough, and slightly abstract to keep the cover interesting and attention grabbing.

Magazine Cover - Analysis

For my magazine, I have been largely interested in the more arty, minimalist style such as Little White Lies or Sight and Sound, with the simple titles and clean layout of text. I particularly like the Little White Lies covers, which employ simplistic style through the illustration on the cover, and minimal text to create the overall minimalist style. The commonly employ an illustrator to create the covers, which is a concept I really like. The title itself sits in an variation of a Puff, with the white standing off the background making the title clear. The only text commonly viewable on the cover is the title of the featured movie, as seen above to be Attack the Block, and Drive. My favourite cover out of all three is the far right drive cover, and is something I will work closely with. The Sight and Sound magazines are not my favourite, however they employ a great technique allowing the text to sit on the page without being to distracting. The main central images are clear, and idea I might use in my cover, however I am thinking about merging the two styles to create an illustrated cover like Little White Lies, and laying minimalist, non varied colour text over the top in the style of Sight and Sound. In particular I like the Shame cover, where the text is all right alined and uses bold fonts and non bold fonts to create a form of sub headings and main text. This is something I want to use within my own cover. Noticeable things about all covers are that the title of the magazine is commonly at the top, a trope my magazine will conform to. As well as this, the title of the film the cover shows is at the bottom, something I will also follow. The text is commonly placed around the central image and rarely over it, which is again something I will do. As for the main image, the Little White Lies covers normally use colour and vary in colour, which is something I will use to help my cover stand out.

EL