Monday, 5 December 2011

Storyboards



Evaluation


This is my evaluation for my project which i created on the software prezi.

Film poster

This is my final outcome of my film poster. At first i wanted my poster to be landscape and simple like the "Green Lantern" film poster but i then realised it suited being portrait in the style of the paranormal activity poster.

Film magazine front cover

This is my final outcome of my film magazine front cover.

Analysis of Harry Potter Trailer

The Harry Potter soundtrack plays in the background with immediately distinguishes the film as it is such a worldwide known film. The Harry Potter films have been being made for 10 years making The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 such an important trailer as it is the end of an era.
Warner Bros has been hugely involved with the making and advertising of the film and this has worked well for them as it has been so successful. The Warner Bros logo has been adapted into the trailer to make it known who it came from. It also fits in well with the harry potter theme as it is dark and sinister like the film.
The trailer begins with clips from the very first harry potter film that was released and comes up with the words 'Every moment he has lived, has lead to this' which makes it even more exciting as it gets the audience thinking what has it lead to?. Clips from the previous films are shown to show just how far the film has come and increases the hype created by the audience to want to watch the film.
The music played in the background is very dark and sinister also creating suspense as to what will happen and what has the previous stories lead too.The song which is harry potters trademark seems different to normal with it being of a higher pitch and sounding like it being sung by a woman making it mysterious. You then hear Voldemort speak saying "You have fought valiantly, now join me harry and confront your fate" and then shows 5-6 clips of the film but in the space of 4 seconds which gives the audience a small insight of the film which is enough to make them start guessing and want to see the film now. They also coincide with the pace of the music becoming faster with the music changing to upbeat making it more exciting as it reveals a little more of the plot.
The clips that are shown contain alot of text and quotes which is enticing the reader and starts to get them thinking as to what is going to happen such as "the boy who lived, come to die", "Come on Tom, lets finish this were we started, together" and 'Tell them how it happened that night, how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him'. All this keeps the audience guessing and creates suspense. It also sees them trying to work out who is talking in each quote.
Throughout the trailer it is dark and in a way scary meaning the audience will ot understand whether the ending will be good or bad. As the film is the last one so one of the most important, there are only around 10 clips from the film actually shown in the trailer taking up about 1 second each. This sees the audience start trying to piece these clips together. As the clips are so fast and exciting including explosions and fights it excite the audience and make it look like the ending will be huge.
http://youtu.be/mObK5XD8udk














Time schedule



Shot Lists


Thursday, 1 December 2011

Detailed analysis of 2 film posters

Vladimir Propp's Theory

Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.

Todrovs Theory

Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He said that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium (a calm period) Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium(a period of unsettlement and disquiet). This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative).

Claude Levi-Strauss theory

Claude Levi-Strauss believed that the meaning in narratives were based upon binary oppositions. He was less interested in the arrangement of the narrative and more interested in the deeper meaning of the themes. 

Examples of Binary Oppositions:
Science V Nature
Girl V Boy
Man V Woman
Good V Evil

Roland Barthes Theory

Roland Barthes describes a text as
"a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..." (S/Z - 1974 translation)
What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on. An infinite number of times. If you wanted to.
Barthes wanted to - he was a semiotics professor in the 1950s and 1960s who got paid to spend all day unravelling little bits of texts and then writing about the process of doing so. All you need to know, again, very basically, is that texts may be open (ie unravelled in a lot of different ways) or closed (there is only one obvious thread to pull on).
Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways:
  • Action/proairetic code & enigma code
  • Symbols & Signs
  • Points of Cultural Reference
  • Simple description/reproduction

Monday, 28 November 2011

Research of the marketing campaign for a film similar to my film trailers genre

The marketing campaign i am going to look at is Paranormal activity as it is a horror film that hugely relates to the style of my film ie. strange goings on in the house, the characters getting haunted ect. The film is part of a prequel and the first film was made by a small italian producer "Oren Peli" shot in his own house. Paramount/Dreamworks then acquired the rights for $350,000. 
It is one of the most profitable movies ever made, based on return on investment, although such figuresare difficult to verify independently as this is likely to exclude marketing costs.The first film was released nationwide on 16th October 2009, the second released 22nd  October 2010 and the third on October 21st 2011.
The main characters are played by actors who are not well known to the film world Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat. There names are exactly the same in the film as it is trying to portray it as being real life footage from a noraml couple.

                                                     Paranormal activity 1 trailer
                                           
                                                      Paranormal activity 2 trailer
                                           
                                                        Paranormal activity 3 trailer
                                         
                                                      
The trailers take a minimalist approach that’s similar to that the approach taken on the poster and uses many of the same elements.
The first trailer opens with a shot of a line waiting to get into a screening of the film, followed by footage of those people having a seat in the theater. Some text is shown telling the audience that the screening was held in Hollywood. The 2nd trailer opens with scenes in the film and the 3rd trailer opens with some scenes that are shown in the film and some that are not.
Enough footage from the movies themselves is shown to give the trailer watching audience a sense of the film’s storyline, how it’s shot and all of those traditional goals it is trying to achieve.
The first trailer features continued shots of the audience showing the people in the theater at this screening and their reactions to the movie. Text is then shown warning to not see the movie alone and, again, to join in and bring the movie to your area via the Demand It campaign.
We the audience are watching another audience watch the movie and are asked to gauge the movie’s impact not so much on how it makes us react but instead on how we see that audience react to it. What the trailer winds up is not so much achieving the goal of making the audience want to see the movie so much as it makes the audience, want to see the movie in a packed theater. Since that’s the whole point of the Demand It portion of the campaign, the trailer taking such a meta approach makes complete sense and is a smart strategy.
              
                                                      Paranormal activity 1 poster
                                                   
                                                      Paranormal activity 2 poster
                                                   
                                                      Paranormal activity 3 poster
                                                    
All 3 posters lay out three things that are going to be a success.
First, by making the main focus a still from the movie it shows off the look and feel of what the film is about. It makes it clear looking at the strip across the middle of the poster that it’s a story captured by a simple video camera, both from the slightly grainy look of the shot and the time-stamp that appears in the right-hand corner at the bottom of the page.
Second, there is a quote at the top of each poster from either a film review website or the company itself. These are to attract the horror genre lovers that frequently visit these websites for the latest horror genre news and information.
Lastly, the bottom third of the first films poster trys to make the movie an event by getting people involved to bring it to its full potential. The “Demand It” allows people to take an active role in the movie’s campaign and add your voice to the call to bring it to a theater near you. This required people who wanted the film to come to their hometown cinemas to go onto the paranormal activiy website and vote. Once the voting got to 1million the film would then be brought to that area and so on.

Huge amounts of synergy has been used in the marketing of the Paranormal activity films. Shots from the fil itself have been used for all the posters, scenes from the films have been used in all of the trailers and even scenes from the previous film has been used in the trailer for paranormal activity 2. The first two films show a story carrying on from the first to the second. Whereas the second relates back to the reason behind the plot and shows why the girls are haunted so is going back in time. The same font is also used throughout the 3 films trailers and posters and the titles are the exact same.














Props list

Props we needed to film our trailer:
Ladder
Boxes
Tv remote
Flowers
Torch

Sunday, 27 November 2011

Media Regulation

Everyone who watches, listens to or reads the news is reliant on the media. This is something that we have had to do since the start of medi; However the government does not like the freedom of the media as they don’t like any bad/critical words being spread, but article 19 stops them from controlling or stopping anything the media says through freedom of speech. However regulations are put in place so that the public interest is preserved.
The media regulation office or OFCOM and Article 19 as it is known have had to reconsider some of their regulations in recent times due to some content that has been aired and complaints that have come in from the public about some programmes on the television, and radio as well as news paper articles. For example, incidents like the Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand fiasco where they rang Andrew Sachs while live on television where they made what some people believed to be inappropriate comments about his granddaughter, it was reviewed and both Jonathan and Russell faced sanctions including the sacking of Russell and the suspension of Jonathan, all this was done in the interest of the public as they believed it was not acceptable and believed it was in the best interest to take action.
There are 3 main areas when it comes to media regulation Political, Economic and Social. These aspects are key. The political side is all about asking whether the government should regulate the media. This would not be useful or fair as the government could keep important matters away from the public that may concern them. Also it is so the government cannot enhance their position and increase their popularity not allowing opposition parties news in the media. Economically the regulations are put in place so huge companies such as "coca-cola" cannot put huge advertisements on the television or news articles or on radio that would jeopordise the interests for small businesses if they can’t get their advertisements in the media. If it wasn’t regulated it would mean that the huge international companies would be the only ones in business. Socially it is important media is regulated as people need to know what is going on and what is happening in the world as this may affect their life choices, such as moving abroad or even going on holiday, the media plays a huge part in our lives. We are surrounded by it constantly and if it wasn’t regulated the government and the media could tell us anything, even if it was true or not

Costume list

ALEX HORNER:
Blue jeans, grey polo shirt and beige
LUCY CASHMAN:
Red checked shirt, leggings and white converse
REBECCA CHOI:
White blouse, black pants, black shoes.
ASHLEY GALLAGHER:
Black top, black pants, black shoes

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Richard Dyers star theory

The star's theory suggests that the "Star" being a singer, actor or a model takes several forms in order to sell a product to their target audience:

The star is seen as a construction, a commodity and an ideology.
 
As a construction the stars image is constructed and developed by the star him/herself or the management across various different media outlets such as magazines, advertising, television or the internet. It helps if the star has a unique selling point for example, Lady Gaga's eccentric fashion and use of masks and other props has made her the superstar she is today.

As a commodity the star is a marketable, saleable unit constructed by the record label in order to make it money. the record label will listen to the demands of the audience and develop that star to fulfill their needs. For example, One direction are constucted to sell there music to teenagers mostly being girls who will fall in love with them and see them as heartthrobs or boys may copy there fashion style.
 
As an Ideology the star represents a set of values and attitudes that reflect the audience's own values. For example, Miley Cyrus or the Jonas brothers claim that they are virgins and will stay virgins until marriage showing this by wearing promise rings has received alot of attention by the media. There young fans will want to follow there lead, which can be seen as a positive thing and the older generation may respect them more. Stars are connected to their audience through the beliefs they present in their work.

Production log

Detailed analysis of 2 trailers

"The Ring" film trailer goes straight into telling the audience the main storyline of the film saying "There is a videotape, If you watch it, In seven days, You die". This would give the audience more of a urge to want to watch the whole film to see how and why you die in seven days and the story behind it. After the text is shown a jump cut is used and from there the trailer is quick and jumpy.
To begin with the music used is the typical slow paced spooky music to create suspense but it then turns to a more, faster track with bits of speech from the actual film added throughout.
Throughout the trailer a glowing ring is shown on a black background which relates to the film name and also the ringing of the phone.


The "Grave Encounters" trailer is based on "real footage" filmed at one of the most haunted buildings in america. These type of films, another example being "paranormal activity" trys to convince the audience that the footage is real and that paranormal activity actually goes on.
The trailer shows fair amounts of text throughout to guide the audience through the storyline and show ratings given by reviewers to gain popularity and entice the audience to watch the film and see if it is true. Jump cuts, shouts and screams make the trailer jumpy and is guarenteed to frighten the audience watching.

IDENTS

A station identification (Ident) is used by television networks or film production companies to immediately distinguish that it is from a certain film production company or network. This may be to satisfy requirements of licensing authorities, a form of branding or a combination of both. As such it is closely related to production logos used in television and cinema, alike. An ident is usually shown at the beginning of a film so the audience are fully aware who the film has come from throughout the film.

The six most popular production companys all have their own idents that are known worldwide. These are WaltDisney, Paramount, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Columbia.

You can watch these here: "Big Six Idents"




 
"These six videos are some of the most ubiquitous examples of entertainment branding found in popular culture. They come from the “big six” studios and preface the vast majority of films produced, and all have one thing in common.. unusally epic and grandiose imagery that only the film industry could get away with using.
The histories behind these stately logos are as interesting as some of the movies they precede: Paramount’s mountain logo for example is the oldest surviving studio emblem dating back to 1912, and is believed to be based upon Ben Lomond Mountain in Utah, although Peru’s Artesonraju is a closer fit.
While Columbia’s torch carrying lady dates back to 1924, the most recent incarnation is not as some thought modelled by Annette Benning, but actually the much more unassuming Jenny Joseph, a mother of two from Houston.
And the iconic Art Deco monument that 20 Century Fox uses as a logo was developed in 1935, and received a series of revisions before being standardised in 1994 with CGI, but only after a failed attempt to actually build a live action version of the monument."

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

Contributor release forms




Risk assessment forms


Film front cover mock up



I have produced a mock up of the layout of my film magazine front cover. I have replicated the style adopted by the "Vibe" music magazine front cover featuring Drake. 
I would like my front cover to use the same layout as i like the style and simplicity of it although i will change the colours and other features to make it my own.

Poster mock up

I have produced a mock up of the layout of my film poster. I have replicated the style adopted by the "Green Lantern" film poster advertising the films being released in June 2011.
I would like my film poster to use the same layout as i like the style and simplicity of it.

Friday, 21 October 2011

The purpose of film magazine front covers in marketing of film

Film magazine's help the audience to learn more about new, upcoming films. Examples of film magazines are Empire and Total Film. They are usually used to engage the readers and give interviews from the Stars in particular films. An example of the types of methods they use is “Sneak peaks” and stills from a film. This can create more interest in the magazine and make the audience want to see more. If it is an special photo shoot for the magazine from the film, then it makes the magazine seem special and the film can relate to the audience, therefore making audiences buy it. Since the Harry Potter series has been going on for a long time, people are probably more tempted to buy the magazine if its main actor's were featured on it and could use it as a collectable or to even sell it online.




Pitch Script

Holly-  Good evening ladies and gentleman, my names Holly Lupton and my names Jake Clark. Were here to tell you about a film project we are hoping to produce called “House”.

Jake- This film is an exciting prospect that will certainly prove to be a box office hit.

Holly- The film is being directed by some exciting new talent being myself Holly Lupton. Also directing is Jake Clark a world renowned director known best for thrilling horrors one being his latest box office hit “Creep”.

Jake - We hope to combine my experience with holly’s fresh new ideas to create another hit that is sure to top the box office instantly.

Holly- “House” is a typical film from a horror genre. It tells the story of a newly married couple moving into their first house.

Jake- Little do they know the house has a raging history of strange goings on, The tension builds from the moment the couple enters the house, with many strange and unexplained occurrences happening around every corner, the story builds to a fantastic denouement.

Holly-  Lovers of traditional horror films such as paranormal activity, insidious, will find “House” exciting and enthralling.
Jake- We feel that this would be a fantastic investment and your time will not be wasted if you put your faith in this film you will soon see the rewards, we can ensure that you will make a profit that will far exceed the investment you put in, we are looking for £500,000 for a 20% stake in the film.
We already have an A-list cast with stars from many Hollywood hits such as; Rebecca Choi and William Davenport, also fresh upcoming actors Lucy Cashman, who has stared in the popular sitcom pals for 2 years and is a very likeable character, and we are in the negotiation stages with many more.  

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Costume List

Wife- Lucy Cashman- Casual, everyday clothing eg- Leggings, jumper, coat, boots. Pyjamas for one scene.


Husband- William Davenport- Casual clothing eg- jeans, hoody, jacket, vans.


Ghost- Rebecca Choi/Ashley Gallagher- Undecided

Actor List

Who is being used?..Why?..

Wife- Lucy Cashman- We chose Lucy to play the wife as she looks mature for her age and would fit in with the image of the wife. We also think Lucy and Will would look well together as a couple and fit in with the storyline.

Husband- William Davenport- We chose Will to play the husband as he is handsome and tall and would fit in well with the image we will try to portray.

Ghost- Rebecca Choi/ Ashley Gallagher- We have decided to feature 2 ghosts in our film as it would add more effect and make it more interesting. We have chose Becky and Ashley as we believe with the right amount of makeup, they could pull off being scary and could be serious when acting.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Empire magazine front cover

                                                   Hell Boy 2 Analysis

Insidious

                                          Insidious poster analysis

Sunday, 2 October 2011

Codes and Conventions of Trailers

Film trailers are either a short sequence of clips or just one clip that usually lasts betwen 30-60 seconds.Also known as "Teaser trailers" they contain the green screen and introduce the genre of the film. Twilight had a very populary broadcasted teaser trailer.

A trailer gives the audience a brief insight of what the film is about and leaves you wanting to see more containing a minimum amount of footage from the film, "teasing" the audience. The pace of the trailer is usually fast and starts slow and picks up throughout. 
Trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited. They get the name "Teaser trailers" because they are shown usually a long time before the films release date, ie. 1-1 and a half years before. 
A trailer will attract an audience into watching the full fime and sets the genre of the film and creates a feel for the setting. They give a suggestion of the films storyline and introduces some of the main characters. They contain graphics, the film title and the release date.

Other film trailers for Recent films:

Thursday, 1 September 2011

The purpose of posters in the marketing of film

Film posters are used to advertise a film to the public. They are released a few months before the film is due for release. They usually include an image and text conveying the genre and tone of the film. For example there was 20 posters released for Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 2 to help build up anticipation up until the release. They normally include the date of release, the directors name and production company and the names of actors. Usually if actors starring in a film are popular then the name will be included to make the audience more likely to want to see the film if they like that particular actor. Posters are available to buy and are sometimes collected. They are displayed in most city centres and on the side of bus stops and billboards.



Monday, 4 July 2011

The purpose of trailers when marketing a film

The film trailer has been around since 1913 and is an important component in the marketing of film. The first move trailer was made by Loews film company in 1913 for a film called "The pleasure seekers". After this the practise was adopted and used in all Loews theatres, soon going on to be used in all theaters. The company that created the trailers through the 1950s was the National Screen Service.

The purpose of a film trailer is to make the audience want to see the movie and to sell it using just 2 and a half minutes. There are a number of techniques used to excite the reader.
Music helps to set the tone and mood of the trailer. The music used in the trailer is usually not used in the film itself. It is usually popular or well known music chosen mostly for its tone, appropriateness of lyric OR lack of, or recognisability. Such as The Hangover 2 trailer features Kanye Wests "Dark Fantasy" taken from his new album "My beauitful dark twisted fantasy" which is very well know.

Known as "Teaser trailers", film trailers are usualy released a year before the films release to create a hype and entice the audience without giving away too much information which could spoil the film. They are usually shown in cinemas, television and on the internet on websites such as Youtube. They also feature in popups on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Beginning of media A2 coursework

I am now beginning the start of my Media coursework at A2 level. I have been given the task to produce a Trailer consisting of 2minutes worth of original footage in my chosen genre. I also need to produce a film poster and a film magazine cover. I will show all research and planning on my blog.