Research and Planning: Filming Issue - Trailer Delay

Today was the scheduled day in which we were going to film for our trailer, however as we are filming outside we have to take into consideration the weather issues and how they might affect not only the quality and quantity of our footage but also how our actors will be. The weather has been very unpredictable the last couple of days and looking at the forecast it does not look promising for today, therefore we have cancelled our filming for today and are going to reschedule so that the weather will be fine and our actors will be happy. If it is raining (or rained recently) we also have to take into consideration the fact that it would be very muddy at the farm and might therefore cause a risk to our actors of slipping and hurting themselves, and also ruining their clothing. I think that this is the best decision to make to take into consideration the future of our trailer.

Research and Planning: Clown Make-up Purchase

We have been out and bought some clown makeup and hair dye, which we may or may not use, for our clown costume. We have bought these because we need the clown to look realistic and he won't even look like a clown unless he has the makeup on his face. Emma gathered things from around the house that she already owned from previous Halloweens etc as this will save us money and time. All we need now is another set of face paints and we will be ready to film.

Research and Planning: Costume Research - Female Makeup

One of our protagonists is female, this means that we have to take into consideration the fact she will be wearing makeup, or that she will not. I think for our trailer we will do her makeup looking very natural, almost as if she is not wearing much makeup at all. We don't want our audience to concentrate on the makeup on her face, but to concentrate on the expression on her face. Therefore we will rule out all un-natural makeup aspects, such as fake eyelashes etc and instead put her in very nude natural colours to just give little coverage and to brighten her face.
As this is a horror trailer though, as the trailer progresses we might need to make her look a bit more rough and scared as she is being chased by a scary clown, to do this we might add some mud and fake blood to her face, but not much as we don't want to give too much of the trailer away.

Research and Planning: Costume Research - Female

One of the main protagonists in our trailer is a female character. For this character we need to make sure that we get the right mise-en-scene because she is the only female character and we need to make sure that her personality comes off in what she wears.
For her make-up we have put her in a natural fresh faced look because we want to get the message across that women do not need to wear a lot of makeup, and as she is only shown in some of the trailer we don't want her to be in heavy makeup as the audience will only pick up on this aspect and think 'oh she's caked in makeup' instead of concentrating on the trailer.
We want her to be wearing a coat, or warm jacket, as again it will be cold when we are filming as we are filming in the winter period. We want our actors to be comfortable so that the trailer looks realistic instead of them just looking cold.
Again we also want our actor to wear appropriate shoes as it will be quite muddy on the farm and we need to make sure that the actor does not ruin any of their shoes as this will be on our part.

Research and Planning: Costume Research - Male

As well as having the clown in our trailer, which costume we have spoken about in depth, we also have another male protagonist in which we need to consider the costume for. As we are filming in a farm land we need to make sure that the costume is appropriate and suitable.
Preferably he will wear jeans as these are an every day appropriate look.
A warm jacket or coat as we are filming in the winter period and it will be very cold whilst we are filming, so we need to make sure that our actors are comfortable.
Shoes that the actor does not mind will get a bit muddy, as we are filming on the farm and it might have been raining, (due to English weather!) so they need to bare in mind that it could be muddy and their shoes could get ruined. If need be we will provide covers for the shoes.

Research and Planning: Social Network Feedback

Research and Planning: Shot List for Magazine

Research and Planning: Shot List for Poster

Research and Planning: Production Documents Checklist

I have made a checklist for the Production Documents so that I can keep up with where I am with things and make sure that I don't fall behind. There are some Documents that we can not start yet, such as Editing Log, as we have not filmed anything and I have not started the creation of the poster or magazine yet.

Research and Planning: Shooting Schedule for Magazine

Research and Planning: Shooting Schedule for Poster

Research and Planning: Shot List for Trailer

Research and Planning: Actor Release Form - Jake Thompson

Emma and I have filled out an Actor Release form for one of our actors Jake Thompson. We are going to print it out and have him sign it for us so that we have proof of his agreement to be in our trailer.

Research and Planning: Mirrors - Short Poster Analysis

Another poster that I have looked at today is Mirrors by the same director that created famous horror The Hills Have Eyes. I think that this poster is another good representation for what I want my own poster to look like when I create it. I have many ideas and the clown being close up with only some light shining on his face is one of the ideas I had. I really like how you can't see most of the image, and it is darkened out into black, I think this is really effective. I also really like how in the title 'Mirrors' the two R's are mirrored against eachother which I think is also effective because it reflects the title. I also like again the simplicity of this poster, I don't really like it when posters are really busy because they don't really catch your attention as much as short and snappy things.

Research and Planning: Clown Makeup Research

We are watching some videos with some tutorials on how to properly do Clown makeup as we want to make sure that we have the right idea when creating our own trailer. Some of them are helpful however I think that some of them might take too much time to recreate and we don't want to be sat putting makeup on the clown for hours as it will go into valuable filming time. Also we are going to be smearing mud and fake blood all over the clown's face so we don't want to spend too much time creating the makeup and then smearing it and ruining it anyway. The clown is meant to look old and dead, not like he's just come out of the circus.

Research and Planning: A L'Interieur - Short Poster Analysis

I really like this horror movie poster. I'm not exactly sure what language it is in but I think that it is Italian, but I think that the poster looks really amazing. I really think I might image my own poster off this one, I also really like the colours etc. I think if I was to mirror this I would have the clown looking at the girl protagonist. I also like the blood splatters in the middle. I think that it is really effective as as soon as you look at it you can tell that it is a horror film. I also like the simplistic effects that it brings, by only using a small amount of colour and image, keeping to some kind of colour scheme makes the poster stand out and look professional.

Research and Planning: Magazine Font Ideas

Research and Planning: Location Recce for Poster

I have used the same Location Recce as for the Poster and Trailer, as we are using the same location for all three so we will not need to make new location recces for each thing.

Research and Planning: Location Recce for Magazine

I have used the same Location Recce as for the Poster and Trailer, as we are using the same location for all three so we will not need to make new location recces for each thing.

Research and Planning: Risk Assessment for Magazine

Research and Planning: Risk Assessment for Poster

Research and Planning: Budget for Trailer

Emma and I have been discussing the budget that we are going to have for our trailer. We don't want to have to spend too much money, but however we want to spend enough money to make sure that it looks realistic and professional. Between us we have decided on a budget of £30, which means £15 each. I think this is a reasonable budget, and we might not even have to spend all of it but it is just incase we need last minute items.
As we have already bought the clown costume, this means that we have spent £12 of our budget, which means that we have £18 left to spend on all the other items that we are going to need. I think that this will be plenty enough and we probably won't even spend it all.

Research and Planning: Shooting Schedule for Trailer

This is the Shooting Schedule for our Trailer. As you can see there is not many times when we think we will need to film as I believe if we work through 3pm - 8pm we will get all the shots that we need. If we need to, we can add more dates. One of our actors, Dan, lives in Yorkshire so it also depends on when he can get here and if it is snowing, which would mean delayed or cancelled trains. Taking all these different elements into consideration we will have to make sure that we have a plan B, and maybe an understudy for Dan so that if he really cannot make it then we will have to change actors. This is a last resort however, and we think these dates should be enough.

Research and Planning: Role Research - Mise-En-Scene

Another one of the roles that Emma and I decided that I would undertake was the task of Mise-En-Scene. This includes everything from props to costume and is a very big role. As we are doing a Horror film I think that the costume will be more important than the props as we want the clown to look as realistic as possible. Making sure that we make him look dishevelled and 'dead' as he is meant to be a ghost of a clown. I think that I am confident about this role and am looking forward to doing it.

Research and Planning: Role Research - Editing

When Emma and I decided which roles we were going to allocate to eachother, one of the roles that I received was Editing. Editing is normally what happens after the filming is finished and it involves adding in transition sequences, making sure all the sound fits to the film etc. It is the very last job and I think one of the important ones because without great editing the whole thing will just fall flat. I think editing our trailer might be quite difficult as we are making it look like it is being filmed by the protagonist in the trailer, so we will need to use quite natural editing. I also want to make sure that the effect of the 'Rec' button is there in the corner of the trailer.

Research and Planning: Clown Hair Research

As I want the clown in our trailer to look realistic and authentic, Emma and I decided that we would research into the most common hair colours etc. We also decided that we would use the spray in colour so that the actor we use will be able to wash it out of their hair easily.

Research and Planning: Clown Makeup Update

We have also been looking into different face paints to use when creating our clown, we decided that from good reviews and the price that we are going to be choosing this Snazaroo type face paint. As it is quite cheap we are also going to buy a blue and a red one, and then try and find some old black paint in our houses that we can suffice as mud as we don't want to actually smudge mud on our actors face as they could have a reaction to something in the mud or the mud might be dry and unable to smudge. I am looking forward to doing the clown's makeup and shall hopefully have a test go soon.

Research and Planning: Final Distribution Logo

For the Distribution logo, it is very similar to what I did for the Production company logo. I used Adobe Illustrator to outline an image of a windmill. I used the colour red because I didn't want it to look too much like the Production company logo as I think that would look unprofessional. This logo was easy to create, Ive said it is a final design but if I have any time left I will probably make some more so I can have more of a variety to choose from.

Research and Planning: Final Production Logo

Here is the completed logo for our Production company which we have named 'Midnight Productions'. I'm really happy with how this has come out. To create it I got an image of the moon and traced round it in Illustrator and then I got an image of a wolf howling, as I think that this quite nicely represents what Midnight is. I then traced around the image of the wolf using the same pen tool. I like it being a black background with the white text as I think that it stands out nicely.

Research and Planning: Completed Animatic Storyboard

Here is our completed Animatic Storyboard, complete with the soundtrack that we created. We created the soundtrack with garageband, therefore some of the sound is delayed. However when creating our actual trailer we will obviously make sure that all the sound matches up perfectly.

Research and Planning: Clown Costume Arrival

Now that the clown costume is here we can really think about setting down some shooting dates. All we need to do now is order some clown makeup online, as we can't have him bare faced or he won't look like a clown at all. And we also need to find an actor to play the clown, we have two possible candidates and we are going to look into them both. Maybe even hold another audition session as the last was unsuccessful. Our trailer is really coming together.

Research and Planning: Animatic Storyboard without Sound

Here is another progress of our Animatic Storyboard. We have just finished adding all the images to iMovie, in which we then had to crop them and take away a moving transition that is built into the system. We couldnt crop the image fully because if we did that then it was going to cut out the little 'Rec' in the corner which I think is vital to the trailer as it lets the audience see that it is filmed on a hand held camera.

Research and Planning: Storyboard Progress

Here is a progress shot of our Animatic Storyboard. We had to start another one because our last Animatic Storyboard was about our Romance film, and as we changed genre we decided that we would need to do another. We have just finished drawing out all of the shots and are ready to upload it onto the computer and start making it animatic on iMovie.

Research and Planning: Magazine Analysis 'Total Film'

Genre

The genre of this movie 'Inception' is actually quite difficult to depict from just this magazine cover. If you tie in all the different elements of colour, mise-en-scene and fonts it is quite confusing and can give off different feelings to the audience of what it is about. I think that this is a flaw in this magazine in which I will try my best not to fall into the same problem. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio's costume is that of a plain black suit, which is actually associated with the 'Spy' 'James Bond' look which might show to the audience that it could be a crime film or a spy film. I also think that by using the cool blue colour it might also cause some confusing into choosing the genre of the film as blue is normally represented with a calming atmosphere.

Representation

The representation of the protagonist of the poster is that of a positive and negative attitude. He can be seen as a very positive representation of the stereotypical strong man, as he looks focused and determined. We can also say that there is a positive representation around him from his costume of wearing a suit, which is stereotypically associated with being wealthy and co-ordinated. This is a good quality as a well dressed man is normally seen in a positive light. However we can see that there are negative attitudes towards him as well. Instead of looking focused and determined he could be seen as sinister looking, due to there being just lighting on his face. He also has some sort of device in his hand which could be a gun, which is also a negative representation as he is obviously doing some sort of crime. There is a positive representation surrounding the film through the words in which the magazine has chosen, including their positioning statement 'The Mind Blowing Issue'.

Narrative

I myself have not watched the film Inception, but I have heard that it is very complicated and difficult to keep up with. To gather some knowledge on the film I watched the trailer which was very helpful in giving me some thoughts on the film itself. I think Total film magazine has done a very clever thing with their Masthead, which is make it look like buildings when you are looking down on a birds eye view. I think that this ties in nicely with the film itself as there seems to be a lot about realism and buildings turning upside down, this is a device that only people who have watched the film will understand which is why I think that it is clever that the magazine has done this. 

Audience

From looking at the magazine as a whole, I think that this is aimed at a more male audience. By using well known actor Leonardo DiCaprio on the front cover I think it will draw in his audience who have seen him in some other films. However I do also think that by using this particular actor it will also draw in a more female audience as well, as we know DiCaprio has been in some very famous Romance films including Titanic, this also shows us that he is a very diverse actor and the magazine knows this. I don't think that this film is targeting an older audience, more an audience around 20s/30s, because the narrative is quite difficult to understand I think children would have a hard time understanding what is going on. However the age certificate for the film is in fact 12A, so this means that children accompanied by an adult will be able to see this film, it does not however suggest that they will enjoy it or know what is going on, it just means there are no scenes in which children will find appalling (sex, blood etc)

Media Language

The first thing that I notice about this magazine is the way that it stands out. I think that by using this bright cool blue colour it will make the magazine look striking and stand out from the rest. As I previously stated, I think that the way the magazine has styled its Masthead to tie in with the film is very clever and a good thing to have used. However, I think that this magazine cover has quite a large flaw in which there is a positioning statement of 'The Mind-Blowing Issue' but then also has a sub title regarding another part of the magazine which also says 'The 27 most Mind-Blowing Movies Ever', I think that by using the same phrase 'Mind Blowing' it makes the magazine look silly and repetitive. I think the colour scheme of the magazine is very solid and they stick to not using too many colours to make it look busy, instead choosing nice complimenting colours blue, red, white and black. I think that you should not use too many colours or it can make it look over worked and unprofessional.

Research and Planning: Magazine Analysis 'Empire'

Empire: The Hobbit Cover

Genre

From the image we have been given, there are a few genres that spring to mind. The first is quite obviously fantasy, which we can tell by the CGI of 'Gollum' who is a fantastical creature made from the novel by J.R.R Tolkein. We can also see Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, another made up character from the novel who is what we call a 'Hobbit'. We can see from the costumes of the two characters that it is not normal, Bilbo's outfit is bizarre, but the dark maroon colour gives off a feeling of royalty in which I think ties in nicely with the golden font that Empire have used. I think we can also get a feel of the genre being fantasy by the prop that Bilbo is holding which is a long sword, which we only see in films of such genre. Another genre that comes into mind is that of horror or thriller, I think that this is because of the facial expression that we can see Gollum pulling. Much like the Magazine Draft that I created with the girl in the front and the clown in the back, I think that this is a good way to see what it would look like.

Representation

The first thing that we notice as an audience is the fact that the two characters in the image are both male (or male creature) which suggests to the audience that it might be a male gendered film. Also suggesting that the film might be for men. The main character Bilbo who we see here at the forefront of the magazine looks quite like an un-stereotypical male 'damsel in distress'. His facial expression seems distressed, much like a damsel would be, and he looks quite scared. This could be showing the audience that he goes through some kind of trauma which makes it interesting and might also draw in a more female audience as they might feel pathos for the scared Bilbo. He is also dressed in a very regal manner, which gives off the representation that he is an important character to the film, and I also do like the way it ties in with the gold font. The representation of Gollum is that of a negative nature as we see he is in the background of the image and is pulling a sinister expression, suggesting to the audience that he is a 'bad' character, or the rival of the protagonist. He also seems to blend in with the pale blue colour that they have used which could be showing us that he is a shadowy character and not to be trusted.

Narrative

The film 'The Hobbit' is set in an old fantasy land in which the main character Bilbo goes on a quest with a wizard called Gandalf and a group of dwarves. I think that the magazine does well to create synergy around the film. The first thing we see is the large bold golden letters of 'the Hobbit' which is in a Times New Roman font which can sometimes be seen as quite posh and proper. Because the film is connected to the previous series of 'the Lord of the Rings' I think that the magazine does well to show that this film is very much connected and will be what the audience have been waiting for. The props used, Bilbo's sword, suggest to the audience the time period in which the film is set as we do not see these swords being used in modern day. The tagline 'an Unexpected Journey' gives the audience an idea on what the film is about and shows through the genre of Fantasy and Adventure, which will appeal to many audiences.

Audience

The first thing that we know as an audience which is quite obvious is that the Hobbit is connected to the film series Lord of the Rings, which is a very famous fantasy series created from a novel by J.R.R Tolkein. This in itself has already created an audience and a synergy surrounding the film as the audience from the previous films will have been waiting for this new series to come out. I think considering the front image that Empire have used, it could be suggesting to the audience that it is more of a male audience. However I believe that because the films are such a massive franchise there is quite a large audience including quite young children, taking into consideration that the first film's certificate is also PG which means that basically anyone can watch it.

Media Language

I think that the layout of the magazine is very structured and it doesn't look too busy. I think that this is because the magazine is doing a special edition considering the Hobbit. The Masthead is the same font that the magazine uses on every issue, creating a similar atmosphere and making sure that the audience knows it is the same magazine. I think that by making the Masthead's font the same golden colour as the rest of the titles and subtitles ties in nicely with the 'three colour rule' as magazines try to stick to some kind of structure to make sure that it does not look too busy and mismatched. We can see that the magazine is doing a special for the Hobbit by the positioning statement which on this issue is 'The Shire's Biggest Movie Magazine' which is ironic and amusing to the Hobbit's audience. The Shire is the land in which the Hobbits live, and it could be seen as ironic because the Shire is set in an old period and will not have Movie Magazines, I think that this is a clever device by the magazine to make it look funny, and it will show the audience that they know what they are talking about because they know some of the place names from the film.

Research and Planning: Clown Costume Update

I have just bought our Clown Costume from Amazon for £12, which Emma and I are going to split between us. I don't mind spending money on it, because it will be key to my trailer and help me gain a better mark. I think if we don't have the necessary props or costume then the trailer will fall flat and won't be what we wanted it to be at all. I will also need to buy the clown makeup, which I can either buy online, in a shop, or see if I have any old Halloween makeup which would work perfectly.

Research and Planning: My Bloody Valentine

As this is one of my favourite horror films, I thought I would look at the trailer and tell you a little bit about it. I think that the trailer perfectly portrays the film and what it is about. There is a killer who is dressed as a miner, going around and killing people with a miner's tool. I think as the killer is wearing a mask it makes it more scary because you don't know what's underneath and it leaves the audience wondering. I think that in our trailer, we will match this by using the clown's makeup and mixing it up with dirt and smudging it on their face to create the dead look. Maybe buy some fake blood. I think that this trailer is very similar to what I want mine to look like, considering the editing. I like the fast transitions and the jump cuts, which is exactly what I want my trailer to be like. I think that by looking into this trailer it has helped me and given me some inspiration.

Research and Planning: Auditions

Yesterday we held the Auditions for our trailer. We used Emma's poster as mine came out very dark and we were worried that people might not see it. Emma's was very straight to the point. Although we did hang the posters in quite a few areas of college, nobody turned up. This puts a damper on our trailer, however we are able to turn to family and friends to help us make sure that we have enough actors for our trailer. We already have a bit of an idea on who we are going to use.

Research and Planning: Music Research for Trailer

At the end of our Trailer we decided that we wanted to use a 'creepy' children's song which we will either get a child to sing, or sing ourselves and higher the pitch of our voices. We are going to do some research into different songs and see which one would fit best.

Research and Planning: Script Draft 1

Scene 1

[Scene opens with two actors in a car]

Boy: It's working [Raises camera to Girl's face] look!
Girl: [Pushes camera from face] Stop!
Boy: [Laughs] So we're on our way to Mottram Farm, home of ghosts and crap.. So.. We're gonna film what we find.
Boy: [Moves closer to camera] LETS GO FIND US SOME GHOSTS!

Scene 2

[Scene opens with the actors arriving at the gate]

Boy: [Turns camera to Girl] You ready?
Girl: [Smiles and nods]

[Creak of the gate opening]

Scene 3

[Scene opens with the Girl in front, walking ahead]

Girl: There's nothing even here!

[Slow zoom towards Girl, appears to be alone, looking around]

Boy: [Grabs her shoulder and scares her]
Girl: For God's Sake [name], that wasn't funny! [Starts hitting him]
Boy: [Backing away laughing]

[Loud bang, Boy drops Camera]

Boy: Aw, sh- [Camera goes static, so we don't hear the end of the word]

Scene 4

[Scene opens with the two actors walking into the Barn]

Boy: I swear it came from in here!
Girl: Shut up, let's go, this place creeps me out.

[Camera goes really static with high pitched noise, Barn door shuts, light darkens with just light on the clowns face]

Scene 5

[Scene opens with both actors running across the Farm, heavy panting]

Boy: Go, go, go!

[Fast montage with loud noises and screaming from Girl]

Scene 6

[Scene opens solely on the clown's face, creepy children's music in the background, Clown opens eyes and smiles on a certain cue]

*End*

Research and Planning: Risk Assessment for Trailer