Final idea: Film poster

Final choice on picture
My final choice on picture is picture 2. This is the image where the villain is looking straight at the camera in an outdoor environment, where trees can be seen in the background. I feel this is the most suitable picture to use as there is enough space for the text to be seen to the side of the villain, and to fit comfortably next to image itself. I also feel the villain looks very menacing in this picture, more so than in the third picture, despite the villain carrying no visible weapon within this image. Below, I have analysed the picture and stated where certain things will be placed.





Within my poster outline I have referred to the poster format, which can also be seen above. This is most noticeable with the placing of the tagline, the production info and the release date on the poster. These will be placed at the bottom below the main image, as can also be seen within the poster format grid.




Final choice on colours
For my final poster I have decided to use the colours red and black. The redness will be seen in the movie title (the title will be the same colour and font as it is in the trailer) and also surrounding the text used for the director/writer and the actors (where the text will be black). The surrounding colour scheme of the picture will be black, but there will also be hints of red which will surround the villain's costume (which is black and grey). This means, along with the yellowness of the pig mask, the poster will contain red, black and yellow highlights. I think the predominant red and black colours will be effective as they connote danger and evilness. I also think the yellowness of the pig mask will be effective in making the mask eye catching as the colour will stand out against the red and black, as well as establishing to the audience that the mask does indeed resemble that of a pig.

Planning film poster: Initial ideas

Conventions that I will use

For my own movie poster, I am going to try and stick to the main movie poster conventions as best I can. As established in my previous research, these main conventions include having a picture (preferably a photograph of one of the main characters), having the title of the film on the poster in large letters, having information such as who the main actors are and who wrote/directed it, and having an array of eye-catching colours. I want to stick to these conventions to make my movie poster as realistic as possible.



Initial ideas on main photograph/picture

I want my main picture to make the film's genre immediately identifiable, and to also paint a picture of what the film is about. As such, I want the picture to feature the antagonist of the trailer; the villain with the pig mask. When people see the poster the first thing they will see is a frightening looking masked villain, and as such most people will immediately be able to identify the poster as belonging to the horror genre. I have three pictures of the villain which I am considering as the main photograph of the poster. These three pictures all present the villain as threatening, and I feel all three give off the right atmosphere which fits with my trailer. I have gone into separate analysis on all three:

Picture 1
















This picture is a medium shot of the villain directly facing the camera, holding his weapon in both hands. I think the image is threatening as it instantly shows that the villain is dangerous and is probably evil (as he is holding a gun.) You can also clearly see his costume (black clothing), which further enforces the sense of evilness that this character should give off. I also think the background is strong, as it too is dark and also strangely ambivalent (it is in fact a garage door). The redness of the pig mask contrasts with the otherwise dark coloring, making the overall colour scheme eye-catching. Overall, I think this is a strong image as it immediately gives away the genre of the film, and is unsettling and eye catching.


Picture 2

















This picture again depicts the villain, this time in an outdoor environment. Unlike the last picture, he has his hood up and is not center frame, making the image somewhat more disorientating. This may be a good thing, as it may make the image seem more ominous to some people. I feel the villain again looks threatening, however not as threatening as the first picture, as this time no weapons can be seen in his possession. This makes him look less intimidating. I think the background is strong however, as eerie looking tress can be seen which I feel fits with the genre. Overall, I think this is again a strong image and will immediately identify the genre for many people, however it can be argued that the villain does not give off as much of a evil persona as in the first image.


Picture 3
















The final idea that I have for my main poster image is a picture which again depicts the villain, who this time is looking away from the camera and is aiming his gun at something. The background is the same as in the first picture, which is a positive trait as I identified this as a strong background within my analysis of the first image. He is also holding his weapon again, unlike in the second image. This is also a positive thing as it identifies him as being evil and threatening. However, I think a disadvantage to this image is that we can not see the villain as clearly, as he is not facing the camera. Instead, we only get a side-view of him, and as such the image may not be as eye-catching/scary as the villain is less noticeable. I think the strong colour scheme that I identified for the first picture can again be seen here though, and I think overall this would be a strong image to use as it is frightening and immediately depicts the genre as horror.




Colour scheme that I will use in the poster

An eye-catching array of colours is an integral convention of movie posters, and as such is something I should try and make strong use of within my own movie poster. I want to make strong use of the colour red, as this colour connotes danger and horror, and many will associate it with blood. However, as the title of the my film is in a red colour, I cannot make the surrounding colours all red, as my title would not stand out much. Therefore, I think I will make a strong use of the colour black as well. This colour is a very negative colour, and matches the outfit of the villain. Making strong use of it would tell viewers of the poster that this film belongs somewhat to the horror genre, however the title of the film will also tell people that the genre has comedy elements to it as well, to avoid any possible confusion.

Researching film posters + annotations

Poster powerpoint media from James Thompson

Poster formats/grids

Ancillary products: What is a film poster?

What is a film poster?

Simply put, a film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film. A studio will often print various different posters for the same media, so the film can be advertised more globally and can potentially gain more publicity.
Film posters tend to be shown in environments such as movie theatres, busy streets and shops, and will often be placed on billboards. They will typically be shown in an area where they are likely to be seen and identified by many. An example of such an environment would be at the side of a busy road, where hundreds of people will pass everyday. Film producers and advertisers see the masses as passing trade, and as such will try and place their movie posters in some of the busiest places that they can in order to gain publicity.


What are conventions of film posters?

Film posters have various conventions which most of them follow in order to be effective. The first common convention is having a picture with text. The text will typically give the title of the movie, as well as details such as who the main actors are and who wrote it/directed it. Another convention, typically of contemporary movie posters, is a photograph of the main actors. This contrasts with old movie posters, which typically used illustrations, instead of photographs.
A third convention is having the film title on the film poster in large letters, as well as the main actors. The writer / director, the names of the characters and the release date will also be included on a poster as well.
A fourth and final convention of movie posters is an array of eye-catching colours, in order to attract attention. As I mentioned previously, movie posters will often be placed in busy places to attract attention. For this reason, they have to attract attention by using colours that will catch the eye of many, and as such the majority of film posters will use this technique.

Post production: Changes

How will I improve?

After the audience testing and my own new ideas and discoveries, I am going to make a few small changes to the trailer which I feel will be beneficial in making it an overall stronger product. The most significant change I will make is changing how the title looks in the trailer. After the comment in the audience testing session that my title should be improved, I thought about it and came to the conclusion that my title should definitely be changed in order to make it more effective and distinctive. I will either add a blood effect / pig effects to the title to make it look more frightening (as discussed in audience testing), or I will experiment with different fonts and colours within the title to make it look more interesting. I will make sure that the finished title is, overall, more distinctive and memorable, which will not only help my trailer but also my poster and magazine cover.

Another change I will make is the change concerning the participant's observation of a slightly repetitive end to the trailer. As a result of this comment, I am going to change the very last shot, to avoid it being used twice. This will make for a more exciting final shot in my opinion, as well as obviously making the trailer less repetitive.

Concerning sound, I will try and make all the dialogue as loud as it can be, to ensure that it is consistent and that audience members can hear what the characters are saying without difficulty.

Audience testing

Summarising audience feedback

To gain feedback on the rough edit of my film, I conducted an audience feedback session with a fellow pupil to gain valuable information on how they perceived the media. This individual had never seen the trailer before, and so he is answering the questions with a fresh view on what the trailer contains. I asked him how he thought the editing could be improved, how the sound could be improved, and how the title could be improved. I also asked him what he liked about the trailer, in the hopes of formulating an overall opinion of how my trailer plays out.

The participant said that he liked certain shots and effects, such as the opacity effect that is used in a few of the shots. He liked the section where one of the opacity shot's dissolves into another shot of the villain closer to the camera, saying that he found this effective. He also said that the trailer interested him and that he found it convincing, stating that he would go and see this film.

Improvement wise, he said that there were a couple of shots where the dialogue is not as loud as it could be (I was already aware of this slight problem). He also said that he felt at the end the shots were a bit repetitive, and that too much was given away concerning the film's plot.

For the title, he said that more of the pig theme/horror theme could be exploited. For example, I could include a blood effect, or have pictures of pig ears or a pig snout within the title, presumably to make subject-content clearer.

Overall, his comments were positive, and he offered constructive criticism which I feel will help me in my editing process.

Rough cut

Post Production: Sound

Music choices
The tracks that I went for are "Darkness," and "Harbinger of Doom." The first track, "Darkness," was an appropriate choice because, even though it sounds uncanny, it is also strangely pleasant sounding and could definitely be viewed as being a comedy-horror track rather than just a horror track. This track contrasts strongly with the next one, "Harbinger of Doom," which is purely horror based. This is appropriate, as when the track "Darkness," finishes the trailer is supposed to be predominantly horror based, rather than the mix of horror and comedy that could be seen before. Overall, I think the music choices were good ones, as I feel they really help to convey the genres which they should be portraying.

I got the songs from "Purple Planet Royalty Free Music," which offers royalty free tracks of high quality. Both of the tracks I selected could be found within the "horror" section on the website.





Sound effect choices

The sound effects that I have include a pig noise, a suspicious sounding laugh, a bird cooing, and a spooky drone sound when the antagonist's foot stomps down in front of the camera. I selected these sound effects because they all help to build atmosphere, and are all relevant to the overall narrative as well. For example, the sound of the bird cooing not only builds atmosphere and helps to identify mies-en-scene (an outdoor environment in the countryside), but is is also sinister and suggests that the villain will soon be seen. I also feel that the the pig sound effects that I used are effective, as they act as the villain's sound motif, and as such would be easily identified as belonging to the villain if it were a real film. This is a positive thing, as I feel the sound effect is creepy and clearly resembles that of a human making a pig noise.

Difficulties that I have faced

I have faced a number of difficulties with the sound. Perhaps the most significant difficulty I have faced is trouble with the dialogue corresponding correctly with the music. There were a couple of instances when I put the clips onto Premier Pro and, arbitrarily, the dialogue in the clips could not be heard properly. For this reason, I had to do some voice-overs of the same lines so that the dialogue could be heard again. The lines "Damn it, we're out of reception," and "If he attacks us, run into the woods because we can climb up a tree to hide," were dubbed respectively of the clip. In my opinion the finished result is subtle, however I initially worried that you would be able to tell that it was dubbed. This method was obviously more time consuming as well, as it took numerous attempts for me to deliver the line in the right tone.

A second difficulty that I faced was getting appropriate music for the trailer. I had to be careful with my music selections because the first section of the trailer is supposed to be heavily comedy-horror, instead of purely horror. For this reason, I had to find music which reflected this idea and had both comedy and horror elements within it. For the rest of the trailer, I had to find scary music which not only identified the genre as horror but that also fitted with the action on screen and would be suitable/ fitting for the montage editing. In the end however, as previously mentioned, I felt that my final choices for the music were successful, and clearly reflected the genres that they should be reflecting.

Post Production: Editing

Software


The editing software that I have used in order to edit my trailer is Premier Pro. I used this software last year, however this year I feel I have a better understanding of how to use and navigate the software, and as such I think I am able to make better use out of it.
I have used a number of techniques that can be found on the platform including the additive dissolve, the black and white feature, the opacity feature, the cross dissolve and the video reverse. These have all helped in ultimately making the trailer effective.









Difficulties I have faced

During the editing process, I have faced a number of difficulties. Firstly, I have struggled with my shot selection. Some of the shots, due to location, were blurry and as a result could not be used in their raw state within the trailer.

















In this particular shot, due to the rather shaded location, there was not much visibility and thus the quality was bad. I tackled this however by making the shot black and white and by adding the opacity effect to the shot, which not only makes the fuzziness less noticeable (as the opacity distracts from the quality), but also makes the shot look better and more frightening / disorientating. I feel this was an effective piece of editing, as I took a shot that was not particularly strong and transformed it into, in my opinion, an effective and very suitable shot which helps to build suspense.



















A second difficulty that I faced was deciding which order to place the shots in. This was particularly prominent within the montage editing section of the trailer. It took me quite a while to get the order of the shots right, so it synced with the music and looked smooth and fitting. I had to replace one shot (a shot of one of the victims fighting the villain with a stick) with a shot of running feet, as I felt the latter to be more dramatic and also fitting.


Original shot:                                                                                           Replacement shot:





A third difficulty I have faced is the title itself. I have struggled with choosing a font for the title, as well as a correct colour scheme for it. At present, I am still unsure what my finished title will look like, and I am still investigating possible fonts to use. Below outline some of the fonts I have considered, the bottom one being the font I used in the rough cut.


                                                                                     



                                 

                                                     


                                                     (Trattatello - final font)