Research and Planning - Group Meeting

Today we have decided on our film trailer name, we will be calling it 'Warning'. We have had feedback from other members of our class, and we have decided it will suit the trailer as it will warn people about drugs an is also snappy and easy to remember.

The name Warning will be a play on words to some extent, as at the beginning of the trailer I liked the idea of having a character saying 'Warning, this film contains images of drug abuse.' and also on my magazine, in which will have the coverline 'Warning, this magazine contains a cast as you have never seen them before.' This will be some extent the films catchline.

Research and Planning - Actor Release Form

Research and Planning - Actor Release Form

Research and Planning - Shot List (Poster)

Research and Planning - Shot List (Magazine)

Research and Planning - Shot List (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment (Poster)

Research and Planning - Risk Assessment (Magazine)

Research and Planning - Location Recce (Poster)

Research and Planning - Location Recce (Magazine)

Research and Planning - Location Recce (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Location Recce (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Location Recce (Trailer)

Research and Planning - Equipment and Software List For Magazine

Software:
The software I plan on using for the magazine will be...

Photoshop - To actually put all of my magazine together and complete all editing.

iPhoto - To take pictures off the camera and put them onto the computer.

Equipment: 
The equipment I plan on using will be...

SLR Camera - I will use this to take high quality pictures of my front cover models.

Tripod - I will possibly use this to lean my camera on so the pictures are as clear and non blurry as possible.

Research and Planning - Costume and Props List For Magazine

The costume and props I will be using for my magazine will include:

The costume on the female model will most likely be something like a parka or a big coat (as the female main character will most likely be posher than the other characters as they are the ones that moved into the area.

A pair of shoes such as converse or trainers.

Quite a plain outfit such as leggings, jeans and a top.

For the male model on the magazine I shall be using something such as a Nike tracksuit.

They will also be wearing something like trainers like these.

I think the idea of my models wearing these things is good, due to the fact that they are popular with teenagers and will make the characters seem more realistic.

Research and Planning - Film Magazine Draft

This is one of the designs I have created, I think that I will use this one and create it for my magazine. However, I do like some of the elements that my other design has and therefore may choose to incorporate some onto this one. 

Research and Planning - Film Poster Drafts

I will most likely be using this design for my poster. I will try and make it as simple as possible and use simple colours.

Research and Planning - Film Poster Draft

This is my first film poster draft, I like the simple nature of this design, as the colours featured on it will be mainly black and white. The font in the middle will be quite bold and white, and will contain no pictures on the poster. I think I will be using my other design.

Research and Planning - Film Magazine Draft

This is my other design. I think I will most certainly be choosing to create the other, however I may use some of the things it has on it that my other design doesn't. 

Research and Planning - Film Magazine Analysis

The genre of this magazine is a film magazine - Empire - and is mainly focusing on Harry Potter. The photo is a medium-close up of the main character, Harry himself. This enables the reader to be able to see all the details such as the blood and cuts on his face. This helps to somewhat describe the narrative of the film, as the blood connotates the idea of danger it contains and helps to show it contains elements of action and fantasy genre. The lighting of the cover is low key and follows the style of the film, as the more recent the film, the darker it gets as the plot unfolds. The magazine has a house style of three main colours and the text follows a consistent style. It has only two photos, as more emphasis is seemingly placed on the text and headlines, and the main photo who assumes from the popularity of the Harry Potter series, that you would know who he is. I like this magazine cover as it is simple and does not look cramped. The colour of the masthead is bold therefore catching the audience's attention easily and making you look at it. The representation the magazine is giving of young males is that they are quite brave (connotated from his facial expression), and too some extent that they are violent and will stand up for themselves. The target audience is probably children aged 12 up until late teens, and those that generally tend to read the magazines. 

This film cover is very colourful, I think they have done this to follow the idea of the film they are advertising - Alice In Wonderland. The colours used are bold and very bright, this helps to connotate that the film is a bit crazy and of the fantasy element. The colours also portray the film's young adult target audience, due to the magazine being eyecatching and colourful. The narrative the photo gives is that the film has a crazy storyline, and the craziness links with the idea of a 'wonderland'. The costume of the character on the magazine is very eccentric and shows that kind of personality he would have.

The films magazine has a large masthead which is bold and immediately recognisable to those that have read it before. There is little use of text except the for the coverlines in which describe some of the films and the stars mentioned in this issue. The representation of the character is crazy and hard to generalise as one type of person. They look middle aged, however do not tend to follow any conventions a middle aged adult normally would. The general cover of his magazine suggests to me that the target audience is a younger adult one who may not necessarily want to read as much detail about the film.

I find this example a more typical magazine cover. It follows the house style of the three colour rule throughout, similar fonts and contains a substantial amount of text without it being too much. Emphasis is placed on the shot on the cover, the iconic Will Ferrell. This immediately attracts a target audience that is quite wide audience to read the magazine as he has many fans and is widely known for his comedy work. The miss-en-scene the editors have used makes it look much more realistic, giving it a narrative that the film is realistic, however the model's pose is quite jokey, which connotates the comedy side, however this magazine is the one that is not of fantasy genre as the others are. I think if I am to base my magazine on any of these examples it will be this one due to the fact we are making a social realism trailer, known for their realistic features. 

Research and Planning - Production/Distribution Company Logo Ideas

This is one of our first draft ideas of the logo. It has been created through Photoshop.

Research and Planning - Group Meeting (Production Company Name)

Today we have decided on a production name of Lens Tech Productions. We have decided on this name as it sounds quite technical and posh. We will begin creating our logo during next week. We came up with a few different names such as TechDish, as well as Lens Tech Productions. We decided to chose Lens Tech Productions as it sounds professional and mature.

Research and Planning - Location Research

We have decided we shall be filming in the area of Haughton Green as there is a park in we could set some of the scenes and a council estate which has flats, helping with the urban scenes. Haughton Green is local to both myself and Lucy, which will make this more helpful.

I myself live in Haughton Green and know that it has at least three local bus routes available, there are local places in which you can get food and it is a fairly safe area. Most of our cast are likely to be from in or around Haughton Green and therefore it will be easy for them to get to the filming location. 

Lucy will have easy access to a bus going straight from Hyde to the filming location. 

There is also woods just incase by any chance we wanted to film in there. 

Research and Planning - Production Schedule

I have created a production schedule on Edexcel, it is a plan of what I intend to do over the next upcoming months and is aimed to help myself and Lucy keep on track and organised.

Research and Planning - Make-up Tests

For my trailer and magazine, to follow the idea of social realism I will be keeping the make-up of my models and actors as simple and realistic as possible.

Research and Planning - Collage

 I have created a collage of social realism films and some of the aspects I will be incorporating into mine. I think this will help me as it contains films in which I can use as models and base my own on.

Research and Planning - Audience Theory

What makes audiences choose to consume certain texts?
It may be because they can either relate to it or simply because it is something they like.

An example of this is Harry Potter;
Generally, fans of this film series will consume this text in the cinema with the primary target audience being children aged 8-18. These are often children of the working and middle class whom are quite educated and literate.
The secondary audience of the Harry Potter film franchise would be that of the children's parents. This is due to the fact that they will be the ones to take their children to the cinemas to initially view the film. These are often the parents with a decent income, as the cinemas are fairly expensive.

So far we have looked at three main theories -

The effects model/the hypodermic needle theory.
The effects model suggests media texts have influence and effect on the audience. It suggests that the audience is passive or powerless to the influence (often considered the negative parts) that the film gives  them.
Examples of this theory includes Frankfurt School during the 1920's and the Bobo Doll Experiment.

The hypodermic theory suggests that the message the media text gives is injected into the audience as though with a syringe. It says the audience is unable to resist the ideas being injected into them and states media 'works like a drug' and makes the audience become addicted.
An example of the hypodermic needle theory in work is the way one show can have everyone talking about it, or a news story that creates a moral panic.
Another example of the hypodermic needle theory is that of horror films, and the way they make the viewer feel more paranoid of things after viewing them, such as Final Destination injecting the idea of fear of sunbeds.


The uses and gratification model.
This theory is different as instead of asking what the media does to people, it instead asks what do people do with the media text they have consumed. This theory is seemingly more positive, as it suggests that the power lies with the audience rather than the producers and says that once the audience has consumed the text, they are able to use it, reject it and play with the meaning with their own free will. It states the different reasons audiences use texts, including information, pleasure, escapism and comparing them with oneself. It suggests that audiences can learn from texts, receive emotional satisfaction, relaxation, help with issues of personal identity and help with issues such as aggression and  violence.


The reception theory.
The reception theory shows the many different meanings the text could contain, and the many different interpretations the audience could receive, depending on the type of person. An example of this could be Skins, to grandparents this wold most likely be horrific and fairly offensive. This seems to be a much more positive theory, as it suggests that the audience are more able to think for themselves and there is not one definite meaning in the texts.

Research and Planning - Plot Ideas

The genre myself and Lucy have decided to follow is social realism. For this, there are various story lines we could follow. Issues dealt with in social realism films are often issues in which would be dealt with in real life. Our initial ideas for the trailer include:

Bullying - the main character consistently struggles to make friends and is pushed further and further by bullies. One day someone see's what is happening and decides to take a stand, they become firm friends and finally the victim cracks and decides to take revenge on those that bullied him, with the help of his friend and his new found confidence.

Domestic Abuse - the main characters are that of a family, and the plot focuses around the teenage daughter and the relationship with her father. The father is abusive towards her and one day beats up her mother in front of her. This drives the daughter to confessing at school to a guidance councillor who ends up helping to convict her father.

Crime - the plot could centre around a group of teenagers whom have heard of a murder in their area and seek to solve it and are able to find the guilty criminal and send him to prison.

Drugs - this is the most likely theme we shall follow. Our trailer will be from the drug dealers perspective and will be set on a council estate. We are considering part of the storyline to be centring around drug trafficking and he drug dealer gets into debt and therefore has to try and keep himself out of trouble.

Research and Planning - Animated Storyboard

Research and Planning - Film Poster Analysis

Transformers - Conglomerate film.

This is the poster for the first Transformers film. The genre is fantasy action, and we can tell this from the use of images of space and large robots at the top of the poster; the use of these images connotates the theme of aliens. The colours of the posters are quite dark, with brighter colours and high key lighting focusing on the characters, this makes it easy for the viewer to establish straight away that they are the hero's and heroine's. A long shot is used on the people, whereas a close-up is used on the robots, in a way, this helps portray the size of the robots in comparison to the robots.

The font of the title is very bold and a silver colour. It makes the text look like quite futuristic and technological, connotating there is a high use of technology in the film. It also links with the robot at the top right of the poster, as it looks like the text could be made of him. Fans of the television series will also be able to recognise the font straight away, as it is the iconic logo of the series. 

Typical of the genre of film magazines, the poster follows particular conventions. For example, this one contains the credits at the bottom listing the conglomerate stars, the release date, the film name and the production company. These are often positioned at the bottom in order for the reader to look at once the photo has captured their attention. 

The Hunger Games - Conglomerate film.

The Hunger Games film poster is very simple, there are few colours used and little text. Firstly, the dark colours connotate that the film, whilst being a children/teenager's film contains certain dark aspects. The bright orange represents fire and for those that are fans of the series of books know that the title of the second book is 'Catching Fire'. I think this links in with this poster as fire is a running theme throughout the books. The image used is the same one that is the logo of the series and is also the front cover of the first book. The book cover and this poster are very similar, making it more recognisable. The quote from the film at the top of the poster is also an important catchphrase in the film and I think it makes the audience who don't know what happens, feel more intrigued and want to find out more by watching it. This poster is created quite early in the marketing and distribution process of the film and we can tell this as it simply says 2012 as opposed to a specific release date. It doesn't seem to follow the same conventions as most film posters, as it does not have the cast written on it or a release date, however the orange stands out well against the black to catch attention, and the fact that there are books already released means there is already a fanbase created from the readers of the series. 

Monsters - Independent film.

As opposed to the other two films which are made by large, rich companies, this poster (and film) have been created independently. I have chosen to also analyse an independent, as they are likely to have used similar software to the ones myself and Lucy will be using - photoshop. This film poster contains fairly simple features, and although being about monsters, has no monsters on it. The poster tells us a little about the film by the use of the infected sign, however tends no to give too much away. There is a use of high key lighting, this makes the film look more like an action film rather than a horror, given the name I would assume it to be horror. There is big emphasis placed on the characters through the long shot and the positioning at the front of the frame, connotating the importance and the fact they are important. In the top corner, there is a slight bit of text, this is displayed in a scientific font, and says th date of release. This is clever as it stands out in the audience's mind rather than the normal layout a poster would follow with the date at the bottom. This poster follows more typical conventions than the Hunger Games as it has the cast names, credits, and release date written on it, I think this is because there is a more limited audience for independent films and they therefore cannot assume that there is an audience already there, they must make a more conscious effort to create synergy.

Research and Planning - Group Meeting 3

Today, we have started to create our trailer soundtrack. We have decided we would like to use an urban/rap song such as Eminem as the backing music. We will be using realistic sound effects which will be most likely diegetic. We have made a couple of GarageBands, however they will not upload.

Research and Planning - Plan For Next Week

Throughout this upcoming week I plan to have a group meeting with Lucy, create film poster drafts, carry out make-up tests and evaluate film magazines. We have a lot of work to carry out and are hoping to begin filming sometime next week.

Research and Planning - Equipment and Software List For Trailer

I will be using various pieces of technology in order to help me complete my work. The equipment and software I will be using are as follows.

EQUIPMENT.

Video camera: I will be using this to capture the footage for my trailer.

SLR digital camera: I will be using this to take high quality photos in which I can put on my magazine cover and poster.

Apple Mac: I will be using an Apple Mac to carry out all of the editing I will be doing for all of the trailer and poster design. I will also be using the various software on the Apple Mac.

SOFTWARE

Adobe Photoshop: I will be using this to create and put my magazine and poster together. I may also use it to adjust and edit any photographs I need.

Blogger: I will be using Blogger to post my work on and have a constant record of my progress and receive moderator and teacher feedback.

Garageband: I will be using garageband to create all the non-diegetic sound my trailer will be containing, including music, sound effects etc.

iMovie: I will be using iMovie to put together the footage I have recorded and edit it. I have used the majority of this equipment and software before, however this is one of the pieces that is new to me.

iPhoto: I will be using iPhoto to import the photos and videos off the cameras and onto the computer.