This is a post about my final media products which I have created. I have created a film trailer, a film magazine front cover and a film poster for my film. All of my media products have been created through the influences in my research. By doing this I can study and learn about the type of genre I am focusing on. From my research I have learnt about codes and conventions of the horror genre and all the connotations of the horror genre to. Here are my three media products:
To get feedback about my film trailer I showed my trailer to a group of year 8 students to get feedback about what they thought of my film. The headings on the feedback sheets are, 'What does this film remind you of? Strengths, Weaknesses'.
Here I have 15 soundtrack ideas for my film trailer. The soundtracks that I have decided to use for my trailer is numbers 9 and 13. Track 9 is the soundtrack from the film "Saw V (5)" I have used the first part of this soundtrack which has been dubbed over my ident at the very start of the trailer. I am only using the first twenty-two seconds of the soundtrack and the reason I am only using that part is because the creepy nature of this section of the soundtrack and it fits well with the ident which I am using. The ident I am using is Lionsgate. For the rest of the trailer I am using a soundtrack from the game "Gears of War". The reason I am using this is because of it's slow start to the song and then it's build up to the fast paced music and then slowed down as it gets towards the end. This music fits really well because of its upbeat tempo which will get the audience excited. Below the two links of the chosen soundtracks for my trailer are all my original fifteen ideas for my soundtrack.
1. The first stage of development in making my magazine front cover was that I had chosen the image that I wanted to use. I didn't like the positioning of the original image and decided to flip the image 180 degrees so that it was positioned in my desired position. I have also resized the image to make it larger to make the child in the image stand out more when the magazine cover is complete.
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2. The second stage of development of my magazine cover is that I have altered the contrast of the image to make certain parts of the image lighter in contrast like the window sil and the top half of the child's body and the rest of the image darker so that my image complies with the horror genre.
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3. The third stage of my film magazine front cover is that I have this time inserted the masthead of the magazine. The masthead of the magazine is has an Old English Style font and is positioned in such a place that the title is not in the way of any important features on the cover. The colour of the text is white but at the moment in this image it doesn't seem to comply with the codes and conventions of the horror genre.
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4. In the fourth stage of development I have given two different effects to the masthead called a stroke effect and an outer glow effect. Once these effects have been added to the masthead it gives the text a more of a horror effect which makes the magazine cover comply with the codes and conventions of horror. These effects that have been added give the black outline to the text and black has connotations of horror and death and the red outer glow has connotations of blood and danger. I have also included the title of the film in the magazine cover, the title of the film is "NIGHT SCHOOL" and has a Chiller font style to it which makes it comply with horror. I have rendered the text black and gave it a red stroke effect to make it stand out on the background.
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5. In this next stage of development I have changed the font style of the masthead to a bold serif font called Wide Latin, the font colour is black which has a connotation of death and relates to the horror genre. The font style used makes the magazine itself look more like a film magazine and has a similar style font to those of the magazine covers I have already analysed. Also in this stage of development I have added a dateline and price tag which is positioned underneath the masthead which has a Gill Sans Ultra Bold font style which gives the text a modern font because of it's curvature. I have also inserted the main headline of the magazine in the same font as the dateline and price tag to keep the magazine cover consistant and modern. At this stage of development the text colour I have used is white but has no does not fit well with the codes and conventions of horror.
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6. In this stage of development I have inserted two pugs in the top left hand corner of the magazine cover which tell the audience about features in the magazine. I have positioned them in a place were they are not covering any important factors of the magazine cover. They are positioned well to the left and by doing this the audience can still see the full top half of the child in the image and his reflection in the window. I have used the actual "James Bond 007" logo which I retrieved off the internent and edited the image on Adobe Photoshop. The text used by each pug is Gill Sans Ultra Bold the same as the dateline, price tag and main headline. This is so the magazine looks modern and consistant.
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7. In the next stage of my magazine cover development is that I have added two more pugs in the bottom-left hand corner of the page as well as a support story to the right of those pugs. I have inserted two images about current films called, "Taken 2" and "Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2" and I have rotated them slightly to make them look more modernised. The font style I have used again for the text is Gill Sans Ultra Bold which keeps the magazine looking consistant and follows a certain 'house style'.
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8. The next stage of my magazine cover development is that I have inserted a barcode in the empty space in the bottom-right hand corner and I have also altered the pugs I originally used on in the bottom-left hand and also altered the support story I originally used. The font style I have used is still the same to keep the magazine consistant. The reason I have changed the the pugs and support story is so that the main focus of the magazine is my film, "Night School".
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9. In this next stage of development I have started to add effects to all the text and images on the magazine cover. I have added to the masthead of the magazine a stroke effect which gives the text a white outline an a red outer glow effect. By adding these effects the text now complies more with the connotations of the horror genre as red has a connotation of danger and blood were black has a connotation of death. I have added these effects to every element of this magazine cover accept the barcode. The reasons I have done this is so my magazine has connotations of the horror genre. Another effect that I have added is a drop shadow and also a bevel and emboss effect. I have added a drop shadow to the main headline, support story and the pug texts. The bevel and emboss effect has been applied to the title of the film which gives the text a shine to it to make it stand out more to the audience. The reason I have added these effects is so the magazine complies more with the codes and conventions of the horror genre and makes the cover look more noticable and modern.
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10. The tenth stage of my magazine front cover development is that I have inserted very small text inside the capital letters of the masthead. Inside the letter 'P' I have inserted text saying, "PRIME" in a Wide Latin style font. I have done the same in the letter "T" which says "TIME". I have rendered the text white so that it stands out.
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11. In the last stage of development all I have done is added the names of two of the cast from the film Night School. The text style used is Gill Sans Ultra Bold with a stroke, outer glow and drop shadow effects to them. The reason I have inserted them is so the audience has a little more information about what is included in the magazine.
Paramount Pictures logo includes twenty four stars which come from the clouds and circle around a mountain top. The mountain is based on a mountain in Utah in the United States of Amercia. After the stars surround the mountain top then the Paramount logo comes down and fits inbetween the mountain top and the surrounding stars. The ident I have chosen here is the 100th Anniversary ident that Paramount have created to celebrate the company becoming 100 years old. The original ident used by Paramount had twenty four stars because at the time Paramount had twenty four 'stars' or actors contracted to them. So this was a sign of recognition to those actors giving them their own individual star. This ident has reverted back to using twenty four stars 100 years on from when Paramount Picutures first began. I am not going to be using this ident for my film trailer because I don't feel as though this ident suits my genre of film even though it is their most updated ident so that it is not out of date. The reason I am not using this ident is because the colours used in this ident don't comply with the codes and conventions of the horror genre and Paramount Pictures is not well known for horror films.
2. Lionsgate
The Lionsgate ident inlcludes many mechanical cogs which work in unison and the camera passes through them and out of a key hole. The ident then reveals gates with lions engraved on them and opens to reavel the Lionsgate logo in the clouds. Lionsgate is a very well know company for horror films. Horror films such as the Saw franchise, Texas Chainsaw 3D and The Possession. And currently Lionsgate's highest grossing film is The Hunger Games. Lionsgate was founded on May 26 1986 but at this time Lionsgate was known as IMI Computer Corp. Later on IMI Computer Corp would become Beringer Gold Corp and then eventually Lionsgate Entertainment. Lionsgate is an ident which I am going to consider for my film trailer because of its history of supporting well known horror films. Another reason I feel this is because it has a good colour scheme which complies with the codes and conventions of horror and its marketability.
3. Dreamworks
3. The ident which Dreamworks uses features a boy fishing whilst sat on the moon. The boy is the son of one of the co-founders of Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg. Dreamworks was founded in 1984 and the founders of Dreamworks are, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. The ident start offs with a reflection of the moon in a lake and a fishing line with a float hits the water. The rest of the ident is dominated by clouds and space. The camera then travels up through the clouds to reveal a bright white boy fishing whilst sitting on a cresent moon. From this the name of the company Dreamworks appears as it fades in and the letter 'D' is merged with the moon. Dreamworks has distributed films such as Shrek 2, The Island and War of the Worlds. Dreamworks Home Entertainment's ident has connotations of a dream world because it is though you are in a dream because your up in the clouds. Dreamworks' Ident is not an ident which I am going to use because it does not connotate the horror genre because of its colour scheme and music used.
4. Columbia
4. Colombia Pictures' ident features a woman holding a flame torch and clothed in clothes patterned with the American flag. The American flag represents Colombia, a state in the United States of America. Colombia Pictures was founded in 1924 and the original logo didn't feature the woman who represents it today but a female Roman Soldier who held a stick of wheat in her right hand and a shield in her left. The ident starts with a zoom out to reveal the main focus of the ident which is the woman and the bright shining torch. The woman used in this ident now was created from a live painting and was digitally edited to make the woman look more 3D than it's 2D original painting.
5. MGM
5. MGM stands for Metro, Goldwyn and Mayer. MGM was founded by Marcus Loew and the names Metro, Goldwyn and Mayer stand for Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. The name was created when founder Marcus Loew took control of these companies. MGM has Incorporated a lion into every ident which they have created since the company was founded in 1924. MGM is famous for distributing famous cartoons such as Tom & Jerry and Droopy. There have been six lions used since the start of MGM and all have their own names, the first lion used was Slats the Lion and was used between 1917-1928, the second lion was called Jackie the Lion and was used from 1928-1956. The third lion, Tanner the Lion used between the years 1934-1956 during which time they swapped between Tanner and Jackie. The forth lion, George the Lion, used between 1956-1958 and lastly Leo the Lion used from 1957 to the present lion which we see on our screens today. MGM also used to feature parody idents by using such characters as Tom from Tom & Jerry insted of the lion for selected episodes. This ident is very simple but rememberable because all it features is the lion and its surroundings. The lion lets out a big, loud roar to the audience. This is an ident I will consider because of its connotations. Black which is the colour that dominates the ident has connotations of death so it will relate well to my film genre.
6. Pixar
6. The ident here for Pixar Animated Studios is a very simple ident. This ident has a duration of thirteen seconds and involves a still logo of the word Pixar on a light blue background and a table lamp hoping over to it and squashing the letter 'I' and therefore taking it's place. Pixar is famous for the distribution of Toy Story 1,2 and 3, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. Pixar is used for animated films and does not relate to the horror genre that my film is. Pixar was founded in 1979 as the Graphics Group. Pixar's ident does not have any connotations of the horror genre what so ever. The colour scheme is to bright and is to friendly to be a horror film ident.
7. Walt Disney
7. The Walt Disney Company was founded by the brothers Walter and Roy Disney in 1923. In the present day Walt Disney is a household name across the World for its deserved fame. The ident I have chosen here features the Cinderella Castle which is featured in every Walt Disney theme park in the world, by a lake. Star dust travels over and falls onto the castle with the words Walt Disney Studios appearing on the ident. This is an ident which does not favour my genre of film because it does not follow any codes and conventions of the horror genre what so ever. This ident is mainly used on children's films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Brave and The Muppets. These films are in the catorgy of the family films genre. The colours used in this ident also do not connotate horror because of the bright lights of the castle which also connotates princesses because a princess lives within a castle. And also the star dust used aswell which has no connotations of horror so this isn't an ident which will feature in my trailer.
8. Universal Studios
8. Universal Studios was founded in the year 1912 and is currently this year celebrating it's one hundred year anniversary. Universal Studios is the longest running motion picture studios outside of Hollywood. It is currently the third longest living motion picture studios in the world, coming third to Gaumont Pictures and then Pathe and the fourth oldest is Paramount Pictures. Universal Studios has distributed films such as American Pie, Babe, Fast and Furious and Jurassic Park. Universal Studios ident starts off were the audience can see the planet Earth from space and the words in gold and silver says Universal and under that 100th Anniversary circles to the front of the Earth as the camera zooms further out. This is an ident which I am not going to use for my film trailer because it does not contain any connotations of horror.
9. 20th Century Fox
9. 20th Century Fox was founded in the year 1935 after merging with Fox Film Corporation which was founded twenty years earlier by William Fox and also merging with 20th Century Pictures which was founded by Darryl F Zanuck in the year 1933. 20th Century Fox is best known for films and television programmes such as Star Wars, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Home Alone and Ice Age. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). 20th Century Fox is not well known for horror films and their ident doesn't display any codes and conventions which comply with the horror genre. The ident is to friendly and the colour scheme is to bright so therefore will not work. The ident starts off with an upbeat drum beat so straight away the codes and conventions of horror are not there. The camera tilts and zooms out to reveal the 20th Century Fox logo on top of a hill overlooking a city with spot lights shining onto it. With the bright lights, music and the colour scheme this ident does not display any codes and conventions of horror so I will not be using it for my film.
10. Warner Bros.
10. Time Warner is the parent company of Warner Bros. from 1989 onwards and was founded in 1918 as Warner Bros. Studios by four brothers called Harry, Albert, Jack and Sam Warner. Warner Bros. has encorporated many different logos over the years since 1918. Here is all of the logos Warner Bros. have used:
From 1923 the logo used by Warner Bros. is predominantly a shield up until 1972 - 1984 were the logo used, known as "The Big W" is an curved square on a plain black background. This is a simple logo but the logo designers changed from 1984 back to the original shield. Warner Bros. ident starts off with a view of Warner Bros. Studios with a gold shade to the image. From this the Warner Bros. logo is revealed as the camera zooms out and the shield rotates into place in the centre of the frame. Warner Bros. ident is not an ident which I am going to use for my film trailer because with the colour scheme and friendly appearence this ident does not display any of the codes and conventions of the horror genre and therefore will look out of place in my film trailer.
My Chosen Ident
The ident which I have chosen to use for my film trailer is ident number 2 which is the ident used by Lionsgate. I have chosen this ident because of its well known fame for distributing horror films, this gives my film trailer good marketability because of it's well known success. Another reason is because of the colour scheme which this ident has, most of the ident is darkened and black which have connotations of death and complies with the codes and conventions of the horror genre.
This is the cover for my film magazine cover. I have used the same background image twice for both my film teaser poster and now my magazine cover. The reason I have did this is beause I feel the image fits really well into both the poster and magazine cover.
1. Joe Westall - Joe's character is a painter so his costume had to resemble the costume of a painter. He is wearing brown overalls covered with paint splatter. He has a paint bucket were he holds his paintbrushes, a wool hat and steel - toe capped boots aswell. The reasons that he wore these was that his character was a painter so I had to make him look like a painter so the audience would know what kind of character he is.
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2. Chris Lille - Chris' character is a labourer so he wore a grey polo shirt with a company logo on it. He also wore black work pants and black steel - toe capped boots aswell. The reason he wore these was because a typical labourer wears work pants and steel - toe capped boots for safety reasons. This was also to make Chris' character more realistic to the viewers. The props Chris used was a tool box and the reason he had this was so he looked more like a labourer.
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3. Elliot Hardie - My character was the boss as well as a builder. My costume I wore a grey jumper, navy work pants and black steel - toe capped boots. The props for my character were a tool box, paper, a tool belt in which I carried a hammer and work gloves that were attached to my pants.
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4. Kirsty Pierce - Kirsty's character was a labourer. She wore black company overalls with boots and a highvisability vest aswell. She had to resemble a labourer and by her costume and props she did. The high vis vest is put in place because she didn't look like a worker when she didn't wear it and for that reason I made her wear it.
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5. Matthew Hardie - Matthew is the villain in this trailer and plays a possessed school boy who never leaves the school. Because he was a school pupil in this trailer he wore his school uniform but we made it look untidy by lowering the school tie and untucking half of his shirt. He wore black make-up around his eyes to make his eyes look darker when on film. The props that Matthew used was a hammer which is used as a weapon.
1. First stage of development: In this stage I inserted the picture I wanted to use for my film poster, the picture I have used is Matthew (The Villain) staring out of the window. The main reason I chose this image was because of the effect the lighting outside the building had on the picture. Giving the picture a horror effect. All I did to this picture when editing it was change the contrast to make the picture look darker than it already was and the bright orange light I enhanced the lighting to make Matthew stand out more in the reflection in the window.
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2. The second stage of development when creating my film poster is adding the title to the film on the poster. The font I have used is the Chiller font which gives the text a horror look about it and complies with the horror house style. The size of the text is used to make it stand out and the audience know this is the title and is the most important piece of text used on the poster because it is the biggest. Also I have positioned the title just under the middle of the picture this way you can see the top half of Matthew clearly and there is still room to fit text underneath the title in the bottom half of the poster. The effects I have used on the text is a stroke effect. This allows the colour of my text to be black which complies with the codes and conventions of the horror genre. This effect gives the text its red outline.
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3. The third stage of development of my film poster is that I have added a tagline for the film which says, 'THE PUPIL THAT NEVER WENT HOME'. The font used for the tagline is Chiller again, this is to keep the poster consistant with style of text and still complies with the codes and conventions of the horror genre. The colour of the text is white as it stands out on the background behind it and the font size is smaller than the title because it is not ment to stand out as much. A Billing Block has been used under the title with a list of the production companies, producers, directors etc. actors list, websites, social networking sites and where the film can be viewed. The text again is Chiller font and the size of the font is 6pt and 8pt. The effects used on the Billing Block is an outer glow and a stroke effect. Even though the text is small these effects make it stand out more.
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4. In the next stage of development with my film poster I have included the production companies' logo which is 'Liongate' and the date line at the bottom of the poster with the release date of the film which is December 24th 2012. The date line has a bigger font than the Billing Block as it is of more importance. This is what tells the audience when the film will be released. The font used is again Chiller to keep the poster consistant with the codes and conventions of the horror genre and the colour of the text is white to make it stand out. The logo of the production company for the film, 'Lionsgate' is the actual lionsgate logo. To get it to look like this I inserted a picture of the logo, deleted the background and added a stroke effect to it giving the logo its outline. Now the logo complies with the horror codes and conventions and has incorporated it's own unique look to comply with the film itself.
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5. The fifth stage of development for my film poster is that now added to the poster is the 'Restricted logo' and another logo of 'Thomas-Hardie Studios'. Adding the restricted logo to the poster has gave the audience what kind of audience the film will be aimed at. When a restricted logo is included the minimum age for someone to see a film is 17 years of age. This tells the audience it is a film that is aimed at older people and to scary for younger children. The Thomas-Hardie Studios logo has a more friendly feel about it and the font style is Forte which gives the text a Serif look to it. The colour is white and has an outer glow and stroke effect on the text.
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6. The sixth stage of my film poster development is that two more logos have been added. The first logo imported is the 'IMAX' logo which tells the audience that the film will be shown in IMAX format and enhances the audiences filiming experience. The other logo imported is the 'ODEON' cinema logo. This is to show were the film will be shown.
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7. This stage of development of my film poster is that firstly I have added an outer glow and stroke effect to the tagline at the top of the poster. This makes the poster stand out more and with the airy glow of red which is a connotation of blood and danger the text now complies more with the codes and conventions of a horror film. The next effect I have included is the Bevel and Emboss effect as well as the outer glow effect on the film title. The Bevel and Emboss effect creates an effect were the text now has a reflective glow coming from parts of the text. The glow makes the text stand out alot more and fits into the horror genre because of the red glow which connotates danger, fear and blood. I have also turned the contrast of the main background image down even further to make the picture even darker. I have enhanced the contrast slightly on bright areas such as the window sil and Matthew's body and face. The last effect which I have included is on the date line at the bottom of the page. I have again used an outer glow and stroke effect to make the dateline stand out.
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8. After adding all the effects to my film poster I had realised that I have made a few mistakes that I had to change. First of all I had to change the tagline because it was grammatically incorrect, the tagline first read, "THE PUPIL THAT NEVER NEVER WENT HOME" I had to change the tagline to, "THE PUPIL WHO NEVER WENT HOME" so that the tagline was grammatically correct. I have also rearranged the bottom half of the poster containing the billing block, dateline for the release date of the film and all of the company logos including an IMAX, Odeon, Restricted, Thomas-Hardie Studios and Lionsgate logo. I have repositioned the logos so that they are across the bottom of the poster, the reason I have done this is because the posters that I have analysed in my research have the logos at the bottom of the poster. I have repositioned the dateline just below the title and moved it from the bottom, this is because of the same reason I moved the logos to the bottom of the poster.
Everything that I have used to create this poster have been done for a reason. I have kept the poster consistant throughout using the same font style which was 'Chiller'. This font is a horror style font and complies with the horror codes and conventions. I have used and outer glow and stroke effect for all of the text to make it stand out and I have purposly used a image which is mostly dark to comply that my film poster is for a horror film.
