SOMNIUM TRAILER Final Edit

Somnium from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Poster and Magazine Cover Completed

Here is the final edit of our magazine cover. We are thoroughly pleased with the outcome and feel as though we have achieved a high level of professionalism by using all of the necessary conventions.

The final poster edit has again been a great success for the group as we feel it effectively promotes our media product. Furthermore, we believe it attracts an audience which enjoys the horror genre as this is clearly displayed through the various horror conventions.

Evaluation 4 - Who are your audience and what have your learned from your target audience?

Evaluation 3 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Somnium from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

In addition to our trailer, we intended to design and make a promotional package for our new film. We decided we would produce a poster and a magazine cover as both of these items are effective in advertising and promoting films to large numbers of people. The aim of our poster and magazine are to interest our potential audience by clearly expressing the genre of the film through both. The purpose of a poster is to show and not tell, in order to keep the viewer guessing and wanting to know more. A magazine cover on the other hand is designed to give readers a more detailed and informative insight into the film if they choose to read inside articles.

When we made our first plans on paper we were pleased with the designed and so kept to them almost perfectly but before doing this, we did some initial research into the conventions of both film posters and magazine covers. I found that posters have many necessary conventions for example a masthead which states the title of the film, a tagline, a main image, the release date and a billing black. All of these conventions allow the viewer to know all of the information they need if they intent to watch the film. We included all of these on our poster, with the title large at the top centre of the poster with a smaller font reading ‘A CHILDHOOD NIGHTMARE BROUGHT TO LIFE’ as the tagline. This tagline gives the audience a subtle insight into the narrative of the film, without giving too much away, and is also similar to the words of the intertitles. This links the two together showing that they are a package. Taglines are conventional for film posters as the idea is to keep the viewers wondering, similarly with film trailers.

We also included a billing block including names of various important people involved in the making of the production, for example director, producer, cast and more. Other conventions of a horror film poster include dark colour schemes, so we chose to use a dark grey scratched background with ghost like images of the cast overlaying. These features give a sense of fear and mystery and by doing this we were able to make the genre of our trailer much clearer to the audience, as oppose to if we used bright colours which often connote happiness.  The scratchiness links closely with the trailer as the titles throughout are also displayed on a similar background, and so therefore complement one another.  The scratches coming through on her faced also connote her struggle almost suggesting she is ‘broken’. This again creates questions about the narrative.

Titles from the trailer

Cracks through her face

The images we chose to include are a close up of Rosie’s terrified looking face and a plain and dark image of Evylyn Crick looking directly into the camera. The image of Evylyn appears behind Rosie which creates a feeling that she is watching you and her and makes the audience feel scared and threatened, which should allow the audience to identify that the poster is advertising a horror. This layout also links closely with the trailer itself, where it is evident that Evylyn is following and haunting Rosie throughout. We took the image of Layla on set when she was in full make up and costume. When shooting for the poster and magazine cover, we thought carefully about what kind of image would be best suited to the genre and storyline of our production. We took a variety of images of Rosie looking scared with make up running down her face as if she was crying, as the main narrative of the trailer is that she is being followed and taunted by her childhood nightmare and cannot escape. We have her looking in the opposite direction to make her look lost, alone and nervous. This makes viewers wonder what is troubling her and more importantly what Evylyn has to do with it. We also had her holding her hand in front of her face as this emphasised the idea that she is feeling scared and worried. This frightened image of Rosie links closely to many of the shots seen in the trailer, for example when she is crying on the bed.

We started in the same way for the magazine cover, by making some initial plans on a large sheet of paper. This allowed to mind map all of our first ideas ready to be refined soon after.

We used the same main image of Rosie for our magazine cover as the Poster in order to keep it recognisable for the audience; however we edited both pictures in different ways. While the poster images were quite light and ghost-like, our magazine cover involved us darkening the colours and adding a slightly reddish tone. We did this as the masthead (Grande Films) was also red. We kept this colour scheme of black, red and white constant throughout the whole cover as these colours connote danger and are also commonly seen in horror films. This helps to emphasise the genre to the readers. We chose to have a black background behind the image of Rosie as it creates a sense of unknown as it is unclear as to what could be waiting behind her.

We found that magazine covers, of all genres, also include necessary conventions which again give the reader all the information they need before buying. These include; a masthead, a main cover line, covers lines, a main image, strapline and more. We chose to follow these conventions in order to make our cover look professional as well as fully informing the reader. We positioned the masthead at the top centre of the page in a bold font aiming to stand out to the reader. We then inserted various cover lines about articles for new and upcoming films. The main cover line introduces an interview with the main character of our film which says ‘ROSIE GODDARD TALKS SOMNIUM’. We used the same font from the trailer for the word Somnium with the intention of linking the products together. This allows the audience to associate all of the products with each other.

Magazine

Poster

Trailer

Overall I feel that the combination of all our media products was effective in creating a complete promotional package. I feel we would be able to successfully sell out film through the trailer, poster and magazine cover that we have created, as each of them clearly tell the genre of the film and accurately display aspects of the narrative. The various themes we have used in each of the tasks is what makes them continually complement each other. Choosing to make both a poster and magazine cover allows us to reach out to a much wider audience, rather than if we were to just produce the trailer alone. We are happy with each of the products we have produced and think they will work very well together to promote out film, Somnium, as the connections between them all will grab the audience and make them very aware of the production.

Evaluation 2 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In the media, digital technology is used frequently throughout planning, production and distribution. During the making of our production I used a number of different software in order to present my research, planning, production and distribution in different and interesting ways.  To start I needed to research, which I presented on several mediums. I felt this was a more creative way of displaying information. I decided to present some of my research in presentations using PowerPoint; this creates a more interesting and easy read. It also allowed me to break the research down in to smaller parts using bullet points, which made it easier to reference back to when planning our own trailer.

I used YouTube to select an appropriate trailer to analyse in order to understand trailer production. From this I could see that Shutter Island is a successful and interesting film trailer. I created a PowerPoint presentation for this analysis as it allowed me to be separate my ideas into different parts, like shots and editing, locations, sound etc.  In order to get this research onto my A2 coursework blog I used a website called ‘Slideshare’. By using this I could upload my presentation in the correct format. It also gave me the opportunity to make my blog slightly more interactive and visually interesting.

I have used blogger to present all of my coursework in a digital format. This is useful as it can be accessed anywhere, whether it be a computer or a mobile device. It has also given me a more visually appealing way of expressing my ideas throughout the journey of my production. A problem with this web tool however is that the internet is necessary for its use; therefore if access were not available I wouldn't be able to update my blog. If this was a paper based assignment on the other hand, I would be able to update whenever I intended to with no problems. 

We used word documents for a number of things throughout the project. For example we produced consent letters that we handed to our cast to ensure they were happy to be part of the trailer. We also used word to create various questionnaires both in the research process and also to gather feedback on our final product. We also used word documents for a number of things throughout the project. For example we produced consent letters that we handed to our cast to ensure they were happy to be part of the trailer. We also used word to create various questionnaires both in the research process and also to gather feedback on our final product. Word is a good word processor to use for our planning as it structures the text in a way the blog doesn't. Last year we used Word to create scripts however this was not that suitable. When making plans for the production we used another software called ‘Celtx’ to create the script for the trailer and ‘Scribd’ to upload the script to blogger. Celtx made the script writing process much easier as we were able to make the script more efficiently as it provided us with a proper layout to work with. 

As part of planning, we devised call sheets using Microsoft Excel which included information about actors, locations, filming times and breaks. This allowed us to be organised when filming as we knew exactly what needed to be filmed at exactly what times during the filming period. Using a spreadsheet made it easier for us to put all the information we needed onto one organised page.

To edit and construct the trailer, the main software used was ‘Pinnacle Studios 10’. We used it to create the trailer and arrange our camera work into an order that was appropriate and conventional to film trailers. At the start of the project we were faced with various problems when using Pinnacle Studios as we had some technical difficulties. These were soon resolved though and we were able to create our trailer including everything we needed, to a standard that we were extremely pleased with. We edited the whole film using this software and it was beneficial for us as it gave us a fairly simple method for editing and producing the trailer, therefore helping our production to be successful. Pinnacle although was not as good as using a professional software such as it's parent company Avid, was alot better than using something basic such as Windows MovieMaker. The latter does not provide all of the effects we had available in Pinnacle. 

We also used ‘Audacity’ in the post production stage to change some of the sounds in the production. We found that Layla’s (Evylyn) voice when saying “get the girl” was too high pitched so we edited the tone and pitch to make it sound lower. This was vital for our production as it made this line in particular sound much more intense and frightening but also to make it sound more professional. By doing this we were able to make our trailer more representative of the horror genre.

To film the production we used a range of different tools to get the shots we needed. First of all, we used a Panasonic full HD SD camera to film the scenes we had planned. Sometimes we used the camera to create handheld shots, however most of the filming we done using a tripod. This allowed us to get steady shots which made the production look more professional and clear. The hand held camera shots were effective when edited into the trailer as is gave the scene an eerie tone as it is assumed the camera was standing in for Evylyn. I felt this was an effective use of the technology we had and as the camera was small it allowed us to succeed in creating it. 

After the production was complete, we used another software which was vital for us, Adobe Photoshop. This was used to create the poster and magazine cover for our ancillary tasks. I enjoyed this aspect of the project as it allowed us to express our creativity by making something that would help to promote our film. Photoshop was definitely the best software to use for these tasks as it includes all of the options we needed, for example the blur tool and colour altering. We were able to change the colours of our image so that they became more conventional of the horror, and positions text such as the billing block exactly where we needed them. We used the colour and lighting effects to ensure that the ancillary tasks fitted in with our main production. 

Vimeo is an online software that allows you to watch, upload and share videos. Vimeo and Youtube are used by the film industry as a way to reach out to technology savvy audiences. We used this to share our final production and also for my first evaluation of the trailer. Vimeo also allowed me to to take screen shots of the production where I needed to which I could display on my blog, so overall vimeo was a very essential software we used. Uploading the trailer to an online video sharing website allows us to use our twitter to contact and share it with our potential audience. We have used twitter as a means to further promote our trailer and access the young target audience who regularly use new technologies. Twitter is a way that the audience themselves promote a product instead of the production company. The audience becomes the producers in this respect. 

When beginning to write my evaluations, I decided to present them in different ways using different software, just to make them a little more attractive to read. These include a Powerpoint presentation evaluating my audience feedback and a DVD commentary where I speak over the trailer about how my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. I made this in Pinnacle Studio and uploaded it to Vimeo. The reason for using such a wide range of different technologies is because we wanted to make our coursework as interesting and creative as possible, and not just in the production itself and use a diverse range of new technologies. 

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Directors Commentary from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

To begin with, me, Frankie and Alexia decided we would create a thriller as we had experience in this genre, however this decision was altered when Gabby joined our group. We put our ideas together to come up with something scarier and more horror-like. With this in mind, we did some secondary research into conventions of thrillers and horrors by looking at various trailers of these genres and analysing them. I identified a variety of conventional techniques such as dark colour schemes and isolated locations. By carrying out this research we were able to apply some of the necessary conventions of a horror trailer to our own production. This benefited us extremely as it allowed us to create a professional looking trailer. Other primary research we did involved us handing out a questionnaire to a number of people asking things regarding horror film. By doing this we could identify who our target audience would be and what things in particular they were looking for in a good and effective horror film, for example we found that the majority of our sample would prefer a female hero. This research made it easier for us to produce something successful and worth watching as we could apply our findings to the trailer allowing us to conform to conventions of real media products.

Ryall put forward the idea of the genre triangle which links together the institution, text and audience. Genre is important to the audience and industry as particular genre films for example horror, are reliant on the success of other horror films which make the money to produce more films of that genre. We used this theory when making our trailer as due to the success of prior horror films, audiences will want to view ours.

When researching into the conventions of a trailer we found that many follow the same pattern. These include; fast paced editing, intense music/sound effects, dark colours and more. I feel we were successful in using and achieving all of these conventions. We applied each of these to our own production as we felt they were the most effective in creating a scary and powerful film trailer. We varied between slow and fast paced editing in order to make the faster parts even more concentrated and frightening.  In terms of colour we used a scheme of black and greys for the titles throughout the trailer. This created a more dark and dangerous quality throughout.  We also used a range of sound effects like loud bangs to emphasise certain parts for example with the titles. We did this in order to conform to typical conventions of horror trailers. Other conventions we conformed to were the use of reflections, which has been seen in many horror films for example ‘Mirrors’. We did this when our villain was walking and her reflection was seen in a puddle. This was a decision we made on set last minute, but could be seen as a representation of the evil character’s problematic spiritual presence in Rosie’s life, a presence that has followed her since childhood.

Vladimir Propp said that all almost all narratives will include a series of character types.  Our trailer involves traditional Proppian character types for example an antagonist who was Evylyn Crick and a protagonist who was Rosie. Although having an villainous character played by a woman challenges the conventions of women in real life, it is something that is often seen in horror films, for example ‘The woman in black’. We used a number of Barthes enigma codes in order to create mystery throughout the trailer by not revealing all the facts of the story. The aim of a trailer is to keep the audience guessing and wanting to find out more. We also included various binary oppositions, an idea put forward by Levi Strauss, for example good, which was represented by Rosie, and Evil represented by Evylyn. These character representations could also be seen as a binary opposition of human and supernatural, or sane and insane, all conventional of horror films.

When choosing people to act in our production we had to be sure that they would fulfil their roles correctly. I believe that all of our performers did an excellent job, particularly Layla who played ‘Evylyn Crick’. Even though she had less experience than the rest of the cast, we found that she settled well into her role and after going through costume, hair and makeup, she did a performance that thoroughly satisfied the whole group. When selecting our actors we took into consideration their acting history and ability before asking them to take part. Although this was an effective method for us this time, it may be more appropriate to hold auditions for our next production to compare a wider range of actors.

Over all we were successful in making our production conventional. According to our audience feedback, 100% could recognise that the trailer was advertising a horror film, showing that we followed genre conventions, and the majority said they would like to see this film if it were to be released. Our trailer is a very conventional horror trailer and will therefore attract and audience that enjoy viewing that kind of film.

Audience Feedback

Now that our trailer is complete, we invited a number of students to come and answer questions about our film in order to get some audience feedback. We felt this was an effective way to gain information as the audience were able to communicate with us verbally. This is better than jut using questionnaires as it allowed for a wider range of answers. Although not all of the audience answered we were still able to get the answers we had hoped for. Here is a video of the focus group and their feedback.



Audience Feedback from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Here is a summary of the answers we received in the audience feedback focus group interview. The feedback was overall very positive and so we were please with the things they said.

Twitter Account

The Woman In Black 2 - official twitter page

Twitter is a way in which production companies can advertise their film to a wide audience. The audience that uses Twitter can act as marketers for the film as they can like and share the trailer and posts. In order to further promote our trailer, we created a Twitter account which will give followers information and updates about the film and trailer. In doing so, the audience are able to connect with the film and become more involved.

Somnium's twitter page

We have also been able to gather more feedback from twitter users which lets us find out what the wider audience thinks of the trailer. This is great for promotion as when different people reply to the 'Somnium Film' account or use the hashtag #somniumfilm other people who are connected to them will see our page. This again helps to increase advertisement and therefore attract a wider audience.

Comments from the online audience

To view our twitter page click here.

Making the Poster and Magazine

Magazine
After planning we opened Photoshop and started with a plain black background for the magazine. We then inserted a red bold Masthead of 'GRANDE FILMS' that we created with a font we found on www.dafont.com, and added the first cover line. By using this website we were able to view and select from a much wider range of fonts. After researching into other magazine covers we found that they often used a variety of different dramatic fonts for titles. We decided to do something similar as we felt this gave an overall more interesting appearance for the reader. Our masthead is a bold red colour with white edging. This makes the cover more eye catching for readers. For each of the cover lines we used a different font, some bold and some thin, and also using different colours of white and red. This makes for a more interesting appearance and therefore helps to attract people's attention. For each of our cover lines we decided to include current media productions, as this will also attract the readers.  

Inserting text for cover lines.

First cover line completed

We then created and added other conventions of a magazine cover such a the plug, barcode, price, more cover lines and the magazine website. All of these things are designed to give the reader all of the information they need about the contents of the magazine. We made the plug bold red to get the readers attention, with black and white writing inside advertising what can be seen inside the magazine.

Poster

Producing the poster was different as it is more concerned with the imagery than words and writing. When working in Photoshop we used various tools to edit the image. We did this by inserting both images of Rosie and Layla and cutting around them roughly. Then using the blur tool we worked around the images to create closer and more refined edges that blended into the background more effectively. We added the billing block which consists of names of important members of the cast and crew, and also the logos of the production companies involved.

Blurring the edges.

We then added the background of the poster which is a dark grey scratchy image and the positioned the photograph of Layla in costume at the bottom left, appearing behind Rosie. We made it so that the cracks from the background were showing over Rosie's face as this represents the idea that she is 'broken' and struggling. We added the title in the same white font we have used in the trailer and magazine cover. We also put some ratings at the top of the page as this is a convention of film posters, while attracting an audience. If films have higher ratings the audience are more likely to want to watch it.

We also edited the brightness of the images to make them appear both darker and lighter in certain areas and so more mysterious. The high contrast between the dark and light creates a chiaroscuro effect on the poster which is a conventional lighting technique of the horror genre.

Adjusting the lighting.

Photoshoot

When deciding on what pictures we would use for our magazine cover and poster, we straight away knew that Rosie would be the main image on both. This is because she plays one of the main roles in the film.

From looking at other magazine covers we found that the villain is not usually seen. We photographed her in front of a black curtain as we planned for this to be the background for the cover. We wanted her to look as frightened and worried as possible in order to portray the pain and struggle she faces throughout the film. In order to achieve this we used water and applied make up around her eyes to make her appear as though she was crying.

We took a few images but decided she looked most frightened with her hands in front of her face. This emphasized the worry and made her look more scared. Here are some of the images we captured.

The main image of  Rosie for our poster and magazine cover

For the poster we decided to have both Rosie and Evylyn's characters on display. We have decided to use a photograph from a filming day when she was in full hair and make up. Initially when we took the image for our production diaries, we though it was particularly eerie due to the lighting in the shot. We will have the picture of Layla in the background of the poster to make her look like he is following Rosie. 

Poster and Magazine Plans

Magazine
Planning the poster and magazine cover was quite simple as we had done lots of research into the conventions of both of them. Our biggest challenge was choosing the images to use. Once we decided on our layout and image we arranged with our actress, Rosie, a suitable time and place to photograph her.

We began to make the magazine cover by fist designing a plan on paper. I drew out an idea of how the cover would look and labelled it with specific conventions. We chose to name the magazine 'Grande Films'. For this we took inspiration from various other film magazines we had looked at. We found that many of the biggest and most successful ones had simple yet powerful words, such as 'Empire' and 'Total Film'.

As you can see from the plans, we decided to use a red masthead as we feel it is very effective in creating a bold and eye catching title. This colour also connotes danger and against a black background we feel will also make for a dark and therefore suitable cover for a horror issue.

Poster
We went about designing the Poster in the same way by first writing down our key ideas in the form of mind maps and a diagram on a large sheet of paper. These paper plans will allow us a helpful visual aid when it comes to creating them on Adobe Photoshop.

We have chosen to use a colour scheme of black and grey, as this links to the colours in our trailer. We took inspiration again from other film posters in particular 'The Woman In Black 2' which shows both character types (antagonist and protagonist) and a similar colour scheme.

Poster and Magazine Flat Plans

Poster Flat Plan

Magazine Cover Flat Plan

Conventions of Posters and Magazine Covers

As a group we have chosen to produce a poster and a magazine cover to advertise our production. I have researched into the various conventions of both of these.

Posters

• Masthead - this is the title of the film. it needs to be big and eye catching for the viewer. It tells the the audience the name of the film and often also hints at the narrative.
• Tagline - this is a sentence that gives a little extra information of the narrative. It can be a quote from the film or just a general comment.
• Release date - this is essential on the poster for the viewer to know exactly when the film will be available to them if they wish to see it.
• Main image - the main image on the poster should have strong significance to the narrative of the film. It gives viewers an opportunity to get a sense of what will happen throughout the film. It may be of one or more main characters, simply be a shot form the film highlighting the location, or maybe a significant object or image from the story.
• Directors - the directors of the film may be mentioned on the poster as some viewers will see the film based on who it is directed or produced by.
• Billing block - this includes the most important people involved in the film for example director, production companies, editors, actors and more.

The Conjuring - Poster

Magazine Covers

• Masthead - Rather than the title of the main film being featured, the masthead is the name of the magazine. This is usually very large and bold at the top of the page to highlight exactly what the reader is reading.
• Main image - On a magazine cover the main image is of the main film that is being featured in that particular issue. This image is always of one or more of the main characters in that film. This draws the readers in if it is a powerful image that they are a fan of.
• Main cover line - This states the title of the main film being featured so the audience are aware of what they can expect to be reading about. It should be bold and eye catching for readers to make it as clear as possible.
• Cover lines - These tell readers what else will be included inside the magazine so they know what to expect when they're buying. They they introduce the other smaller stories that can be read.
• Strapline - This is a short sentence indicating what about the film will be included in the magazine, for example it may say something like 'exclusive interviews with cast members' so that the reader can know what kind of things to expect when reading the article inside.
• Barcode and price - The price is important for the reader when purchasing the magazine.

The Woman In Black - Magazine Cover

Film Rating

Having researched into the BBFC guidelines, we have chosen to give our production a 15 rating. This means that nobody under this age is allowed to watch the film at the cinema or buy/rent it. If we were to make the whole film it would include the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language
• strong threat

All of these features are ones that would be expected in a 15 rated film or video. According to the BBFC, 'moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12A or 12A as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing'. For this reason we decided no to rate it as 12 due to the fact our film would expect to see frequent horror sequences intended to disturb viewers in some way. We have chosen to include violence and threat in order to make the film appear a horror. Without these element the film would be less intense and want our audience to be fully engaged.

We also considered the hypodermic needle theory when making this decision which suggests that audiences are 'injected' by the media and therefore influenced. It is said that children are more passive users of media and so it is important that they do not watch films that include adult themes and are not suitable for them, as they may become influenced by the horror events that take place throughout. For example in the case of James Bulger, it was said that two boys had watched 'Childs Play 3' (a film rated 18) and were heavily influenced by it, leading them to murder the young boy, James.

Fonts

We had to think carefully about the fonts that we would use throughout our trailer and ancillary tasks as we wanted to clearly represent the genre through style of writing. We used a website called www.dafont.com where thousands of different fonts are available. For the main title of the film, 'Somnium' we decided to look for something quite jagged as the sharp edges can connote danger and violence. Films such as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' use such fonts which are thin and sharp.

The font we decided on is like this but has a more scratchy effect. This was perfect as the background for our titles is similar. We too inspiration for this idea from the titles from 'Se7en' which has an extremely effective title sequence at the start of the film. It involves the use of scratches and dark colours to connote horror.

The final title for the film was something we are very pleased with, and we will use the same one for out poster and magazine cover. By doing this we can link all of the products together. Here is the final title which will appear at the end of the trailer.

For the intertitles we decided to use a different font which was more bold and formal as this would make quick reading easier for the audience. The boldness of these titles also makes them stand out more on the grey background, making them seem more intense when accompanied by the sound effects. We found this font on www.dafont.com also as it was a simple way to look through and select from a wide number of different fonts. We used this font on the poster too in order to keep our trailer strongly linked with our ancillary task.