Chosen photos

Chosen photos

 

These are our two chosen photos in which we have took that we will use on for our poster.

 

 

 

This is our chosen photo for our male protagonist. This photo is just what we wanted and it connotes the film noir feel. The lighting really works well with half of the face being light and half being dark, helping to suggest the danger and darkness. Also the shadows from the lighting creates the shadows which look really good and dramatic, which is what we wanted to achieve. We didn't want our model to be looking directly at the camera as we wanted to create a mysterious and dramatic look. But also to make the audience think that something is wrong as it's going against the conventions by not looking directly at the camera. Adding to this, with the backgroundb being plain black this helps again to create the dark dramatic feel and maybe the audience can get a hint of what is to come in the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

This is our chosen photo for our femme fatale. This photo again really works for us and from the photo workshop we gained some really great skills in which we have shown on this photo. Again we didn't want her to be looking directly at the camera, as we wanted to subvert the conventions to create that mysterious feel again as our film trailer is all about mystery. Using the lighting, we created a shadow behind our model. This worked really well as it will help the audience understand it is film noir as shadows are a typical convention. Also the lighting gives that half dark ,half light look on our femme fatales face, connoting the dark and evil nature of her that could be within our film and trailer. Adding to this another typical convention of film noir is the red lipstick, the colour red indicates evil and death. 

 

 

 

 

Within our photos we have added typical film noir conventions and icongraphy but also we have subverted some of the conventions to create mystery for our audiences. We have done this as audiences will makes assumptions as to what our film is about and to who is the bad and good guy. As we want our film trailer and poster to be really mysterious and not give to much away, we felt that what we have included will really help our ideas. As the red lipstick on our femme fatale suggest that she is evil and death could be foreseen, although maybe in our actuall film it could be a tottal different story and this will give the audience a intellectual pleasure. Also because of male protaginist is a detective, audience may assume that he is a good guy as he's involved with the police. But this could be subverted within our film, as he could in actual fact turn out to be the bad guy.                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magazine front cover influence

Magazine influence

When looking at noir films and also when researching into magazine front covers me and Ryan came across this front cover. The inception front cover is a really good influence for us as it involves the image of New York in the background which we also want to get into our front cover. Although it's not tottaly obvious it's New York, this is the feel that we wanted to put on our magazine. The darkness of the background especially gives it that noir feel but also it works well with the image of the actor on the front as it stands out a lot more and the writing also stands out, appealing to the reader and drawing their attention.

Font development

Font Development

 

For our magazine front cover and the poster we wanted the same font so that each piece of media would link together and be recognised as similar products for the film.

As we are creating the front cover and the poster on photoshop, it would be best to look through the different fonts on photoshop to see which ones could be potential fonts for our poster and magazine that will be suitable and also fit what we want for our font. We used the word 'Flashbacks' to test the fonts as it's our film title.  We also chose to do the font test with the font colour red as it will probably be the colour of our film title.  

 

 

 

We picked 8 fonts which we liked that would help connote the film noir style but also which would be readable and easy for the audience to see, read and be attractive on the eye.

 

We wanted our title to be big and bold yet simple also easy to read and give a bit of a noir feel.

 

 

1. We quite liked number one as it was big and bold, although it wasn't very easy to read and the letters were so big that it was very readable so it wouldn't be very good and wouldn't be very attractive to the audience.

 

2.It is again big,bold and is quite easy to read. I quite liked it although Ryan thought it was quite boring.

 

3. It is quite bold, but it's not very readable. I don't like this as I think it's quite boring and looks old, where as we want it to be a modern font to link with the modern noir style film.

 

4. We really liked this font. This could be our chosen one. It's simple but still bold and big and stands out really well, so it will be attractive and be easy on the eye. We also think that it gives a noir style. The colour red also works really well with this font and so this colour be our chosen one.

 

5. I quite liked this font, it was quite big and bold and gave a noir feel, atlhough Ryan didn't like it as much.

 

6. We think this font is quite boring and isn't bold enough or big enough. Also it's itallics which I didn't like as it didn't really fit with anything yet it is still very readable but not very attractive.

 

7.We didn't really like this font. It wasn't very noir style. It's quite boring and isn't bold also maybe we think it's a little too simple but it is quite readable.

 

8. This font is quite boring and isn't that bold, it's qutie easy to read but again don't really think it's fits with anything but could still be used.

 

 

The font which we have chosen to use is font number 4. We have decided on this one as it's simple but effective and gives that film noir feel, It's quite atttractive but at the same time it equals as being really readable and easy on the eye.

 

 

 

Image Manipulation

Image Manipulation

 

 

When we took our chosen image for our front cover we then wanted to manipulate it to create different effects with the image to help generate a more film noir feel but also to look better to fit with our magazine and also to fit with the rest of the products that we are creating so people can tell that they are part of a package.

 

 

 

This is the image that I took in New York which is our chosen image for our magazine background. We wanted to manipulate this image to create a blurred, dark and mysterious image which we came to when researching film magazines from another film noir front cover.

 

 

 

 

 This is the image after we played around on photoshop and changed things. We added a blur to the image, to make the image distorted as we didn't want the image to be really clear yet we still wanted to be able to see that it's set in New York. Next we changed the levels, saturation and the brightness, we turned the brightness down a lot and changed the levels and saturation quite a bit.

We wanted a really dark scene, as we wanted it to look like night but also this connotes the danger that could be to follow within the film. The levels help create a great effect with the sky and it looks quite dramatic as the sky is dark but still quite light but then there are significant darker parts which work well.      

 



New York

New York

 

I went on a trip to New York for a Holiday, because of having before this created our storyboard and all our ideas. We took advantage of this factor, and decided to set our film in new york and to show this I could take photos and some shots for our trailer, poster and magazine.

 

These are some of the shots that I took which potentially be used for our magazine.
Although some of these images have already got effects on from the camera but some of them don't.

 

 

 

 

These images are all photos that we could use as they all show some representation of the setting of New York, although thinking about the whole magazine layout and formation of everything some of them didn't work quite. We have decided that we will use this image for our magazine. It's a view from the empire state building, so it gives an amazing view of the whole of New York city, also this image gives a clear view and we think that it would be an amazing background for our magazine front cover added with image minipulation.    

 

 

 

Revised Storyboard

New Storyboard

 

From feedback and further research we decided to revise our storyboard, adding in new camera angles and new shots and changing a few of them.

• We decided from looking at other noir style films that we wanted main character narration throughout our trailer, therefore we looked at what we could say and we added a few lines of main protagonist narration to our trailer tp help get the film across but still not giving too much away.  
• We also decided that we wanted to add a dramatic sound bridge of walking feet to link with what is happening at that moment with what was happening in that shot.
•  Then we added a skewed close up shot of feet walking,this shot gives an extra noir feel to the trailer but also create mystery as you can only see the feet and will not know who the person is.
• Adding to this we added a scene with the two main characters in which they walk past each other in the rain, and the femme fatale looks at the main protagonist and he doesn't acknowledge him. This again helps create the noir feel with the rain but also generates mystery and people will want to know whats going on so therefore they will go and see the film which is our aim.

Photo testing

Photo workshop

We took part photo workshop to test out the different settings on the camera, the lighting and the different angles we could possibly use for our ancillary tasks.

 

 

Before this I knew the basics of using a camera, although ryan knew quite a lot about cameras. As we had an idea of the shots and lighting that we wanted to use, we decided to test out the camera together.

 

I have learnt about the use of multiple light points, this allows us to get better and strong shadows and helps to define the image I think this will be something we will use when taking our photos. Also I now know about using solid colour backgrounds, for us it will be black. It is easy when it comes to edit so isn't too time consuming but is still effective and relating to our noir theme. Also reflected light,  it can sometimes work better than just one key light. You have to think about where you want the light to be and the affect it's going to create. It can't be too harsh and or too light and this camera skill works especially well with the noir feel.

 

 Below are the images that we took when testing out the different things and shows our camera skill progression.

 

This was the first photo which we took, it's far too bright and the focus is not right at all. Also it's too close up for what we want.

This was the next photo which we took, it's slightly better but still has no focus and is still far too bright.

 

 

 

This is our third take of the photo, this is a lot better and clearer. It's still slightly out of focus, but this is the kind of the image that we want for our poster. The lighting is perfect, as half of the face is dark and shadowed then the other half of the face is bright, connoting the sense of this guy being good and bad, making you curious. Also the angle of this shot is great, as it's just what we wanted aswell. To improve this we need to maybe zoom out just a little but also get the shot in perfect focus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Costume ideas

 Costume

 

 

Looking at ideas for costume is a big factor for a trailer. It contributes a lot to helping in letting the audience know the genre of the film.

For the film noir style, we needed some costume to connote noir.

 

Main protagonist- Our main character should be wearing a dark suit, with equally a quite dark trench coat, this will fit the noir theme as it's dark but also a suit and the trench coat are classic mise-en-scene conventions of film noir. He could also wear a fedora, although this possibly could not work as our trailer is meant to be a modern film noir where as the fedora may make it look like an old version from the 50's etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Femme Fatale- Our femme fatale should be wearing a dark dress, to help suggest the evil and danger but contrasting this wearing red lipstick which is a typicall convention. This again connotes evil and danger to the audience. We want her to have long and big hair. Joined with this to be wearing a dark brown fur coat. This suggest that she is elegant and we want her to maybe be a bit stuck up, but also helping suggest she gets what she wants and has the power.

 

 

   



Magazine front cover update

Magazine front cover updated

 

From our last feedback on our front cover mock up we came up with this new one.

 

This is our latest up to date magazine front cover.  We are still waiting to take the picture of our main protagonist.

 

 

 

 

Feedback:

 

From comparing other magazine to ours so far, we have now decided that we want to add more cover lines as the right hand side of the magazine looks quite blank. We will look into this and add a few more to make it more appealing.

 

People really liked the new york background and how we have changed it so we will deffinatly be keeping that factor. People also said that they liked the idea of the main protaginist with the suit on giving that noir feel, but some said that his image should be bigger, which we deffinatly agree with and will change this when we take the photo and put it on.

 

 

 

Film poster update

Film poster update

 

From our beginning film poster mock up, we took into consideration other peoples opinions but a we ourselves said that things needed changing from contrasting our film poster against other film posters.

 

 

This isn't the final finished film poster, but this is the changed one with the photos we are using. But still things need changed and this will happen from the feedback we receive from it.

 

 

 

 

Feedback:

 

People really liked the photos and how we have changed them to a shade of red. From our own opions, I think that the writing needs to blend in a tiny bit more with the background and not look as though it has just been stuck on. Others also really liked the idea of the shadow being part of the title and the A. From this feedback we are going to try and change the size of the 'coming soon' add a credit block and a quote.

 



Film Noir influences

Film shot influences

When researching into noir films, me and Ryan found different aspects from films and the film trailers that we wanted to include in our trailer. But also we used to classic noir conventions also as influences. Also as we are creating a teaser trailer, we also found some factors of teaser trailers helpful to us as well

• Firstly looking at 'Shutter island' at the beginning of the trailer there was some main protagonist narration. Similarly there is also narration in 'Momento' 
• We the idea of this, as it comes across as the main person telling the story. 
• This birds eye view shot of the room from 'Shutter island', would be great for our interview room scene. It shows everything in the room and shows all the action going on. We could also use this shot to then have a crane shot to pan down to our actor on the table. 

• Still from 'Shutter island' there is a high angle shot, from outside in the rain and the main protagonist is walking in it. This shot is very noir, and in our trailer we have planned to have a shot of our main walking in the rain therefore we can use this to help us stage this shot.
  

  

• From the 'Drive' trailer, at the beginning there is a establishing shot, showing the setting of new york. Our film is also set in new york, therefore we could involve an establishing shot of new york within our film aswell. Also with this shot being shot at night, it's all dark and all you can see is outlines and glimpses of light which gives that noir feel.

• Public Enemies is another film trailer we looked at. Is again based in america but also the main protaginist is a great influence to what we want our main character to look like. This shot is faded into another shot. It's quite nori and would look good in our trailer. The first shot of the forest with the men is quite dark and mysterious we were also thinking about having a shot in our trailerr set in a forest so if we continue with this idea we could use this influence, but then this fades into another shot of the main character, in which its a high angle shot focusing on his face, which I really like and this would be great for our trailer, it shows his facial expressions well but at the same time its quite noir as it's dark and also the costume; suit, fedora and the trench coat, but also you can see the black gloves again emphasising this noir style which we can think about creating a shot like this for our trailer. 
• The soundtrack within this film trailer also is something to think about, as it included some contrapuntal music which I quite like the idea of as it makes the trailer more mysterious and noir style.

Rescheduled filming time table

Rescheduled filming time table.

Due to illness of team members but also our actors some of our planned filming had to be rescheduled for other times. So this is our new filming time table. 

Location	Equipment list	Props needed	People needed	30/11/2013
Spare room (interview room)	Camera, tripods, lighting	Cigarettes , matches, costumes Paper, flies ash tray ‘whiskey’ tables and chair	Jack	“”
Street (at night or dark)	Camera tripod car	Costumes	Jack	“”
Stage,	Camera tripods lighting	Lipstick red	Emily	12/11/2013

Although we were slightly delayed in our filming, this will allow to us to fully finish our film poster and magazine front cover. We know exactly what, where, how and who we were doing, so that when filming came we can just get straight onto it. So that when we start filming that will be all that needs done.  

audience research feedback

Audience feedback 

We asked a number of people within out target market their opinions on different aspects of our films and the mock ups. The pressi shows the feedback. 

Magazine front cover mock up

Magazine poster mock up

This is our mock up for our magazine front cover. we looked at various other film front covers and then took parts of it that we liked and put our own take on it and put it on our front cover. We took images similar to our ideas from Google to come up with this mock up.  

Using the films setting of New York, the background on the front cover will be the New York skyline, with our main protagonist being in the centre wearing a dark suit in a mysterious stance creating the noir feel. 

  

Filming time table

Filming schedule 

This is our filming time table of what we need, who with and where at. It will help us to be efficient with filming and know exactly what we are doing when and where. 

Location	Equipment list	Props needed	People needed	7/11/2013
Spare room (as the interview room)	Camera, tripods, lighting	Cigarettes , matches, costumes, Paper, flies ash tray ‘whiskey’tables and chair	Jack	“”
Street (as night or dark)	Camera, tripod, car	Costumes	Jack	“”
Stage (	Camera, tripods, lightingd	Lipstick red	Emily	12/11/2013

Empire magazine

Empire

We decided that our film magazine would be Empire. We researched and looked at various other film magazines and decided that Empire would be the best choice for our magazine. 
Empire firstly appealed to us as it had a male and female audience, with the figures from a 2013 survey results being 23% female and 57% male. Another thing concluded from this survey was the age it is sold to. 

• 15 to 24  -     34%
• 25-34      -    26.7%
• 35-44      -   21.4%

They sold most of their magazines to ages 15-24 years old, which comes under the age that we wanted to target our magazine at, so it's fits again. Also from research I found out the readership of Empire magazine, being 873,000 proving it to be a very popular magazine and one of the most well known film magazines. This again fit with who we wanted our magazine to be aimed it. 

Although our film trailer is and independent film we choose not to go for the film magazine sight and sound even though it is a more independent and British film magazine, we decided against it due to all these other factors we found during research.  Sight and sounds circulation as of 2012 was 22,616 where as Empire has a circulation of 160,067 so seeing the comparisons we have decided our film magazine to be Empire.

Recce shots for photos

 

 

Recce shots for our photos.

 

  

 

 

We used our school stage to take the photos for our film poster and magazine front cover. It was a great place to create a photo shoot as it's a big open space and has a plain black background, it was very useful to us as we could easily improvise to achieve what we wanted, although what we wanted was just simply a plain black background. From it being so dark we were able to attain strong shadows. Also if we wanted it darker then we could close the curtins to get it darker and open them more if we needed it lighter.  

 

 

 

 

 

Shot Planning

 Shot planning

When taking practise shots for one scene in our trailer, we tried different lightings, camera angles and backgrounds. From this we put 2 different shots together into one video to show the difference between them, from acting on feedback and our own opinions and thoughts.






We changed the background colour to be darker to connote danger and just give it a darker feel. Also it makes our actor stand out more, and from feedback we were given people said that a darker background would be more appropriate. Also we changed the camera angle, we started off quite low but it didn't get her whole face in though we quite liked the angle of it, so we then tried to have more of a higher angle shot and this worked much better and we zoomed into her face a little more. Another thing was that we started with a barn door light helping create the shadow but then added another small L.E.D light also to create better lighting and a better shadow.

From further feedback we have  decided to shoot this part again, as we feel that it's not in focus enough and also we want to create more of a dramatic shadow on her face so connote danger and darkness. Therefore we will again improve this shot.

Teaser trailer analysis

Examples of some teaser trailers.

Twilight saga: Breaking Dawn

• Most likely to be for a existing franchise
• Quite long- lasting for 1:19 mins
• Action packed- creates curiosity
• Great soundtrack

Despicable Me 2

• Really short at 53 seconds
• Really Catchy song-quite humours
• May have to rely on first film though
• One focus- the minions
• Well known characters within the film

The Great Gatsby

• Very short at 33 seconds
• Fast paced- excitement and anticipation
• Mentions the name 'Gatsby' regularly linking to film title
• Features both protagonists
• again a catchy soundtrack
• Shows all the iconic glitz and glamour

 Research- Trailer typ
Me and ryan both researched theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. From this we went onto collaborate and decided that together we will create a teaser trailer, as it would be better and more beneficial for our trailer, as we want it to suggest mystery and be fast and snappy unlike a theatrical trailer which would have to involve more of the story which would give it a sense of curiosity.