Finished product! Trailer is now on youtube! woo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLRWNd6GiDA < Heres the link to my trailer guys! all feedback appreciated!

OH DEAR!

NOOO! this is not good, this is what happened when I uploaded my evaluation onto youtube! As you can see the file size is too big but there is nothing that i can do about that so i am going to have to Burn the evaluation onto a CD. grr >:(

Film Magazine

Okay so this is my magazine cover design, its all horror based, as i hope you can tell ;) so yeah like with the film poster can you tell me what you think and then i can edit once ive recieved your feedback :) thankyou (btw screen shot straight from publisher so ignore the text box lines etc..xD )

"Release me" Film Poster

Okay Guys so this is what i have done so far. using publisher,paint and fireworks i have come up with the above, i would like to know what you guys think of it so far, i am going to then edit it futhermore once i have reviewed the feedback i have been given, so yeah....TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

Update

things are getting there,im just adamant not to rush so i can do the best i can, im not gonna lie , using sony vegas to edit my footage is a challenge but its going to show how ive improved my skills form last year, as last year i used the video editing software on the imac, and sony vegas 8.0 is definately an software which is going to show how my skills have increased, but like i said before its going to be a challenge, and not an easy one. The things im finsing the hardest is getting the clips perfectly in time and putting what where, theres just so many editing tools!! i still need to get music and sound effects sorted, planning to do this on the imac, because theres  software called garage band which i am familiar with so i could create some pretty cool stuff. Im working on my Anicillary tasks for the brief now which is the magazine cover and the film poster. im using publisher for both, and they're coming along great, although it's been a tricky process getting the font sorted because i had to edit it alot. i'll post both the poster and the magazine on here so you guys can tell me what you think, so i can recieve some audience feedback. Keep posted guys!

Photoshoot!

Okay so tonight im going to be having a photoshoot and taking photos of the main character for the Main iconic image of the film magazine. I wanted to do this instead of just taking stills from the footage i have because from analysing actual film magazines , i have noticed that the main inconic image is very appealing and positioned in a certiain way to show certain things like status of the character, attitude and genre.i'll be going stacey's (the main character of my trailer) makeup to how it was in the footage and then taking pictures of her in certain styles and positions to fit in with the whole horror genre.

<< This is a still from the footage i got, it's stacey (the main character) in her demon form with the makeup i did for her.

check out this awesome blog from a media studies student

http://media.mrhurren.co.uk/blogs/wordpress-mu/ben/tag/media-a2-research-planning/

i came across this blog randomly when researching film magazines, but it was an excellent find!

lights,camera, ACTION!

okay so I got my filming done this week, I managed to capture a fair amount of footage and pretty much completely followed the storyboard with the odd tweak on certain shots as I went along. Originally i was to be the Main character in the trailer but I wanted to take complete control of the directing and filming side of things so i managed to get a friend to take my place. There were certain parts of the trailer that had to be shot many times as it wasn't that easy to get all the angles and frame work precise. There was a fair amount to do with the props as i needed to create a spiritual sort of board on the floor, it was fun to create as i had to use salt to create the pentagram whcih took like 5 times to get it correct! And then my house stank of smoke from all the inscense sticks and matches we had a light. The Main character had to have makeup done on her to show her demonic side, this was pretty fun, i just dabbed a load of dark eye shadow around her eyes to make her look rather posessed. So im going to now put my footage into the editing software "Sony Vegas" which is great for editing video. Im gonna add some transitions,Video effects,Text and then create my soundtrack on "garage band" on the IMAC and ass it to my video, than wooo i'll have my trailer sorted! :D

Media Trip to Atrium School of creative and cultural industries.(25/10/10)

what a day! an early start to the day at 8.30 and on our way to Cardiff Uni! Me and a few other media students attended a Media workshop at the Atrium campus , This is where all the Art and performance courses are. when we arrived we were shown a presentation on film production and how to produce films of certain genres, we were given the task of thriller. we didn't have very long to plan our films, we were given a list of a series of scenes to do and we had to choose which shots we thought would work well with them to represent the thriller genre. It was a good workshop, I got to use some high tech recording equipment which was interesting to work with. after we had made our media product we showed it to the other group and received feedback which was great for us to hear peoples opinions on our production. overall the trip was useful and interesting and I hope we go back there for longer soon :D. 

Garage Band!

This is a print screen of the Garage Band software i am using to create my soundtrack on the IMAC.

woo okay so i have been on the imac and checked out garage band, i am very familiar with garage band as i took a course in music technology in 2009 which i used garage band for my projects so im pretty confident with this technology. So i need to create a soundtrack for my trailer, and from researching and creating the soundtrack page on my blog, i have come up with a few ideas. The soundtrack needs to invovle some sort of rock based synth with some added atmoshperic effects of like suspense and thrilling sounds.Due to to copyright issues , it is necesary that the music used in the trailer is my own and i dont use another artists.

Story for the "Release Me Trailer”

Judy is a high school student, 18 years old. She is a bit of a spiritual person and a rock chick. she decides to for the fun of it, get a wigi board off this dodgy site. Her friend April isn’t sure that it's the best idea and she tries to stop her but Judy says threes no problem with doing it, so the package arrives at her door after she arrives home from school and she takes it out and begins, it all goes wrong and she begins to her blood curdling screams and devil like deep voices, she drops to the floor. She wakes up the next morning beside the wigi board with blood dripping from her mouth, she sits up and wipes it away in shock, she says nothing and just looks like she has had a hangover or something, her mum walks in and says " what time did you get in last night " presuming she has a hangover..

So she walks into school the next day looking rough, smoking and acting touchy and rude towards her friends, she puts the cigarette out on her tongue and smirks with her friends in complete shock, April tries to see whets wrong but she  beings to scratch the table in her lesson leaving deep digging marks in the wood and her work sheet filled with demonic symbols. Her friends don’t like the way she’s acting so they leave her and she walks back home alone through the park and sits there on the swing, creaking it slowly she squeezes onto the chain so hard she bleeds and blood drops down on her hand. she goes back home , on the way she begins to become severely agitated , her phone rings and she ignores if, April leaves a message on the answer phone. "Judy...Judy are you there? Please get back to me, that wigi board its messed with you I know it has, just let me know that you’re ok, please!"(during this voice over, there are scenes of Judy smoking, drinking and fighting, pinning someone up against wall The final scene is with Judy sat down in the distance as the camera jumps cuts closer to her a bit at a time and she then mumbles.."RELEASE ME..." black out. CLIFF HANGER ^_^ wooo well it is a teaser trailer after all :P

Discussion!

right, so i need to include some intertextuality into my trailer, im not exactly sure what to do for that, i dont want to make it look cheesey and i believe that its not very easy using intertextuality into horror films unless there are elements of comedy in it, like scarey movie for example so this has to be thought out carefully. So the plot of my film is about a girl who becomes possesed by natural forces and bad events happen to her untill the devil is finally released. So,Yeah any ideas? i would love to hear what you think ! i will continue to think also but audience feedback is much appreciated! :D

Peace

Blog update..

okay so ive kinda changed my plans. I have deicded to change the idea for my film, this is because from i believe it is going to be a hard production with the resources that are avaliable to me, the reason for doing this also is from taking into account my audience feedback (poll). I im going to create another storyboard which shall be the final one. it's about a girl who becomes posessed by super natrual forces and she begins to change, in a negative way becoming violent and angry towards the people around her, untill the pint where she can no longer take any controll over herself and the devil within is realeased and begins with it's evil deeds. So im going to begin working on the mis en scene, the main actor i have decided it going to be myself with a few people in the camera crew and a few extra characters. so ill work on the planning on everything and put it on here as soon as its done, should be some stuff on here by tommorow so keep updated :) xx

Empire Magazine

http://www.empireonline.com/

Check out the awesome website for empire, this magazine is great for movie lovers! it's full of reviews,interviews and movie news!

Film poster Analysis

Check out the film posters i analysed from the horror genre, these can be found in my pages on the left side of the blog. Please can you leave your feedback here, cheers ^_^ x

Feedback on my story board for "Suck me Beautiful"

Hey Guys can you please leave the feedback you have for my story board here, thanks!!! :D (Story board can be found on my pages)

Transformers trailer analysis ( this took like ..hours )

Transformers Trailer Analysis

The trailer beings with a tracking shot of Sam and his dad in a car, the tracking shot following the movement of the car and picking up the conversation.  This part of the trailer focuses on the storyline of Sam getting his first car with his dad, which most people in the audience can probably relate to which brings elements of emotion in. In the background there is a Non Digetic soundtrack playing, thus being “What I’ve done” By Linkin Park, Who are a very popular and well known band to especially to the younger generation, this draws them in.

The Trailer also introduces the theme of destiny as the car sales man says to Sam “ The driver don’t pick the car, the car picks the driver, it’s a mystical bond between man and machine”  as the sales man is saying this there are midshots and close-ups of Sam checking out the car, then there is an extreme close-up of Sam rubbing his thumb against the emblem for the transformers   on the steering wheel, this being an important part of the film’s narrative as the audience are intrigued as to why this is important. There a fading transitions between these shots also so the clips run smoothly one after the other.

The radio then suddenly switches itself on and the added Digetic sound effects of a frequency are apparent and then there are jump cuts between a few shots before the distribution and production film company logos appear on screen, thus being DreamWorks and Paramount studios, these match the frequency sound effect as they flicker slightly as they appear on screen and are very quickly advertised.  It is important that the film companies are shown as this is major convention of a trailer.

We then see a shot of Sam's car which quickly jumps to a close up of the car switching on , there is then a high angled, medium  close up of Sam awakening from is sleep from hearing all the car noises suddenly, making him believe that his car has been stolen , Sam then from his balcony, with an over the shoulder shot, showing  what's going on from his point of view  as the audience see a inside shot of the car’s gear stick moving on its own which makes the audience being to think what could be really going on with this car ? This is shown very quickly, his car then drives itself away with the Digetic sound of him shouting “ Hey that’s my car!”

The Trailer then cuts to a shot of flaming meteors on their way to crash on earth, this representing a connotation of the sci-fi genre. There is then a Birdseye shot of the meteors hitting the baseball stadium. The meteors hitting represent the common movie theme of threats to destroy planet earth. Digetic sounds of the meteors shooting down to earth is evident during the shots and then a black out intervenes the trailer which makes the audience wonder for a moment and guess what they could be seeing next.

The trailer then cuts to a shot of Sam’s car starting to transform with the non Digetic atmospheric soundtrack. The camera then zooms into a close up of Sam’s facial expression as he watches, he looks astonished, yet scared. We are then placed in a subjective  position from behind Sam,   Fade to black transitions are use between these shots to create an ellipses .we aren’t able to full see what’s going on with the car due to the effect of the bright lighting which reflects off Sam's face. The audience pick up all of Sam’s facial expressions to what he can see but are still not fully aware of what is going on, but probably have an idea due to all the clues.

The trailer changes to a different time and location, this is done using a fade up from white effect, there is then a non Digetic dialogue of a man saying “what you’re about to see, is totally classified” which intrigues the audience. This is alongside a shot of what seems to be a secret government building. The camera then shoots a pedestal shot of a gigantic robot like machine; this camera technique gives a more dominating effect to the denotation.  The close up of who the audience guess could be the president of a man of high authority says “ dear God what is this?” this shows elements of fear to the audience, and thus making the audience begin to become worried.

“July the 4^th” Then zooms quickly onto the screen on a black background with a silver blue font, but surprisingly it isn’t that large a size, which on mist trailers the text, tends to be attention grabbing due to its size. Also July the 4^th is the day of American independence , the release date being on this date is it’s unique selling point because it’s the day where America celebrate their independence and this film is showing a threat to their independence. The Digetic dialogue of “Were under attack” is shouted worryingly from a guy and from his clothing we believe to he is to be in the military service. 

The pace of shots then increase as there are more action packed scene with arm viechles exploding and gun shots being fired around then there is a cross transition to the sea with a huge navy ship and there is then a fade transition to the air forces, these shots showing that there is so much of the force needed to defeat this unidentified object that is threatening mankind.

There are shots of the transformers, which are mainly low angles to the viewer to portray the transformers dominance over mankind. The music becomes more jumpy and tense which brings tension to the audience, They have come to destroy us” Text appears on a black background before there is then a slow-motion shot of the horrible looking monster that is chasing the soldiers in the desert, the camera is in a point of view where we can see the predator and it’s pray, this being parallel l to the text that has just been shown.

Several shots of a truck coming towards Sam and Mikaela with action paced non digetic atmospheric music in the background which is in parallel to the timing of the jump cuts of the shots, the music then stops as the truck does at it beings to transform. The camera is located at a high angle from the transformers point of view, showing its dominating size when compared to Sam and Michaela’s.

There is then dialogue between Sam and Michaela this is shown with a medium close up and you can tell that they are both still focused on the robot in front of them as they are not making eye contact, this is because they are unaware of what the robot may dos o they have to keep alert. There are elements of humour in this dialogue when Sam says that “it’s probably Japanese or something”.

The Music kicks in again and the text appears again onto the screen between shots, this is a big selling point because Michael Bay is a well known director of over successful films such as Pearl Harbour and Bad boys. Shots of cram packed action scenes appear on screen in an urban city setting with sci- fi robots everywhere attacking civilisation.

Michaela then says to Sam “I’ll drive you shoot” which shows mixed gender roles as it shows how woman can take control of dangerous situations where men usually tend to. The shots begin to get even faster in parallel to the tempo of the music which really draws the audience in as there are lots of shots but the audience don’t know 100 percent what exactly is happening.

Update!

Hey Guys (: Just a quick update on how everything's going so far! Well so far i have created a story board,Analysed a couple of film trailers,Analysed 3 film posters from the Horror genre ( i really enjoyed this task!) and created a poster on indentify the conventions of a horror film . these have certainly been time consuming tasks, but analysing is not something that can be done in a matter of minutes, as i have tried to go pretty in depth :) so keep checking my blog as i will be updating it with more awesome stuff soon :)

Resident evil trailer analysis

Sound

The trailer beings with the non digetic sound of atmospheric music; there is then a sound bridge of a voice over from the main characters point of view describing the story. The rain is falling and there has been an added sound effect which sounds like thin pieces of glass smashing onto the ground gently, this emphasis’s the rain drops. The main non digetic sound is the atmospheric soundtrack which has been edited to the trailer; it is of rock genre which is parallel to this films theme.

There are lots of dark and dull colours, this is in parallel with the film’s atmosphere and genre. There are very high tech settings that look very futuristic and scientific. The settings are quite dull and depressing due to the fact that there is very little life left on earth .

Editing

There are lots of straight jump cuts between scenes, this is because the film is a fast action paced one and needs this effect to give the audience the real action feel. There a slow mow scene during the beginning when the girl is standing in the rain and the camera focuses on her as the pedestrians walk by with a slow motion effect, this gives a spooky atmosphere, there is then a flashing effect added to the shot when the girl suddenly is seen to be attacking one the victims to make the scene and action really jump out at the audience.  There are black fade transitions between shots that are parallel with the tempo of the music which creates a good effect.

Camera Movement

The trailer begins with a birds eye shot looking down on people walking in the pouring rain with all the umbrellas, and you cant really see the people, this shot is cleverly thought out as the main company that released the Zombie virus are called “Umbrella”, but people who are new to the resident evil trilogy will not realise but those who have already seen the previous films will instantly see the connection. There are a few wide Long shots to show the locations in the film, this is very important as these shots also show the deserted unpopulated areas do to the virus killing people, and the audience will instantly be intrigued by the abandoned locations and wonder where everybody is and what could have happened to them. There aren’t many used of angles in this trailer but a low angle is evident when the main character Alice is jumping from the building and the zombies fall after her, the camera is angled low beneath her this is so we can see the zombies behind her and we feel like she is falling towards us. There is s a similar shot like this but it is the other way around where two Alice clones are falling backwards off a building as they still shoot at their target but the camera is at a high pointthis is so we can see the depth of the fall.

Facebook!

I Set up a group on Facebook for all my media work , so check it out :D  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=146925122015558&ref=ts

screencaps! totally check this out guys!

http://www.screencaps.org/ and http://www.hotflick.net/ < These sites are AWESOME! :D you can get thousands of screencaps from movies! These are great !

Devil - Official Trailer [HD] - Tell me what you think about the trailer!

Check out the trailer to the Recently released "Devil" film.

Horror film production

Which shots,camera movements and editing methods do you think are a must have for the production of a horror film?