Evaluation

At the beginning of the year, I felt that my experience at the Documentary Academy had inspired me to create more ambitious work for our media coursework. This has became a reality for us, when you look at our work from last year, we filmed it all in one day, but this year we have had several days of filming and we also used a lot more people to be apart of the cast. This was difficult to coordinate, because we are college students we all are very busy but on some days of filming we required 11 people to be available. In order to communicate with all of these people to find when they were available for filming we created a Facebook group chat so we could find the days and times that people could work. This proved to be more effective than text-messaging or word of mouth because it was there and people could take screen-shots to remember. Being in a group chat also meant we could make compromises easier.

 Not only this but actually directing each of them and guiding person through their role meant the three of us (Daniel, Lizzie and I) had to be coordinated and on the same page. I had used the software Final Cut Pro outside of college and so when it came back to working with Adobe Premiere Elements, it took some time re-adjusting to using it. Also, we were working with a newer version (version 11 as opposed to 9), we also transferred the platform from working on a PC to an Apple Mac.

This year we also used a number of cameras for our ancillary tasks. To create our main poster, we used Daniel's camera (Fujifilm Finepix s3400) and put it on a continuous shooting mode, while we ran and clashed together, thus resulting in our final image for our main theatrical poster. We used another camera (Sony Cyber-Shot DSC- HX300) to take photos of behind the scenes and production work, Clare usually took these while we were busy working. We used my camera (Nikon Coolpix P520) to take photos for the Selene and Eve Teaser poster along with the magazine main-images. The cameras we used were bridge cameras which meant that they were relatively easy to use, but it took a while to find features such as the continuous shot on Daniel's camera because he had never had to use it before.  

We used the same video camera as last year: Sony HD camcorder. But, where we had previously been very strict about using a tripod, this year we had been inspired by The Hunger Games (dir. Gary Ross 2012) which was mainly handheld. We wanted our shots to have movement and motion, so we did not use the tripod as much. This is unconventional for a Hollywood-style film, where they use a lot of cranes, dollies and camera equipment. When we needed a dolly-style shot we had to improvise using a long desk and resting the camera on fabric (a jacket) and then dragging the jacket along (the camera with it) to create a dolly-like movement. 

I knew that we would be choosing a difficult genre- post-apocalypse (sub-genre of sci-fi). The empty locations and interesting story-line were difficult to determine. But, this style of film is currently very popular. This is explained by Roland Barthe's cultural code. The film is related to our culture, apocalypse films are popular because of the general-knowledge of global warming and other threats to our planets eco-system. In times of peace and prosperity, our society looks to things that could be a threat to our way of life- the apocalypse being the most prevalent. Our film was inspired by The Road (dir. John Hillcoat 2009), which shows the effects of the apocalypse on society being utterly devastating and showing how animalistic and primal humanity becomes. We wanted our film to be of a similar philosophical tone but adding more action, in this way we were inspired by The Hunger Games (dir. Gary Ross 2012) in that by being in a microcosm situation the action and drive for survival is a lot more concentrated. The Hunger Games (and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire -dir. Francis Lawrence 2013) make use of the proairetic code. This is the idea that action and pace will get the audience interested in the film, we included a lot of fast paced sequences in our trailer and our trailer also contained a lot of action, whether it was fighting or just rushing. By having a fast pace, this keeps the audience interested, it also enhances the effectiveness of the hermenuetic code- making the open-ending even more enigmatic.

We felt that changing the last-shots of our trailer to make it look as if Haden's group triumphed, would add to the audiences sense of insolubility- there is no way that Michael's group can solve the problem of Haden's group, let alone find a way to bring the adults back. This brings in another of Barthe's codes: The hermeneutic code. By using the idea of enigma to intrigue the audience and make them want to see the film, because as a general rule audiences dislike suspended answers or open-endings. Film examples of this could be Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan 2010) and Donnie Darko (dir. Richard Kelly 2001) these films deal with the psychology of man. But, where in Films loose ends are unconventional and a rarity, they are an essential for a trailer- otherwise the audience could simply watch the trailer to find out what happens. But, the hermeneutic code is also brought in at the beginning of our trailer as well, the audience will be question how and why have the adults gone?

I also felt it was difficult to create a trailer for a film that does not already exist. The film is normally finished or close to being finished when the trailer is made, giving them footage to use in the trailer. We had to get the idea for the narrative of our film and work out which segments we would need to be included in the trailer and then film those sequences. When storyboarding it was hard not to plan out whole scenes and it took a lot of restraint and we knew we could make the sequences look less like a scene by changing the order and adding copy. Towards the end of our filming and storyboarding we felt that a lot of improvisation would make the film seem more natural and real, we would not be as restrained by our storyboarding. Although, it is usual for some improvisation, we did a lot more than what is considered conventional for a Hollywood-style production. I found that we were often inspired by the location we were filming in, we would come up with ideas for shots and sequences.

We explored a new area of film post-production, as we created ancillary tasks to match our film promoted in our trailer. By using the similar imagery from the trailer of antitheses and rivalry we linked the posters (main theatrical and teasers) to the trailer, along with the use of locations. Our magazine was different, due to following the convention of direct address, it was difficult to portray the sense of rivalry. So, we had to use facial expressions and body language in order to convey the sense of separation (despite being in a group in the photo). We also wore the same costumes that we had worn in the trailer, this as well as the location of the corridor used in the trailer, linked the magazine cover and trailer. 

Not only did we create draft designs for our posters by drawing them out, I also created mock-up designs using applications on my phone, in order to add text and start thinking about font and other areas of layout. Using an app called "Over" I arranged the text of our posters until we were satisfied with the result which I saved for us to use when using Serif Draw Plus. We used the computer program rather than the apps to create the final posters because it was more intuitive and also because the apps lowered the image quality. We knew that as a Hollywood-style company our poster would be on a large scale such as bus-stops and billboards, so we wanted the quality of the image as high as possible. 

This year, we used an online-storage facility: OneDrive (previously SkyDrive). This was so that we could exchange various material for making our media products without using memory sticks (these can be lost or broken). It has also served to be useful whilst blogging, with all of us being able to access and upload material.

We had created a Facebook group chat in order to coordinate for filming, but we decided to create a  Facebook page for our film as a form of distribution. Viral marketing is a popular way to distribute films, but it is also a convention for Hollywood films to have a Facebook and Twitter page. So as a Hollywood-style institution we decided to heed this convention, we created these pages, updating them with information about the film and posting various character posters and teaser posters. Some people messaged the page, inquiring when the film was due to be released (believing it to be real). Although, we told them that this was all part of our A2 Media work, it showed us how strong and effective using social media to promote films is. We noticed that our Facebook page was a lot more popular than our Twitter page, our Facebook page having nearly 100 likes. As a result we decided to post exclusive content to Twitter in order to encourage a bigger following. 

Links to the Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/timemovieuk

https://twitter.com/timemovieuk

Audience Feedback/Survey

We hosted two out of three of our Audience Feedback/Survey screenings in the Lecture Theatre (where we had filmed the "Ged" Shot). This was to create a more organic feeling, to the audience who would usually experience the theatrical trailer in the cinema. On a whole we surveyed 44 people, ideally we would have liked to survey more, but we had limited time in terms of analysing and collating data.

We were shocked that 70% of our demographic thought that the film would receive a 15 certificate. But, we were confident that it would only a 12A which meant around 8% (or 26% if the 12 certificate is included) of our audience identified this. As it is not about the violence being shown that makes it a higher certificate but how it is shown. Much of our violence is implied, you are not shown the effects such as blood or bruises. The camera does not linger on the violence it usually cuts away before any sort of damage is done. This would be well-within the BBFC's guidelines for what makes a 12A certificate film.

"At 12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama).

Action sequences and weapons may be present at 12A or 12, and there may be long fight scenes or similar. Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds (such as knives) should not be glamorised in 12A and 12 works."

(source: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12 )

The weapons such as the bats in our trailer are accessible to 12 year-olds but, we have made no effort to glamorise them. Haden's group is the only group to use them and they are portrayed negatively in the narrative. The long fight-scene is implied from the fighting seen in the trailer, but this is acceptable for a 12A.

We asked the audience open questions in order to get a variety of honest answers, and to prevent us from influence the results with leading questions or answers. This is why these three bar charts differ in their areas. Two people had queried the accents of our characters in the trailer, this was due to the fact that the majority of our dialogue was  enunciated clearly. This was so that people could understand and it was clear what was being said. Personally, I do not think we altered the way we spoke too much. Despite sounding out words fully we sounded natural. So, we concluded that we should not need to rectify this in our final trailer because it needs to sound clear so the audience can understand what the film is about.

 Where one survey said that the acting could be improved (5 people), another question in the  survey revealed that the acting was one of the areas, that on a whole, they liked (12 people). So, we took this that these results cancelled each other out. The acting was not easy to change once the trailer had been made already, so we thought that because the majority had liked the acting we would leave it. In a similar way, 6 people in total said the cinematography could be improved, but 14 people said that they liked the cinematography, this was clearly a matter of personal opinion. In fact we found that most of the answers to theses questions balanced themselves out, for example 7 people did not like the soundtrack, but 24 people did. This showed that the majority of the audience liked the trailer as it was and a minority thought that it could be improved or altered.

We were glad that 79% of our demographic understood the general narrative of the film from what the trailer had shown. But, we were impressed that a further 7% not only understood this, but they had spotted some of the sub-plots as well. So overall 86% of our participants had understood our narrative through viewing the trailer. This was a positive, as it shows that the trailer was effective at giving the audience a taste of what the film is about.

The number of people who would go and see the film in the cinema (from watching the trailer) directly corresponds to the amount of people who understood what that narrative was. But, 5% of our audience would still consider going to see the film, despite not fully understanding the narrative. We saw this as a major positive, the trailer is still attractive enough for people to want to see it even if they don't understand. But, we also found that people had explained they would not see the film because the type of film does not appeal to them as a genre.

We could have taken these results as a failure to convey the genre, however these genres all come into our film in various ways, there is the mystery (enigma code) of the adults disappearing, the adventure, and action of trying to survive in the harsh new world. There is also the apocalyptic and sci-fi elements key to the story. Many of the people (46%) thought it was a thriller film, understandably due to the pace and action involved as well as the high-drama. Arguably our genre of "Post-Apocalypse" could come under many of the genres the audience thought our film belonged in. But, I could not see how our film is related to horror, unless they were thinking of the violence involved.

We were glad that the majority of the people we had surveyed could identify the main characters. But, we decided to go against the convention of mainly showing the "Good" group. We showed a balance between showing Michael's group and Haden's group, still favouring the "good" group, but including more shots of the opposition than is conventional. We were pleased to see that this did not distract the audience from recognising the main characters.

Unfortunately, two out of our three screenings did not have the posters for the audience to answer this question. So, we had to be skeptical about the results. But, the majority agreed that our trailer matched our main theatrical poster. It is also important to note that they were shown the mock-up poster rather than the final version. I think that the trailer ties in very well with the ancillary task of the main poster. Due to the shot in the trailer of the two groups colliding, it is the same concept that is behind the poster.

We were very happy that nobody had said our trailer was below three stars. The majority (at 52%) had said the trailer was four stars, which was a very positive majority, but on top of this a further 23% said that it was over four stars 9 (7% said five stars, 16% said four and a half stars). This was very positive feedback for us. But, we knew that by doing some final tweaks in editing the sound etc it could make the trailer even more of a success.

We were alarmed at the number of people who did not know the title or were confused. We had followed the Hollywood convention of only having the title on for a few seconds so it forces the audience to pay attention. But, we realised we would have to make the title stay on-screen for a longer period of time, in order for it to be more obvious to our audiences. Our trailer could be successful in stimulating our audience to want to see it, but it would mean nothing if they did not know the title or if they were confused at the title. 

Here are a few samples of the surveys (once filled in):

After analysing the results of our audience survey, we decided to re-watch our trailer with fresh eyes. We polished up the editing, fading some of the audio in to make it smoother and adjusting some of the gain on the audio as well as adding in background noise to the dubbed areas to make it sound more organic. We also made sure to add links to the Facebook and Twitter pages for our films at the end of the trailer (which is the conventional place to have these links). We then extended the amount of time that the title "TIME" remained on the screen, so it was more obvious what the title was. We also decreased the amount of time that the institutional credits were on-screen, we noticed that it was conventional for them to remain visible for a few seconds.





Interview/Commentary:

We have filmed and edited together an extensive interview that also doubles as a commentary. We were inspired by the "Unscripted Interviews" that are available on YouTube and are used to promote films. The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (one of our influences) have done these interviews. Below, is the interview that prompted us to create our own Interview.

We made our interview as a form of promotion but also as part of our evaluation of our work in A2 Media Studies. Unfortunately, we were unable to turn the heaters off in the hall, it became apparent when editing that the heaters were very loud but due to time constraints we have been unable to re-shoot the interview, if we did have time we would have. Also, I am afraid the quality was greatly reduced when it was uploaded to YouTube, sorry.

The A2 Media Studies coursework has been a challenge, but as a result I have developed new skills. I am now more confident with working in a larger group as well as furthering my organisational skills in order to arrange shooting days. We created a more ambitious narrative for our trailer, this has paid off in our audience feedback. By using new technologies available to us, we have been able to create our work more efficiently. As a result of this year's project I feel inspired to create more media work, not just films but other areas of media such as print media. I look forward to working with my fellow media group members Elizabeth McLaughlin and Daniel Shippey, we have been able to create and refine so many ideas already. Media is currently a significant part of my life and I envision that it will continue to be so.

Audience Survey

We wanted to make sure that our trailer would be effective on our audience, so we decided that we would screen the first finished draft of our trailer to a number of groups of people who fit our demographic. We then planned out what questions to ask them, so as to improve our trailer. Below are some of the questions we came up with.

Then we produced the final version of our survey, incorporating our production logo and some stills from the trailer. Using Microsoft Word, due to the simplicity and our familiarity with it. We then printed copies of our draft poster so we could ask them whether the poster and trailer matched. We wanted to know if the audience agreed with our production choices.

The survey was made so we could adjust our trailer if there was anything that did was not popular with the demographic or if they said that they did not understand the narrative well-enough. We knew we would need a large number of participants in order to get reliable data, so we used 3 focus groups made up of media and film classes in the college and school (as they are within the ages of our demographic). This was also useful because they were all clearly aware of age certificates so we could ask them what they thought the film would receive from the BBFC. 

Our results and the analysis of the results will be included in our evaluation, along with a first and final draft of our trailer.

Ancillary Task: Producing the Magazine Cover

Our ancillary tasks are meant to match our main task- the trailer. This is a convention of film distribution, all the elements of marketing match so as to give the audience a distinct idea as to what the film is about and why they should go and see it. 

Making a magazine name for our Magazine Cover:

 

We had brainstormed ideas for names of our magazine as we felt it was important to get it right so it would sound professional and like a real magazine- to match our professional Hollywood style.

 -Elite Magazine: This name sounded too arrogant for a magazine, although it was an attempt to emanate Empire Magazine in the style, it also sounded far too much like a fashion magazine.

-Debut Magazine: We agreed that it sounded too much like a music orientated magazine, or a magazine aimed at giving their audience the upcoming films. As a Hollywood company we would want an established base to work from.

-Sense Magazine: "Sense" could apply to any kind of media or topic, the name was too vague.

-inSync Magazine: The use of the "sync" links more with a technology magazine rather than a film magazine.

-View: Again, this was too vague.

-Scene: Although, the name is specific to TV, Theatre or Film, it was also too vague sounding and did not have the catch that a magazine name needs.

-Picture-House Magazine: Although it is long-winded we loved the name as it was specific and sounded like it would be an interesting magazine, but another group had announced they had planned on using that name for their magazine, so it was back to the drawing board.

-Flix: This related to cinema but the name did not sound professional enough, probably due to the colloquial nature of the word, other countries would be unaware of the meaning. This would go against the conventions of an international and conglomerate owned magazine.

-inShot: The name had neither the right sound for our magazine but again it could be more related to photography than film.

-Reel Magazine: We did not like the name as it was a pun and did not sound very professional.

-Red: This name was too vague (it was meant to relate to the red carpet at film premieres).

-Silver Screen: We really liked this name, but another production team was planning on using it.

-The Premiere: We found this name was very relevant to the film magazine. But, that is the name of an existing magazine, we wanted to be original so we kept thinking of suitable names.

-Box-Office Magazine: Now this name fitted really well with the idea of Hollywood institutions making money from the Box-Office in the cinema. This meant it was a great name for our magazine and it also had a good ring to it that made it memorable. We decided our magazine would be called Box-Office Magazine.

We drew out this initial draft so we could try and make the main image so it would fit into a similar cover-structure. We chose a random magazine name we had made because we had not yet decided which name we were going to use. But, we knew we wanted to incorporate our AS work- Parallel- into the cover.

The main-image

We decided to take a group photo of the main four characters: Michael and Eve (the "good") with Haden and Selene (the "bad"). Now it is not conventional to have characters in profile on magazine covers, as that conflicts with the idea of direct address. Also, we did not want a repetition of the teaser posters we had designed. Originally, we planned to have the main image taken outside at a play park so the empty swings would carry the semiotic meaning that they are now the adults. We liked the idea of this and so we took several images at the play park. However, we also took photos of the park itself and then took the group image inside as well. This was an experiment to see if we could Adobe Photoshop the characters onto the backdrop of the park. This was mainly due to the fact that we had been mostly squinting in the outdoor photos due to the wind. Below is the video of us using Photoshop to cut out the characters ready to be pasted onto the image of the park.

 However, even though the cutting out of the characters and pasting onto the different backdrop was successful, it looked false. This is probably due to the differencing in lighting, but even after experimenting with altering brightness, contrast and exposure.



So we decided to use the real image because it was a lot more professional and realistic. We increased the contrast in the main image and decreased the brightness and added a cool temperature filter to the photo. We had made a list of film magazine names since earlier on in the year, that we could possibly give our magazine. This was so we weren't left deciding last minute, here is the list of names and the reasons why we did not use the names. 

Producing the Magazine-cover

We began adding in the anchorage text, masthead and made spaces for the inset-images. But, we soon realised the our image did not fit the magazine because of the cantered-low angle and also because although we were in focus and properly exposed, the backdrop was very over-exposed and selective-adjust could not fully rectify this. We were happy with the magazine layout and the masthead logo. We knew that if used a different image we would have to alter our existing colour scheme. But, we decided that it would be better to try an indoor photo for the main image of the magazine as this was more conventional and also it meant that lighting could be more controlled.

 

 We had the idea of using the corridor which was used in the trailer. This would link more directly to the trailer and the lighting would be easier to control and change. After we had taken the photo, we darkened it as a whole, adding a cooling filter as well and then selectively adjusted each face so that they were visible despite the decrease in brightness. We also knew that we wanted the main-image to be tightly framed like the magazines that had influenced us (particularly the X-Men: First Class cover). We had positioned ourselves so that Michael was at the front and Eve was directly behind him and holding onto him, thus showing their connection. Haden was a little further back then Eve on the other side of Michael, because he and Selene are further back their height is slightly more equal to the two "good" group leaders. Although Selene is giving direct address her head is leaning to the ear of Haden, suggesting their connection and the fact that she serves as an advisor to Haden. Then, we added a slight blur towards the very top and bottom of the photo so that it would focus the attention more on the faces and text on the magazine cover.

To see if the new image would look good on the magazine, we decided to insert the new main-image in our existing magazine template that we had made. We liked the way this image look as opposed to the outdoor image and so we set about editing the main image to match the genre of our film and we also thought about how we could change our colour-scheme to match the new image.

 In order to alter the image and make it fit into the genre more, we used the application Google Snapseed to add a cooling effect and darken the image. We also blurred the very top and bottom of the photo so the focus of the eye is brought to the faces and torsos of the characters. But, by making the image darker, it meant the faces were less visible. We overcame this by using the selective adjust feature. By selecting the area (the face) we could increase the brightness and increase the contrast slightly so the faces became more visible. It also meant we could make the edges a little bit darker, to make the masthead more eye-catching.

 We used the existing layout from the previous magazine cover we had been producing. But, we changed the mast-head colouring to white and orange, swapping the blue to the colour scheme instead. The Orange added a feeling of warmth to the cover and orange is a contrasting colour to blue, so it grabs the audience's attention. We noticed it is a convention of magazines to use contrasting colours in this way.

We then decided to try out a duller colour scheme to match the poster and a more solid kind of Puff as well. But, we thought the grey did not add anything and was not bold enough. Although we liked the idea of the more sticker-like puff.

We then changed to a green-blue colour scheme with buts of orange that both contrasted with the blue but also extended the warmth of the masthead. We then added an image of the Mockinjay poster, as magazines tended to show what was inside. We had the idea to add our AS Thriller opening "Parallel" as one of the films featured inside the magazine. We also used the cut-out tool and layering to make Haden's head come in front of Masthead, we were influenced by the magazines Total Film and Empire Magazine to do this and it made our cover look more three-dimensional and as a result it looks more professional.

We then altered the "Free" text in the skyline in order to make it less obtrusive. Issue number, price, date and barcode were then added as information for the buyers of the magazine .We then filled out the rest of the inset images using real films due out this year and other film news such as the OSCARs. We stacked the sell-lines to the left using a themed look so they tied in together, but were clearly separate due to the subtle differences in font. We then used the Total Film Hunger Games cover as an influence to add a tricolon relating to the film on the right side. Using the colour red to tie into the puff. The puff now has an outer ring which makes it stand out more than before and we made it red as well, this was to also stand out. We used a quote from the article as a anchorage text/sell-line as well as a mention of the film being a blockbuster- linking to our Hollywood-style film. We then added in some little details such as the little OSCAR award which we had to cut-out in editing (using Serif DrawPlus), and we included the plus sign as part of the strapline, as we had noticed a number of magazines doing this, to draw attention to the strapline and the text within it.

Ancillary Task: Producing the Poster

The Main Poster

 

We very much liked the idea of opposition and conflict that was in our trailer. So we thought about the main poster being in landscape (so it would appear on billboards etc). Then we thought about having two teaser posters as well.

 

 

We very much liked this image which we had taken of the two groups clashing together. There is plenty of space in for titles and information. I decided to create a mock-up design for our poster, simply using my phone and several apps on it to create a sort of pre-draft.

 
I used an app called "VSCOcam" to add a grey effect to the photo, this was to fit into the genre of apocalyptic films like the poster of The Road (dir. John Hillcoat 2009).

I then used a separate app called "Over", this was to add text, I experimented with the opacity of the text and the kept the colour scheme as basic as possible. I showed Daniel and Lizzie these mock-ups and they were both very pleased. We then thought about how we could improve the poster when it came to actually producing the poster on the computer.

 

We used the computer program Serif DrawPlus in order to create our main poster. We used the original photo (unedited) and then planned to re-edit the photo when it was on the computer, this was so the quality of the photo would remain as high as possible. We added the text in a similar layout to the draft I had made.

 

We used the names of our favourite magazine names. By this time we had decided that our magazine name would be "BoxOffice". We kept to two reviews as it shows that more than one reviewer thought the film was good, we included quotes from the reviews as well. We did not want to overdo the number of reviews like in the Skyfall poster. But, due to there being two it meant there was a level of symmetry in the poster, furthered by the figures of the characters either side of the title. Then, we added a black "glow" to the text to make the white writing stand out against the overcast sky. The idea of conflict is clearly shown in the poster, something central to the narrative. We were inspired by the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 teaser posters. Only we wanted to show a more animate and lively conflict. We were happy with the poster, but we returned to look at influences and conventions of posters to make sure we had not missed anything.

 

We also felt the poster lacked impact, we knew we did not want it very bright because that would not match the content of the film and the genre. We were also inspired by The Road posters in terms of colour-scheme. But, we then edited the picture by decreasing brightness, upping the contrast and adding a cooling temperature filter.

 

 

After looking at existing film posters, we realized we had missed quite a lot. We added in the fact that our film (being a Hollywood made film) would be available to see in 3D and IMAX. This stereoscopy is a convention of many high-budget Hollywood productions as it gains extra profit and also adds a second unique selling point (USP) to the film. We also added a logo for Dolby Digital Sound due to it being Hollywood made, it is conventionally Dolby who covers the audio of the film. We also added a cut-out of our own Eden Logo, as it was the convention on other posters to have miniatures of their logo present. We added a small certificate rating near the title. By showing this on the poster, this would show who the target audience is and also the demographic would know they are able to go and see the film in cinemas. We also added the credit of the "author" of time in the credits at the bottom (it's not actually a book, but many of our influences were based on books, so we had ours based on a book too as part of the USP).

 

On top of this, we then added a web-link for our film at the bottom of the poster. If we had more time, we would have actually made our own website, but we did not create a website, we added it to the poster though due to convention. We also added links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the film. We did actually make Twitter and Facebook accounts for our film, as a part of distribution and marketing.

 

The Teaser Posters:

 

We took photos for our teaser posters at the beach as well. We had decided to produce two teaser posters. They were inspired by the teaser posters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Again, they showed the ideas of binary opposition present in the film. Though we were not happy the way the photos had turned out for the Selene and Eve poster. This was due to the fact that Clare is taller than Lizzie and we wanted them to look equal on the poster.

 

We were not happy with this photo either because the backdrop is not very interesting and Clare is not fully in frame. But, we were determined to get the photos, because we felt the Teaser posters would really compliment the main poster for the promotion of the film.

It was difficult to get the composition right, another difficulty lay in the fact that someone would start laughing during the photos being taken. What looks a considerable distance apart in the photo is actually very close in reality and it was difficult to keep a serious face. What I found helped was concentrating on a certain area of the face. This also meant my brows were furrowed and added to the imagery of conflict. We realised that the Harry Potter poster photos had been taken separately with a green screen so they could be easily edited together, thus removing the hilarity of the photographing. But, we liked the organic location and background, so we decided to carry on the way we were. By not being in complete profile it meant that the poster had a depth to it, which we liked, the pier also added a sense of perspective. We were happy with this photo, even though my hair was blowing about in the wind, we knew it could be easily cropped or edited. 

 

After taking the photos that day, I used an app on my phone called "Snapseed" in order to start thinking about colour schemes and editing styles for our teaser posters, we wanted them to tie-in with our main poster but not be a repeat. Influenced by the colour-drained effect on The Road poster, I created this edit and increased the contrast to add a more dramatic feel to the photo.

I then started to think about the layout of the tagline and title of the poster. We had not yet finalised a tag-line for our poster so I just made a generic Hollywood style tagline for the meantime. I thought it looked the best in the middle, filling the space but also serving as a semiotic barrier between the characters and warring groups. The title also seemed to fit in the best at the bottom of the poster.

We decided to retake the photo for the Eve and Selene teaser poster. This is due to the fact that we had come up with the idea to use a different location, because the film does just take place at the beach, like the trailer we wanted to show a range of locations used in the film.

 

 

 

 

We went into a wilderness area near college that looked like an area near the field chase scene. Unfortunately it was not overcast like when we took the photos at the beach, but this not discourage us, we knew we could edit the sky to be greyer and darker if needs be. I took it against the sun at first, although the light leaks/sun spots looked good, it would not match the theme of the other posters. So I took it from the other side, this time getting Clare to lower herself to Lizzie's height, although it looked strange we knew once the photo was cropped it would look natural.

 

 

 

 

We knew what we wanted in terms of layout, but we thought that in terms of editing the photos, we would make it more subtle then the draft I had previously made, as Hollywood companies edited their posters subtly, so it seems more real. Eventually we decided to use a line from the trailer as our tagline on the posters "With the adults gone... everything was different". We then included some indication of when the films release was due and the cast credits above their respective faces. We did not want to include as much information as the main poster because these were meant to tease the audience and build an interest/following in the demographic.

 

 
We had the change of colour in the tagline occur on the word "Gone" to make it appear that the word was slowly vanishing away. We used the ambiguous "coming soon" to tease the audiences of our film. Although we used the same font for our title, it seemed thicker than before, something we wanted to remedy.