Photoshoot Term-Break Plan

I have decided that in the Christmas Holidays this would be the best time to arrange another photo shoot with the actors, however due to this time being around Christmas we wouldn't have the luxury of being able to include all actors who participated in the trailer and having a date where everyone was free due to some of the actors having family priorities. However for the Film Poster and the Magazine Cover I intend to use a limited number of actors therefore this makes it easier for arranging a time and date with the indivudals who contributed to the film trailer. Also I have a idea of what my ancillary tasks will look like, because I want my film poster to have a simple yet effective image which is subtle and helps get the target audience interested, however with the film magazine cover I want an image which shows emotion of the characters and some more revealing action shots to help promote the film on the magazine.

Choosing Design Software

Before I start my ancillary tasks, I want to decide on what design software to use as I may use different features from different software types to help me design both my film poster and film magazine cover. Software available is the Adobe software which includes Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and also the Serif Software which includes DrawPlus and PhotoPlus.

The software Serif DrawPlus I have used before so therefore I know how to use different features of the software like the basics which involves the pen tool, erasing, creating and manipulating shapes and adding effects to text and images. From my experience with using DrawPlus this will help me speed up the making of the film poster and film magazine cover as I wont have to allow myself time to learn how to use the tools of the software. However even though I have used the software before I am not familar with all that it has to offer so therefore there will be certain aspects of the making process which I may not be able to do so I may have to watch tutorials online or read the help guide on the softwares website.

Another part of Serif called PhotoPlus is a piece of software that I have used briefly in the past to change the look of photographs. This would be good to use to change the photographs which I will take in the photoshoot during the holidays. However Adobe Photoshop is a very popular piece of software that is used to change the look of images by altering contrast, brightness, colour and even remove different aspects of an image for example blurring the background of an image or erasing a persons body and blending the face into the background.

In conclusion I will use the more advanced features of the Adobe software to create my film poster and magazine cover as Adobe is much more broad that Serif therefore the capabilites in this software are more vast. However for the basic part of the creation process like creating shapes and adding text I will complete in Serif DrawPlus as I am familar on how to perform these tasks therefore it will save time and I am using my existing skills but also learning additional skills throughout using Adobe's more advanced features.

Film Magazine Cover Moodboard

I have completed research into a film magazine mood board to learn what conventions are present throughout psychological horror film magazine covers and what I could use for my own film magazine cover for the film ''Transfixed''. From this research I have found that most of the film magazine names have a clear and concise font throughout their issues, this is so that their audiences can recognise the magazine as the name and font of magazine companies is their branding therefore it needs to remain the same throughout. I have found that the horror magazines use dark colours to portray mystery and horror, as black is stereotypically associated with the horror genre. The dominant image is often a close up shot of the antagonists face and is positioned in the centre of the magazine cover. Other types of shots include long shots which shows the entire body of the antagonist and the background of the image is normally foggy or very dark to portray the horror genre to the audience, an example of this is in the Film Magazine and Empire Magazine, where the Joker is shown and also a man dressed in a sinister suit.

Film Poster Moodboard

I have completed research into a film poster mood board to learn what conventions are present throughout psychological horror film posters and what I could use for my own film poster for the film ''Transfixed''. From this research I have found that the colour black and other dark colours which represent death or violence are very common and the images are often very subtle, for example film posters like The Shining, The Orphan, The Purge and The Others all use a characters face however this is the main dominant image and this doesn't tell the audience much about the films narrative or show much of the films aspects however they get the audience interested and curious which makes them go and see the film, also they all clearly show that there genre is horror which clearly informs the audience on what film they are going to see. Another convention of horror film posters is that low key lighting is used a lot, for example the film posters like Secret Window, The Purge and The Others are feature low key lighting which helps portray mystery to the audience and also low key lighting creates shadows which is a convention of horror films as it hides the unknown and encourages curiosity. Lastly the text is always mainly white, black or red which are colours associated with horror as these all colours help show different parts of the film, like the colour red shows pain and blood. Also the font used it very clear and seem to take one of two approaches, a scruffy and handwritten style font or a clear and serif type font.

Editing Session 4

Today in our media lesson we moved onto the next editing session where we finished organising shots into place and we started to cut some camera shots down to remove the excess footage.

I noticed when ordering the shots that colour and lighting seemed to be an issue which lead us to tackle this problem in the session, we begun to colour match specific shots especially shots which had continuity as colour differences may look very unprofessional. Another part of the trailer we concentrated on was when Maddie is stepping into the bath, as the lighting was very different therefore I changed the colour by colour matching the shot of Maddie getting into the bath with the shot of Maddie sitting in the bath. This helped create a more realistic feel and will make it more believable for the audience. Below is the two shots of the bath scene:

Other shots I altered was the shot of Laurens face appearing from behind the banister. I used the transform tool in Final Cut Pro as this shot had been filmed with an iPhone in portrait view which meant their were black areas on either side of the camera shot, so I filled the entire display so that the shot was the same size as the others so it is consistent throughout. Also I changed the exposure and saturation levels to make the shot look clearer but still scary.

Editing Session 3

Today in our media lesson we carried on with the editing process for our trailer which was continuing with the work we were completing in the past editing sessions which was dropping the correct shots into place onto the time line. However in today's lesson we noticed that some more shots were missing again therefore we looked on Kayleighs iPad and iPhone for the specific shots which were missing and then directly imported them onto the iMacs which we then used.

In todays editing session we decided to begin cutting some shots down as in previous sessions we had just been placing and arranging the shots so excess footage was left alone. I used the blade tool to cut some of the shots down which meant us watching the shot and then I determined which section on the footage should be cut. Also some shots had background noise which was a problem however I detached the audio from the actual shot and then deleted the audio so when we watched the shots back the audio was no longer a problem.

One part of the film trailer where we changed was the bath scene because Amber suggested including the shot of the windows where the artificial lighting flickered and placing it between the shot Amy in the bath, so therefore we bladed the camera shot so we would then have two seperate camera shots and then placed the flickering light footage between the two however it was difficult to refine the bath footage to when Maddie's eye looked up as we wanted the character to look up at the window to make it look more effective and realistic.

Another problem we encountered was when we replayed the entire sequence we noticed that some shots didn't seem like they were in the correct place, for example one shot of Maddie and Elliot shouting was immediately followed by a shot of Elliot whispering which looked out of place therefore we discussed a solution to the problem between the group and decided to move the whisphering shot further along in the trailer which actually worked more efficiently as it helps build up tension and suspense.

Editing Session 2

In today's lesson we continued with arranging the camera shots in Final Cut but also near the end of the session we decided to cut some shots down however the camera shots we cut had too much excess footage but we didnt refine too much as we planned on doing this in the next session.

Kayleigh also showed us the American Horror Story opening which featured eerie and sinister non-diegetic sound and the shots had effects which have been applied to make the different camera shots look like the old traditional camera film rolls. After cutting the shots down we discussed different options that we could do which involved us all saying our suggestions. One suggestion we talked about was the different transitions that we could use for the film trailer was fading into different shots which we think should be before the action begins because a convention of a film trailer is that where there is action which is where the disruption and realisation of the equilbrium the transitions are normally just cuts where is shot cuts into the next so it is more fast paced and this will help the suspense build up.

Editing Session 1

Today we begun the editing process for our trailer which was in lesson time. First of all we uploaded the content we filmed onto the iMacs from Kayleigh's iPhone and iPad which we used for filming. I imported the files onto the desktop into a new folder then opened Final Cut Pro which is the editing software we are using. When the footage was successfully imported onto Final Cut Pro we then begun to edit. I positioned the different camera shots in order on the time line and used the blade tool to cut some of the shots. Amber and Kayleigh also used the blade tool and cut down some of the other shots to remove the excess footage that is not needed. However in future editing sessions we will go back and refine the cutting of shots so the continuity is perfectly in sync.

A problem myself, Amber and Kayleigh were worried about was the quality of the footage because on the iPad and iPhone the quality of the footage looked very clear however when we uploaded some footage onto YouTube the quality of the video was dramatically worse so therefore we were worried that the footage would loose its clarity on the iMacs, but this wasn't the case, because last year we had to re-film some parts because the camera we filmed with didn't produce a high enough quality of film. 

In the next editing session we intend to continue with the work we did in this editing session which is placing the footage in the right order onto the time line in Final Cut Pro.

Our Chosen Distributor

From researching different distribution companies, I came across several companies which I could use for the film. After discussing with Amber and Kayleigh we believe that Lionsgate Entertainment is the best option to choose from. We chose this distribution company based on that it is a popular film distrubtor because the company has been involved in many worldwide famous films including The Hunger Games trilogy and also that the company has been a part of many horror films these include The Hostel, Saw, You're Next, American Psycho and The Vatican Tapes. Lastly this company has been a part of films which is mainly based at our target audience therefore we thought it would be best to chose this company.

Distribution Companies

I decided to do some research into various institutions for the film trailer as a convention of film trailers is that it often shows the distributor of the film so therefore we want to follow this convention and pick a distributor to use for our film and this research will help us come to a decision as this company will feature in not only the film trailer but also the film poster and the film magazine.

Lionsgate Entertainment
Lionsgate Entertainment is a public corporation and was founded by Frank Giustra. This institution is based in Santa Monica and this is where their headquarters is situated however the company first formed in Vancouver, Canada on July 3rd 1997 and has grown into a worldwide known corporation. The company has been involved in popular films like The Hunger Games Trilogy, Kick-Ass and the Saw series. The company is both a film and television distribution company and has a significant involvement in many horror genre films which make it appropriate to our film.

Lionsgate Entertainment has been involved in several horror films including:

- Saw
- Hostel
- The Vatican Tapes
- American Psycho

Universal Studios
Universal Studios is part of the big six film studios and its parent company is NBC Universal. The company is based in Universal City, California and was formed in 1912 which makes the company over 100 years old. The company owns many subsidiaries including Focus Features, Illumination Entertainment, Working Title Films and Universal Animation Studios. The company has been very successful in the film industry and has 7 films which have achieved box office records these include Jaws (1975), E.T (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), Jurassic World (2015) and Minions (2015).

Universal Studios has been involved in several horror films including:

- The Mummy
- Purge: Anarchy
- Mama
- Ouija

Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures was founded by W.W Hodkinson, Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. The company is based in Hollywood, California and this is where their headquarters is situated. The company was formed in 1912 and is a subsidiary of the Viacom Corporation and also it is one of the big six film studios. The institution works as a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor which makes it a well-known company within the film industry. The company has also worked in synergy with Disney to produce and distrubute major films like The Avengers and Iron Man but the company can also work within its own organisation to produce and distribute successful films. Paramount has grown its popularity and reputation as it has been involved in many successful films like the Mission Impossible series, Transformers, Star Trek, Titanic and Iron Man.

Paramount Pictures has been involved in several horror films including:

- Friday the 13th
- The Devil Inside
- Psycho
- My Bloody Valentine

20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox was founded by Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck. The institution was formed on May 31st 1935 which makes the company over 80 years old. Also the parent company is Fox Entertainment Group which makes this institution part of the News Corporation which is one of the big media companies within the USA and owned by Rupert Murdoch. The company is based in Los Angeles, California and owns many subsidaires including Blue Sky Studios, TSG Entertainment and Fox Television Studios. This film company has grown signifantly over the ast few decades as its films have become more and more successful worldwide for example Avatar which is one of the highest grossing films of all time.

20th Century Fox has been involved in several horror films including:

- Alien
- Prometheus
- What Lies Beneath
- The Omen

Photoshoot Review

From looking back at the photo's I uploaded onto the computer from my iPhone, I realized that the quality of the photo's weren't as clear as I wanted. I discussed this with the other group members of Facebook and they agreed that we may have to re-take these photo's because of the quality of the photo's we took after filming. Also because the time we had after filming was very limited we didn't get chance to take a large variety of photo's for the ancillary tasks.

After this decision of re-taking the photographs I then decided I wasn't going to use the iPhone 5 camera and instead use a more powerful camera, preferably a DSLR or bridge camera as this takes clearer pictures which look more professional. From this I will make notes on extra photo shoot ideas which I could take pictures of  as well as re-taking the original pictures. I will mostly need the cult members and the main character, Maddie for this photo shoot and not use the main antagonist as I want to keep the main villains identity hidden to create interest for the audience.

Photoshoot

Today after we finished our filming I took some photographs for my ancillary tasks. I wanted to have pictures which didn't tell the audience too much about the film, because I want to grab the audiences attention and make them think about the image which shows mystery and relates to the psychological horror genre.

This shot of Maddie at the top of the stairs suggests many things to the audience, for example the low angle shot makes this character look powerful which means that final girl theory has been applied meaning she is smart enough to survive the horror she has been through and that she can overcome the antagonist. Also the body language she is showing suggests that a stereotypical female character is used where the female character crys and shows herself as weak.

The shots of the mask gives our film trailer an iconic symbol to make our film more unique and stand out from the rest of psychological films. I decided to take a picture of the mask using a close up shot as it will suggest mystery to the audience therefore make them more interested in the the film. Some examples of films that have iconic symbols is Scream and Annabelle.

I did the same shot of the mask however I used a red light instead of a normal light to show a more shocking image because the colour red symbolizes danger and blood which relates to a horror genre film.

Filming Schedule

Our group have continued to speak to each other through text messaging and we have decided on our next filming days. We made the initial decision in lesson time and we asked the rest of the actors who we want to be part of the cult to double check if that the time we had arranged was suitable.

Dates/Times
Wednesday 4th November: 3:30 p.m - 6:00 p.m

Filming Day 2

Today we filmed mostly in an interior setting as we planned on filming mostly dialogue scenes and some dramatic scenes. We decided on filming at 10:00 AM however Sam, the actor who plays Elliot couldnt make it near the beginning of the day due to some issues, but Kayleigh managed to get all the make-up done before Sam arrived. We managed to film till late on in the day so we managed to get a variety of shots including shots which involved it being night time.

I filmed a two shot of Maddie and Elliot arguing about the pills which Maddie is taking. The two shot shows the characters body language and facial language and how they are reacting in the situation they are in. In this shot the setting is in the kitchen because this is a common place in the house where most people spend time and also I used props which were bottles of pills which were placed on top of the worktops.

I filmed a birdseye view shot of Maddie and a police officer having a conversation at the kitchen table. The scene involves the police officer being harsh on Maddie as she is being interrogated and the dialogue that is involved is short and clear which is a convention for trailers also the shouting which is involved helps make this more dramatic and builds up tension for the audience.

For certain scenes which we wanted violence to be an aspect of we used make-up to create fake wounds on the characters faces to make it seem as if they have been involved in an attack. One of Kayleighs roles was to research make-up and she completed the fake wounds on Elliot's face which looked very good and realistic.

After completing the second day of filming, I thought that the acting from our actors was good as the situations which they had to act was done well and also because most of the scenes we filmed on the day involved dialogue it took slightly longer as some mistakes were made but not as many as we thought. Also the dialogue had to be short and clear because it is a trailer therefore we only have a certain amount of time to fit what we want into the trailer.

Filming Day 1

Today we filmed mostly in an exterior setting as this was the moving house scene therefore most shots were of the characters moving boxes and settling into their new home. We decided to meet at 11:00 AM however make-up took longer than expected therefore filming didnt actually begin for another hour, but as the make-up was being finished off by Kayleigh, I set up the camera equipment outside and then when we were ready, we all read the storyboard which we had made and decided on which shots we expected to get completed.

I filmed a long shot of Sam taking a box from the car and walking into the house, this will then continue into the next shot which Amber took of Sam walking through the front door. The long shot helps establish the setting and also gives the audience a clear view of everything that is happening on screen and this gives them a sense of reality as everyone has experience of moving house.

Amber filmed a trunk shot, which she put the camera inside the box of photo albums and then I filmed a over the shoulder shot of Amy pulling the photo album which continues from the trunk shot. We didnt use dialogue because we want a calm and slow scene of which the audience connect with characters and feel the emotion which the character is feeling as she looks through the photo album.

When filming we came up with ideas for potential shots because of the setting we were in. The location we chose was Kayleigh's house which had many features we could use, for example in the living room there was a stone fireplace which we thought we could include in a shot as this is a convention of horror. Also Kayleighs house had two staircases which we could use one for a action scene where the antagonist is attacking the protagonist and the other for a more eerie and sinister scene of just the antagonist with a hidden identity concealed by a mask.

After completing our first day of filming, I believe it was a success as we didnt face many problems except from timing near the beginning of the day with the make-up however in the filming aspect we kept to the storyboard and followed it throughout the filming process of the day, and we managed to repeat some shots when filming them to ensure we have a good selection of shots when we come to edit as some attempts of specific shots didnt look as effective as we wanted therefore having a variety will be more beneficial. Also after filming we dicussed which shots to film of Thursday, which is our next filming day that we arranged before the school holidays.

Complete Talent Release Forms

 Below are the completed Talent Release Forms that we got the actors who were involved to sign in order to gain their approval for using their image and filming footage which they were involved with.

Talent Release Forms

Before starting the filming process we ensured that we had a talent release form in which our actors could fill out. This means that they give permission for any footage to be uploaded onto the internet and into the public domain and also by signing this document they give full knowledge of any potential risks and the times in which to film and lastly their involvement in the process.

This is the Talent Release Form which our actors will fill out before the filming process.

Film Magazine Cover Name

I wanted to create a magazine cover with a name which will appeal to the target audience, therefore I discussed potential names with my friends to decide what name could be a potential option. The word 'Gore' came up and many people liked this name which lead to me choosing this name as a final magazine cover name. 

I also looked at different font which I could use for the magazine title. I searched through different fonts on and came across three fonts which I liked the most these included BigNoodle Titling, Bodoni MT Condensed and Bernhard BdCn BT.

Thr first font which is Big Noodle Titling would be very effective for a title as each letter is clear to read therefore the audience would be able to read the magazine title easily. Also its mixture of sharp and curved corners make the font look unqiue and this would help set the magazine apart from other magazines making the audience purchase this specific one. The only weakness of this font is its size as the height of the letters istaller than average meaning it could take up most of the magazine cover meaning the audiences attention is taken away from the dominant image.

The second font is Bodoni MT Condensed which has a serif style, however it may not suit a film magazine but more suited for a fashion magazine, for example famous magazines like Vogue has a font which is similar to this so this could mean that this font isnt suited to the type of magazine.

The third and last font is Bernhard BdCn BT which has a horror look to it, as the outline of the font appears like dripping blood which is a convention of the horror genre. However the font isnt as clear as the others and doesnt seem sleek and professional for a magazine cover.

I have also put some thought into colours for the font and I have came up with four colours, which are dark red, white, black and grey. I have chosen these four as they are closely related to the horro genre, for example red symbolises blood and black symbolises death. Out of the four colours I like the dark red the most however I will experiment with all colours when I come to create the magazine cover.

Summary
Chosen Magazine Name: Gore
Chosen Magazine Title Font: BigNoodle Titling