Director's Commentary

The Watching - Trailer Analysis

Trailer Analysis

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Trailer Analysis

Trailer Analysis - Funny Games

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I will think about doing shots in the same way when I film my trailer. The use of text to break up clips is an idea I wish to incorporate.

My Magazine Cover - Post Feedback

This is my magazine cover after I got feedback from Twitter and Facebook. I think that I will still change a few things. The cover is lacking colour and I could add so colour to make the cover stand out better to a reader.

As the character in my trailer has a blue blazer I think I will also change this.

Feedback - Year 11 Class

Feedback Year 11

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Fonts - Film Magazine

My Magazine Cover - Pre-feedback

This is my final magazine cover. It mainly advertises my film 'The Watching' and in creating it I have tried to stick to the codes and conventions of a real film magazine.

Codes and Conventions

When I looked at both Empire and Total Film magazine covers I realised that they contain a lot of information. This can be through pictures or text. I felt that conforming with both magazines on the amount of information I included was important. If I decided to promote only one movie to attract my target audience it would be risky strategy as not everyone likes the same movie.

I decided also that the main image should be of just one figure from my film. Modern film magazines tend to have one actor on the front cover. When I was desiging the cover I originally decided not to have any other image i.e the background, but upon closer inspection of magazine covers saw that the cover often contains an action scene or a setting from the film. Using the glass from the shelter in my poster makes the magazine look clearer and keeps a continuity with my poster.

Layout

The layout was something else that kept with the codes and conventions of a popular film magazine. I didn't think creating a layout too different from Empire or Total Film would be wise as it's now recognised for how film magazines set out their covers.

My cover contains a strip along the bottom with a couple of images of a girl. I liked this idea of a strip to promote other movies on both Empire and Total Film but encorporated the idea of having it for a D.I.Y film article instead.

Analysis of 2 Movie Magazine Covers

Analysis of Movie Magazine Covers

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Final Poster Analysis

The Watching Poster

This is my final poster for the film of my trailer.

After creating the step 9 poster I put that on my Facebook page in order to gain peoples' opinion of my work. Many came back saying they liked the poster but that there were things they felt would be better off changed. I used the audience feedback to edit my poster.

Before my poster had a very boring ident, it was just the text saying 'After Burner' but now it is changed to a blue and purple pill shape with my new production name 'Read Studios' within it. I prefer this ident as it stands out from the page better, and is easily transferable to other media products that I create.

Another change to my poster is the girl. Before she was fully visible with a drop shadow which was there in order to show she had depth. Now the girl has a black colour overlay. I think this really works for my poster, you know very little about her there, just the impression that she is planning something and watching the male - this thanks to the tagline and film name. Her black figure can be seen pressing up to the window and isn't immediately visible. The fact it isn't immediately noticed means people have to get closer and look to see what it is, thereby attracted to the poster to see what the unknown is.

Lastly from step 9 I made my title larger so it took up most of the top of the page. I originally didn't want the title so big but had problems getting the title central due to the size of the words 'the' and 'watching'.

I am impressed with this final version of my poster.

Colour Palette

My colour palette focuses on 2 main colours. The main colours that I use are purple and blue, both tinted with black.

My poster doesn't conform with normal posters because the colours that I use don't juxtopose. The colours are next to each other but work well in giving the required effect of supernatural and fog.

Read Studios - Ident

My ident is very basic, but by using drop shadows I can make it stand out.

Originally I chose to call my production company 'After Burner' but my Facebook feedback said I should have an orange flame behind the name in order to show an after burner. When I tried this is didn't work well with the rest of the poster as the colours didn't work well with the rest of my palette.

From this I decided that it was ideal to change my studio's name, and felt that READ STUDIOS was ideal as it doesn't imply it is for a specific genre of movie. This means READ STUDIOS could create any type of movie.

I created my ident by creating a rectangle and curving the edges. I split the middle and chose 2 colours that juxtaposed one and other. I used a calm blue and a lilac purple. The blue can denote calm whereas the purple denotes royalty. Using these colours make my ident look established. I coloured the inside with white to make the ident seem more professional, the drop shadows also help to make this seem like it stands off the page and is noticed well. Major companies that use idents always have an ident that can easily be recognised, mine can. I also made this into a pill shape as it can play on the subconscious as being addictive.

Target Audience

The target audience for my poster would be teenagers aged 16+. I would not want this to be viewed by young audiences as the plot line for my film is to do with a paedofile which is not suitable content for a child's viewing. I conform with normal movie posters by not having an age rating on the poster. The action thriller Die Hard 4.0 is a 15 movie but you can clearly see the poster has no age rating whereas the DVD cover does. If I was creating a DVD cover I would include the age as 16.

The genre that my target audience would like would likely be thrillers and horror movies. My movie tries to fall into both of these catergories.

Fonts Analysis

For my movie poster I used 3 main fonts which I downloaded from Dafont.com and Abstractfonts.com. The fonts I used are:

1. Reprise Stamp - The Watching
2. I Still Know - Patience is a Virtue
3. Steel Tongs - All other text.

'The Reprise Stamp' font I chose because it looks good in all capital letters and catches the attention of the audiences. The text looks slightly supernatural and appears a bit spooky. Adding glow affects also means it looks paranormal.

'I Still Know' again looks good in capital letters, it looks quite an old font so that means it can appear kind of gothic. Due to the mystical themes within my trailer a spooky font is important. It suits the words of my tagline which is important.

'Steel Tongs' is a very important font. Using lower case letters turns the lower case letters into movie credits, such as : is the word, Presents. To have the actual word you type in this font it must be all in captials. The font is very proffesional for a movie poster and helps my poster keep to the normal conventions of a movie poster.

Other Completed Poster

This is my other poster for my movie trailer that I made. I chose not to use this poster as it didn't look very supernatural and Sarah's ghost figure looked too photoshopped into the image.

The trouble with this image was that Sarah did look very pale and ghostly, but her feet were too hard to insert her into the picture. Trying to scale her to the correct size was also very difficult. In relation to the shelter she kept appearing either too big or too small and everything about the image looked wrong.

I also didn't like that making her very opaque in order to looking unreal actually made her look very fake. As you could see the lighthouse behind her but she had a shadow it all looked very fake.

I wanted my poster to scare the audience, being very spooky in the process but this poster didn't capture that.

Cast, Costumes and Make Up

Cast, Costumes and Make Up

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They Wait - Film Poster Analysis

The reason that I chose this film poster is because it's main poster is of a child and the film itself is a drama that contains ghosts and is about setting things right.

1. The picture shows the person crying blood. Blood and red are there for pain and danger. This shows that this is horrofic in some way.

2. The font is all in captials, it has a red stroke round the edge to make the text stand out and to warn of danger with whatever is waiting. They appears to be an opaque set of Chinese lettering behind the main letters. This could be a hint as to a Chinese force being what is waiting.

3. Here you can see there looks like the person's spine, which looks really injured. It makes the person looked trapped and maybe paralysed from other forces. The rest of the bottom of the poster appears old and worn, giving detail of the supernatural force in the movie being something ancient.

4. Here you can see the lips of the person sewn up, it makes it looks not only horrific but again like the person has no power or control to do what they like or should natural be able to do.

5. Here you can see the eyes of the person, therby knowing that they are alive and not dead. The fact that this person still shows life makes the poster more suited for the horror genre due to the fact that a live person is being treated this way.

The Lovely Bones - Film Poster Analysis

The reason that I chose this film is the fact that this movie is a very much like mine in the fact that a young girl has been murdered and looking for redemption. The genre of this movie is both drama and revenge, something mine would be. My movie will be more horrific in the sense of how the girl looks for redemption but I felt this was a good movie poster to look at in contrast to the darker way mine will be.

1. The title and font for this is all written in capital letters, to try to get to the attention of the audience. The word 'Lovely' is in bold, this is again to get the attention of the audience. It gives an audience a clue that the girl could be very lovely and also could be quite ironic due to the fact she was murdered, something very awful.

2. The girl in this film poster looks sweet and innocent. From the clothes that she is wearing it looks like a winter's morning, her face looks shocked to see the figure standing across from her and her colours in her clothes are happy colours. The colours show life, where as the the figure all black could symbolise death.

3. The setting for the poster is a corn filed, the colour of purple doesn't seem too natural but it adds an air of mystery to the meeting of these 2 people. The ground looks dead, another tell tale sign that it is likely to be winter time. The colours of the sky also make it seems like sunrise. The lighter yellow is on the half with the girl and the darker purple is with the blacked out man. This good be a contrast of good and evil.

4. The man is wearing a coat and the rest of him appears to be blacked out, this makes his character a shaded one, it hides who they really are from the audience. The total colour of black makes him mysterious and made to look a bad person.

5. The sky is where the 2 contrast colours clash. This is the contrast of good and evil. It makes the poster seem more realistic too.

Hot Fuzz Poster Semiotic Analysis

Hot Fuzz is a popular 2007 British comedy movie starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as 2 Police officers who make a giant discovery within the small village of Sandford which is controlled by the local Inspector (Jim Broadbent). The movie is the second in the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy. The vanilla Cornetto representing the Police force and in Sean of the Dead the Strawberry flavour representing the bloodshed and zombies. Written by Simon Pegg along with Edgar Wright it was distributed by Universal Pictures and recieved wide acclaim.

The colour scheme for the poster is; Blue, Black and White. The black and white are juxtopostion with the white denoting innocene and purity and black being mysterious and death. The use of these colours not only fits in with the colours of the Police uniforms worn but it also forshadows the events of the movie. In the film the Police are supposed to be good, clean and upholding the law but the entire way through there is an air of mystery surrounding the Police force and their lack of co-operation. Blue can often denotes calmness, something that the Police force are supposed to help create in a community. However Hot Fuzz is not calm, and it is the Police force that use a lot of violence.

The font used on the text is all written in capital letters, a way to attract the audience and help promote the movie. With both Pegg and Frost being popular actors in the Uk their names help to promote the movie. The text along the top goes against the colour used. With white being used you expect it top be innocent text but it actually mentions the violence of the movie. Hot Fuzz appears to be written in letters used on Police badges and uniforms, this helps to show the audience is a movie about the Police force. The middle of the O also includes the Sandford Police logo.

The clothes worn by the characters is standard Police uniform but the guns held in Simon Pegg's hands are not usual to be seen for the UK Police force. This is a way of showing hte audience that this movie is going to be different, maybe try and show the UK Police as being something more than many percieve. The bullet vest and sunglasses make Pegg's character seem emotionless, cool, calm and ready for action. He is looking to the ground which is a great way of showing power and eliminating emotion from this image. Both characters look very serious and as this isn't normal it can easily intrigue the audience into wanting to see this film.