Ancillary Task

Below is the first draft of the magazine cover I produced for our film trailer, the title of the magazine is 'feature.' Along with the other ancillary tasks for our group.

Evaluation Questions

Below is the link to my Wix website to which I have showcased my evaluation questions.

Final Pieces

Ancillary Task Research

I Am Legend

 “I Am Legend” is a 2007 American post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence; Will Smith plays the main protagonist in the film. It is the third film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man. Smith plays virologist/survivor Robert Neville, who is immune to a man-made virus originally created to cure cancer. He works to create a viral solution to the outbreak while defending himself against mutant beasts that were created by the virus.

Above is both the magazine front cover and the film poster for "I Am Legend." As you can see, the house style for both products are dissimilar, only because "Empire" will convey their own house style through their magazines, while incorporating some of the posters forms and functions. 

Both magazine and poster ensure to display the protagonist (Will Smith) from the movie; this promotes the film to fans of Will Smith - people that may be more likely to watch the film because they have seen him on the poster. 

The poster also conveys a wider image, with the familiar streets of New York in the background; however, with  a sense of mayhem and destruction - unusual for audiences to see. The main subject of the poster is the viral doctor (Will Smith) and his loyal dog, Sam - the poster intends to highlight the isolation faced by the human race in New York "The Last Man On Earth Is Not Alone." 

When creating our film poster and magazine we will ensure that we include the protagonist in both the magazine and the poster.




From research, I have noticed that the film magazine producers produce their magazine around the story of the film, they do not follow the magazines house style. Empire magazine for example tailors each magazine cover around the plot of the film.

 To the left is the film magazine for Quantum of Solace, and to the right is the film poster for the same film. While they are similar, the mise en scene is extremely different. When creating the magazine for the trailer I will need to make sure I use a powerful and clear image, not necessarily from the film trailer itself.





I am likely to take a picture like the magazine for Quantum of Solace when creating the magazine for our trailer. This is because the aim of magazines is to promote the main actors of the film more than the film itself; while our trailer doesn't star any A list actors, we do have a protagonist, which will be the main focus in both the poster and magazine.

As you can see from the pictures above, the poster and magazine main images are different types of shot. The poster is a full length shot, but also an establishing  shot because you can see setting behind it. The poster is a mid shot, but still includes a little bit of setting; the reader is able to see that the subject is in a desert.

Above are the bottoms of four different film posters, although many film posters follow this formatting. Usually they have the title of the film which is edited appropriately to suit the films genre/plot. As you can see, they all have different fonts and designs but the page layout remains similar throughout. An exception to this is the Quantum Of Solace poster above, but this is a minimal poster, perhaps promoting the film in the early stages of production, unlike these other posters which give a definite time of arrival.

On the underside of the title are the producers and people involved with the film. Much like the photo on the right, the posters include a fine printed font, Steel Tongs for example; these make the information visible if a viewer wants to read it but they are not the main focus of the trailer. Beneath these list of people involved with the production of the film is usually a date or a time of when the film is going to be released for members of the public to watch.

Above are the tops of four successful film posters. As you can see they have included a message that is likely to depict a basic outline of the plot of the film. Much like the bottom of the poster in terms of adapting the font and colourings for the film, however this message is not meant to stand out as much. Many different film posters will follow this method because it gives the viewers a basic outline of the storyline, the focus should be on the meaning of what has been written, rather than the editing of what has been written.

FILM MAGAZINES

Above are 6 film magazines from two of the biggest film magazine producers, Empire and Film. As you can see, the subject always covers the title of the magazine.

By looking at the Empire images above and the majority of them, the viewer is able to establish the type of shot used; mid shot. The producers of this magazine deliberately shoot the subject with a mid shot because it effectively allows them to manipulate and tailor the area around the image, I will be following a similar tactic when creating my Magazine front cover for my Ancillary task. I feel that the Empire magazine promotes the film more than the Film magazines so I am going to follow this format closer.

I am going to create a bold title, much like Empire or Film and place it at the top of the magazine front page, this will allow me to place the image effectively in front of the text, and create space around the central subject of the magazine. Around this final image, I will create headliners, much like the X-men magazine, however the headliners and the fonts will be tailored and edited effectively to parallel the genre of our trailer, as well as the story line.

Each of these magazines include a bar code on the front page, for realism, I am going to create a suitable, false, bar code in order to heighten production value of my magazine front page. While we do not have any A-list actors to promote on my front cover, I will create a false actors name but portray it in a way that would be done if it was a real actor.

I will also include a separate box on one of the corners, promoting more content within the magazine, to make my front cover look as real as possible, it will be along the lines of the image to the right, however with my own design and text input.

Above are four of Empire's front covers with their films/issues. As you can see, they are not the usual Empire titling format, this is because it helps to further promote the film. When creating my title I will adapt the trailer to our storyline, perhaps making it CCTV related; further depicting the storyline of our trailer.

Like the other magazines, each main subject of the front cover seems to take priority over the Empire title, when creating my magazine front cover I will follow this rule, because the main actor of the film is presented as priority. The entire magazine will follow the house style set by both the storyline but also the edited title.  

Feedback

Below is the feedback we received when we showcased our trailer to the rest of our Year 13 Media Class.

The POSITIVES we received are:

- Amazing titles

- Amazing transitions

- Nice link to "1984"

- Really good shots such as motorway and police scan

- Good use of music

- Realistic costumes and props

- Brilliant sound effects

- Editing is really good

- Good focus pull at hostages and at terrorist video

- Good title

- Good use of CCTV effect

- Brilliant idea/concept

- "Best one i've seen"

The NEGATIVES we received are:

- Need to change the signs as they are not very clear

- Driving a bit too slow

- Car needs to be quicker with siren

We intend to take on all our negative comments and act on them accordingly. We will re-film all of the shots that we used signs in, we will use white-black cardboard; this is so that the light cannot pass through the sign - it will make them more visible. We will speed up the driving in Sony Vegas and then look at the outcome, if needs be we will re-film these shots but it might not be necessary. 

Director Research

Paul Greengrass

Paul Greengrass, born 13 August 1955, is an English film director and screenwriter. Films he has directed include two in the Bourne series, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone, Captain Phillips and United 93; for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Director.

He is currently the president of Directors UK.

Ryan Kearney, editor from 'New Republic' stated that "Paul Greengrass could make the most mundane human activity—slouching in a work cubicle, napping in a hammock—feel dramatic."

What Greengrass did in the two Bournes that he directed was to create a realistic psychological space–using innovative framing, unusual camera motion, editing and enhanced sounds.

Greengrass doesn’t track much, or pan, or dolly when producing his films. The cameras are hand-held, and more often than not searching and constantly struggling to keep up with the action. They whip around and fight for focus.

By rejecting the aesthetic standard of normal action photography and editing, Greengrass’ films suggest that they’re something other, and the language they use, similar to that, from documentary filmmaking lends both immediacy abut also legitimacy to the action portrayed on screen.

Above is a video of Paul Greengrass responding to the criticisms made about his 'shaky cam' techniques.


CNN International, labelled the scene below as perhaps the scene that gave him the oscar nomination 'nod.' They feel that this is the best produced scene from the entire film.

When creating our trailer, we are likely to film our selected shots with the 'shaky cam' method, this is because it gives a natural tension to the shot. Our shots may not win us an oscar but they will certainly raise the production value of our trailer!

Synopsis

Below is the synopsis I produced for our trailer.

The government have been placing unnecessary surveillance everywhere in order to try and keep people behaving; although everyone’s privacy continues to be manipulated. The initial reasoning behind the millions of CCTV cameras that watch the whole of the UK, was an attempt to combat crime rates and hope to lower them, however the rebels misinterpreted this; and acted.

 The film conveys the movements of a rebel group that’s main aim is to look out for the people and ‘Revolt,’ however they approach this method in the wrong way, creating chaos and wrecking havoc on society unintentionally.

The leader of the ‘Revolt’ aims to get the government to retract and discontinue their constant invasion of privacy, ‘we have been watched for too long.’ However, he approaches this movement in a similar way to a terrorist, with video threats, violence upon towns and cities and even civilians.

The story begins by showing CCTV images of ordinary people living their ordinary lives.  There are cameras situated in very personal places such as public restrooms, inside people’s houses and constant surveillance from every angle. After these incriminating shots, a scene of the government watching the surveillance is displayed, it shows them unlawfully invading peoples privacy – not what the CCTV cameras were originally installed for.  The film then depicts the atmosphere created by the constant scrutiny enforced by the government. Audiences are welcomed with cynical viewpoints from the perspectives of not only the people, but the government and also the rebels- allowing the audience to create judgment on what side they would follow if the situation was real. The storyline parallels but also exaggerates the movement into the digital technology; more and more surveillance – acts as a portrayal if surveillance goes too far.

After you have seen the critical perspectives from civilians, rebels and law enforcers the film portrays some devastation that has arisen because of this rebellious movement. Scenes of mass murder, chaos on the streets, extreme invasion of privacy, kidnappings and warning signs from the rebels are too follow, these shots are conveyed in a short but concise way so the audience is able to see as much of the damage caused as possible.

After the scenes of damage and destruction the film begins to tie itself up, you notice the rebel groups persistence has started to make differences to the way the UK is watched and acted upon by the government. The leader of the party however gets arrested although the rest of the group remain free, but heavily watched.  However, thousands upon thousands of CCTV cameras have been withdrawn as a result to the movement, with cameras in personal areas such as homes has been made illegal. The crime rate has remained low because of this and the UK was restored to its former glory.

Capturing Our Shots

As a group we have a wide variety of different cameras and camera lenses. We had to ensure that we could obtain effective shots that would look real. We had to manipulate the camera shots to make sure that we had appropriate video clips that would suit our trailer entirely.

Because of its versatility as a camera, we were able to gain shots with the GoPro Hd Hero 2 that we would not be able to gain with an ordinary camera.

Below is the shot set up for filming the policeman walking through the door to search the house. We used a monopod and placed the GoPro on top of it, shown below.

 To the right is the result of this shot; however in the first draft we have edited this shot to look like a CCTV shot; following the plot of our trailer.

 When filming the shot of the flash bang and the police officer walking into the kitchen we couldn't get to a high enough point with one of our DSLR's so we strapped the GoPro to the wall as shown to the left.







Also, by using the GoPro we are able to gain wide angle shots; without these we may not have been able to get the shots that we desired. The tripods we had hold of did not allow us to reach a height that would look similar to a CCTV shot.

 The result of this GoPro placement is to the right, however, like the porch shot, we edited this clip to look like CCTV also.

To get the dash-cam shot we strapped one of the GoPro's down to the dashboard, when filming this we ensured there was minimal shake so the end quality would be higher.

As you can see in the picture to the left there is the GoPro secured firmly to the dashboard using heavy duty duct-tape. Although the set up might seem a bit unprofessional, we still gained the quality of clip we desired without spending a lot of money on expensive rigs or attachments.

Without the GoPro we would find it hard to record a shot such as this one in the same way, especially with one of our DSLR's. This picture allows you to get a better idea on what the GoPro was actually capturing.

The end result to our GoPro footage is too the right, which we then edited accordingly to fit within the trailer effectively.











To the right is our footage from our trailer where we had the CCTV footage of inside someones home. The effect we were going for with this shot is seen below in a Macklemore music video. Although this is a music video and not a trailer, the way the shot is filmed is particularly goood.

To either side is an image of our tripod set up when filming one of our shots holding up a sign. We placed the camera on a tripod and aimed it down the stairs; at the bottom of the stairs was the person holding a sign, labelled 'we stop killing when you stop watching.'

Below is the end result of the filming from the stairs. However, we will re-film this shot again with better and clearer writing on the piece of paper - this was our main criticism for our trailer.

We then re-filmed this scene because the sign was too hard to read, below is the final clip we used in our trailer.

To the right is the shot we got of the sign outside, we then appropriately zoomed while holding the sign up. As before, this will have to be re-film because we were criticized on our clarity of signs. We will re-film it in exactly the same manner as before but will ensure we have clear and emboldened text across our sign.











Below is the result shot.

We then re-filmed this scene because the signs were too hard to read, below is the final result shot, filmed in the same way.

Editing Styles

Below are some existing trailers of the action/thriller genre - we will ensure that we follow some of the forms and conventions exhibited by the trailers and incorporate the better bits in our own trailer. By using what we feel are the best parts from each of the three successful trailers we should ensure that we produce a trailer with a high quality finish.


Clean Skin

Eagle Eye



  

End Of Watch

The Condemned

Die Hard 4 





 All of the trailers above are very successful, both in trailer and film form. By studying them and noting their forms and conventions, we are able to tailor these for our own trailer. 'Eagle Eye' is the trailer most similar to the plot of our story so we will use that as a base to work from - by taking out what we feel are the best parts from the trailers above we will be able to produce a high quality trailer with a professional feel. Common with these trailers are a slow beginning followed by a change in music and speed of video clips towards the end - this helps to promote tension; we will ensure that we incorporate this idea within our trailer.

Production Company

We have named our production company as 'Kingdom Productions.' Below is the logo we have selected to promote our production company. We have chosen this to make our trailer feel more professional and much like a real trailer, with a production company.

Music Copyright Requests

In order to use copyright songs within our trailer we have to contact the rights owner and ask permission for non-profitable use of their production. Below is the email we originally sent to Zach Hemsey asking for permission and then his reply.

We then sent an email to Kevin Rudolph's record label, universal music enterprises, asking for permission to use their song for production purposes. However, they did not reply to us, allowing us to use this track in our trailer.

Props & Locations

These are the props we have for our trailer. As our plot is solely based around action and violence, and we have access to air soft guns, we feel they will be appropriate to use as they look real.

Also, because we have connections to the police, we were able to grab a few items that would be useful in our trailer when getting shots of a police officer searching a house. 

Locations

 To the left is my house, some of the filming that we will undertake when producing our trailer will be situated here. The area around is a calm, residential area and will show the audience that our plot will affect everyone - not just main towns.

To the right is Lewis' house, similar to mine it is a calm, residential area. We will be undertaking some more filming here because the layout of his house is more open in comparison; it will allow us to have more freedom with our shots because of the wider space.



To the left is Dartford Heath. The area is a heavily wooded area so we will be able to film some shots here; however we will have to be careful with what we can film here because we cannot take the realistic looking guns out into a public place for legal reasons. Shots here will be minimal because of our trailer is largely focused around town life.