My Brief 2: Teaser trailer, magazine cover, and film posters

For Brief 2, I chose to do; a teaser trailer, a magazine cover, and a film poster:


Unknown from Emily Smith on Vimeo.

Above, is my teaser trailer, and below is my magazine cover and my two film posters.

My magazine cover

My bus stop poster

My billboard and magazine poster

Production: Showing my ancillary products to my target audience

The feedback for these products are from the same member of my target audience as the teaser trailer feedback, Danny hasn't ever seen any of the three products before, and has promised to give back non-biased feedback, I believe this as he studies Film Studies himself and therefore knows what he's looking for, and will not be afraid to give criticism.

Magazine cover

Comments from Danny:

• The background of the magazine cover made it more identifiable from the film and also helped to link it, as well as this it gave him another insight into the genre, but also does not distract from the actors.
• He was happy to see a link between the magazine cover and one of the film posters, by mentioning on the cover that the main film poster features inside the magazine.
• The choice of words that feature in the middle of the magazine cover, are engaging and luring.
  

• It seemed very professional to him.
• And, follows the conventions of 'Empire' magazines that he has seen, and he has had to look at a lot of 'Empire' magazines himself, as he studies Film Studies at his own college.

Bus stop poster

• The black background draws focus towards the mystery woman in the centre of the the poster, enigma
• The quote that also features in the teaser trailer links the products together, but also helps to add mystery and brings up questions.
• Featuring 5 stars on the poster, informs him that the film must be of high quality and have good potential, making him feel that it must be worth the watch.
• Having a '#' is appropriate for him as he is 18 and uses social networking sites such as Twitter and Instagram frequently which are sites that use '#' and he can use this to find out more about the film or to talk to other members of the audience about it, interactive.
• It is simple, there's not too much happening in the poster that he doesn't know what to look at and it confuses him, because he knows what the focus is and what the production wants him to look at.

Billboard/magazine poster

• I have the a rough release date feature on it of when it comes out which makes it more informative, which is appropriate as it is the main film poster out of the two.

• He liked that both posters share the same quote, links them together and also both to the teaser trailer.
• This was his favourite out of the two film posters, which is another positive point as this is the main film poster, meaning that there will be more of these than the bus stop one.
• It looks very professional.
• The gun helps to identify the genre again, and also links to the teaser trailer as the gun features in that as well, also more appealing to the target audience if they enjoy this genre.
• He liked the background as this is also seen in the teaser trailer, again linking and identifiable, as well as it being an unknown place which links it to the title.
• The body language of the actors, makes it seem as if Alex (the one holding the gun) is afraid and unsure as to whether to go through with it, and that the other brother Carl believes that he would never do it, and this is a good thing as this is actually how the characters are feeling as you also see in the teaser trailer, as Alex is only doing this because he is scared as he does not know who to trust anymore.

Production: Showing my teaser trailer to my target audience

This is my final piece of feedback and it is coming from a member that is exactly what my target audience would be; Danny is 18 which is within the 15-30 range of my target audience, and he is also male again within my target audience, he also falls into the 'Impressionable Socialite' brackets, as he only views films that he feels he would enjoy based on their advertisement and also, only goes to the cinema as a socialising event or for fun.

My target audience (Danny) watching the teaser trailer for the first time.

For my teaser trailer, I received all positive opinions from Danny:

• He found that the music helped to set the scene and the mood of the teaser trailer and this created anticipation for him while watching it.
• It was intriguing with all the different cliffhangers, leaving him with lots of questions that he wanted answers to, and also plenty of mystery (enigma).
• He was happy to see guns and death involved in the teaser trailer, as he was able to identify the genre of the film because of this, clarifying that this is the correct genre for him and one that he likes to view.

Editing: Adding hashtags to my posters

I have added the hashtag "#UnknownMovieTrailer" to both of my posters (on the bottom right hand corner of my bus stop poster, and right at the bottom centre of my billboard/magazine poster). This will help to make my posters and teaser trailer more interactive with for my audience.

Editing: Finishing off my magazine cover

Adding in Carl

Adding the final bit of text

The final touches that I had to add to magazine cover was the picture I took of Carl from the same angle, distance and position that I took of Alex, once I had done this then all I had to do was erase the background that was behind him in the original photo. After this, my final touch was to add the banner of text at the bottom of the magazine cover about the 'Unknown' poster that features inside the magazine, which is also the same poster that I made that will feature on billboards, this is me linking my ancillary products together. And also I added the text that appears on top of the boys about the main article of the 'Empire' magazine, a common convention that you will see on all of the 'Empire' magazine.

Below, is my finished edit of the magazine cover:

My magazine cover

Editing: Creating my second poster

Before

After

This photo was taken from one of the clips that feature in the teaser trailer, however I staged it again and chose to take it from a different angle, so that the two main character's were both equal in the photo and both the main focus, and this was also created on PicMonkey. There was a lot of work to be done to this photo before it was exactly how I wanted it. First of all, I cropped the picture slightly to make the boys more of the attraction and eye-catching feature on the poster, then I needed to 'Sharpen' the focus of the picture, and also make it darker as it is a dark scene that has been photographed; to do this, again I used the 'Dark Edges' effect, to draw in the focus on the characters, and then I used the 'Black and White' effect and faded it quite a lot until it was to the point of where I wanted it. After this I chose to star adding the text to the poster, and again I used the same, simple texts that I used for my other portrait picture, also using the quote from the teaser trailer again as this would link the two posters together, as well as linking them both to the teaser trailer; also adding the quote to both posters adds enigma, making the audience question what the secret is. In this one however, I chose to add the date that the film comes out on, and the name of all three main actors that feature in the film, as this is a larger poster that will feature in more places.

For this poster, not only will it feature on the billboards as it is landscape with the two hero's on the front, but on the front of my magazine cover I am also going to have a piece of text mentioning that there is a poster inside the film magazine of my film 'Unknown' and it will be this poster, again linking my two ancillary products together.

Editing: Getting one of my posters done

Before

After

I created this on PicMonkey. Here is the development of my film poster from start to finish. As I play the villain in the film, then I decided to have a black background, and once I started editing the picture the first thing I done was change the brightness on the picture and make it darker, I feel this would reflect the dark side of my character. And then, to make the darkness of my character blend into the background of the picture I used the 'Darker Edges' effect to bring the edges in together an towards my  portrait, almost creating this sort of black fog around me that I blended into. After this, I noticed how yellow my face and hand looked which looked slightly out of place against such a dark background, therefore I added the 'Black and White' effect over top as well, but faded it out a bit so that my face was whiter and more of a normal, natural colour. Now, I just needed to add text over top as there was nothing I needed to crop out of the picture, I chose pretty simple fonts so that they would not take away too much of the attention from the main picture, and white was just a colour that would be clear to read and matched well with the overall look.

I have made this poster because from the answers I got from my survey for my ancillary products said that the most likely places that my target audience would see my film posters would be on bustops and billboards, well these are two completely different places and one poster would not fit on both, therefore I took this portrait picture to go on the bus stops, also I feel that having me in the teaser poster will create a sort of enigma as the audience do not see me in the teaser trailer much and therefore creates a mystery, which is a key convention for thrillers, thus making the audience want to go and watch the film in the cinema.

Planning: Outfit for one of my film posters

Whereas for all of my other ancillary products they just wore the same outfits as they wore in the film as they were just staged pictures from scenes of the film, in one of the film posters that features me, I have chosen an outfit carefully; I have done this because I got inspiration from looking at the 'Public Enemies' film poster and also, because in the teaser trailer you do not really see my character's outfit.

My film poster outfit

My film poster inspiration

In the 'Public Enemies' poster, Johnny Depp is wearing quite dull colours such as black and grey, therefore I have chosen dull colours like that as well, considering mine is a very close-up picture as well I have made sure to wear my hair down as it is quite dark anyway and creates a dark shadow round my face. Johnny Depp's outfit also fits the conventions of the time 'Public Enemies' is set in, and I have made sure that mine does as well by sticking to a fairly modern outfit as it is a modern film, but also an average outfit as I am playing an ordinary person of no high status.

Editing: Adding articles to my magazine cover

Now, I have decided to add articles that link to the main feature on the front of the magazine, so for example my teaser trailer is of the Thriller genre, and I have added an article about all the top thriller films from 2015 (I still have one more to add to this yet), I have decided to make them link to the main feature as after I done some research into magazine covers, one of the main things that I discovered was that the majority of the smaller articles linked to the main one.

Also, another feature that I'm going to include on the front of the magazine that will link to the main production and my other ancillary product (film poster) is I'm going to have a piece of text saying that there is a poster in side on a certain page of my film 'Unknown' and it is going to be the same as one of the posters that I am going to make.

Update

I have finished off the snippet of the top thriller film article, and I have also now added a bar code to the bottom left-hand corner.

Next, I will be wanting to take the pictures of Carl from the same mid-close up angle that I took of Alex, and then adding him to the front of the magazine cover as well, and after that I shall add more text.

Editing: Making my magazine follow the conventions of Empire Magazine

Making it more realistic

After looking at the Public Enemies edition of 'Empire' magazine, I realised that even though I had chosen a similar font to the 'Empire' font, and in the same iconic colour of red. However, I hadn't stretched the title across the entire front of the top of the magazine, I'd just left it to the left-hand side, therefore I changed that. And, in every single edition, whatever the main focus of the magazine is, so in my case the two brothers, they overlap the title of the magazine, and are brought to the front in front of everything, as they are the main attraction of the magazine, therefore I made the picture of Alex larger and over top of the magazine title slightly, also I erased his edges a bit more to make him look cleaner and neater.

Looking at other editions in closer detail, every edition has the 'Empire' website somewhere beneath or above the magazine title, therefore I added this in, I wanted it slightly more bolder than it would be allowed, however it would not allow me to do this because of the font type chosen, therefore I may try another. Also, I have started adding my articles in that will link to my film in some way, for example; the article I've started making above is going to feature the 'Top Thriller films for 2015' and this links to my genre of film.

Editing: Starting off my magazine cover

Inspiration for my magazine cover

As my chosen film magazine to feature my magazine cover is 'Empire' I felt it was best to keep an already made one by my side so that I could go back to it to see what features the real 'Empire' magazine has, and then I could add those to my own.

What I've done so far

So far, in my first sitting with creating this magazine cover, I have added the background picture and then overlayed a picture of one of the brothers, making sure to erase all of the background that was behind Alex in his photo, I also added the title of the magazine as well. For my first time with playing around on PicMonkey I feel this went pretty well.

Editing: Teaching myself how to use PicMonkey