Theatrical Trailer Final

Final Theatrical Poster

Magazine Final

Evaluation 4-How have you used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (Use Scroll Down)

Evaluation 3- What did you learn from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 2- How Effective is The Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Evaluation 1a-In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Ancillary tasks)

Evaluation 1- In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Music Research

For my trailer I wanted several songs since many of the trailers I analysed had at least 3 songs and also since my trailer is in the sub-genre of comedy/thriller I will need music that can fit both.

Music that didn't work:
I listened to this song and thought that the technological sounds could fit in with the beginning scenes and appeal to my young audience. However when seeing how this played in editing, the song didn't really work as it was too fast and out of place.

For the more dramatic end scenes when Kat asks Kris why he's doing this to her, I thought maybe a slow dramatic song might work which will infer the idea of dramatic thriller. However the song gave off the wrong connotations, even when sped up, and made the film seem more like a dramatic romance film which is the opposite of what I wanted. Therefore I looked for more upbeat music to fit to give the scene a more dark comedic feel.






Chosen Music:
 For the beginning of my trailer I found this mysterious, old fashioned comedic music which fit in with the idea of fantasy. It also fit the slow pace of the beginning and contradicts the serious situation that is spoken about by Kat and Vanessa.

I wanted my trailer to suddenly become serious so I found this song which worked for the reverse scene and lead nicely onto the next scenes where the characters are more worried about what to do. The song is more dark and gives of conventions of thriller. It is also slightly over dramatic which adds comedy.

The music then becomes more upbeat and gives the overall feel to the film and targets young audience members. This leads through the majority of the trailer and is the only song with lyrics which is used for when less talking is said and there's more imagery to look at.

For the end I wanted some music to play with the title colour change. I'm using the last 20 seconds of this song to end off the trailer with some music instead of silence so it's not so serious. The song is also upbeat which advertises the trailer as more of a fun comedy than a thriller.

Trailer Draft 5

Poster Draft

This is the draft to my poster. I see it as complete yet I will get some feedback on it then improve it again. 

Trailer Draft 4

Some more sounds to edit but overall finished

Trailer Draft 3

Poster Draft

This is my rough poster for my film which I made using phone photos to give the gist of my composition. When I take the real photos I want them to be darker and more professional looking. I also edited the texts. I feel that the poster should also have a tagline and that the photo should be more zoomed in.  

Editing Post-Trailer Draft

I made another draft to my trailer. The beginning of the draft has the intertitles missing which I firstly need to add. The first 30-40 seconds is overall completed. I have also edited all of the other footage that I have so far filmed but need to film more and also find music. I think that the footage so far works as I have used lots of different angles and have clearly shown my narrative in the beginning. I feel that the trailer is both comedic and thriller-esque as well as having an overall drama genre to it. Next I need to film and edit more and find the right music to fit as well as put in the intertitles.

Creating the credits for my Poster

To create the credits for my poster I used the credits from a Kick-Ass poster as a reference so mine could be as close to the real product. I downloaded a font (http://www.abstractfonts.com/font/11551) from a site which would give me the credits such as 'Costume Design by' yet were already structured which made it easier to replicate. Next I replaced the credits such as the institutions to the ones I chose, (for instance Lionsgate was changed to Working Title in the bottom right corner). Lastly I changed the key text to the date that is in my trailer as well as the website and colour to match the colour scheme of my poster. Doing this has helped my poster be more successful.

Diary Post 10- Filming

I was originally going to film a scene outside at night but people were unavailable to help with camera work so I decided to do other scenes we needed at my house.We got several more shots and scenes done than we would have if the original plan worked. Also it was very windy and cold so I feel that if we did do shots outside they wouldn't have been successful either way. I also decided to use more interesting lighting and angles such as using the phone as a spotlight and using a birds eye view shot instead of another two shot as I have already used two shots a lot.

Script for Trailer

Holly: Vanessa
Kris:Kris
Katie:Kat

Holly: So you guys were happy?
Kris: Yeah
Holly: But your bodies Switched?

Katie: What the hell is going on?

Kris: Yeah
Holly: And now you're stuck in your boyfriend's body?
Kris: Yeeaahhhh...
Holly: And now he's not gonna let you switch back so you're stuck in a living hell hole?
Kris: Uhhhh........
Holly:Wait, rewind

Kris: Okay, Okay we'll live as each other until we work this out...easy peasy!

Kris:What the hell did you do to me?
Katie: What did I do to you, what the hell did you do to me?!

Holy:Uhhh...are you okay?
Katie:Yeahh *clears throat* yeah sure, why?

Kris:So how was your first day as me?
Katie: Amusing,..my so called mate fancies you
Kris:What?!
Male phone voice: Please leave Kris for me-

Kris:I've watched Freaky Friday and The Hot Chick and I still have no ideas!
Katie: Well I think I like this life..

Kris: He has my body now he wants my life!
Holly: I guess you better get it back then

Kris:Why are you doing this to me?!
Katie:Because it's fun
Kris:But what could you possibly gain from this
Katie:I like classes, your friends, the new opportunities! This relationship isn't going to work but now we can have new lives!
Kris: I'm dating an idiot

Kris: So..like this? *Smokes*
Katie: *SmokesYeah but I've been- *coughs* oh *bleep*

Kris: This is gonna be harder than I thought...

This is the script for my trailer so that I can look at this for the precise scenes where dialogue is used. I used the actors names instead of the characters names so that it's easier for me to understand who says what.

Ancillary Task: Little White Lies Magazine Cover Ideas

For my magazine cover I used the Little White Lies 'Gone Girl' cover as inspiration for my composition. I used this since it shows two sides of the same person and their different emotions; the idea of duality. The magazine cover, as well as other Little White Lies covers, don't give much if anything away to the plot but expect the viewer to already know the plot and therefore want to read more about the film. As my idea is similar- two people having their bodies swapped, I used this to show that they are different yet the same. The original cover was handdrawn and edited. I drew out a rough composition first but felt that the final idea would look better if done on photoshop. I used the colours blue and pink to represent gender yet switched the stereotypical colours to imply that their personalities are not stereotypical. I drew the two main characters on photoshop then added some gradient and lighting then overlaid the images so that the eyes met, the same way they do in the reference cover. I then added the title using the font used in my intertitles and added a gradient of blue and pink to match the colour scheme.In some of Little White Lies cover they have subheadings whilst sometimes they don't. Initially I thought the cover would look better without subheadings, yet when I made the cover I didn't think it looked so interesting so I added subheadings that are copired and references from another LWL cover. I feel this one looks better but I will make a poll so that people can vote. Either way I may have to fiddle with setting or remake the cover since the image is a JPG. file which causes the image to be blurred when I want it to be clear.

Diary Post 9-Trailer Rough Draft

I have made a rough draft to the beginning of my trailer. Though I have filmed and edited more I have shown a more sustained piece of footage. I still need to add in the opening intertitles and fiddle with sounds as well as lighting. So far I am okay with the opening but feel that it moves a little too fast. Despite the fact I used a microphone the sound is still not the best so I will need to play with this too. I feel that right now the music is too loud and may not fit so this will be lowered in volume or changed.  

Props

I recorded what props I will be using for my film. I shot the props from different angles to show how I will use them and in what context. Since my props are basic I used a more visual way to show how I can use them in a more cinematic and interesting way. The props give of enigma clues to the characters in the trailer which helps build their characters. For instance when Kris is in Kat's body he hides his face in shades and uses weapons whereas Kat is more simplistic and uses easy to find props. These are my main props yet during filming I may use some others such as bottles or knives.

Diary Post 8-Editing

I began editing the shots of my film. I decided to use Sony Vegas as I know it better than iMovie. I would have used the Sony Vegas on my laptop but the programme lags which makes it difficult to edit so I am using the Sony Vegas on my boyfriend's computer so I can edit whilst he's at work.
So far I have edited the beginning and several middle scenes. I feel that so far they are successful and I am happy that they didn't take too long to edit.
I still need to film some other scenes and work on my ancillary tasks in the mean time. Hopefully once I get the shots, they won't take too long to edit as I'm aiming to make my trailer at least two-three minutes whilst I have about one minute edited so far.

Diary Post 7- Filming

Today I got a lot of filming done for my trailer. I used the shotlist as guidance for what shots and angles I would do. I changed one of the locations from what was going to be a cafe to my boyfriend's garden to make it easier to locate and film since if we filmed it public the sound probably wouldn't be very good and the acting may have been awkward. To record we used a camera for the shots yet also recorded the sound by plugging in a headset with a built in mic into my phone and recorded the sound this way since it records sound better than the camera itself.
Beforehand me and Kris had our haircut so we did some shots before we had the haircut for the scenes before the switch.
On this day we got most of the dialogue scenes done so that we'd only be left with closeups and easy-to-shoot scenes. There are still some dialogue scenes left in another location which we will have to do soon. Some of our scenes took place in the same location so we had to make sure we were wearing the right outfits beforehand.
Overall the shoot was successful and now I have most of my filming complete.

Location Research

I took pictures of some of the locations I will use. I will mainly be using both mine and one of my actor's houses and my school. I will however crop and edit some of the shots to look like other places. I will mainly use interior shots but will also use exterior and night shots. 

Lighting Research

Lighting research from katieknowles97

Shot List

(Click to view larger)

This is my shotlist which I looked at my storyboard to write. I used the actors names instead of the characters names to make it easier to understand since they switch. Doing the shotlist helped me reconsider some of the angles, since my storyboard uses basic angles, so I changed some to make my trailer more engaging. Furthermore doing the shotlist allowed me consider my locations and the time of day that each scene takes place, which I hadn't considered much. I feel a shotlist will be easier to print off and look at as it is in a much clearer format, so I will use this when I'm out and filming. Typing this out took longer than I thought and when considering how long each shot would be, I cut out some original scenes to save on filming and editing and not to drag out the trailer too much since many of the trailers I've looked at are surprisingly short. 

Costume Research

These are the initial costume ideas for my three characters. I looked at the costumes used in the films I have looked at and used these as inspiration for my own ideas, especially American Ultra and Shaun of the Dead as they use casual outfits that I can closely replicate. I next found images on google to give myself an idea of the outfits as well as hair styles and any accessories. I considered their characters and how their personalities can be represented through the costume. Next I will look at props involved and what props will be involved with the characters.

Diary Post 6-Filming

I filmed two quick scenes in school today. I considered using more interesting angles such as a birds eyes and POV since I needed to include them which I hadn't planned in my storyboard but considered after. I used the stairs and classroom to film in and considered what Kris would be wearing when he is in Kat's body, so I dressed in a boyish-punk style. I let Holly wear what she wanted as she's not in the trailer as much so I just wanted her to dress casually. We did each shot at least twice so that I can chose between the different angles that we tried to see which works best. This means there's less chance of reshooting anything. To continue I will shoot the quick small scenes before I do the longer scenes. This will mainly consist of the quick flashes of scenes at the end.

Magazine/Poster Draft Idea

I made a draft intentionally for my magazine front cover where I used images I found online then added an artistic filter on photoshop since Little White Lies use art for their covers. I added the barcod and my own text which uses synergy as it's the same text used in the intertitles.

The girl with the sunglasses is representing Kat whilst the reflection of Kris is in her glasses to connote the fact they switch bodies.
 I like the look of the image as it doesn't quite give away the genre but implies drama and some thriller through the dramatic composition and lipstick.

I wanted to add text down the side but the composition of the close up image doesn't leave a good amount of space for text. If I added text I knew it would look too messy. Furthermore the filter doesn't show the reflection of Kris very well and when it comes to drawing the final cover, it may lack detail.
Therefore I want to use this composition for my poster and use another idea for the magazine cover.
For my poster I will take photos and edit in the reflection.
If the edit doesn't work well then I may refer back to using this composition for the magazine cover afterall.

Intertitles for Trailer

I used Photoshop and Sony Vegas to create the intertitles for my trailer. I created the titles by using the chosen font on photoshop and making PNG. transparent files that I could lap over the video I found. I tried to choose carefully what colours were showing, depending on what each intertitle read. For example the first intertitle reads "This Year" as the background goes from bright to dark to connote the comedy/thriller genre. Furthermore when each actor's name is shown, the opposite stereotypical colours are shown for each gender as Barthe's would say is an enigma code for the narrative and character personalities. I also used our middle names as I already used our real names for our characters in my trailer. When I am editing my final trailer, I will be able to drag these intertitles in, as they are already complete. However I will redo the last intertitle as the cropping isn't as good as I'd like it to look. When it comes to the final edit, I will add sound effects in some places, such as when the words slide in.