Making the poster for my film

I made the poster in Adobe Photoshop. To begin with, Rohan took a photograph of Joe and I standing back-to-back wearing the clothing and props that we wore in the teaser trailer, holding guns near our faces in a 'readied' position. Next, I cut out the white walls in photoshop, leaving just Joe and I in the image. I created the black and orange 'spotlight' background using tools from Paint and imported it into photoshop and put it in the background layer. The top layer has text that includes the film's title, release date and actor names, much like many other film posters, such as posters for The Dark Knight.

Here is the original photo of Joe and I:

Making the magazine cover for my film

I have made my magazine front cover using Adobe Photoshop. To begin with I took a digital photograph of Joe against a white wall wearing the same clothing and props as he does in the teaser trailer. I then took a picture of a woodland area similar to the one in the teaser trailer and used that as a background. I mounted the picture of Joe on top of the background and cut out the white wall so that only Joe's body was left against the woodland area image. I then did the same with the Empire magazine logo and put in its own layer underneath Joe. The top layer contains images that are often seen on Empire's front covers, such as film titles, captions and the names of other films that may be featured in the magazine.





Here are some images that I used:

Creating the audio file for the music and finishing the teaser trailer

I have input all of the parts of the score into Logic Pro to create and accurate audio file that I can put into the edited teaser trailer in Adobe's Premiere Elements. I will then mix the diegetic and non-diegetic sound in the teaser trailer and create a final version of the teaser trailer to post to youtube, facebook and here on my blog.

Finished the score for the teaser trailer

I have finished writing the score for the teaser trailer. As the romance scene enters 29 seconds into the teaser, the music lifts into a more stable chordal section with a soaring string section and a new melodic idea carried in the horns, choir and some of the strings. As the teaser reaches to final section the music develops once more to become more heroic sounding and more melodic, with a subtle melodic and harmonic variation. The worldly drums enter to create a strong sense of rhythm to the music and give it a more cinematic quality. The title text and release date are accompanied just by the drums to give extra emphasis. However, I have decided not to put any music to the final credits/information image as this image is not to be though so much as being part of the film but is just for the sake of informing the audience.

Writing the score for the teaser trailer

I have begun writing the score for the teaser trailer. I am writing for a typical cinematic orchestra of a string ensemble, solo strings, a large church choir, a brass section of tumpets, trombones and horns and a selection of worldly percussion instruments.

The first theme is introduced quietly by solo cello, followed by the second - a stylistic tonic minor chord played loudly by the entire orchestra. This opening creates an atmosphere of darkness, keeping the audience in suspense. The main theme develops as the string ensemble enter, playing hypnotically on every beat. This is continuously accompanied by the second idea playing short and sharp chords that are strategically placed to emphasise certain moments in the teaser trailer, namely the company logos and the antagonists. As the teaser trailer reaches the romance scene and then the montage-like section, I want the music to develop into a more heroic and dynamically stable section.

Final touches to the final teaser trailer

I have found two clips of the Universal Studios and Relativity Media logos to include at the beginning of the teaser trailer between blacksmithing shots. I have cut them down to very short lengths because this seems to be a characteristic of other teaser trailers that I have analysed.

I have also create a realistic looking credits and information image to go at the very end of the teaser trailer. This includes the names of: The directors, producers, production companies, composers, writers, a website address and logos that I feel are appropriate.

I have gone through all of the scenes and adjusted the brightness and saturation of each scene in order to make it look more grainy and low-fi.

Developing the church section with the final scene

As the church/montage section of the teaser trailer progresses, the running scene finishes and is replaced by longer shots from the final scene. This final section of the teaser trailer is very dramatic, and so I think I will make the music develop and become more climactic.

I have now finished editing the final scene and will shortly begin making final touches to the overall editing. I have decided to bring the teaser trailer to a climax by cutting just as the protagonist and antagonist's swords clash to a black screen with the title of the film (which I have decided to call "Shutdown"), followed by the release date of the film.

Editing of the church scene

Now that we have reached beyond the half way point in our teaser trailer, we want to start speeding up the editing of shots by shortening them and using a wider range of scenes to build up a montage-like style. The most prominent scene here is the church scene. Again, we have chosen our most dynamic and exciting shots to feature. The shots from the church are now sharing screen time equally with the shots from the running scene, and are decorated by small shots like the interrogation scene and the blacksmithing scene.

Adding the romance scene

We have edited the romance scene next in the teaser trailer as we feel we are approaching the half way point in the teaser trailer, and this is where we want to break up some of the more intense scenes with something more tame. We have edited together a long shot and a mid/close up of the scene as to create a match on action just before Joe and Tanya kiss, putting more emphasis on this moment.

Editing the "antagonist establishment" scene

We have decided that the next scene to feature in the teaser trailer will be the scene where the antagonists are established. This scene is preceded by a quick panning shot of an open grassy landscape to emphasise the movement of the first shot in the 'antagonist establishment' scene, where the camera pans upwards towards the antagonists face and then zooms out to reveal the other villain characters. After looking at this scene after it has been edited together, I think that when it comes to composing the music I will try to write something that I feel suits the mood in this scene.

Choosing shots for the remainder of the running scene

Today we chose which shots of the protagonist running through woodland we will want to use in the teaser trailer. These shots, we feel, are the most dynamic that we filmed of this scene, and will be the most interesting and effective when the other scenes have been edited between each group of shots.

First hour of editing

We have began editing from the beginning of the teaser trailer. Following the ideas in our storyboard, we have decided to open the teaser trailer with a fade in from black to a short scene of a fire burning, fading out to black and fading back in to a few short clips of the blacksmithing footage involving mid shots and close ups. This then cuts to the first portion of the running scene, where the protagonist is seen running through the woods. This is followed by two scenes in which he removes his coat, creating a match on action.

Companies that I have chosen to produce my film

I have chosen Universal and Relativity Media to produce my film because the two companies frequently work together and have produced films in the past that I consider to be similar to mine such as The Kingdom, Wanted and Public Enemies.

A bonus of using these two companies is that I can include the logos at the opening of my teaser trailer, and because they both use black backgrounds this will help to keep the dark tone of the teaser trailer.

Filming the final scene

We have filmed the final scene at the aforementioned location in Ashtead common. We filmed a few short scenes that show Joe running out of more dense woodland into a clearing, where he sees the antagonist, draws his sword and they attack one another. An interesting camera shot that we captured is a low angle long shot looking up at Joe, with the hand and pistol of the antagonist in the foreground.

This poster for 'Final Fantasy: Advent Children' uses the same minimalist technique. Another feature I am drawn to by this poster is that it has the protagonist and antagonist standing almost back to back with a simple background image. This is another idea I would like to explore when creating my poster.

More poster analysis: James Bond

Many James Bond posters, new and old, use the same minimalist technique to draw attention to the character or figure on display.

Poster Analysis - The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)

This is an image for the 2011 release 'The Adventures of Tintin'. The most striking feature about this image is its stylistic minimalism, causing the audience to pay most of their attention to the main figure in the image. This is a technique used in many posters for a wide range of films, and is one that I think I will try to recreate.

Magazine Analysis: Empire Magazine

Main Title - Always same title (although this one has a white outline, probably a feature of older Empire publications).
Image - Same style (separated background and foreground).
Less text on this cover compared with other two. Still has text for main feature and a contents strip with images of films featured inside. Less interesting header. Prices, barcode and some text hidden by the image (appears to be a slogan).

Magazine Analysis: Empire Magazine

Main title - Same font every time - unique look that people recognise - one colour, large, all capitols, bold.
Main image - Iron man (foreground) is separate from background. Foreground is in front of main title, contents images (but not contents text).
Text for featured film. Header, price (in pounds, euros, dollars), sticker style "Stephen King" thing at bottom this time, barcode in bottom right corner. Text at foot of cover. Text in gold and red towards the bottom of the cover listing more films.

Magazine Analysis - Empire Magazine

Main title - unique font - large, bold, one colour, one word
Main image - action pose - infront of title, header and contents list (with more images)
Aditional contents in sticker style; website; featured film title large, bold font and a smaller, slimmer caption; text at foot of cover; barcode.
Main image's background is separate from the foreground. Only Johnny Depp is in front of text.
Smoke at foot of page.

Filming the antagonist establishment scene

Today we filmed the antagonist establishment scene for the teaser trailer. We captured a few crash reverse-zoom shot of the three villains standing together in front of a large shipping crate. We also captured similar shots but with the characters standing on top of the crate. However, we think that the lighting was too dark and so will will not use those versions of the shot.

Filming The Church Scene

We have filmed inside St. Mary's Church in Leatherhead. We filmed the protagonist walking from one end of the church to the other and kneeling down in front of a stain glass window from many different angles, including a shot from the front of him, using a wheelchair to move the camera steadily. We will edit these shots together to form both long and short edits for the final teaser trailer.