Poster Template

Here is the template for my poster, which is currently under the working title "Tempest" The film poster that I used as influence for this poster design was "Holy Motors" (See Previous Post).

Production Update - 19/12/13

Sadly I was unable to film on sunday due to my main star being occupied, so I have been unable to complete my filming before the deadline, so I am having to re-edit and rework what I currently have so I can submit it for a first draft, even though I am not happy with it, it is only a first draft, so I can film what I wanted to some time after Christmas so for the next draft I will have a far better product.

Side Note: I am yet to actually come up with a title for my film and can't think of anything, so that is something I need to think of.

Other posters 4/4

Here are just some other poster designs, they don't necessarily have anything in common, they are just poster designs that I really like, even though I may not take any influence from them.

These first two are probably the only ones here that I will actually take any influence from as they follow a lot of conventions of the design for a poster, credits at the bottom, awards and quotes from critics, etc. However the only difference is the "Elliot Morgan" poster isn't a real film, just a parody, but considering that it follows the conventions very well, it's hard to tell.

 These two I like for their unique designs, the "Pulp Fiction" poster is designed to look torn up and old, this gives it the sense that it is a classic film, which is also the style the film has. While the "Gravity" poster has all of its text on one side of the poster, showing the seperation from Earth, which is the key aspect to the film, also having the protagonist be a small feature on the poster shows how small her character is when left alone in space.




These last two posters are films from the same franchise, "X-Men: First Class" and "X-Men Days of Future Past" the reason why I chose these two is because it shows a massive improvement from the first film to the second. The First Class teaser poster is absolutley terrible and looks very amateur, while Days of Future Past looks far superior even though the two have the same ideology of showing the same character from different points in their lives, Days of Future Past's approach is much better.

Drew Struzan Posters 3/4

For the last set of posters that I will be looking at, I will be looking at the work of famous poster designer, Drew Struzan, who in his career has designed over 150 movie posters and has made some of the most iconic posters in movie history. The reason why he is so successful is because he has a unique design of his posters, by air-brushing his posters and even though the majority of posters these days are designed on computers, he still designs his this way by hand, which makes them stand out even more today. Even though I am unlikely to design my poster this way, it is still an iconic form of designing film posters and I am probably going to adapt certain elements of his style, such as the placement of the characters, but unlikely to accurately remake his style.

Fading Posters 2/4

Here are some more examples of film posters, however these follow different conventions in terms of film posters, these all have a feature where they have their main characters all on the poster together, fading in and out to each other, normally with the protagonist in the front or is the largest on the poster.

These two posters are both for famous fantasy films "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (2001) and "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug" (2013) both of them show very different things, while the Harry Potter poster is just the characters standing around, expect for Ron & Hermione, the poster shows their characters better (Hermione being a book worm and Ron being a goof). The Hobbit poster however, has the all the characters (Except for Gandalf) holding a weapon, showing it has action. Also having Gandalf as the main character on the poster, not the protagonist that the film is about, he is to the side and is the only one who looks afraid.

Here are two posters for two science fiction movies, the 2009 reboot "Star Trek" and 2012 "Looper". The Star Trek poster is designed with the iconographic colours of Star Trek, grey & blue, however this poster only features several of the characters rather than the entire crew. As for the Looper poster, this is an interesting design as it has both versions of the same character posing the same way but on opposite ends. This shows the binary opposition between the two, but also the similarities that they share.

As for these posters, they are for the 2007 "Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls" and 2008 "Iron Man". For Crystal Skulls, this poster is designed very diffently from the previous Indiana Jones films, while the other films had a hand drawn style, this one is clearly done on a computer made to look hand drawn in the style of the previous films. While for Iron Man, this poster has a barrier between Iron Man and the rest of the characters, connotating that there is something between them in the film, as well as this, there is also an explosion in the background of the poster, enforcing the genre that this is an action film.

This design for a poster is very common and has been used for decades, so it is a very popular style, however, I am unlikely to use this design for my poster for several reasons. The first being that it would require a lot of time and effort in order to design this style of poster. The other reason being that there really is no need for a poster like this, seeing as most posters like this tend to be used for films that have an ensemble cast, or at least a large cast, however my film only has several main characters with the protagonist being Hayden, however I haven't fully decided yet on my design, so there is still a possibility I may design a poster like this.

Back Turned Posters 1/4

For my coursework I also need to do a poster for the film as well as a magazine cover. Here are some examples of posters for recent or upcoming films, all the same genre as my film (Science-Fiction)  and they all follow the same conventions and are possible examples for what I could design my poster as. That being having their main character be facing away from the character, looking off into the distance.

The top two, "Captain America: The Winter Solider" and "Elysium" both use a motif of their movies as the focus for their posters, for Captain America it is his shield, and for Elysium, it is the exo-skeleton. The shield is iconographic for the character of Captain America and the exoskeleton is a massive plot device for Elysium and has a lot of focus.

While here there is "World War Z" and "Star Trek Into Darkness" where the main focus is on the destruction caused in their films. As well as their big selling point, for WWZ it's Brad Pitt and for Star Trek it is Benedict Cumberbatch, which goes against convention; here the antagonist is on the poster, instead of the protagonist.





And finally here, the focus on these two movies are on their enviornments, not their characters. The poster for "Ender's Game" shows that the film takes place in space. While "Oblivion" is shown to take place in a post-apocalyptic enviornment. However this is odd for Oblivion seeing as they have a massive star (Tom Cruise) and yet the poster focuses on the enviornment, not the actor.




All of these posters fulfill their roles of getting across their own genres, and while all of them are sci-fi, they are alterations of the sci-fi genre, for here there are superhero films such as Captain America and Zombie Apocalypse films such as World War Z; while the other four posters follow the more conventional science-fiction genre, showing elements of space, robots, spaceships and action & destruction. However this is not the only genre out there that does this, it is a very common design for movie posters these days, although it is usually used for Sci-Fi's or Fantasies seeing as there is a lot of CGI used in the posters. This style of poster is normally used for teaser posters of their movies, and normally come out with a new type of poster closer to the release date. However seeing as my poster is only a teaser, it is likely that this is the design that I will use, however I am still unsure on what exactly my poster would look like.

Test #2

Here is my 2nd draft for a film trailer, I haven't done any reshoots, this is all just for new scenes and new music that has been put into the trailer, so an update on what has been filmed so far. The feedback I got for it is could use more music or voice-over, as the middle section of the trailer apparently feels out of place in comparison to the rest of the trailer.

Animatic (No Sound)

I am still unable to record audio for my animatic, however here is the animatic without sound (I will upload the one with sound asap)

Animatic Process

Here is the process of my animatic, I have nearly completed it, all I need to do is to record the audio and upload it.

Shooting for 14th December

Shooting Schedule – 14^th December 2013

Cast

Lewis Snaith

Andrew Hart

Nathan To

Locations

Kitchen

Alley        

Hunter Road

Citroen

Scenes

General Winters Narration

General Winters on Phone

General Winters with Hayden

Target #2 Interrogation

Hunter Road Chase

Night Knife Fight

Nathan Fight

Hayden in the car

Schedule

Nathan Fight

Hayden in the Car

Hunter Road Chase

General Winters Narration

General Winters on Phone

General Winters with Hayden

Target #2 Interrogation

Catch Knife Fight

What I've Filmed So Far

I have highlighted all of the scenes/shots that I have filmed up to today (2/12/2013)

Media Studies: Film Trailer #1

[The screen remains black where all that is head is a ticking noise, it then cuts to the source of the ticking noise, a close-up¹ of a watch with a gun behind it, it stays there for 3 seconds before cutting to a close-up² of Hayden in deep thought, it then cuts back to the watch³, Hayden’s hand picks it up so he can look at it, he then grabs his gun and stands up]

[Ominous techno music begins playing as Studio Logos appear]

[A Long-shot of Hayden walking down the street⁴, cuts to a mid-shot]

Hayden: [Voice-Over] My name is Hayden Armstrong [Long Shot⁵ of him getting into a car] I’m a weapon designed by the government [A worms eye view⁶ behind the car driving away, then cuts⁷ to night time with the car stopping in front of a building] I’m assigned to assassinate wanted criminals [Cuts to him⁸ fighting a criminal, fast paced editing and mid-shots to close-ups] they’re considered dangerous…[Hayden throws the criminal onto the floor, we then get a POV⁹ from the criminal as he looks down the barrel of a gun]…I’m worse [Gun shot as a bright flash as it cuts to black]

[Music begins getting slightly more upbeat]

[¹⁰An establishing shot of a government building]

Dr. Forrest: [Voice-Over] we’re working on a new experiment [Cuts¹¹ to close-up of the Dr. Forrest] we’re sending our absolute best back in time [Close-Up of Shot¹² of Hayden approaching a target and killing him as Dr. Forrest speaks] finding criminals that we weren’t able to stop, and killing them [Cuts¹³ back to the Dr. Forrest] simple enough [Cuts¹⁴ to close-up of Hayden listening]

[Music gets more intense]

[Mid-Shot¹⁵ of Hayden’s torso and arm as he checks his watch, the camera then tilts up to his face where he is stood against a wall]

Dr. Forrest: [Behind the camera] alright, transporting in 3…2…1…

[A bright flash then cuts to black for a few seconds, then an extreme close-up¹⁶ of Hayden as he wakes up lying on the ground, followed by a mid-shot¹⁷ shot of him sitting up and looking off into the distance, then a long shot¹⁸ of what he was staring at, the town below as he stands up and looks down at it]

General Winters: [Voice-Over] your mission is to hunt down seven men [Over the Shoulder¹⁹ Shot of one of the targets with Hayden behind him walking up to him] and kill them [Low Angle²⁰ of Hayden as he hits the target in the head and falls down] [Cuts to night time²¹, in an office with a close-up of another target is sat behind a desk when Hayden’s hand appears and grabs the target by the throat and brings him down] Agreeing to this mission means a great sacrifice for the greater good [Long-Shot²² of Hayden punching the target in the face, then a close-up of his hand as he pulls a knife out of his pocket]

[Close-Up²³ of Target #2 with blood on his face]

Target #2: you think that we’re the enemies? [Close-Up²⁴ of Hayden] you don’t have a clue to what they’re really up to [Target #2’s hand grabs onto the desk, followed by a close-up²⁵ of his hand as he touches a remote control and a close-up²⁶ of Hayden as he looks up and sees a bright light]

[Credits²⁷ listing “From Rian Johnson, Director of Looper & Brick”]

[Close-Up²⁸ of the General Winters on the phone]

General Winters: I don’t care how you do it! [Cuts to a mid-shot²⁹ of Hayden running as fast as he can] I want that traitor found [Long-Shot³⁰ of Hayden running and a car turns into the road and chases him] and I want him killed!

[Credits³¹ listing “And the Producers of Inception”]

[Montage³² of Action scenes, firstly Hayden fighting an assassin with a knife and then catching the knife, followed by Hayden in a car and doing a hard turn, Hayden pulling out a gun, An assassin grabbing him and throwing him against a wall, the Dr. Forrest running down a hall and Hayden talking to Natalie³³ and the montage stops]

Natalie: if you think that you can beat them alone…you’re wrong

[Montage continues³⁴, Credits listing the stars “James Rhys-Connor” followed by Hayden pulling out a knife and stabbing someone “Bruce Burton” and shows the Dr. Forrest typing on a computer and then a different shot of him staring off into the distance “Quinn Pacey” shows Natalie walking down a hall, then a shot of her kicking someone in the face “And Terry Lawson” and the montage ends with the General Winters]

[Close-Up³⁵ of The General Winters sat at a desk talking to Hayden]

General Winters: you should know, agreeing to this mission, one way or another…you’re not coming back

[Close-Up³⁶ of Hayden and he simply nods his head]

[Ends with three credit screens, the first showing the title of the film]

[One saying “coming soon” and then a second with all the production credits, both screens with the studio companies at the bottom]

END

Shooting Location & Schedule (Updated Again!)

Shooting Locations (Photos Coming Soon)

1 - Garage Int. – Opening Scene

2 - Harland Road – Drive off Scene

3 - Citroen C1 – Hayden’s Car

4 - Swale Road Night – Parking Scene/First Fight

5 - Harland– Target #2/General Winters Office

6 - Garage Ext. – Transport Scene

7 - Elloughton Hill – Wake up Scene

8 - Swale Road Day – Target #1

9 - Hunter Road – Car Chase

10 - Harland Snicket Night – Fight Scene #1

11 - Harland Snicket Day – Fight Scene #2

12 - King Edwards Terrace – Natalie’s House

13 - South Hunsley - Government Building

 

Shooting Schedule

1, 2, 3, 6 & 7 – 17/11/13

4, 8, 10, 11 & 12 – 30/11/13

5, 9 & 10 - 14/12/13

13 - TBD

Production Update - 02/12/13

We did a lot of filming over the weekend and got a lot of it done, I have also gotten a lot of the editing done as well, I have finished around half of the trailer, most of what remains is voice-over work, for the first draft I will be providing the voice-over for Hayden and I have cast my friend Nathan To as General Winters (I will update my casting post soon). I also still need to film the interrogation scene of Target #2, as well as several scenes for the montage and the establashing shot of the government building. I will hopefully get this finished this weekend if I can get the cast together to film it.

First Test

Here is the first rough edit of the opening of my trailer, I am yet to record the voice-over, nor get all of the sound effects for the trailer, there is also a scene in between the trailer that I am yet to film where the character Dr. Forrest explains to the protagonist Hayden that he is going to send him back in time. After showing my teacher this edit he has given me notes on how to improve this when it comes to re-shoots, so far there is nothing terrible in it (Apart from a failed wipe edit) and really only minor lighting and framing problems. He also said that the last half of the footage is very good, and the trailer over all is well edited and the mise-en-scene works well, the main problems come from the cinematography of the footage. I don't know for sure when I will be re-shooting this as I am still busy filming the rest of the trailer, so I feel that this footage works well for a first draft, and unless I finish filming ahead of schedule, I will most likely leave these re-shoots after the first draft. I myself am happy with what I have so far, although I do admit that there are mistakes in the trailer and certain shots that I am not happy with, but I think it works fairly well, or at the very least, good enough for a first draft.

Shooting for the 30th November

As already mentioned, I am filming for two different courses at once and are hoping to film back-to-back and our next shooting date is the 30th of November, and trying to plan both has proven to be difficult, what with the multiple locations and larger cast, but here is my plan for the shoot.

Shooting Schedule- 30^th November 2013

Cast

Zoe Lewis

Bullie Mthembu

Lewis Snaith

Chris Coates

Locations

Swale Road

Harland Road

Scenes

Intro Scene – FS (Day, Swale)

Chris House – FS (Night, Harland)

Fight Scene – MS (Night, Swale)

Target #1 – MS (Day, Either)

Alley – MS (Day/Night, Harland)

Car Parking – MS (Night, Either)

Dr. Forrest & Hayden – MS (Either, Harland)

Schedule

Target #1 – MS (Day, Harland) – Bullie & Lewis

Dr. Forrest & Hayden – MS (Day, Harland) – Bullie & Lewis

Alley – MS (Day, Harland) – Chris & Lewis

Intro Scene – FS (Day, Swale) – Zoe

                                                                -Has to be finished by 4pm!

Fight Scene – MS (Night, Swale) – Bullie & Lewis

Car Parking – MS (Night, either) – Danny

Alley – MS (Night, Harland) – Chris & Lewis

Chris House – FS (Night, Harland) – Chris

Shooting Location & Schedule (Updated!)

We were able to get the first 5 scenes filmed on time like we were hoping, however due to scheduling conflicts (Refer to previous post) we are unable to film on the 23rd of Nov. So to make up for lost time, we will be filming scenes 4, 8, 9, 10 & 11 on the 30th of Nov. Leaving only 2 scenes left to be filmed (Which will also be the most difficult to film) So we will be back on schedule. Also for scene 9, we have changed the location from dirt road to just a normal road as the dirt road proved to be too narrow and difficult to get to that it would require too much effort for a 3 second shot, when a regular road would work just fine.

Shooting Locations (Photos Coming Soon)

1 - Garage Int. – Opening Scene

2 - Harland Road – Drive off Scene

3 - Citroen C1 – Hayden’s Car

4 - Swale Road Night – Parking Scene/First Fight

5 - Iris Office – Government Building/Target #2’s Office/General Winters Office

6 - Garage Ext. – Transport Scene

7 - Elloughton Hill – Wake up Scene

8 - Swale Road Day – Target #1

9 - Hunter Road – Car Chase

10 - Harland Snicket Night – Fight Scene #1

11 - Harland Snicket Day – Fight Scene #2

12 - King Edwards Terrace – Natalie’s House

Shooting Schedule

1, 2, 3, 6 & 7 – 17/11/13

4, 8, 9, 10 & 11 – 30/11/13

12 – 7/12/13

5 – 14/12/13

Production Update 21/11/13

While I was hoping to continue filming this weekend, due to scheduling conflicts, this won't happen, so instead we shall continue filming next saturday hopefully. However to make up for lost time, I will edit the footage I have so far, so by the time I have finished filming, I won't have to spend as much time editing my product. I am yet to review the footage that I filmed last weekend, so worst case scenario is that we might have to do reshoots, which would put us behind schedule by another week.

How Hypodermic Needle Theory Applies

The Hypodermic Needle Theory is all about the public being injected with information and ideology that they are told by the media that they should believe in, who to like and who to hate. This theory says we are a passive audience. This also explains that certain groups in society should not be exposed to certain media texts; for fear that people will watch or read behaviour and will act them out themselves.

The way how this applies to my text isn't through how audiences will percieve my trailer, or how they would percieve the film. But within the diegesis and the arc the protagonist goes through (See Film Synopsis). The main character-Hayden-is at first lead to believe that he is working for the good guys and is doing the right thing when this is all he has been shown in his life and is all he knows. It is not until he travels back in time, when he realises that he is working for a system built on tyranny, and the "rebels" who he has been told are terrorists are really the good guys. The reason why I chose this to be the major character arc for Hayden to go through is because, firstly I have always found this type of story to be very interesting (Examples: Princess Mononoke, Avatar, Star Wars) but also it has been a relevant story in society for decades. The topic of government being untrustworthy and even tretorous to their people is especially revelant these days, with the NSA scandal, it is a very popular discussion within people.

This could also apply to the Tim O'Sullivan theory of ideology, as Hayden's view of reality is different from what it really is and has a completley different idea of the ideology of his government than what everyone else has.

Health & Safety

Here is my Health & Safety chart for my film trailer, showing what dangers my actors and crew face while filming. While looking at this, it makes it look worse than it really is, things such as 'stab wound' or 'hit by car' but those are just generalizations of what their injuries would be, in reality they are very unlikely to be that bad (but, still a possibility).

Production Update - 18/11/13

I have started filming my trailer, I was aiming to film 5 scenes (refer to Shooting Schedule) and while I was able to achieve this, I do believe I might have been able to film maybe a few shots more, but for one reason or another (I forgot), but even so, at least I met my target of filming those 5 scenes, which is what I wanted (Although I am yet to review the footage that was filmed). I hope to be able to continue filming next weekend and do scenes 4 and 8 (again, refer to schedule). As I am also doing a short film for my Film Studies, and filming them back to back, so I am trying to schedule them accordingly and hopefully film scenes from both of them this Saturday; which shouldnt be too hard seeing as they are very quick and simple scenes.

Props & Costumes

Costumes

Hayden

Throughout the trailer Hayden is seen wearing a black jacket to represent that he is a stone cold killer with no remorse for killing. However, for the first part of the trailer, Hayden wears a grey t-shirt to show that he's working for the antagonists, however for the second half, his t-shirt changes to white, to show his change in sides, however he still wears the black jacket to show he is still a born killer.

 

 

Dr. Forrest

Dr Forrest will be wearing a lab coat to represent the fact that he is a scientist, especially because his name is never spoken within the trailer, or his specific role in the film, so the iconography of a lab coat instantly means the audience will understand his role quicker.

 

Target #2

Target #2 has no specific outfit, the only specific thing about him is that he will have blood covering his face like he's just been in a fight, so we'll just use ketchup to simulate this

Assassins

The assassins will be wearing dark clothing, the reasons why are because their faces never show up on screen and are only there for a few seconds, so their costumes aren’t as important, however, showing them in dark clothing represents that they are working for the antagonists in the same way Hayden was. However, the first fight scene shown has Hayden fighting a man in a white jacket, showing that the man he's fighting (unknown to Hayden) is a good guy.

 

Props

Guns & Watch

There aren’t that many props in the film; however the most common one used are guns, which are shown on multiple occasions. We have different gun props for each of the characters. Hayden will use a revolver gun while everyone else will be using a regular pistol. Obviously they aren’t real guns, they are toys, any gun shots will be added in during post.

The only other prop used in the trailer is Hayden’s watch; it is shown in the first shot of the film, and in several others. The reason why I have included this is because it represents the time travel aspect on the film. In fact the very first shot consists of a watch and a gun, which represents the two genres of the film, Science-Fiction (Time Travel) and Action.

 

Knife

The final prop is a knife, appearing several times in the trailer of assassins attacking Hayden, any old kitchen knife will be easy for the use, however this is where health & safety risks will come in with having a sharp knife on set, especially for action scenes. However we will be very cautious while using it to film the action scenes to make sure people don’t get hurt while using it.

Shooting Locations & Schedules

Shooting Locations (Photos Coming Soon)

1 - Garage Int. – Opening Scene

2 - Harland Road – Drive off Scene

3 - Citroen C1 – Hayden’s Car

4 - Swale Road Night – Parking Scene/First Fight

5 - Iris Office – Government Building/Target #2’s Office/General Winters Office

6 - Garage Ext. – Transport Scene

7 - Elloughton Hill – Wake up Scene

8 - Swale Road Day – Target #1

9 - Dirt Road – Car Chase

10 - Harland Snicket Night – Fight Scene #1

11 - Harland Snicket Day – Fight Scene #2

12 - King Edwards Terrace – Natalie’s House

Shooting Schedule

1, 2, 3, 6 & 7 – 17/11/13

4 & 8 – 23/11/13

10 & 11 – 30/11/13

12 – 7/12/13

5 – 14/12/13

9 – TBA

Potential Trailer Music

Should I be unable to find the channel I wanted that offers free music then I shall potentially use this instead as I am already making my trailer in the same style as Looper, so the music has the same style to it. It has slow moments to build suspense but also has fast paced rock music that would be perfect for the montage scenes, so for nothing else, I may use that section for the montage portion of the trailer, because it still sounds good.

Sound Effects

Seeing as a lot of my scenes take place outside or have a lot of sound effects in them, chances are that they won't come out that clear, fortunatly I have found a channel from YouTube that has a whole library worth of sound effects that I can use for my film trailer, and from what I have checked, they have practically every effect I need. I am currently looking for a channel that offers unlisenced music I can use for my trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SoundEffectsFactory/videos

Storyboard

(I forgot to fill out the last few slides, I will correct this mistake and then re-upload!)