Evaluation Question: 1 - Film Trailer

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Film Trailer

(please use full screen)

Finished InDesign Film Magazine

This is my completed InDesign horror issue cover of a film magazine I have named 'FLICKS'. It is one of the three pieces I have created to promote our group's trailer 'DELIRIUM'. These three pieces would be our film trailer, my film poster and my film magazine.

The only additional editing I have made since my last draft are various tweaks to it's detail, such as ensuring the splash is clear and shortening the slashes at the bottom of the page to to make certain nothing is on the fade, which would ruin the effect and present the magazine cover as unprofessional and unrealistic.

Full Analysis:

The Masthead
For the magazine brand, I chose to use 'FLICKS' as it refers to cinemas, where films are premiered.

The Magazine's Tagline
I felt that the word 'BIGGEST' did not give the magazine's tagline the professional portrayal that would associate this magazine with success. Therefore I altered the word to 'LEADING', expressing how this magazine is ahead of any other.

The Main Image
The representation behind the mother character presented is to intrigue the audience as it is against stereotypes for a female mother-figure to be portrayed as the villain. This may help to stay in the audience's memory and therefore fulfill the purpose of the magazine cover, as a promotional device for the film to attract an audience for the film. The eyes are specifically the only aspect left blue, as a contrast to the red apparent on and around the character. This enhances the eyes and relates to an intertitle of the trailer 'The eyes are the window to the soul'. The blue can also have the connotation of ghosts and the supernatural. Both points help to convey the woman's possession by the evil spirit.

I wanted to portray her with dirt and more bruises to show the physical impact of the possession, as well as relating to bruised shots of her in the trailer of the film.

The object of the scissors is used as a prop in the image to relate to the murder weapon hinted in the trailer. Additionally with it being used to shush the audience, gives the character an unsettling yet memorable quality.I also edited blood dripping down the scissors as I felt the danger of her character wasn't portrayed as well as I had hoped. By adding the blood, it suggests to the audience that the scissors is a murder weapon and it portrays the true extent the character will go to in order to enact her revenge.

The Sell Lines
I changed the sell lines to contain information that is current and horror themed. This information was learnt from research I undertook to know information like which horror films were coming out soon after 'OCT 2015', which is the release date of our groups's horror film trailer. This creates a sense of realism of my magazine and presents it more as a professional media product. I used the colour scheme of red black and white to emphasize certain words within my sell likes like PREMIERE is shown to do.

The Quotation
The quotation of a review was added to perhaps influence the audience's first impressions of the film before they have viewed it, and encourage them to view it.

The Splash
I also used the same font and style of title used in my poster and our group's trailer to link it to the film more effectively. The title is also the one of the largest texts on the page, alongside the masthead. This is to emphasize it's importance in the issue as the main feature.

The Splash's Tagline
I changed the text underneath the splash, still using selling language like 'EXCLUSIVE' but instead involving the actress more and detailing a little about the feature. I also included language that related to the horror genre 'hair-raising', which reinforced the horror theme of the issue.

The Footer Text
Feedback on my poster was that the bottom section under the splash 'looks bare', so I researched other issues of film magazines and adapted the style of EMPIRE.

The Colour Scheme
The colour scheme was chosen specifically to relate to genre of film the issue was focusing on (horror), with connotations such as black representing death and evil, and red portraying danger and blood.

Conventional Details

The price shown on the cover is artificially inserted above a price tag so as to present the price I felt was appropriate for a film magazine. The price I settled on was £3.90 as the I had researched different brands of magazines and brands such as EMPIRE often vary their price from £3.70 to £3.99. Therefore I chose a price relatively in the middle of those that I have seen, yet slightly toward the higher end of the scale as my cover would be a halloween issue and therefore be one of the more special issues of the year.

I included various other conventional details, one of which would be the involvement of the brand's web address 'www.flicks.com'. As a modern magazine brand, the technophilic society we live in engages with many different media forms throughout their day, and so it is realistic for my magazine to mimic the strategy of presenting different media platforms of their brands. This means that their product is more accessible to a wider audience and target the younger audiences more effectively, as they are most commonly noted as being technophiles.

InDesign Film Magazine Draft: 3

In this stage of my progress, I mainly focused on my image. I wanted to portray her with dirt and more bruises to show the physical impact of the possession, as well as relating to bruised shots of her in the trailer of the film. Therefore I darkened patches of her skin and top, and used Adobe Photoshop to show bruises on her body, altering and fading them to blend into her skin.

I also edited blood dripping down the scissors as I felt the danger of her character wasn't portrayed as well as I had hoped. By adding the blood, it suggests to the audience that the scissors is a murder weapon and it portrays the true extent the character will go to in order to enact her revenge.

InDesign Film Magazine Draft: 2

This is when I have added my main image onto my cover page. I used InDesign feathering tools to slightly fade the outline of the image so as the model blends with the cover more, but also appears slightly ghosty, relating to the possession she experiences in the plot of the film.

I felt that the word 'BIGGEST' did not give the magazine's tagline the professional portrayal that would associate this magazine with success. Therefore I altered the word to 'LEADING', expressing how this magazine is ahead of any other.

Her hair extends behind the masthead which was an intentional detail that I found evident in many issues of different brands such as EMPIRE and PREMIERE.

I also changed the slashes between the film names at the bottom of the page to red, which allowed the colour on the page to appear more evenly distributed.

In terms of the sell lines, I removed the sell line promoting Alfred Hitchcock content as it was too large and the image wouldn't of been able to have been shown well with the text making the page look cluttered. Therefore I decided to decrease the number of my sell lines and re-arrange the rest to a more spaced out layout, while still maintaining a structure. I found this to be effective in other issues of magazines.

As well as this, to give the magazine a darker ambience, I created a black background behind the grey one I had already made. I then made the grey box smaller and feathered it's edges. All this created a dark outerline that appears as if darkness is surrounding the issue, relating to the theme of horror.

InDesign Film Magazine Draft: 1

This is  my first basic draft at creating my idea of a professional horror film magazine cover on InDesign.

However, unlike my drawn draft, so details of the magazine cover have been altered as I considered some of them not to have been effective in appealing to the audience.







Some of these changes was the movement of the header line of text across the top of the page, to instead be placed underneath the masthead. This helps lengthen the page and is evident in other professional magazines, such as EMPIRE.

I changed the sell lines to contain information that is current and horror themed. This information was learnt from research I undertook to know information like which horror films were coming out soon after 'OCT 2015', which is the release date of our groups's horror film trailer. This creates a sense of realism of my magazine and presents it more as a professional media product. I used the colour scheme of red black and white to emphasize certain words within my sell likes like PREMIERE is shown to do.

Feedback on my poster was that the bottom section under the splash 'looks bare', so I researched other issues of film magazines and adapted the style of EMPIRE.

I also used the same font and style of title used in my poster and our group's trailer to link it to the film more effectively. The title is also the one of the largest texts on the page, alongside the masthead. This is to emphasize it's importance in the issue as the main feature.

The price shown on the cover is artificially inserted above a price tag so as to present the price I felt was appropriate for a film magazine. The price I settled on was £3.90 as the I had researched different brands of magazines and brands such as EMPIRE often vary their price from £3.70 to £3.99. Therefore I chose a price relatively in the middle of those that I have seen, yet slightly toward the higher end of the scale as my cover would be a halloween issue and therefore be one of the more special issues of the year.

I included various other conventional details, one of which would be the involvement of the brand's web address 'www.flicks.com'. As a modern magazine brand, the technophilic society we live in engages with many different media forms throughout their day, and so it is realistic for my magazine to mimic the strategy of presenting different media platforms of their brands. This means that their product is more accessible to a wider audience and target the younger audiences more effectively, as they are most commonly noted as being technophiles.

The quotation of a review was added to perhaps influence the audience's first impressions of the film before they have viewed it, and encourage them to view it.

I changed the text underneath the splash, still using selling language like 'EXCLUSIVE' but instead involving the actress more and detailing a little about the feature.

Delirium Film Magazine Image

This is my progress in obtaining a suitable image for my film magazine cover. I wanted my image to be recognisable to the audience, and because the actress wouldn't be known to audience well, I decided to have the actress in character for the shoot. This also helps portray the horror theme of the issue.

I chose to use the weapon involved in some shots during the trailer of the film. Coupled with the extra mise-en-scene of the costume and make-up, portraying the possessed red eyes and the bruises, it presents this female with connotations of evil, which is a challenge of the typical old male villain conventions. This use of a murderous weapon helps contrast with the innocent and trance-like expression of the mother character, which hints her possessed state and creates an unnerving feeling for the audience. The use of the scissors shushing the audience is an action usually associated with children, suggesting their involvement in the film. It also creates the element of fear for the audience that they need to be quiet, possibly hiding from something or the character warning them not to scream.

I wanted to create a darker background behind the image, so I used Adobe Photoshop to remove the background so I manipulate the image to my own background.

However, I did use the editing tools on the Adobe Photoshop software to darken the image to present it as linking better to the horror theme. I also used the tools to make her eyes a more piercing blue, as it is the only blue to be involved on the cover page, to draw attention to her eyes. This relates to another intertitle in our trailer 'THE EYES ARE THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL', which relates to the possession involved in the plot. As this film magazine cover is another tool used to promote the film and it's trailer and the main promoter, I have tried to link the three pieces subtly when it is appropriate.

Film Magazine Drawn Draft

This is my initial drawn drafter of my film magazine that I have created to aid the promotion of the trailer out group has created, 'DELIRIUM'.

I chose to use a character to model the main image so as to differentiate from my film poster and, as this cover would focus on other aspects of the current film industry, I wanted the image to be less suggestive and relate more to film.

The representation behind the mother character presented is to intrigue the audience as it is against stereotypes for a female mother-figure to be portrayed as the villain. This may help to stay in the audience's memory and therefore fulfill the purpose of the magazine cover, as a promotional device for the film to attract an audience for the film. The eyes are specifically the only aspect left blue, as a contrast to the red apparent on and around the character. This enhances the eyes and relates to an intertitle of the trailer 'The eyes are the window to the soul'. The blue can also have the connotation of ghosts and the supernatural. Both points help to convey the woman's possession by the evil spirit.

The object of the scissors is used as a prop in the image to relate to the murder weapon hinted in the trailer. Additionally with it being used to shush the audience, gives the character an unsettling yet memorable quality.

For the magazine brand, I chose to use 'FLICKS' as it refers to cinemas, where films are premiered. With this, I created fictional online information to present the magazine as realistic and professional, such as www.flicks.com, which is a conventional detail many magazine in general apply to keep up to date with the modern technophilic society.

This also true for the use of a barcode, price and issue date, which are all conventional details of magazines and present the cover as realistic.

The colour scheme was chosen specifically to relate to genre of film the issue was focusing on (horror), with connotations such as black representing death and evil, and red portraying danger and blood.

The film-related sell lines are kept as basic as possible, to present the cover as cluttered. Therefore, a strict grid structure is made to keep the cover looking professional, which is evident through other aspect of the cover such as a header and the splash, which is the trailer's name 'DELIRIUM', as it is one of the most crucial key pieces of information to remember.

The main inspiration for the structure of my film magazine came from the Premiere issue:

Delirium: Finished Film Trailer

This is the finished version of the horror trailer our group produced. We took many steps to ensure that it was completed to the best of our ability, which included drafting the trailer using a story board and then animatic. This helped us alter and improve our concept and vision visually.

This includes the soundtrack our group created to match our trailer effectively. It's beats are synchronised with the flow of shots, mainly in time with impacting shots. As the soundtrack builds, the tension the audience experiences increases, as our research proved a convention of many horror trailers. Urging the audience to feel tense contributes to the fear they should be experiencing for the child, and hopefully make a greater impact in the audience's memory, which is the aim of a promotional device like a trailer. This is because if the trailer remains in the audience's memory well, there is a good chance they may be intrigued to go and watch the film or tell other's about it.