Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Task 16: Experimenting With Photoshop




This was an idea we had for our poster or magazine cover although it didn't highlight our romance/drama genre. the blurred image was supposed to illustrate how 'lily' is there to 'Bella' yet not to anyone else. Even though it was an unsuccesful experiment we thought it was best to try a different way of our main characters to be on our poster and magazine cover.

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Task 15: What Is A Magazine Cover?

A film magazine cover is used to advertise a film. They usually involve features such as:

Masthead: This is on all Magazine covers usually at the top of the page and indicates what magazine it is e.g. Empire or Total Film. This is the largest text on the page and reflects the audience it caters for.

Image: This is usually a photograph, however, in the case of Little White Lies it is a digitally manipulated image in the stye of a painting/drawing. The main image is usually a mid-shot and should reflect what the film is about/ the genre. This involves the main actor/ actors. 

'Buzz words': These involve words such as 'free' or 'exclusive' which capture the audience and readers attention and make them want to buy the magazine. 

Anchorage text: The text that often overlaps the image hinting at what the film will be about, this is sometimes a quote taken from the film.

Banner: Gives overall information about the magazine and what will be found inside.

Barcode, date, issue number: Something every magazine has and is needed.


Empire Magazine:


Empire magazine is a British film magazine issued monthly by Bauer Consumer Media.
It was first published in 1989.
It includes film news, previews and reviews. It also has unique regular features such as a Classic Scene which involves a transcript from a well known film. 
It is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain and is also published in America, Australia, Turkey, Russia and Portugal. 






Little White Lies:


Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to creating great movies and the people who make them. 
They combine cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism. It has been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.”


Mood Board Of Inspiration:


We created this mood board on Powerpoint, we drew a lot of inspiration from Entertainment Weekly as it often features more romantic and dramatic movies rather than action ones. As we are creating a romantic and emotional trailer we want to portray this in our film poster, therefore we don't want it to appear like an action movie, which Empire magazine usually advertises. 

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Task 14: Examples of Film Posters

Blue is the Warmest Colour

Within this poster there is a clear, simplistic colour scheme which links to the name of the production, making it effective as everything ties in well. The fact that both of the main characters are present in the poster close in this way allows us to immediately understand that it is a love story and perhaps a dramatic one due to the dramatic stance. Visual and verbal aspects within the poster are portrayed equally, meaning that it is not overpowered by too much text which would deter from the images which people are unlikely to read in detail.
There are a few quotes from various critics informing the viewer of the films assets, these opinions allow the audience to see that the film is of good quality and worth their money to go and watch. This is often present in film posters as it makes the film look as if it is already very successful, making it much more attractive to someone who is considering seeing it. The poster, containing two women about to kiss indicates that the production may well be about the controversy surrounding gay relationships in certain places in the world, which will reach a much wider audience as films containing issues such as these are much mrs common and successful in recent years, such as Free Held and Life is Strange.
The fact that the poster portrays a mixture of genres may entice readers as it does not conform to stereotypical love story posters. Additionally, the colour scheme is physically eye catching due to the strong blues against the other, more grey colouring.The ironic title being 'Blue is the warmest colour' links with the muted, cold colours used in the poster, making a clear contrast which is also eye catching at first glance.


Freeheld



This is the poster for the film Freeheld, we are interested in this poster as it deals with similar themes such as homosexual relationships and loss. 

The colours used in this film poster are soft and pure, a lot of white is used suggesting their vulnerable love and purity. Colour isn't a main feature of this poster, as only a segment of colour can be seen. 

We like the placement of the equal symbol as you can clearly see each characters face. The equal sign is a significant symbol as the film is based around the acceptation and equality of homosexuals. Although we like the idea, we don't want to base our poster/trailer around the discrimination of homosexuals as our trailer is based on relationships and dealing with loss rather than society and standing up against discrimination. 

The photograph of the couple in the background is significant as it presents their love and affection for each other, and clearly suggests that the film will be based around a homosexual relationship. We want to use a photograph similar to this, especially the composition, of the two faces very close to each other as we want the audience to know that our film will be about a homosexual couple. We like the use of warm colours contrasting the use of white and may use this colour scheme in our poster. 

The intended audience for the poster may be socially aware individuals and probably would have a larger female audience. This is due to the fact that it is a romantic film and deals with controversial and sensitive issues. We think that our audience will also be primarily female, yet however we are aiming our film towards a younger audience such as female adolescents. 

This poster uses a transparent layer of white over the image which creates this cloudy and 'dreamy' appearance. We really like this technique, particularly as one of our main characters dies so having transparent areas suggests that she is not really there, linking in with the storyline of our film. We will do this technique on photoshop by decreasing the opacity on the characters Lily's face/hand. 

Now Is Good




The main colours in this poster are bright (Blue and yellow) to emphasis the film title especially the word good ('Now Is Good'). As the colours are bright it attracts many people as it stands out from darker shades and colours that other posters may use to advertise their movie.
the only symbol shown on the poster is true affection that is shared between the main two characters. I have seen the film myself and symbols of hate, anger and sorrow is also featured frequently in the film.
The only background or set that is presented on the poster is a blue sky; this sky is seen when the couple are sitting on a bench enjoying the fresh air while enjoying one another's company. The couple visit the bench very often so the blue sky is a memory of theirs. they are also clearly illustrated photographically. A photo of the couple showing physical affection, the main character facing the front while her partner facing the side slightly to  take the lime light off him so the audience know that she is the main character of the film.
The message of sadness is slightly shown as the colour blue portrays slight sorrow yet the bright colours and the visual affection strongly show that the film will consist of love and happiness throughout yet may end sadly. a small quote is featured to advertise the love that is shown in the film "live every moment, love every moment" which gives away that the film may have some adventure to it.
Teenagers or young adults would be attracted to the poster because of the young characters on the front and the bright colours, furthermore, the love shown is known to attract a younger age audience from the romantic storyline it might include.
The young actors featured on the poster really catch my eye because the teenage boy is handsome which will attract many teenagers and the teenage girl is a known actress so people will want to watch it because of those two main reasons.
They don't use a star to sell their film they use their actors names, in bright yellow writing just above the title to make it clear that these are well known actors that are in the film.
No critics are shown only the actors and production companies names that joined together to produce the movie which may be concerning to some people as they have no border to know whether the film is good enough to go and watch.
The only thing that is shown in this poster is true love affection and sadness (from the blue sorrow colour). the poster doesn't give much away which in my opinion is good as it allows the audience to go and watch a film they know so little on so they watch the whole movie without knowing what will happen, although, some people like to know a little more about what they are going to watch so no surprises are there.
This poster helped us think of the main characters faces to be presented on the poster as is really attracts our target audience (young teenage couples). We also like the idea of the bright colours that give off two emotions (light blue presented sorrow yet happiness) and we are wondering whether not to do that as our film name is quite harsh so we think light colours might ruin it slightly.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

Task 13: What Is A Film Poster?

    What Is A Film Poster?
    A film poster is a poster used to advertise a film. Studios often print several posters that vary in size for various domestic and international markets. They normally contain an image with text. Current day posters often feature photographs of the main actors.
    Film posters also need to be artistically interesting, as people buy them to hang on walls as decoration. AS well as them having a commercial purpose to promote an event and product, they also need artistic value.
    The main purpose for film posters is advertisement, to 'sell' the film. Film posters have the title in large, bold writing with images of the films 'attractive' actors. The actors names are usually featured at the bottom of the poster to remind you that the film has big-time stars. Designs, colours and fonts are used to appropriately reflect the mood and genre of the film. The poster sometimes includes a catchy parse from the film or a critics comment, to interest the viewer. 
    Film Poster Examples: Teaser Posters


    Teaser trailers contain basic information such as the title and hint to the genre of the film. They are used to interest the audience and excite them without giving away any of the plot. 

    Main posters:

    Main posters usually contain images of the main actors and the film title. The often hint to the genre and themes of the film, for example these films are all romance/ emotional films and we can see this from the use of colour and imagery. 


    Romance/drama poster mood board:

    We have created a mood board on Photoshop to give us inspiration for the composition, colours and font used in similar romantic drama film posters. 

    WE found that a lot of colours were used, mainly blue and red. White is a colour often used in romantic posters, suggesting innocence and purity.
    Close ups of couples faces are used in almost all of the posters we looked at, as the couple are the main focus of the film.  





Thursday, 5 November 2015

Task 12: Our Company Logo


BreakFocus Logo




We choose the image glass breaking to really emphasise our company's name (BreakFocus). By adding a slow motion effect this allows the audience to pay more attention to the screen as it lasts slightly longer than other company logos which just flash onto the screen. No noise is needed as we want the audience to focus on and remember the name of our company .

We also added our film production name at the end to make it clear that its a production from 'BreakFocus'. We wanted it to gradually appear then to almost fade away but stay blurry, which we were able to do on final cut pro. We have also got feedback from family members and friends on our logo and they really like the idea of how the image breaking and the company name link well together as its easier to remember the company. 

It was quite hard to think of a company name and a logo but as soon as we thought of a good catchy film production name it was clear that we wanted a  breaking/smashing moving image to complement our film business. 

When doing research into other existing logos, we liked the idea of having a simplistic logo, much like that of working title and Lionsgate. however, while having this in mind, we also wanted it to strongly relate to the actual name of our production company. From this, we decided to use a glass smashing which is simple, high impact and has a clear link to our name.




Still Logo:

We also created a still logo that we can use in our trailer for reviews and any text we need to include.
We used the same breaking glass imagery for this as we wanted the audience to see a clear link and show synergy. 
We created this logo through photoshop, adding the image and then inserting text. 






Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Task 11: Script

BOUNDLESS SCRIPT


INTER-TITLE- BREAKFOCUS LOGO


INT. FRONT ROOM. DAYTIME. 4PM.

MID SHOT- SETS THE TONE OF THE TRAILER (UNDERSTANDABLE/RELATABLE AND EMOTIONAL ATMOSPHERE) 

BELLA and LILY are facing each other having an argument on the sofa, muffled conversation heard, voices become raised. 
LILY
- - I can’t believe you would do that - -

BELLA
- - You’re overreacting, it’s not that bad - -

LILY
- - I’ve had enough ! - -



LONG SHOT-  LILY STORMS OFF ANGRILY AND LEAVES THE ROOM (TENSE ATMOSPHERE)

Diagetic sound of footsteps and a slamming door.

BELLA stays sitting on the sofa, camera pans from the slamming door to BELLA, portraying her hurt facial expression. 



INT. BEDROOM- NIGHT TIME

MID SHOT OF WHEN LILY ENTERS THE ROOM

LILY slowly walks over to BELLA as she’s on the bed she leans down to wake her up.


LILY
(whispers)
- - I’m sorry for walking out earlier, I just needed to cool off - -

BELLA
- - It’s ok, don’t worry about it - -
BIRDS EYE VIEW SHOT OF THEM IN BED

LILY gets into bed, next to BELLA and they hug.



INT. BEDROOM- MORNING

BELLA in bed alone, looks around for LILY. 

BELLA
- - Lily ? - - 

MUM
- - Bella, are you awake? I need to speak to you - - 

BELLA walks out of the bedroom.




INT. DINING ROOM - MORNING

MUM  is sitting at a table, with the phone next to her hand. BELLA enters the room and she doesn’t look at her. As soon as she sees her, she breaks into tears

MUM
- - Bella, i’m so sorry - - 

BELLA
- - What are you talking about - - 

MUM
- - Its Lily, she’s been killed in an accident - - 

All noise is muffled and a high pitched ringing noise can be heard.

EXT - STREET OUTSIDE THE HOUSE - DAYTIME 

Shows flash of LILY being hit by the car, then cuts to black when she is physically hit. Diagetic sound of the car screeching to a holt when it hits her.

Song begins - Bedshaped by Keane - Non diagetic


Montage of emotional moments, including over the shoulder shots of people looking at BELLA looking at LILY, but no one else can see her

INT. scenes of memories in bedroom, park bench, by the lake.


INT. MUM is worried about BELLA and suggests therapy 

MUM
- - Just go it will help - -

BELLA
- - No I’m not going!- -


INT. THERAPY ROOM - AFTERNOON

Shot of them in the room, therapist asking questions.

THERAPIST
- - How are you coping? - - 

(BELLA DOESNT ANSWER)

Cuts to shots of BELLA getting upset and frustrated, e.g. throwing and breaking objects. 

BELLA
- - I’m fine - - 

THERAPIST
- - When was the last time you saw her - -

Cuts to shots of BELLA seeing LILY since the accident (VOICE OVER THROUGHOUT)

BELLA
- - I see her all the time. Like this morning, I saw her in my mirror.
I see her in everyone, she’s always with me. - - 

THERAPIST
- - This isn’t healthy, you need to let her go. You have to let her go - - 

BELLA
- - But I miss her - -

EXT. PARK BENCH - DAYTIME

BELLA and LILY sitting on the park bench in their favourite place. 

LILY takes her ribbon out from her hair and ties it around BELLA'S wrist.


Long shot of PASSERBY walking through the park, looks at the bench from behind and sees BELLA sitting alone. 


Back to BELLA and LILY on the bench

LILY puts her head on BELLA'S shoulder. 



END


The script is an important part of the planing process as it enables us to refer to it during filming so we can't go off task and time waste. It is also an easy way of documenting the speech so that we have an outline of what will be said in the trailer. 

Friday, 16 October 2015

Task 9a: Sound



This song is used in our trailer after we see the car accident. This song is quite melancholy and quiet so it goes with the theme of our trailer. We find this song emotional and will hopefully evoke emotion in our audience. The context of the song is about depression and loneliness, and as we're making a trailer about coping with loneliness and death. 



This is also a song that we considered using. However, we found that this song was too orchestral as it took away from the characters talking and the actual trailer. It was also quite a dated song and we wanted to give it a modern twist as we are dealing with themes that have more recently been accepted into society. 
Therefore we decided to use the song Bedshaped by Keane, as it goes better with our theme and genre. 

This song is similar to music in the trailers we analysed, such as Hands Of Love by Miley Cyrus used in the Freeheld film trailer. Both songs are very instrumental, both Hands of love and Beadshaped share a sad, melancholy sound, having a strong effect on the audience as it evokes these kinds of emotions, much like the genre and subject matters present in the films plot. Using music such as this is a cliche technique that is very often used in films such as these, however is always effective and fits perfectly.

Thursday, 15 October 2015

Task 9: Costume And Make-Up

Teenage Girl: Bella (Isobel)


Costume:
We want our characters to dress as they usually would in day to day life, as we want the characters to be relatable. We also want them to be very natural looking, so minimal makeup.




Bella will be wearing jeans and a t-shirt, as a simple outfit won't distract the audiences attention away from the scene, and this is an outfit that most teenage girls wear so is relatable. She will have a few outfit changes as our trailer shows her mourning process through several days.



Teenage Girl (dead): Lily (Adara)


Costume: She will also be wearing a casual outfit. All these outfits will be very casual and youthful as this makes the character easier to relate to. She will be wearing the same outfit throughout, the outfit she was wearing when she was killed.  This mirrors the fact that she is not real, just a figment of Bella's imagination.




Therapist: (Mark)


Costume: We want the therapist to be somewhat formally dressed, but not fully suited as we want his character to appear relatable but in a patronising way. We want other characters in the production to be mildly perceived as enemies of Charlie, who are leading him the wrong way. His outfit will be some kind of formal blazer, shit, no tie and casual jean trousers.







Mum: (Marie)

Costume: We want the character of the mother to appear sweet, kind and motherly much like a stereotypical mother figure. With this she will be dressed in formal female clothing such as leggings, a cardigan and feminine shirt or T-shirt all representing her as a positive character who only wants to help her daughter. We do not wish for her outfit, or any other characters to stand out as fashionable or eccentric as we want the focus to be most only the two main characters, Bella and Lily.







Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Task 7: Actor/Actress Shots

 Actresses and Actors :


Isobel Eade: 



Age: 17

Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White, British
Height: 5.9 ft 
Shape: Thin
Character name: Bella

Stereotypes about character: Homosexual girl, sensitive, caring, emotional, beautiful. 


Why we Chose her: Close friend so we we feel comfortable with her. She's in our sixth form so she always available. She's good friends with Adara (who plays Lily) so they will feel comfortable acting together. Also Isobel is a homosexual girl so she will be able to relate to the characters story and feel more comfortable with another girl. 

How we want them to be perceived: We want people to feel sympathy for her character and relate to her situation. 


Adara Schwartz:


Age: 17

Gender: Female
Ethnicity
Height: 5'9 ft
Shape: Slim


Character name: Lily

Stereotypes about character: Homosexual girl, sensitive, caring beautiful, emotional.

Why we chose her: friend so we feel comfortable acting together. She also fits the character perfectly because her appearance portrays a stereotypical girl image.

How we want them to be perceived: She represents a loss in someones life, and many people can relate to this. 





Marie O'Sullivan

Age: 50
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White,British/Mediterranean
Height: 5.6 ft
Shape: Slim

Character name: Mother of Boy (Charlie)

Stereotypes about character: Mother figure, Caring, Worrier, Emotional, Supportive.

Why we chose her: The mother of one of the group, which allows us to feel comfortable when filming, directing etc. And elder female will project a mother figure due to her age. As she is a mother she can relate to they way the character would feel in the situation.

How we want them to be perceived: Caring and kind, a typical loving mother character. 


Brendan O'Sullivan

Age: 50

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White, British.
Height:6ft
Shape :muscular

Character Name: Car driver.

Why we chose him: He is a Father of one of our group Fathers and is a middle aged man who can drive. 

How we want them to be perceived: We want him to seem distressed during the accident. 



Mark Broomfield 


Age: 50
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White, British
Height: 6 ft
Shape: Slim

Character name: Therapist

Stereotype of character: Smart, Caring, intimidating, Worried.

Why we chose him: Mark is the father of one of us in our media group which allows us to feel comfortable when filming, directing etc. as he is a mature adult he will fit the therapists characteristics well as the therapist will need to be mature and well spoken.

How we want them to be perceived: We want him to appear slightly patronising, yet still caring as we don't want him to be perceived as the 'bad' character. 


Florence Broomfield





Age: 17
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White, British
Height: 5,9 ft
Shape: Slim

Character Name: Walker by
This character doesn't have any stereotypes as she will literally walk past 'Bella' who will be talking to her girlfriend 'Lily' who will not be available to see. 








Saturday, 10 October 2015

Task 6a: Testing Shots






We found this app called 'CamCorder' which allows us to have a vintage home video effect on our videos. This app gives the impression that we filmed it with a real cam corder to give a realistic impression. We want to use this effect when the live girl is remembering the memories she had with her girlfriend who has sadly passed away.

Task 6 : Location Shots

Location Shots:

Therapy Room:
Here are some shots of possible filming locations for the therapy scenes. We want to film these scenes in a homely setting as this will create a sense of realism as therapists tend to work in settings that make their patients more comfortable. This will make the scene appear more natural and comfortable. 
 We want to film this scene using natural light from the windows. The light will come from the left hand side as thats where the windows are, this will create a more dramatic look to the scene. It will create more shadows and light and dark areas. 


Bedroom:

This room will be used to film the beginning of the trailer, when the couple are apologising and going back to sleep. We will film this at night/ evening when it will be dark (as they're going to sleep and we want it to seem realistic). This is a good location as it is simple and not too colourful, so the attention won't be taken away from the actors.
We want to use this room, however we feel that it is too adult-like to be a typical teenagers bedroom. Therefore, we have taken more photographs of our bedrooms which look 'younger' and more typically teenage looking.
  

Park:



This park will be used to film the final scene, when the couple are sitting together in their favourite place. It also may be used for clips of them when they were together, before the accident. This is a significant place that means a lot to them. It is also a special place as it is where Lily gives Bella the ribbon. This is a good park as it's quite spacious, has a lot of 
good angles to film, is easy to get to and isn't 
usually very busy. 





Pond:

We may use this location as an alternative to film the park bench scene. We may also use it for flashbacks of when they were together and happy, as this is a very pretty and scenic area. This is also easy to access and is usually quite quiet and not very busy. It would be a perfect scene if we filmed whilst the sun was setting, as the sunlight reflects off the water. 










Driveway:


This is the driveway where the character Lily will be hit by a car and killed. We chose a normal, mundane road to create a calm atmosphere so that the event of her death is unexpected. We also specifically chose a small, quiet road, adding to the shock of the event as this would usually be seen as a safe place to be.