Film Poster

This is the final poster that we created as part of our promotional package for our film ‘Unauthorised Absence’.

Within the poster we wanted to include items that linked in with the story of our film. The layout of the poster was the first thing we chose to link to the narrative of the story. Our storyline see one girl get kidnapped and another look for her. Because of this the two characters are separated throughout the majority of the film. Because of this we decided to separate the characters on the poster as well. We did this by placing the title through the middle of the poster and a photo of each girl above and below the title. We have shown the separation between the characters within both the trailer and the poster by choosing this composition for the poster.

Another thing we used to link the the story of our film was the photos used. The first photo used shows the character who searches for the kidnapped girl. We shot this photo within the same location that the filming for the trailer was done. The photo shows trees in the background which links to the set location within the trailer. The majority of the trailer is seen within the woods location so linking the photo used on the photo to this. The second photo was more difficult. We wanted to link the trapped element of the kidnapped character and also use a keyhole to link the locked rooms mentioned later on in the film storyline. To do this we shot this photo through a cut out keyhole shape. We kept the identity of the girl through the keyhole hidden to again link the the storyline with there being many girls who all look similar trapped on one place, the character Brooke being on of theme. We created a silhouettes style photograph to capture through the keyhole and place on the poster.

Along with the photos we placed text onto the film poster as well. This included the film title, a tag line, release date and billing block. We created the billing block and paced this at the bottom of the poster. We positioned it here because  in our research we found that portrait film posters generally had the billing block positioned at the bottom of the poster. For example the billing block can be seen at the bottom of the Poster used to promote the film 'The Butterfly Effect'. We also placed ‘Coming Soon’ underneath the billing block to match the positioning seen within this poster as well. 

The font of the film title and the tag line were kept the same so that they matched when seen on the poster. We made a subtle change by making the title more bold compared to the tag line. The tag line we chose to use for our film was ‘Wrong Time. Wrong Place..’. We chose this to link with the kidnapping of the character because the situations he is in would use the phrase, wrong place, wrong time to say that she was chosen only because she was there at that specific time. Although once the storyline of the film is discovered it is revealed that the girl was kidnapped because she looked similar to other girls that had already been kidnapped and were trapped with the kidnapper. 

Film Magazine Cover

This is the final outcome for the magazine poster we created as part of our promotional package.

Using conventions of real total film magazine covers we were able to combine different elements into creating this magazine front cover which promotes the release of our film.

When creating this we used a colour scheme and stuck to using red, black and grey within our front cover. If we had used more colours they would have clashed and viewers would not be as interested in the cover.  This colour scheme was also used due to research. We decided to have a plain background for our magazine cover and during research we found that plain background have a red title where as covers with a background use a white or ‘special’ title colour on Total Film Magazine. This can be seen in the example Total Film covers displayed below. 

We wanted to make the cover as realistic as possible so we stuck to the red title and used within within our theme to fit with the conventions within total film magazine covers.

The photo used on the cover is of the character within our trailer that gets kidnapped. We chose to place this character on the cover of the magazine to promote the film because we felt that her character had more mystery to her. By placing her on the cover we hoped to give readers a hint towards her character. Although in some cases this character is not the main character of our film, placing her on the cover creates interest for the audience and it will encourage them to buy the magazine or see the film to see what happens to her.

We then also stuck to the conventions of magazine covers by including new film releases, exclusive interviews and a countdown on the cover of our magazine. We researched into a range of films that were set to be releases within February/March. Because the magazine is a magazine promoting all genre of films we chose a range of films to promote on the front not only films that were of a similar or the same genre as our film.  Using these also tied the promotion of our film in to a authentic looking magazine cover.  

Film Trailer Soundtrack

Along with using iMovie to do all the editing for the trailer, another programme used was Garage Band. We used garage band to create the music for the trailer. We created the music using strings and orchestral sounds because in our research we found that strings were commonly used within a thriller film trailer because the instrument can make sounds that help build tension within film trailers. By using this programme we were also easily able to transfer the created soundtrack and import it into a film trailer within iMovie. Once in iMovie we were able to adjust the volume and length of the soundtrack as well as fading parts of the music in and out to fit in with the composition of the trailer. 

Other sound that we used within our film trailer was in the form of a voice over. We placed two separate lines of the character Brooke speaking over the top of our film trailer. This voice over can be heard over the top o the sound tracking used in the background of the trailer. We made the voice over a louder volume that the soundtrack so that it could clearly be heard when viewing the trailer. The second section of the voice over is played on its own with not soundtrack behind it. We did his to have a moment of silence within the trailer just before the kidnapping of the character takes place. We did this to create the feeling that something bad was about to happen to the audience. 

Inserting Text & Photos into the Trailer...

Within our film trailer we included a number of different text shots and photos which allowed us to add features to the trailer that were commonly seen within trailer of all genres. 

When inserting the text into the trailer we used filters which allowed us to have smooth transitions between the filmed clips and the text we had within the trailer. We chose to have the text move in from one side of the trailer frame and then move out to the opposite side. This helped make a transition between text and filmed footage within the trailer that kept the trailer flowing without gaps or pauses. The text we inserted into the trailer using this features included actors names, release date and creators information. For the colour scheme of the text inserted into the trailer we decided to stick to the colours used within the colour scheme of our films poster. We use a light grey colour for the text, and displayed this on an plain black background. By using this we also connected within the conventions found within thriller film trailers during our research. Our research showed the grey and white writing on a black background was commonly, an if not always used for the text seen within thriller film trailers. 
Below shows the text created and seen within our trailer. 



Along with the text mentioned we also placed the title of our film within the trailer. For this piece of text we used a different style. To connect with the last filmed piece of footage seen within the trailer we used a lens flair to text transition. This worked as an interesting transition from the end of the trailer to the text

 showing the title of the film.


 This was because the final clip showed our main character running up a pathway into the sunlight. This clip contains a lens flair which was similar to the one used within the text displaying the film title. The final clip in the trailer and the transition to the film title text are shown below.

Along with text we also inserted an image into the trailer. The image we inserted was the Billing Block for the film. We created the billing block with white writing on a black background to fit in with the colour scheme used for our film. We then placed the photo of  our billing block into the film. We positioned the billing block right at the end of the trailer because our researched showed that this was when the billing block was shown within trailers. This was for all trailer, not only trailer within our film genre.

Editing The Trailer

Using iMovie we took all of the footage previously filmed and began cutting the clips to the correct length in which we wanted them to be within the trailer. Having a variety of shots within the trailer will engage the audience into the trailer and keep them interested all the way through. Having quick cuts and using a range of shots also builds tension within the trailer which we wanted to create to connect with the conventions of realistic thriller film trailer. After cutting the clips to the correct size we placed them all into the order we wanted so show the trailer. Positioning the shots was important so that we were able to create a non linear narrative within our trailer. Although our trailer contain and mixture of both linear and non linear narrative. The beginning  part of our trailer follows the girls to show the kidnapping. This is done in a linear narrative, after the kidnapping we positioned the shots to show a rage of clips out of order to build tension amongst the audience when the trailer is viewed. This created a non linear narrative within the trailer.  The mixture of the two narratives create an interesting trailer by showing part of the story but no all of it. We did this because during research we discovered that some trailer revealed some parts of their narrative in a linear narrative and other parts in a  non-linear narrative. By combining the two I eel that we managed to create a realistic trailer the applies conventions from real media products.

Whilst creating our trailer we also used transitions to create smooth running trailer that flowed when viewed. Having sudden cuts in the trailer is not seen within real media products, because of this it was important to have transition in some parts to have different clips connect together smoothly. For example we placed a black screen before and in the middle of the clips showing the kidnapping of the character. To get to the kidnapping we placed a fade to black transition between clips. This was so that the clip seen before the black screen would fade into the black screen instead of just jumping into it.

Overall, after we over come the issues with the programme we were using to edit, we were able to complete editing on our trailer to a standard hat we felt helped us to create an interesting and effective film trailer. The quick cuts and mixture of narratives helps to create the effect seen within a thriller film trailer that we were hoping to create.   

Uploading Footage & Editing Programmes

After filming all of the footage we needed to create our trailer it was time to upload and save all of the footage to a computer so that we could begin editing all of our footage together to create out film trailer. We uploaded all of the footage from the video camera and saved it into a folder on the computer after doing this we inserted all of our footage into Final Cut Express. This was the programme that we were going to use to edit our film trailer together. In the end we did not use this programme to make our trailer because we experienced technical difficulties with the programme.

There was a problem with how the footage saved from the camera onto the computer which meant that the clips could not be seen within final cut express because they could not be found by the programme on the computer.  We were able to hear the sound of the footage but the video could not be seen. Because of this we had to start over and instead of using Final Cut Express, we used iMovie to create our film trailer.

The reason we changed the programme was due to timing issues that we had. If we had used Final Cut express to create our trailer we would have lost 3 hours of editing time. This was because when placing clips into Final Cut Express, they have to be renders and this was a lengthy process due to the amount of footage that we had filmed to use to create our trailer

After inserting the clips into iMovie we were able to edit and create our film trailer with no problems. The only issue that we had was time, we lost a lot of time due the technical difficulties experienced with Final Cut Express so we had to make quick decision when it came to editing our film trailer together.  

Poster Photographs

We began to construct our film poster after taking the photos that we needed for it. We planned to use two different photos within our poster. One on the top and another on the bottom. Using a silhouette style technique we captured the photo for the bottom of the poster and was happy with the outcome. this is the photo we captured and decided to use for the bottom section of our film poster:

A problem with this was when we inserted it into our poster design the keyhole shape around the person in the photo was lost due to the black background we used on the poster and the black background of the photo. These blended so we need to rethink this photo and find a way to make the keyhole visible within the poster. we resolved this by placing a grey outline around the keyhole shape within the photo. This made the keyhole shape around the image visible and tied into the grey, white and black colour scheme used within the film poster.

The second photo we were going to use within the film poster caused a dilemma for us. we had two possible photos that we could use, each with there own qualities that we felt made them suitable for the poster. These are the two images we were choosing between:

 To decide what photo to use we created two basic version of our film poster, using one of the two photos on each. This helped us to decide which photo we felt would work better within poster. After doing this we decided that the photo with the trees in the background was more suitable. 

This was because we felt it connected within the location used mainly within our film trailer. another reason was because the facial expression on the face of the character. Within the photo with trees in the background she has a more serious face where as in the other image the character has a slight smile. this slight smile removed the tension and intense look we wanted to show within the characters picture on the poster we were creating as part of the promotional package for our film.